.... Who's Been Nibbling at my House?

A mini-sized one

For as long as I can remember, we have had gingerbread houses (Lebkuchenhaus) at Christmas time. Mom made them every year, only at Christmas, and they were a beautiful sight to behold. I know how Hansel and Gretel must have felt finding the Gingerbread House in the woods! Oh, how the aroma must have beckoned to them.


Each year just after Thanksgiving, Mom would begin her holiday baking. That always comprised of dozens of beautiful cookies that she would wrap to have on hand whenever guests would drop by during the Christmas season. But the one thing that I always looked forward to was the Gingerbread House. The smell of it baking and then the delicious aroma the decorated gingerbread house itself continued to generate for the next several weeks was intoxicating. The candies and handmade small cookies that decorated the house were so beautiful and delicate.


In those early years, we didn't help her decorate. She did it by herself, usually while we were at school, and then it was a gift to the family.  We would come home and ohhh and ahhh as we checked out all the little details that she'd incorporated.

A larger sized house not done being decorated

When I was a young adult, but before I had children, I continued the Gingerbread House making activity for my home.  Each year I would make them and have one for my home and then give others away to friends for Christmas gifts.

I still enjoyed everything about it, the baking, the decorating, the smell, and the nibbling at it several weeks later. I usually would just set it outside after Epiphany (January 6th) and let the birds, squirrels, bunnies, etc come and nibble away. I would pull the chocolates off it first and then place it where my golden retriever wouldn't find it.  (smiles)




Years later when I had children, the Gingerbread House tradition continued. We decorated them as a family. I also baked and assembled them for each of their classmates and they would decorate them during school and then take home to their families.  Each year I made at least 60 little houses--my home smelled glorious with all those baking!

Houses of all sizes beginning to be assembled.

Some years I even had Gingerbread House decorating parties with friends and extended family.  I'd bake and assembly one for everyone, but the decorating would be done by them.  Then I'd give out prizes of hand made ornaments to the winners.  Categories would be silly and usually invented so that everyone would leave with a prize ornament to hang on the tree as a memento of the celebration.

"This is the house that Jack   Mom Built"
She modeled it after Time Life's.

This year is no different from all the rest.  The gingerbread (Lebkuchen) baking has begun and the tradition is continuing!







I encourage you to give it a try.  You may even start a new tradition in your home.






** Please don't confuse the real thing to the prepackaged stuff they sell in the stores.  There is NO comparison.

Yup!  Gingerbread marks the season in my house.

As this season of Advent begins and you rush to the hustle and bustle of all that is demanded of you, I hope you can find a quiet moment or two to remember the true meaning of Christmas.


Love was born at Christmas.  Peace and Blessings to you so that you may have love and understanding of others.

May the Circle be Unbroken

Doesn't really pertain to the Blog,
but thought it would bring a smile to your face.

An exciting norm of our society, for women at least (although some include men), is our ceremonial ritual of a bridal shower. As adults, we’ve realized that the young couple will be heading out on their own, and consequently without the resources of their parents’ garages, cupboards, and attics we host a “shower” to bestow upon them gifts we know they’ll need!  With so many of the young people that we know getting married, an interesting dinner conversation occurred in our house a year or so ago, but has stuck with me.

Quilt and Afghan
Things you need for your home!

My oldest daughter, who was getting ready to leave to serve out of state in an AmeriCorps position, asked why don’t we have “showers” to celebrate young people just heading out on their own. Her points were valid as she brought up the fact she was going to need most things that a young married couple would need.  She’d need the tool kit to fix items in her home, lawn mower to take care of her yard, dishes to eat on, pots and appliances to cook with, towels for the bathroom, lamps for the living room, bed to sleep on, dresser for her clothing, etc., etc.,

Rite of Passage to receive your set of tools!

The conversation then transitioned to how differently the paths are today from previous generations.  A generation or so ago, couples married right out of high school; they went from parents’ homes to their home. Then it seemed the norm was to complete college and then be wed, with the couples still not actually “on their own”.  Going from dorm living/dining hall living to your own home still wasn’t really experiencing self-reliance.

Present day couples seem to come together with two apartments worth of “stuff” that they must now find a way to mesh together.  Suddenly there may be 2 toasters---whose is better? Now as we buy wedding gifts, we are beyond the need to furnish them with the basics, they have that. 

So, back to the dinner conversation……….

Extra quilts and blankets for the bed

We debated what few items someone would actually “have to have”.  I KNOW this is will be different for different people; however, these are the TWO items that my daughter had to have: 

1) DeWALT battery screwdriver/drill   

 2) Family recipes! Doesn’t quite seem to be what   the average 25 year old would ask for, does it?  

       J 

(Although, I use my DeWalt almost every day, so I understood her feeling that she couldn’t possibly live without one.)

Gentle breezes (and gale force gusts) help
create the beautiful sounds from the wind chimes

Knowing that we could easily provide both of those items (and we even threw in a beautiful sounding set of wind chimes that she could hang near her window to remind her of the sounds coming from the porch at her home many states away), my youngest daughter and I started putting together a cookbook of favorite recipes. We did it in “scrapbook” style with family photos included to bring back memories whenever she cooked. 

A recipe that my mother had written
 to put in my book over 30 years ago!

We hand wrote each recipe card and included heartwarming family trivia on every one of them. We covered breakfasts, casseroles, dinners, desserts, breads, hors d’oeuvres, punches, salads, holiday recipes, soups….you name it, it was there.  

What was even more special about this task was that many of the recipes that we were copying to put in her book, were from recipes that MY MOTHER made to put into MY book back in 1980! This gift to my daughter was just another way of keeping the generations connected.

Large Gingerbread House that I made 

As a family tradition, each year at Christmas I bake MANY gingerbread houses.  We assembly them all and then decorate to give as gifts to friends.  Of course we keep one or two for our house, too!  

Her Grandfather and Great-Grandfather
decorating mini gingerbread houses that
I'd made for a family Christmas party 20 years ago.

On the page where I included the gingerbread recipe, I also included a picture or two of friends and family decorating all those houses through the years.

I baked mini gingerbread houses for both daughters'
classrooms each year and the students decorated them.

Needless to say, she loves her DeWalt; however, even though she has a camera, smart cards, and flashdrives full of photos, she says she loves to get out the cookbook, hold it, and think of home.

I hope this prompts thoughts of ways that you can help make the young people you have in your life adjust a little easier to life on their own, while still keeping the connection there for generations to come. 

Tradition and Heritage

Great-grandmother's recipe that
Mom typed years ago for me.

Those two words don’t necessarily have to be related. You can have a tradition in your family that is part of your heritage that you do year after year as if to honor ancestors from long ago; or, you can have a tradition that is a ritual that you’ve only been doing for the past few years, but you want to keep it going. Sometimes what your children feel is a tradition, may only have been done a few times, but seems as though it has been their whole life to them.

My Great-Aunt Pat's son visiting and
carrying on Pickle tradition with
future generations!

Well, Bread and Butter Pickles may well be an example of Tradition and Heritage in my family. When I was young and still at home, it was my family’s tradition to make pickles.  The time it really comes vividly to mind was when we were living on the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea. I remember working with Mom in the kitchen and I was finally old enough to be given the task of slicing the cucumbers.  She was so specific in the size that she wanted them sliced. While I was slicing, and slicing, and slicing, and my fingers were becoming more and more shriveled, I remember listening to her tell me how she loved the smell of Bread and Butter Pickles being made during the summer by her grandmother; and, how she helped do the very thing I was doing. I felt proud to be given the task, and suddenly the pruned fingers didn’t bother me so much. 

My daughters in the kitchen

I hadn’t really known my great-grandmother.  Although she died when I was about 6 years old, we were living in Hawaii at the time, and we had been in England before that. So, all I really have are the stories of what a great cook she was and a few photographs that I cherish and share with my daughters.

Back to the Pickles----

We continued with all the steps: 1) slicing the peppers and onions.
2) Combining with the cucumbers and salt (to bring out the water). 3) Bringing the vinegar, sugar and spices to a boil before adding the other three.

I still remember how my eyes burned from the onion vapors, my nose was inundated with the steaming vinegar smell, and don’t forget that my fingers were still pruning! BUT, this was my HERITAGE and it was going to be a TRADITION that I was finally old enough to participate with.

Onions, peppers, and cucumbers! 

The recipe has been in our family for about 100 years. I remember hearing (and need to ask for clarification) that someone had won a Blue Ribbon decades ago with that recipe at a County Fair. Through the years, Mom has made the pickles, sometimes, I’ve been there to help, other times not.  However, the recipe is in a cookbook my Mom had made for me back in 1982 when I was young and on my own.  I never made them by myself until 2002. My daughters were finally old enough and I thought it was time to carry on the TRADITION and teach them a fun side of their HERITAGE!

Jars filling up with Pickles.
Next stop- the water bath!

That first year that we made them (2002), the whole house smelled of onion vapors. We all had tears that wouldn’t stop….we couldn’t even see.  We had fans on, windows open, and still it offered only minimal amounts of relief.  This warranted a call to Mom.  We analyzed the recipe and the steps I'd done. We laughed when we realized that 100 years ago when they said a “large” onion, it was by natural standards. So when I used 8 large onions by today’s standards, I was mega dosing!  We all made notes and vowed to use better judgment in the future.

Later that same summer, my parents and grandmother came for a visit and the ladies critiqued my pickles. That means color, taste, and presentation had to be up to Heritage standards! (hee, hee). But the best compliment of all came after they’d left my house and had taken a jar of my pickles on to my Great Aunt Pat. She was the real chef in the family and she called to tell me that my pickles were wonderful. She said I would’ve made my great-grandmother proud. I felt all the years of those different generations melt away. It’s funny how some things you do are just in your blood.  Whether or not you think something is your Heritage, it has a way of finding you, sometimes without you knowing it.

Excited to see that Blue Ribbon

In 2004, I entered the Bread and Butter pickles in our County Fair and took home a Blue Ribbon.  That recipe had come full circle, and I felt such a connection to my Heritage.

I hope there's something you'll think of today to help carry on a tradition or share a bit of your heritage with your children or even a good friend! Little things like this connect us all.