I think this must be one of the silliest things I’ve ever done.
Wolf bought a gingerbread house kit over the year-end holidays but we never even opened it. The triangular box sat on a shelf in the kitchen, where occasionally we would notice it and say, “Hey, maybe we should do something with it?” But that was about as much attention as the thing ever got.
Last week – and actually, lately, to be honest – I’ve had little energy to mix dough, roll it out, cut it, bake it and decorate it. The kit gave me a good excuse to try a different approach. That is, it gave me a chance to take something someone else had baked and put my own signature on it. I had a little trouble coming up with some kind of theme to put on the four panels; should it have a St. Patrick’s Day theme? No. Maybe I could paint each panel with some kind of graffiti. But that didn’t feel quite right either.
Our local Trader Joe’s store, where Wolf bought the kit, often plays interesting music like Otis Redding, Nina Simone and sometimes even some Miles Davis. I’ve heard an occasional Expose tune but I’d rather forget that experience. On one shopping excursion I heard the Beatles’ “Octopus’s Garden” and somehow a switch went on in my head. How I made the connection between that song and this gingerbread house – which by the way, still smelled pretty fresh after all that time in the box – I’m not sure. But it felt right.
Wolf suggested shooting the house from all angles so that we could create a little movie. I placed the finished house on a rotating cake stand. He took one shot, I turned it a couple of inches, and we repeated this until we returned to the front of the house. He somehow strung the sequence together into a Quicktime file. My husband usually does not charge me for his services. But this time he presented me with an invoice: 10 kisses. I gave him 11.
About the gingerbread cookies: they are called German style gingerbread. I’m not sure what that means. The cookies are thick but very light. They had a somewhat spicy aroma, but not a very enticing one. The file for this little slideshow/movie is about 1.1 megabytes, so it might take a few seconds to load (and if you’re still one of those dinosaurs on dial-up, this will take a loooooooooooong time to load).
I’d like to think this silly house gets your week started on a good note. Cheers.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I love it and your presentation! Very cool.
Paz
I LOVE this! & your man Wolf is a very sweet hubby indeed.
I love those gingerbread house kits, I used to buy them for the kids at Christmas . Have fond memories of an absolutely huge gingerbread house that my Grandfather brought home once, it was spectacular but we couldn’t eat it aas it was ex. window display!
Thanks, Paz.
Lily, Thanks! Wolf says he doesn’t like being called sweet, but I don’t believe him.
Hi Carolyn! I was thinking of building a massive gingerbread house over the holidays, but we were too busy and too tired. Maybe this year…cheers!
There’s a song in my native Norway that goes like this: “….og jula varer helt til påske.” Which means: …and Christmas last all the way until Easter. Making this gingerbread house mid March… well, maybe it’s still ok to send all those New Years cards I never got around to?
MARI!!! This is magnificent! Wow! Amazing! Wonderful! (am I making myself clear?)
Wolf, I don’t want Christmas to last all the way through Easter. Please. And by the way, I think you misplaced the New Year’s cards, smartypants.
Linda: Loud and clear! Thank you!
Wolf wrote: Christmas lasts all the way untill easter (Jula varer helt til påske)And he had forgotten that the song continues: “Nei, det er ikke sant, nei det er ikke sant, for innimellom kommer faste” which translatede is something like: No, this is not true. No this is not true. For inbetween comes lent.
Brit Maria
Brit Maria, Welcome! And yes, there is Lent.
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