One of the joys of getting ready
for Christmas is the day to create the beloved Gingerbread House. When our
children were at that magical age of wanting to do everything Christmas –
popcorn and cranberry garland for the tree, Holiday cookies, print our own
wrapping paper with potato stamps, they also begged to make their first
gingerbread house.
Karla, the ten year old baker,
meticulously measured out the construction pieces of each “cookie” wall. Guy
and Jessie whipped up the cement frosting for the walls and roof.
Once the pieces were baked, cut,
and cemented into place, the plain house was ready for the candy decorations.
The memory of watching little hands pressing candy chips on the roof and around
the frame still sends a thrill through me. They decorated the cardboard
platform with cookie bushes and green coconut leaves on cookie pine trees each
carefully placed to the rhythmic song of child talk.
Once their very own unique ginger
house was completed we gave it a proud place on the dining room table flanked
by two candles. In the morning we happily ate our crunchy granola admiring the
beauty of the previous day’s creation.
A few days went by when one of the
children noticed a hole in the back wall of the gingerbread house along with nibbles
out of the bushes and outside the newly created doorway - little black . . .
well, mouse turds. It’s a week before Christmas and a mouse has moved into our
beautiful gingerbread house!
What a fine mess this is!
We called a family meeting with
children lobbying for the new resident of their creation to happily enjoy the place.
We adults explained the whole cleanliness thing to which they countered (while
munching on other pretty cookies), that they were not intending to eat the structure
anyway. We agreed to move the house off of the table and implement an eviction
in the case of excessive mouse partying or if mouse relatives moved in.
Recognizing this was a seasonal decoration we also agreed to move the house
outside along with the Christmas tree and its edible garland when we entered a
new year.
Each morning the children checked
on the interesting disintegration of their ginger house. We imagined the mouse
ecstatic at his good fortune. We never saw the little creature but only knew
him through his leavings. Though there are those who would criticize our
parental decision to allow the mouse to live with us in our house, the
situation remained benign.
Our gifts from this curious animal
visit included humor, imagination, cooperative decision making, and eventually our
mouse in the house became part of a delightful repertoire of family stories.
Wishing you all a wonderful holiday
season and a healthy new year.
Helene and family
p.s. Happy Birthday Leon, Jim, John
and Tyler, fine December men.
