So typically I do it from scratch; mix the dough, cut the shapes, bake it, make own icing, etc. This year we bought a different house and have been neck deep in renovation purgatory which has drained the time and energy away from everything else (note it's been over a month since my last post). So I bought a gingerbread house kit, although with regret and a little guilt. The kit includes everything you need with all the pieces pre-cut and it just needs to be assembled and decorated with the included candy and icing. Quite frankly part of me feels like it's a stainless steel bed pan. Yes, it will do the job, but where is the love? Where is the love?
So this afternoon the kids and I tackled the commercial house and assembled it and decorated it. It looks like hell. The icing doesn't hold anything together. The candy is falling off. The roof opened up and swallowed the gumdrops lining the roof. The kids are thrilled and I am depressed. The pre-cut, sterile, gingerbread snowman and gingerbread man on the front lawn are looking at me with a smug glare. It matters not as I'm going to bite his incredulous head off in a couple of hours. I'm just hoping that this isn't some strange premonition and that all my renos are destined to end as the molasses laden house before me. I'm sure I'm going to go to the house on Monday and find that all the drywall has slid off the walls.
Here's the deal. I love Christmas and most of all I love the anticipation of Christmas. Part of the anticipation is doing all the rituals that herald the coming of Christmas day. The gingerbread house is a ritual and one that I will redeem next year with a love soaked, personable, homemade house.
I love Christmas. I love watching my kids more than anything get excited about Christmas. We propagate the myth of Santa with zeal and I love watching the kids put out the reindeer food on the lawn. It has sparkles so the reindeer can spot our house you see. I love putting out cookies and milk for the big guy. At the same time I also love hearing my kids talk about baby Jesus and in our house these two things are compatible. Santa brings presents, not salvation; gifts, not redemption. That's the baby Jesus' work and our kids are seeing that more and more. I think I am too.
My three favorite words are Grace, Mercy and Redemption. I can hardly speak them together without getting a chill and feel a little mist in the eyes. And this is the time of the year that those three ought to be on display more than any other time, and I think they are in many ways. I know I've experienced them in tangible ways this month more than the rest of the year from complete strangers. I hope that others have experienced that from me.
Merry Christmas to you and yours. May you enjoy friends and family over a good meal, good drink and good laughs. May you experience baby Jesus through those that you love and who love you.
