I Miss Kits

I was once again reminded how I love the convenience and ease of things in America...aka Target. James and Rosie have never made ginger bread houses....I thought this would be a great year to start! But that meant making everything from scratch. To the average Kiwi there is no other way than "from scratch." To the average American, "from scratch" means getting the cake box mix or buying the kit at target. If you are in the kitchen making it, it counts as "from scratch."

Rosie and I made the dough and she came up with the "house plan."









James had a friend over, so they organized all the candy....and man there was a lot! A little side story for you: As I was getting some of the candy out of one of the bulk bins at the store, the lever got stuck! It was the kind that you lift the lever and the candy slowly pours out....but in my case it kept pouring and pouring and pouring. I yelled for Rosie to help me and James and Rosie and I just laughed as we tried to make the candy stop. The whole wall of bulk candy began to tip over, but just in time Rosie was able to get the lever back up! Of course it was hard candy that was SO heavy, but we just took some out and put it in another bag all ready for the next person making ginger bread houses.



It was quite a mission and we learned a lot for next year...but for this year it was just a fun memory to make with James and Rosie. To add to everything else we ran out of icing (that we also made from scratch!) so we had to get very creative.








All in all it was a fun day and a great memory. I am having such a good time with James and Rosie and living where we do. It has been such an odd season in so many ways and I spend most of my time at home with the family. It's been quite an unexpected place of rest and safety in this season. It is good to have them around all the time and have a place that I can find ways to express myself and my love for the Holidays. They are always so sweet about my latest "new idea" or "new tradition" and my mother in law always makes it so easy for me to make things happen. We are still working on our business and are forever thinking about what to do and how to do it, but things are moving along. Sam added new pictures on the site. If you haven't checked it out lately go see the new pictures that are up. There are even a few from the wedding....more to come once the couple sees them this weekend. www.samuelackland.com