The Evolution of the Gingerbread Man

I tried. Really. Twice.

You might not think it's that hard to make frosting. I didn't either until I ventured blithely into unknown territory armed with my Kitchenaid mixer and ingredients. It only called for 3. How hard could it be? Apparently one should not try to accomplish this task unless they are proficient in making souffle'. I am not.

The first time I made the frosting the perfect blend of creamy and frosting-like. Then I made the mistake of wanting to color it red. Christmas red! What better red is there? I guess the gel I used to tint the frosting has limited powers compared to its cousin the liquid food coloring, because I could only achieve a sad pepto-bismal pink. Yeah.

I threw the batch away. Nothing will break my optimism - how hard could frosting be?

Hard.

Actually it quite literally was hard: too stiff. For my second attempt I vowed to keep the frosting white. But I overdid the powdered sugar. It looked great, but when I put it into decorator tubes...let's just say it would take a gorilla's grip to get that sugary goodness out.

The picture could be seen as a gingerbread man evolving into it's beautiful traditional form. You also could see it backwards though (right to left) cause that's the order I frosted them. Is that devolving?

Questionable

Have you noticed there are standard questions that are asked all the time? If someone is pregnant you first ask: When are you due? And: Are you going to find out if its a boy or girl?

Then you ask when the gender is found out: What are you going to name him/her?

Then when your cute baby is born and you are grocery shopping the standard question is: How old is he/she?

I find it fun that in each stage of life there is some sort of question that is universal and asked at least once or twice.

People still ask me how old I am...I'm not sure I'm at the right stage for that question. The jury is still out on that one.

I give D. Chupp an A for asking thoughtful questions that almost always have to be answered with more than a yes or no. Not that standard questions are bad - I mean I've asked them and wanted to know the answer to them myself - but I think it's fun to think of creative questions.

Do you like white or black socks as a rule?