Holiday traditions

Four several years now, it's been our tradition to host an annual Holiday Gingerbread Party. While we often thought it might be fun to turn it into a DIY (do-it-yourself) decorating affair, we've quickly come to our senses realizing that such a thing could create quite a mess. So...we continue to bake and decorate them ourselves...all 200! Here's a photo of the factory in full swing. The truth is the task has gotten less taxing and our creations have gotten more elaborate and unique each year.

Another Gingerbread Party tradition is asking our guests to bring a non-perishable food item to donate to the Alameda County Food Bank. This year we were successful in filling our barrel to the brim...150lbs! And we collected another 1/2 barrel donated by generous neighbors.

This week, after all the dust settled after the holidays, we realized we still had a slew of these little gingerbread guys and gals stored in air-tight containers...peering out at us...taunting our stomachs with their evil grins. So we called a homeless shelter for youth in our neighborhood on the outside chance they might take in our gingerbread gang. Lucky us...they happily took them all. We hope they enjoyed them as much as our party guests did.

Happy New Year!