Christmas Baking and Tasting

Geddy wanted to make "Ginger Men" for Christmas. I have read him the story of "The Gingerbread Boy" several times and he was determined to make some himself.We gathered the ingredients. When it was time to add something I described the package to Geddy and he would hand it to me. Being a curious 2-year-old he would ask me "What is this?' with each item. I would tell him the name and let him feel the different textures of powders. He would then want to taste them. He didn't think much of any of the dry ingredients, except sugar of course. After sampling the nutmeg he said, "Ginger men taste good? Yucky no!" Which translates to "I thought Gingerbread Men tasted good, this is yucky!" So I told him to be patient and trust me, it would all be good when everything was mixed together and baked.

He took his ingredient sampling a little too far when he took this swig of Molasses. I had the camera ready to take a picture of him stirring the bowl and this is what I got instead.

It was not his favorite ingredient, but he thought it was funny that I was so grossed out by him doing it.

Of course, licking the beater after we were all done. Gingerbread dough isn't my favorite cookie dough, but Ged didn't seem to mind it.

The whole process was a lesson in patience for Geddy. He was bothered by the fact that the dough had to refrigerate for a few hours before we could roll it out and cut out the ginger men. Then we had to wait for them to bake and then cool before we could put icing on them.

I am not sure why the coloring is off in this one, Geddy looks a bit blue. But YEAH!!! we finally have ginger men! Geddy must have taken the story to heart as he looked at the tray of finished cookies complete with faces and said, "Wake up! Run away! I chase you!"

He was a little disappointed that they didn't listen to him. Everything was made better by the fact that now, he could finally eat a Ginger Man (without having to chase it).