Gingerbread isn't just for houses anymore

So I know it is late for this, but well, I made this after Christmas too. I've never made anything but the generic graham cracker house that people CALL a gingerbread house, but this year I wanted to make the real thing. First I made the gingerbread. This didn't go all that well because I didn't know what I was doing or how it should bake. Well it turns out that directions to bake it until it is "toasty" are crappy unless you pre-cut your shapes, and pre-cutting shapes is hard because they deform in the soft dough. Anyhow, I ended up spending a ton of time baking my dough and then a million years cutting it, but I made myself a gingerbread Gazebo.

I actually designed a pattern using SketchUp and printed it on cardstock, then used it to cut out my shapes. Somethings (like the roof) went really well. Others (like the posts that I had wanted to be candy canes) didn't go so well, but still it was completed as you can see. The royal icing I made and put in a bag to pipe onto the structure worked well and the decorations by my wife were a success as well. There are more photos in that gallery if you are interested.

My wife is awesome

So I had to wait a little while, but my Christmas gift arrived yesterday (with the first real snowfall of the year. I got a bit of a white Christmas I guess) and I was even hope to get it from the front doorstep.

Some point in my late teens, I became infatuated with several old fashioned concepts. Fountain pens and pocket watches. I bought myself a fountain pen in Vienna, Austria while on vacation, but lost it last fall. My wife was wonderful enough to buy me a new one as a gift last year. I carry it around with me everywhere and use it daily.

I received a pocket watch from my ex-girlfriend, and while it is still a very nice pocket watch and I like it, I wanted another one from my wife. (Also the other one isn't currently working. It is a simple problem, but I need to take it in for repair). I bought all my groomsmen pocket watches and wished for awhile I had gotten one as well because while theirs was undoubtedly not a nice in material or craftsmanship, it was quite a bit larger and still looked very classy (unlike most pocket watches you see in Walmart etc with the horrific patterns on the case).

So on Christmas morning my wife presented me with a picture of my back-ordered watch with the sad information that it might not come until late January. She checked on the status last week and said it could have shipped as early as the 13th. Well it must have shipped right around then (probably the 14th) because it arrived yesterday the 17th with a UPS 3rd Day sticker on it. I love it. It is a skeleton movement, and as such requires manual winding. I've never had a hand wound watch, and that just adds to the appeal for me. It also happens to be gorgeous, but I'll let you judge that for yourself.