Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

  1 2 December Christmas Countdown #25envelopes - today is National Gingerbread House Day.   From  National Day Calendar : Gingerbread House Day on December 12th recognizes a family tradition for many around the country.  We can thank the Brothers’ Grimm for a gingerbread house ... . Through their tale of  Hansel and Gretel , they introduce an evil witch who lives in a house made of gingerbread. It didn’t take long for the German gingerbread guilds to pick up the idea. Soon, they put gingerbread houses to a more festive use making snowy cottages made from the spicy-sweet treat. I didn’t realise until this morning that there was even such a day ! It was then obvious that today’s envelope had to relate to gingerbread - one of our family’s favourite Christmas treats. This wasn’t as easy to interpret this in fabric and paper as I thought it would be ... I used free motion stitching , lace , ricrac braid and coloured pencil to represent the traditional white icing...

from http://www.godecookery.com/cookies/mocohist.html  In our family,gingerbread especially in the form of figures, is popular but we didn't know we were following a royal tradition. I had always associated gingerbread men with children, but the tradition of dunking gingerbread men in port wine doesn't quite match the image of the treacle cookies decorated with sweets and icing today. The first gingerbread men are said to have been created for the amusement of Queen Elizabeth I. They were moulded into the image of her favourite suitors and courtiers, decorated with gold leaf then devoured at royal feasts.  Read more:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-18365/The-gingerbread-man-ages.html#ixzz3MikwIxb0     from taste.com.au  Just like the gingerbread men, the houses have a certain magical quality which appeals to children and the young at  heart. Our grandchildren love a gingerbread house - often made today or tomorrow, Christm...

Christmas with the Simmons family.... We wish you Peace and Happiness to all during the festive season. Hope you had a lovely Christmas Day. I went to a different church service (Lutheran) with Riikka , our exchange daughter on Christmas Eve, and then friends came over for supper afterwards. A really good start to this special day. Our children and grandchildren had a very relaxed lunch with us, and we really enjoyed spending time with them . Of course opening the presents was a highlight of the day for the boys. Each of our grandsons has a handmade Christmas stocking. Here is the latest for William - I finished it on Christmas Eve. It is a red velvet creation, with computer printed images on cotton fabric appliqued to the body of the stocking. It depicts Santa busily writing out his lists of good children and things to do, distracted by William playing with the lights from the tree in the background. I bought the little tree light buttons some years ago, and here they were in my st...