Mealtimes Musing: Gingerbread Men

On one of my shopping jaunts a couple of weeks ago, I was more than a little piqued to discover that a standard sized gingerbread man with M&Ms for buttons can retail for up to $3.20 ea at one of those cafe/bakery places. In these slim economic times, even a mere biscuit is subject to the perpetual whims of inflation.
With a 3 year old nipping at my knees, fool that I was, I parted with $2.90 at the Cookieman and decided later... Egad... never again... a mother can go broke doing this on a regular basis. I felt a certain beggarly consolation that I hadn't made my purchase at the Gloria Jean stand and saved myself 30 cents.

Anyway, I reminded myself that I'm a stay-at-home mother now... so it should be er... a piece of cake... badge of respectability... to make my own. It's not as if I've never done it before.

Here's me (being invisible) and the kiddies making up a batch of gingerbread men:

These icing gel tubes were MOPS freebies from last year. I checked for the use-by date. Didn't see any. 

We're still alive so it must be okay.

Gingerbread Remnants. The big guy gets too big and it's just easier to use the other shapes.

I always feel obliged to chant the o'l Gingerbread Man taunt... when I make these little suckers.

Run, run as fast as you can
You can't catch me
I'm the gingerbread man

These days I can't do gingerbread men without thinking of Jasper Fforde's second Nursery Crime novel, The Fourth Bear. The man's an insane genius... but a genius nonetheless. Fourth Bear is one of the funniest books I have ever read. Fforde's use of Mother Goose and fairy tale characters is quite mad... and really clever. And the gingerbread man... hehehe... it's diabolical... I won't give anything away...