5th Annual Gingerbread House Party

Sweetville

Oh, why, hello, hello, welcome back to Sweetville, USA, the gooey center of Tootsie Pop County! I’m so glad you could come by once again to see our beautiful, snowy-sugared town. Come, take a walk with me and I’ll show you the sights.

Katie's Sweetville City Hall

In the center of town, you have City Hall, a gathering place for politicians and plebians alike. While the city council argues the placement of this year’s iced Gingerbread Christmas tree or whether the town should pave a caramel yellow brick road, you have the traffic violators paying their fines for parking in front of the candy corn cones or speeding down Peppermint Patty Lane.

Kim's Order of the Mousse Lodge

Ah, and there is the Royal Order of the Mousse Lodge, an organization dedicated to preserving the history of Sweetville and keeping the town sugar-coated for years to come. The members are very involved in the community, whether it is cleaning the streets of sprinkles, working in a soup kitchen serving Boston Baked Beans or even passing out Altoids for those with a touch of halitosis. The Order is very selective though, not anyone can join. I hear you have to be able make a tasty s’more (and knowing Mike-n-Ike doesn’t hurt either).

Amanda and Lauren's Sweetville Heights

This is Sweetville Heights, the newest addition to the city. Fast and furious building started in the beginning of the year, but like everywhere else, Sweetville was not immune to the economic downturn.

Lauren's Foreclosure

Our first foreclosure — how sad. The poor guy didn’t even have a Bit-o-Honey to fix up his Hershey pick-up. Although construction has slowed, the residents of Sweetville Heights are enjoying the amenities that it offers such as a Pop-Rock fireworks display and lazy afternoons by the Swedish Fishing hole.

Lauren's Church

The Sweetville Heights development also built this quaint church for it’s residents. Here is the church, there is the pretzel steeple, open the iced candied door and look at all the gingerbread people.

Jen's Occupy Sweetville

And we cannot touch on the economic crisis without visiting what many believe to be the root cause: The Bank of Sweetville. For years, basically any gingerbread man or woman could get loans to build larger and more elaborate houses — using the finest graham crackers and imported icing, of course — regardless of whether or not they could pay back the 100 Grand. What they didn’t realize was that unless their homes were properly lacquered, they would decrease in value exponentially. Of course, The Bank of Sweetville then bundled up these spoiled assets, slapped on a fraudulent Nutrition Facts label, and sold these empty calories to anyone who had the money. As you can see, the result of this skullduggery is the Occupy Sweetville movement. While these Gummi Bears are 99% corn syrup they are hopping mad about being misled. To show their displeasure, they have set up their Fruit Roll-up tents and are basically loitering in front of this tastefully decorated bank.

Katy and Christine's House

In addition to the economic woes, Sweetville was also the victim of a cotton candy cyclone. While most buildings escaped harm, some of the less sturdy structures were damaged. This was the worst natural disaster to a candy town since Timmy Thomas realized he was going to lose a game of Candy Land to his little sister and flipped the board in a fit of poor sportsmanship. In a show of support, the citizens came through with extra frosting and Twizzlers to patch the damaged roof of this home. If the marshmallow snowman in the front is any indication, this is going to be a very merry Christmas indeed!

Beth's Christmas Tree

There is the official town Christmas tree, I guess the council has decided to place it here, along Main Street. Many people come to help decorate, it’s tradition. You can’t go wrong with a red Twizzler garland, little candied ornaments and a Peep snowman. On Christmas Eve, families gather around with their hot chocolate, apple cider and other warm, delicious concoctions, sing Christmas carols and frolic beneath the frosting of its branches.

Monika's Mars Bars Inn

Over yonder is the Mars Bars Inn, a well-known dining establishment, a staple in this town since 1911. If you are looking for comfort food, a cozy atmosphere and good conversations, this is where you will find it. The specialty here is the Skittles Steak, served with a heaping mound of creamy mashed potatoes and perfectly grilled asparagus. If you have room for dessert, you must order the Milky Way Delight. I would tell you what it is, but then it would ruin the experience. Trust me, it’s worth it.

Although there have been some some misfortunes this year, the community hasn’t let it melt their spirits, hence the folks are always welcoming and Sweetville is just simply irresistible. That is all the time that we have today. I hope you enjoyed your visit and please, swing on by anytime. And if you have any friends who would like a tour, you can see the rest of the town here, here, and here.

Congratulations!


Okay, it’s a little late for my announcement but I’m announcing it now, so shut it:

Congratulations, Katy on winning the baby pool! She had guessed a boy on September 15 at 2:00pm. No one actually got the correct date except for Bob’s cousin, but she had the wrong gender so she received a consolation prize. Katy, enjoy your Magic 8-Ball and $25 gift card for being on “Target.”

Supper Club: November 8, 2011

Stuffed French Toast with Bacon and Cheese Egg Cup

Breakfast for dinner, my favorite!

Entree: Stuffed French Toast. Absolutely wonderful! Delicious! Tasty! And easy too! I used strawberry jam and along with cut up strawberries for the “stuffing.” I took another reader’s suggestion and doubled the recipe for the cream cheese mixture and was able to not be stingy on stuffing these bad boys.

Side Dish: Bacon and Cheese Egg Cups. Another delicious and easy recipe to make. And it’s a perfect dish if you are having a brunch at the house. Note, though, eggs to keep cooking so if you want runny yolks, watch the time in the oven and make sure you take it out of the muffin tins immediately.

A perfect Sunday morning breakfast/brunch menu.

Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This


As most of you know, Bob is known for having active dreams. You guys have heard me tell you about him looking for gnomes under the bed, mice along the headboard and kicking me out of bed to go get the paper. Now with Ben, his dreams have become all about the baby or the subject of babies. Let me just tell you a few of them.

Dream #1: Bob wakes up, freaked out. Why? Because apparently we had triplets and they were sleeping in bed with us and he rolled over one of them.

Dream #2: Bob wakes up, freaked out. He’s fumbling around in the sheets frantically. I wake up after only 15 minutes of sleep to him asking me, “Where’s the baby? Where’s the baby?” Apparently, he was holding the baby and lost him in the bed.

Dream #3: After feeding Ben, I go back to bed and tug on the comforter because Bob has it all bunched up. He holds on to the comforter in a tight grip and won’t let go.

Bob: “Stop pulling on the baby!”
Jen: “I’m not pulling on the baby! Wake up!”
Bob: “Stop pulling on the baby!” He tugs harder.
Jen: “Wake up!” I shake him awake.
Bob: He sits up, looks around, confused. “What happened to the baby?”
Jen: “You never had the baby.”
Bob: “What happened to the baby?”
Jen: Annoyed. “Wake up, you never had the baby.”
Bob: “Oh, okay.” He lays back down. 30 seconds later, “Seriously, what happened to the baby?”
Jen: Sigh. I give up and go to sleep.

Besides the dreams, Bob also is very confused and discombobulated whenever you wake him up to tend to Ben. It is pretty hilarious. I’ll wake him up and he’ll ask me such crazy and random things. Or he’ll pop up out of bed and walk away without the baby. Or he’ll just sit up, look at me and then lay back to to go to sleep. After 8 weeks of Ben, he still can’t wake up properly.

I do have to say one thing about all of this, Bob’s antics do add some comic relief to the late night feedings.