SNOHOMISH — The girls were getting antsy.
Taylor Odom, 9, just won the Teddy Bear Breakfast raffle, part of the annual Festival of Trees that raises money for Providence Children’s Center.
Her sister Payton, 5, and their cousins stood before her prize: a gingerbread house, more than a foot tall, that glowed with pink frosting, reindeer and candy canes.
Then the magic hit them.
“I call eating this tree!”
“I call eating that tree!”
Taylor realized they were mere seconds away from an under-10-year-old feeding frenzy.
“OK, guys — wait,” she said.
Taylor’s mother joined the group. The house shouldn’t be eaten, Lisa Odom told them. Cookies and candy can be bought at the store.
This gingerbread house couldn’t. It took 45 hours to make. Work on it started in August. The roof alone was made from nearly two pounds of carefully layered chocolate wafers.
At that, one of the girls figured it was worth trying again.
“I call eating all the roof!”
Each of Trudy Tobiason’s lovingly created gingerbread houses comes with a choice. Eat it? Or keep it?
The Everett great-grandmother carefully joins gingerbread walls together with frosting, decides what gets red licorice or gumdrops or sprinkles. If her creations are kept in a dry place, they can last for years.
Tobiason wants them to make people happy. And for some, that means eating them.
That choice was creating a small conflict for the Odoms.
Christmas is a time of barely contained restraint for Payton and Taylor. A year ago they waited as long as they could before waking their parents at 5 a.m. to open presents.
This year, Payton still can’t wait for Christmas. She already showed her parents the paper gingerbread ornament she made, with a photo of her smiling face on it.
The girls’ anticipation builds right after Thanksgiving. That’s when colored lights are strung up on their home.
Over the next few days, family treasures appear. Mom’s old photo with Santa. Grandma Lu’s wooden nativity scene. The button Christmas tree ornament Payton glued together in preschool.
A well-worn copy of “Santa’s Toy Shop” takes its place on the living room bookshelf, the cover turned face out. Four red-sequined stockings line the fireplace mantle, each one waiting to be filled with Christmas.
The Teddy Bear Breakfast fell on Taylor’s birthday. The family joined about 500 people in a Comcast Arena ballroom.
Girls wore their prettiest dresses. Boys had their hair neatly, if fleetingly, combed. Photos were shot with Santa Claus. There was french toast and giggles and more than a few games of tag.
About $700 worth of raffle tickets were sold, for prizes such as theater tickets, a big teddy bear and one special gingerbread house.
For the past seven years the Odoms hoped to win one of the gingerbread houses. Buying raffle tickets became part of the tradition.
This year Taylor’s grandmother, Penny Fagerlie, bought 10 tickets for the family table.
Because it was her birthday, Taylor handed them out.
After breakfast, the raffle began. The theater tickets were handed out. Then the bear. At last, when it came to the gingerbread house, the winning ticket was called: “Number 53!”
“Whoa,” Taylor said.
n n n
The prize fit snugly in the minivan’s trunk.
Carefully, Lisa Odom drove, maneuvering slowly at every turn, easing the brakes to avoid sudden stops.
She had moved the soccer balls to the backseat, but there was no point in tempting fate with a jerk of the wheel.
The gingerbread house made it home. Sure, there was a loose candy cane lamppost and a broken gingerbread lady for Odom to fix. No rush — the house still looked good enough to devour.
She found a special place for it in the living room, on top of the cabinet filled with photo albums. She rested white Christmas lights around it, “to shine it up.”
Taylor and Payton stood staring in front of it, right at eye-level.
They could see a Christmas tree through the front door. What else was in there?
If they could just crack off the chocolate roof and look inside? Wolf down the four gingerbread reindeer that stood in the backyard? Eat each tiny candy that filled Santa’s cookie sleigh?
No. They couldn’t.
Sometimes, Taylor quickly dragged a finger across the front lawn, then licked off the sugar.
Mostly, however, the girls resisted temptation.
They knew their mother wanted to save the house, that it was becoming another heirloom, like Grandma Lu’s wooden nativity set they keep beneath the tree. The girls like to play with the animals and kings.
When the girls ask to eat the house, their mother reminds them it has a story, just like “The Polar Express, ” which she reads them every year.
Remember when Taylor won it at the raffle?
Remember, it was on her birthday?
Remember how lucky it made them all feel?
n n n
The girls understand.
Now they see how the gingerbread people on the front lawn remind them of their family. They named one gingerbread girl Taylor. The other is Payton. There’s even a cookie dog just like Ginger, their own Australian shepherd.
Still…
They wanted to eat the house. Just a bit. One tiny chunk.
Their mother finally said they each could break off a small piece — but no more — after Christmas. Their father, Norman Odom, backs her.
After their presents are torn open. After their trip to grandma’s house for hot chocolate. That’s when Taylor and Payton can choose.
Just one of those chocolate shingles on back of the roof? A little tree covered in sprinkles? Maybe that reindeer?
Then their house will be stored away for next Christmas, and the Christmas after, and ever after.
After Thanksgiving, their parents will gently unpack it, pink frosting still aglow, to rejoin the Christmas books, Grandma Lu’s nativity scene, and every ornament made by Taylor and Payton.
Next Christmas the girls will peek at the little decorated tree inside their gingerbread house.
To them, it will never be stale.
Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455, arathbun@heraldnet.com
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
