The Reindeer Keeper

 I can't claim to be a maker of gingerbread houses. I only tried one time. I wasn't using a kit. My plan was to make it from scratch and then let my very young children decorate it. I had everything ready to go for the decorating. I had it all planned. After I had the pieces cut out and baked; then cooled and on the table, I figured the rest would be easy. It would become a Christmas tradition right out of the movies. That never happened. Just the thought of gingerbread houses tires me out. That's because the pieces of the gingerbread house i made from scratch would not stay in place no matter how hard we tried. I'd followed all the directions. But it kept falling down like London Bridge as the kids whined and started to eat the candy meant to go on the house. It got to be really late. If I'd had my way, I would have thrown those pieces in the trash but, I had a better idea. In a calm and reassuring voice, I told the kids I thought I should start over and while the...

With zucchini so plentiful in the garden last week, my son Brian and I spent a few days making small loaves of zucchini bread. Some loaves will be for Christmas gifts and some will be for giving away—and some are for our own enjoyment. The process began when I brought out my mother’s old Universal food grinder. The old grinder holds so many memories of preparing for so many Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. I can still hear cranberries poppi ng as they were squeezed through the grinder. Some never made it through. Instead they’d go flying through the air when the grinding speeded up and the juice from the cranberries fell into a yellow bowl sitting on the floor underneath the grinder. My mother once told me she bought the grinder at Barr’s Hardware located in a downtown of long ago. The grinder is still as good as new. There are no buttons to push or speeds to select or cords to plug in. You just put the parts together and off you go. Brian did all the grinding of the zucch...