The Gingerbread Man - an adaptation

Today's recipe - take a supposedly harmless childhood character, the imagination of an autistic child, a small pinch of creativity, a range of sweet spices from a pantry foray and a large dose of patience (even if done while gritting one's teeth).

Sleep time is not the Dancing Queen's strong point and we have virtually worked through the entire excuse book as to why sleep is not necessary that particular night.  In some instances, she gets ten points for creativity, the Gingerbread Man one being a good case in point.  To most kids, the Gingerbread Man story is about a cute little baking product of a lonely elderly woman who eventually gets eaten after taunting half the local village.  Its a first reader book, something cute to make at Christmas and sometimes a treat at the local cafe/bakery.  End of story.  Not in this house.  The Gingerbread Man took on a life of its own and was apparently the source of nightmares for about two weeks. The latest fixation, he became the latest excuse for not going to sleep - if she did, she would be gobbled up by him as he loved sleeping children in particular.


We suggested all sorts of alternative endings to the dream - including pretending that she in fact was the fox and got to gobble him up but no, apparently he could regenerate all limbs, grow a new head etc.   After about two weeks of this, the story was wearing a bit thin.  So almost in exasperation, I raided the pantry.  The end result was a sweet smelling concoction of nutmeg, mixed spices, cinnamon, a bit of brown sugar etc - basically anything that could act as a sweet antidote to gingerbread (I did not elaborate what gingerbread was in fact made of).  This was placed in a small bowl right next to her bed and was to act as a magical deterrent to all maundering late night gingerbread men.  The next morning she proudly reported that the Gingerbread Man had taken one look at the magical potion and had run off as fast as he could (basically at the same speed as in the story).  The little bowl stayed in her room for nearly two weeks.

Last night, the Dancing Queen proudly handed back the Gingerbread Man antidote, telling me it was no longer required as he had moved to China.  Thank goodness for pantry staples and the ability to believe.

But it is still going to be a very long time before I let her watch the final scenes in the Ghostbusters movie where that giant marshmallow man wrecks havoc.