Auntie B's Wax

It started out as a joke.  Charlotte (my sister, for those of you who haven’t been paying attention) has always been agog and confused about the popularity of Hello Kitty and she can’t help but mock it with desires for Hello Kitty merchandise.  It started with her constantly saying how much she wanted a Hello Kitty coin purse.  Just to shut her up I actually got her one.  She uses the coin purse as a container for her iPod, and the music she stores on that iPod is called “The Hello Kitty Show,” despite the fact that the music has nothing to do with Hello Kitty but merely from the fact that it’s stored in a Hello Kitty coin purse.

Over the years she’s received many Hello Kitty things from various members of her family, and has even called her new car The Kitty Mobile.  Her mockitude of Hello Kitty has become part of her persona.

Last year she surprised me with a Hello Kitty gingerbread house.  She bought one for herself too, and also one for our mom.  Of course Charlotte assembled hers the minute she got it and it was the cutest little pink candy/cookie house ever imaginable.

I didn’t have time last year to assemble mine, but put it away with all the Christmas decorations at the end of the season.  When I unpacked the Christmas tubs this year, there it was.  I remembered how cute Charlotte’s Hello Kitty house was and was determined to make mine even better, because younger sisters always aspire to do as well or better than their older sisters.

Except this was a “gingerbread” house.  Not only that, it was a Hello Kitty “gingerbread” house.  (I use the quotes because although the house pieces were indeed cookie, they weren’t actually gingerbread cookie.)  No one can do Hello Kitty better than Charlotte and I discovered that despite my abilities to make stuff I pretty much stink at gingerbread houses.

The tree and Hello Kitty herself positioned in the front of the house were pre-decorated marshmallows and were hard as rocks, as were the gumdrops.  There was no temptation for me to eat these sugary candies because they were over a year old and plus, they were part of a Hello Kitty gingerbread house kit for God’s sake.  However, I instinctively licked my finger when some icing escaped my control and take my word for it, don’t ever, ever eat anything that comes out of a Hello Kitty gingerbread house kit.

I totally stunk at making this thing.  The icing was blobbed on in a very unprofessional manner and I didn’t have the patience to sit and hold the house pieces together until the icing set.  Needless to say there were gaps everywhere.

Oh sure it looks marvelous in the pictures, but trust me, if you actually lived in this little cookie house your roof would leak and there would be drafts coming from every corner.

Yes, I even had to decorate the back of the house.  Unfortunately the grout (icing) that holds the whole thing together looks more like a bunch of snow drifting from the roof.  Well, it’s a Christmas house ~ I guess the illusion of snow is kind of a good thing.

No matter now bad I was at making this thing I have to admit it was kind of fun.  It will also make me think twice the next time I get my sister something Hello Kitty related.  What goes around comes around.