The Case of the Missing Gingerbread House Recipe

Here comes a wonderful, true story that renewed my faith in humankind. 

This post is longer than usual, but I wanted to tell you the story.

Every Christmas season for at least three decades, part of our family's tradition has been to make and decorate gingerbread houses.

I learned how to do them,  using a delicious gingerbread recipe, from a terrific book by Beverly Nye called "A Family Raised on Rainbows." 

It's impossible to say how many gingerbread houses we've made throughout the years but it's definitely in the many dozens.

(You can see some photos of two houses from old posts here and  here.)

I made the houses with our own kids, many foster children, guests, teenage mothers, family members, friends and so on.

This year, I decided to get a head start on the houses by making the pieces ahead of time, starting this month.

 I pulled down my dogeared copy of "A Family Raised on Rainbows, " turned to the page that had the gingerbread recipe and discovered it had been ripped out.




Shocked, I looked in the front and then all through the book, on our home library shelf,  and so on but the page with the recipe was gone but not forgotten. 

A quick call to the library revealed they didn't have a copy of the book but suggested another library near  Boston.  The librarian there said they had another book by Beverly Nye but not the one I needed.

 A third library, also near Boston, said they used to have a copy of Beverly's book but discarded it when it needed repair.

My son, who lives in another state, called me while I was in a funk over my lost gingerbread recipe. 

I had tried other recipes but none were ever as good and simple as the missing one.


I explained what happened and he said, "Don't worry, Mom.  I'll try to find another copy of that recipe."  

Of course, I was doubting Thomas and did not believe for a second he'd be able to do that.

All this transpired last Thursday.  On Saturday, I had a great afternoon thrift store shopping and when I returned, there was a Priority package from Utah on the kitchen table!



It contained not one but a total of  three books by Beverly Nye!  One was a combination of "A Family Raised on Rainbows" and "A Family Raised on Sunshine." 

The other book, her newest, was  "Year Round Sunshine."  Both books were inscribed by Beverly, herself. (See photos.)

My son had found her online, sent her an email, and explained my dilemma. 

 Beverly, in turn, put all the books in the mail as gifts to me. Imagine that!

Thinking about the whole scenario, my eyes filled up with tears over my son taking time out of his busy life to find the author and over Beverly Nye's act of generosity in gifting me with the books.

She has a warm and homey style of writing that's like chatting with a dear friend.

Currently, I've started reading "Year Round Sunshine" and love it.

So there you have it. A double act of warmth, love and kindness---one from a son, one from an author I've never met but feel like I have known for years.

By the way, Beverly has a  website and a blog, too!  Check them out here. 

This year, making gingerbread houses once again is going to be extra special, indeed!

HAVE YOU MADE A GINGERBREAD HOUSE?