I know......I know....delinquent blogger....bad blogger....it's just been....a busy time. I am sure you all know what I am talking about. Weirdly strange these last couple of weeks. And Christmas...I'm not sure if you know but it's ****WARNING THIS NEXT STATEMENT MAY CAUSE EXTREME STRESS AND TRIGGER OVEREATING****16 days away....AAAAAAGGGHHH.
Sorry....I might need a moment. tick tock tick tock...ok I'm ok...I think. I am so not ready, every year I swear to be ready earlier,but alas, I fail each and every year.
Sooo, this post is concerning why I have been delinquent. A week or so ago, I received a phone call from the Holiday Decorator at the Governor's Mansion. (Yes, the home in which the Governor of the state lives in.) He asked me if I could make some gingerbread cookies for the "Family" tree, in the mansion. The family tree is decorated by the First Lady, and in any way that she wishes. She wanted to decorate it in a way reminiscent of the time in which her children were young. She said that they decorated it with candy canes and ginger cookies that would smell through out the holiday season.
So, I was asked to make non-edible, highly fragrant cookies. How hard could that be? oh, and I had 24 hours to make them! I researched some recipes and found a few similar recipes that substituted spices for flour, thus resulting in the most amazing smelling cookies. Each tray took 2 hours to bake! the rest of the time was spent decorating each cookie with royal icing.
Look at how cute they were!

Each cookie had it's own personality

oooh they smelled sooo good

Girls and boys and even little baby ginger people

My house smelled like those pine cones at the grocery store

We tied red and white raffia ribbon to each one and tied them to the tree

The First Lady was so complimentary.....

Here's the beautiful tree

And lookie...my name on the Decorating Committee sign! I felt like such a celebrity......

Until yesterday....The phone call went something like this:

"Hello, Sara?"

"Yes..."

"This is Caroline from the Governors Mansion."

"...Yes...?"

"The First Lady has asked that I call you and ask if there is any way for you to come and repair the cookies on the tree."

(uncomfortable silence)"...repair the cookies?"

"yes, the frosting has fallen off all of the cookies."

"WHHHHAAAATTT!!!!! ???"

"We will send a motorcade immediately due to the fact that this IS a matter of State security."

(I am so fibbing...I didn't yell "WHAT" and was not offered a motorcade, but, my cookies were shedding and I had 4 hours to fix them before the nights party.) So I rushed downtown wondering...how bad could they be?....

That bad!!!!

I am not exactly sure what happened, I have my guesses, but I did manage to get them fixed and back on the tree in time. I ended up painting them (with T-shirt bubble paint) instead of risking royal icing again-it worked fantastically...is that a word.