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吃姜饼可以暖心，定神，饱肚皮。 To Pauline D. Loh, nothing spells festive like the spicy scent of gingerbread baking. She shares the recipe and some decorating ideas. This is the second year I am writing about gingerbread, breaking my own unwritten rule about not repeating recipes. But I have had too many questions about making gingerbread to ignore the requests. Personally, I love gingerbread. Characters from fairytales around the world peopled my own childhood, including a cheeky runaway gingerbread boy who got eaten by a fox before he got too far away. It saddened me, that story, so I started baking gingerbread boys and girls and decorated them in pants, skirts, pinafores and elaborate sweaters in a strangely compensatory way. It was a lot more fun than Barbie-doll paper cutouts. I have since taught many children the joys of making gingerbread, including my vast menagerie of godchildren. Some of them are almost grown now, and I hope they will keep the tradition going for their own kids as a heartwarming bonding experience. A cold winter day spent baking and decorating will chase the indoor fidgets and chills away, and they get to eat their own creations. It's also healthy (think ginger, honey and whole wheat flour) and better than fast food snacks full of preservatives and additives. The kitchen may need a good scrub later, but you can always make that fun as well. The secret is to delegate, delegate, delegate. | 
