The gingerbread man : Simmons Boys' version - How it really happened

   Once upon a time there were 3 hungry little boys who decided to make spicy gingerbread men for a winters day snack.
They poured the flour, cracked the eggs, added the spices and mixed 'n stirred till they had a rich brown dough. They each took turns cutting and placing the gingerbread shapes onto the cookie sheet.

Run run as fast as you can!

Into the hot oven the cookies went and while the brothers waited, they middle one asked his mother, " Will the gingerbread man escape when we open the door?"
His mother assured him that as long as he watched carefully and was ready to grab him just incase, the little men wouldn't escape.
He sat patiently with his brothers and with a careful eye, watched and waited.
Soon it was time for the magical moment- the oven door was to be opened. A wave of warm spices filled the air as the 3 little boys laughed and shouted in excitement to have their cookies out and coming their way.
"Watch carefully!", their mother told them. " It's when they're cooling that they may come to life and decide to run so that you can't eat them."
So, the 3 boys sat some more...and waited.

There's no escape for these cookies!

                       

                    The cookies cooled and were eagerly decorated.

Frosting for the arms

Cinnamon Dots for the eyes and nose.

Gumdrops for the buttons

Finally, the cookies were done and were ready for tasting.

"Hurray!", the boys cheered. Then in fun, the boys chanted,"Run run as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man."
Uh oh... Hop went the little men, down off of the table. "Run, run as fast as you can! You can't catch us, we're the gingerbread men!"

 "Quick!" said the mother. " Grab them before the get away!"

Caught 'em!

Keeping mine safe and sound!

Hee hee hee!

 And that's how the tale of the little Gingerbread Men really happened for the Simmons boys....well, most of it anyways.

                                                                          The End

Courage

He was a cute little boy with his baby soft brown hair and his big blue eyes that were intently focused on the task at hand. The fact that his little pink tongue peeked out at the left corner of his mouth made him even cuter. He had tiny little hands, still showing a hint of baby fat and dimples and they were busy at work, putting together bright yellow leggos. I wondered what it was that he was building and so I sat and watched him for a while.
2 leggos soon joined many others to build a wall. Soon, the wall was part of a building and that building soon had a tower almost as tall as the little boy. His blue eyes began to sparkle with delight at his progress and became filled with the anticipation of finishing and enjoying his hard work.
Suddenly, larger hands came and sent the tower crashing down. The boys bright blue eyes looked up in shock at the owner of the bigger hands, his older brother. The older brother had Autism, and didn't understand fully what he had done. To him, it was a tower and towers are built for knocking down.
Over and over again the tower was built and over and over again, it was knocked down.
At first the little pink tongue had disappeared and in it's place was a sad pout. The little blue eyes had tears...
soon however, it became a game and the tower was built together and they both would knock it down.

Have you ever felt like this little boy? Right now I'd say that I do. I feel like I carefully crafted together something beautiful and CRASH, someone knocked it down. Again and again, I keep trying and still it all comes crashing down.It's exhausting. It's heartbreaking. It's...annoying.
Still however, I can hear my Fathers words, " Well sister, did you learn anything?"

Well daddy, yes. I'm learning a lot. Courage, lots of courage...It takes courage to rebuild after every crash. Like that little boy, I'm going to find the reason to smile, make it a game and keep on building. Eventually I'm gonna get smart like that little boy too... next time, I'll just smile and let them clean it up while I go and find some cookies to eat.