A Holiday Obsession

The day the naysayers predicted has happened. The Walgreens at the corner of 175 and Thunder Hill has finally attracted “a bad element.”

Me.

The holidays present unique challenges to those of us who crave gingerbread. We know we ought to be able to find it in plentiful supply, but, year after year, there seems to be less and less of it. I stopped by Touché Touchet one afternoon recently. They had already sold out for the day. The clerk suggested that I call ahead next time.

Call ahead? As though I know in advance when I am going to have a gingerbread craving?

I need gingerbread men. Or gingerbread women, reindeer, stars—whatever. Why do we not have vendors on every corner at this time of year? Why do I find myself skulking from one possible supplier to the next when the Christmas season should be the gingerbread zenith of the year?

And so I found myself, late on a Saturday afternoon, standing in line at Walgreens clutching a gingerbread house kit from the Clearance display. No, a gingerbread “village” kit.

That baby never made it home alive. I ripped open the box in my car and went for the nearest piece. It wasn’t the good stuff but it would have to do.

I now have a gingerbread village kit missing one wall and I feel rather ridiculous. Please help me, dear readers. Where can I buy decent gingerbread cookies in Howard County, Maryland? And not ones heaped in globs of icing, either. Just simple, spicy, classic gingerbread.

I know I have a problem. And I’ll face it, I promise. Right after Christmas. Or maybe New Year’s.

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