There's no place like home (gingerbread!)

My sister, Janna Scharf, is hands down the royalty of our family. Her ascent to the throne began in 1988, 36 years ago. She and her husband, Rick, were the parents of three elementary school-age boys when they relocated to Omaha, Neb. On a lark, Janna signed up for a gingerbread house class at church. It was all old-school, no kits like there are today. You baked the house pieces from scratch. Her takeaway from the class was, “Frosting fixes everything!”

The next year, she made one at home with the boys and by 1990 she baked for each of them to decorate their own gingerbread house. A daughter arrived that year, and now, the Thanksgiving weekend gingerbread house tradition was begun in earnest. Another move to Fort Collins, Colo., in 1992 and their fifth child was born the next year.

Throughout the Scharf kids’ lives, the evolution of the gingerbread house tradition has been lasting and beloved. Now, a second generation participates as Janna’s grandchildren and their cousins look forward to the Saturday following Thanksgiving and creating their masterpieces with Grandma Janna.

She makes most of the royal icing decorations for the landscaping by hand ... many hundreds of miniature snowmen, ducks, swans, bluebirds, squirrels, wreaths, log piles, mailboxes and even brilliant blue skating ponds. Her creativity expands every year. She finds candy to decorate the houses throughout the year and begins in early November replenishing the supply of handmade miniatures, preparing for her pilgrimage back to Fort Collins and the grandkids. It’s a true labor of love by my sister, the Gingerbread Queen.

When I stopped by her Post Falls home a few days ago, her dining room table was a sea of little duckies and snowmen and bluebirds. She was also packing up a starter kit to send off to her youngest son, now 31, married and living in Atlanta. He told her he wanted to continue the tradition with his wife and her family.

No doubt, Janna has created several hundred gingerbread houses over the years, as well as coached and guided the creation of hundreds more. The number of memories for her children and grandchildren could never be counted and will carry on. At the holidays there’s no place like home, real or gingerbread.

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Happy birthday today to Kim Jacklin, Kristina Jacklin, Sandi Bloem, Dave Oliveria (75!), Dr. Bob West, Michael King, Brian Smith, Kristin Hoppe, Linda Alby, Pat Thyssen, Chase Blakley, Rob Clark and Kayla Pleger. Tomorrow, Maureen Dolan, Chrissy Kaye, Britt Thurman (40!), Noel Adam, Kaci Medlock, Bill Storlie Sr., Susan Martin, Barbara Bryan, Gary Schwalbach and Vonnie Satchwell put on their birthday hats. Dustin Ainsworth, TJ Barnhart, Sam Inman, Kim Anderson, Rodney Duncan, Noel Adam, Tyeson Bennett, Brenda Hanson and Leland Johnson celebrate Saturday. Ageless Dee Dee Morris, David Eachon, his daughter, Dana Ortega, Dennis Hall, Julia Hopkins, Ronda Mitchell, Stephanie Morrison, Tim Williams and Carol Daniels take another trip around the sun Sunday. Jeff Morrison, Lisa Black, Jesse Gunderson, Debbie Magnuson, Mike Lindquist and Eric Knudtsen start the week by eating birthday cake. Aniyah Colbert, John Cocoran, Sue Thilo, Nelda House, Sue Servick, Kelly Westover, Buck Wilhelm and Babette Banducci blow out the candles Nov. 26.

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Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email thoreson.kerri@gmail.com.