Gingerbread

I've always loved gingerbread biscuits.
What shall I eat first - a leg, an arm, the head? Sanctioned cannibalism really.

I think the story is so popular because it has the best refrain, "Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man", which just wants to be chanted again and again.
When I taught English as a foreign language to children I used this story a lot. All the kids would have a paper gingerbread man with holes to put their fingers through to be the legs. They would make their puppet run during the story, jumping onto the tail, shoulders and head of the fox and finally pretending to eat him, which they would do with great drama, occasionally really eating the paper!
Though I enjoy the story I've never quite known what it means. What is the moral: Everyone wants to eat you? Don't trust those who say they are your friend? Don't get ideas above your (biscuit) station? And then the politically correct versions just seem silly; where the fox doesn't get to eat the gingerbread man.

I've yet to find the perfect gingerbread man cutter. I just want a plain body shape, like the dolls I make I suppose. The only cutters I can find are these curvy ones that just don't do it for me.

The dolls are made from "Burel", a Portuguese 100% wool felt that I bought in the Serra da Estrela region and is traditionally used for clothes like these gorgeous coats from the Capuchinhas de Campo Benfeito in the Serra de Montemor. It's a gingerbread doll with pedigree heritage.