Gingerbreading

Today was the day. Gingerbread house making. We had extra houses, so C4 & Q2 decorated houses before the adult decorations began.





But, actually, there was a lot of frosting and candy being eaten. Q2 doesn't speak much in this video, but if you listen you can hear C39 & C4 in the background, talking about going to the Museum of American History, and Q2 & I only engage in minimal chat.



After their hands were washed, C39 took them away, and the adult gingerbreading began.

In the past, I've made all the gingerbread, put together the houses and put them on cardboard and in a box for my friends to make.

This year I broke with tradition (having just made a 19 mini houses for C4's classroom to decorate) and said "bring your own!"

Which could explain the attrition rate. 6 RSVP'd yes, and 2 made it! L. said yes, but ended up in Massachusetts this weekend to help her sister. C. said yes but got a stomach bug. I. said yes, but her youngest son was vomiting and she couldn't come. J. said yes but backed out saying she didn't have time to make herself a house (and I offered her 2 of the extras from C4's classroom, even!). So, I had two guests, E & G. And me of course.

We did pretty damn good. E's house, the first she'd ever made, was gorgous:



G's cookies were hysterical. Take a look at the gingerbread man covered in smarties at the top. And the one covered in candy cigarettes. And one covered in mini jujubes. And there is one with Necco Wafers for a hula skirt (not pictured). These were fantastic.



I made a carousel. My gingerbread was made with blackstrap molasses, which is why it is very very dark. A nice color for the gingerbread, but not as tasty. I enjoyed making this a lot! I should have decorated the inside before putting up the candycane poles & reindeer "horses," but I didn't, so it is hard to see the reindeer. They are incredibly cute, and the cutter came in the mail 2 minutes (REALLY) after I started questioning how I was going to make tiny horses for the carousel. Thank you dad!! Problem solved, and the carousel has 8 tiny reindeer now!!

Ice storm

There is a nice slick of ice outside that is now all melting in big fat drips. It is sunny and drippy at the same time.

On another note, we've lost our heat this morning. So, it is chilly. We've got a space heater going, and the furnace guy is coming before noon. I hope. Since it is the gingerbread house party day.

Lucky our kids like to be cold.

Last full day in LA

Friday night, December 12

We spent the day just ... doing nothing. Watching the snow melt, playing inside, reading.

Ninoo & C4.



Do they look tired to you? Look at those lovely chubbly thighs!



Then later, C39 and I got to go to the Symphony for the annual Christmas show from the Louisiana Symphony ... it was lovely. We were limited in our clothing options, since the power was out we only had dirty clothes. But nevertheless, I enjoyed it immensely. We thought that Q2 would have enjoyed it as well, she'd have been enraptured, I think. C4, however, would not have been excited about the symphony. Maybe the treats at intermission, though.

Their second favorite day

Because it SNOWED. Just over 7 inches in Hammond. Which I needn't tell you is a lot. Especially for Southern Louisiana. Heavy wet snow which knocked out the power by 7 am. And kept it out for about 60 hours. They went out in the snow and got wet.



And we had no clean or dry clothes for them. We found some less dirty stuff for them to wear, just to keep them from being nakie.

C4 LOVED the snow!



Q2 was less sure. We got her a hat to keep the snow out of her eyes, but she still was tentative.




We're Cold! I plopped myself in the middle to get warm!!

Their favorite day

Wednesday morning we drove into New Orleans, visited with G'ma and went on our way.

To the Louisiana Children's Museum! They loved loved loved it. Didn't want to leave ... but eventually we had to go home, so we did. Enjoy the pictures & videos!

This was C4's favorite favorite bit of the museum. Probably of the whole trip.



And Q2 really enjoyed these bubbles. You can't see it here, but she was being photographed by a student taking "tourism" photos for a class. This bubble thing was COOL!



They also did some building:





There was much much more to the museum, and it was very fun. I highly recommend it!

Warmest of warm days in Louisiana

Monday and Tuesday were just lovely, lovely day in Louisiana. Warm, perfect.

Before the parks on Monday we spent a good deal of time just outside with Skipper dog.

C4 loves dogs. She loves to be jumped on. She loves to be licked.







And Q2 loves to sing to dogs:



And they both like to pretend to be dogs:



And, just for fun:



And after Tickfaw we had Christmas. Finally. C4 had been trolling around the tree pulling gifts out with her name and Q2's name on them.

I know this is fuzzy, but she was so darn happy!




Q2 likes to dress up ... wings, a tiara, and high heels.



On Tuesday we walked to the library in the morning, then spent the afternoon just hanging around with the neighbors and the dog.

Parks and Christmas

Monday, December 8

We got up early. Early. Much much much too early. By 5 am we let the girls go down to play with Ninoo & Papa. And C39 & I went back to bed.

Eventually we got out of the house, and drove to Tickfaw State Park. C4 had the idea that she didn't want to go. Crying ensued, on and off. We were able to distract her, mostly. Then Q2 fell asleep halfway there, as C4 noted "She conked out!" Yes, she had.

We got there, C4 actually was on the edge of sleep, she was 75% asleep. So we drove in and turned around, but at some point she fell over in her seat and woke herself up. She was happy to be going, not wanting to go to Tickfaw State Park, she wanted to go to Clarke Park (in town). She continued to say she'd nap in the car, but we turned around and did go in for real. C4 continued to make a fuss, but we took her in anyway, and managed to get her to stop crying about it by telling her that sometimes we do things for her, and sometimes she does things for us. And she was going to do this for us. Then we'd all go to Clarke Park for her. That actually worked.

She wasn't keen on going in, but she did. I told her I'd cary her the whole way, but after about 2 minutes she got down to check things out. She spent huge amount of time on a matching video game, and was excited to see turtles, because Q2 (who was still sleeping in the car, inccidentally) likes turtles. She loved the tornado maker, but did not like the dried and preserved alligators.

Finally, I went back outside and woke up Q2 (and Ninoo), and we went for a walk on the boardwalks. Well, one of the boardwalks that wasn't ruined by Gustav earlier this year. C4 was not thrilled about walking the boardwalk, but once we got to the end and started throwing sticks, they both came around.

Here we are throwing sticks:



And then. Finally for C4, we went to Clarke Park. Where we spent an hour? 90 minutes? I don't know, but they enjoyed every second of it.