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Dec. 14, 2006
Gingerbread house!
I'm sorry I've been a bit absent around these parts. Right before Thanksgiving, I got hit with a very bad flu. It was my first since January, so I figured I was due. I then got better for a little under 2 weeks, and then it recurred worse than ever and I think it's turning into light bronchitis. :( I just hope I'm not sick for the holidays AGAIN like I was last year. I am improving day by day, but I am going to the doctor next week if I'm not feeling MUCH better by Monday. Fortunately PJ hasn't gotten any of it. I've been meticulous in handwashing, and keeping my germs to myself and whatnot, so I guess that's helped. Also, it appears as though my kid (praise the Lord) has an immune system made out of steel.
The downside to this is that I REALLY wanted to celebrate Advent this year, and put the emphasis on Christ this year, but I've been too BLEGGGHHH (y'all know the sentiment this describes, I'm sure) to do so. I'm going to start looking for "12 days of Christmas" Advent-ish activities or devotionals or something to do every day until Christmas, or perhaps we will do something to do with our Cuban heritage - Cubans celebrate the 12 days of Christmas from Dec 25th through January 6, the Epiphany/ "Gift of the Magi" holiday in our culture. I'll have to think on it.
Today our park playdate group had its Christmas party. It is a secular group - in fact, it is an amalgam of two local groups - but everyone there celebrates Christmas, so it worked out. We had a buffet-style lunch on the picnic table with everyone bringing something. It was delicious and the kids and grown-ups had a great time! I made a really neat blueberry gingerbread that a lot of people seemed to like. I got the recipe off of AllRecipes, which is, to me, one of the most indispensible sites on the Internet. However, the recipe called for buttermilk, and since we eschew all dairy products (for a large variety of reasons, the main one being that PJ appears to be highly intolerant of them) I substituted vanilla flavored soymilk. I think, had I used buttermilk, it would've come out a little richer. It wasn't too spicy or "gingerbready," but it was a nice rich, spicy fruit bread, I think. I'll post the recipe later on :)
Speaking of Gingerbread, at the parkdate, we had a gift exchange. Everyone had to bring one gift per child, with a monetary value of about $3. PJ chose a little air gun that launches spinners really far into the air. I wasn't sure how it'd go over, but fortunately another 8yo boy got that one. ;) The gift he drew was a pre-made gingerbread house from the local Publix bakery with everything you needed to decorate it. We got home, finished up the day's schooling, put on Nat King Cole's Christmas album, rolled up our sleeves and got to work. We had a blast decorating it... and eating it too! I helped with the icing (it was hard to squeeze out) but he decorated it all himself. Here are some pictures of the gingerbread masterpiece.
 THE SIDE - NOTE THE SANTA AND GUMDROP CHIMNEY :D
 THE BACK DOOR - with a candycane gateway!
The front door looked the same, but with a gumdrop doorknob.
 THE OTHER SIDE - those are "Christmas lights" made out of jawbreakers around the "window."
And yes, my table is, in fact, littered with Christmas tchochkes. Whatcanyado.
Hope everyone is having a great holiday season so far!
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Posted by 
Dec. 18, 2006 - Glad to hear you're feeling better