Some Snow, A Parade and Gingerbread Men

Well, after 3 heavyduty posts, let's go back to some lighter ones.

When reading the title for this post, one will recognize that we have started a festive season. This season was kicked off with a sprinkling of snow, much to the delight of Keziah, who could not wait to get out there, sunglasses and all, to play in the snow. She was disappointed that she couldn't make a snowman with this snow as it was too light and fluffy, but little did she know that she didn't have to wait long as that kind of snow came a few weeks later.

Our community puts on quite the parade and this year, the company decided to put a float in it. The parade is different than others in the fact that it is at night! And so the light display is quite fun to watch!! Nathan's employees and others decorated a float and away they went, participating in the parade on a cold and frigid night! Nathan took Keziah onto the float which worked out well for her because that means she wouldn't see the Man of the Show: Santa Claus. She is petrified of him anyway. Lincoln and I decided to stay home. I didn't mind. Did I mention that it was a frigid night??!

She was given these glow sticks for the parade, which she loved. She played with them for a number of days later.

Keziah came back 3 hours later, with freezing red hands and feet as well as a red nose that Rudoph would have been jealous over. But that actually isn't what stood out. What I noticed most was the sparkle in her eyes! She was so excited and filled me in with all kinds of details as she enjoyed a brownie and hot chocolate, trying to warm up.

When I was a little girl, my mom would make us gingerbread men. They were so good!!!! She actually never used the gingerbread recipe, as we did not like it, but she would make it using shortbread or something like that.

Quick funny story: when my mom made them, we always listened to The Gingerbread Man story on tape while sitting in front of the oven. Well, one time while listening and watching, the cookie sheet buckled, which made quite a noise and movement. I am sure you can guess what we thought as kids! We flew to my mom, thinking the gingerbread men were trying to get out of the oven! Oh, memories!! :o)

We were getting together with Nathan's family for a gift exchange (a separate post on that) and so I decided to make a gingerbread man for each niece and nephew. Including my own children, that would be 14 gingerbread men. It was fun to make!!! I used my boterkoek recipe (butter cake), which I forgot would make them expand. Oh well. They came out much bigger than I anticipated, but I am sure the nieces and nephews didn't mind :o)

I drew a cut-out onto a cereal box. As you can see, it isn't that big, but the men sure widened!!! Oh well. Tis the season to expand :o)

My helper, cleaning off the beaters

And there they are, cooling off!

The next day, my good friend Alisha came over to help me decorate the cookies. She took her daughter which worked out as she gets along so well with Keziah. Mya and Keziah play so nicely together! This allowed us to decorate the gingerbread men.

Ta-da!!! All decorated! I tried to decorate them according to the hair and eye colour of my nieces and nephews. Yup, lots of dutchies here: blonde hair and blue eyes. But there are a few that are brown-haired/eyed and one even blonde with brown eyes.

Keziah and Lincoln loved theirs. Lincoln maybe a bit too much! :o)

I know!! He was so upset when we took it away, but wouldn't I be a worse mother if I let him eat the whole thing??

The trickiest part of doing these gingerbread men was not the cutting out, the baking or the decorating. It was trying to figure out how to transport all of them without breakage or smashed icing!! Thankfully the office had a bunch of box lids that worked out perfectly. Well, I thought finding something to get them to our gift exchange would be hard. Little did I know the last obstacle: the weather. More on that in my next post.