Santa Cow and Gingerbread Houses

Last night we were watching the Kung Fu Panda holiday special, and it must have been on our minds because somewhere over the course of the evening... we had the Noodle Dream!  Jingle Bell and Snowflake was there under the tree with some noodles, and because it's December, some candy noodles too.

We got up earlier instead of sleeping in way too much today, because there was a special breakfast to go to, one with a special guest!

That's right - it's Santa Cow!  It's a Christmas tradition!  Maddie and I were off to Chick-Fil-A, along with eight scullion other people, but we actually got to go and meet with not only Santa Cow, but his Elf Cow too!

Afterwards, the two of us were grocery shopping, and got pretty much everything we needed, although it sure does cost a lot more than it used to.  There was this story a week ago or so about how much inflation has increased the cost of Kevin McCallister's grocery bill in "Home Alone."  It was $19.83 in 1990, but inflation has made it $72.28 in 2023.  We did manage to get some accessories for something we did today though - that's our gingerbread houses! 

We actually did two houses.  Maddie created this one you see above completely on her own, and my favorite touch is on the rooftop.  No, it's not Santa... it's someone else stuffing a Christmas tree up the chimbley!

We picked up some Grinch Hershey's kisses, and Maddie used that to tell the story of the Grinch with this gingerbread house.  Note the licorice frame on the roof, and the detailed lighting on the roof as well.  It looks fantastic!

So here's the gingerbread creation I made - it's a Nativity!  Nana dropped by when we were out shopping and she brought this over for us to try out, and so I figured, "Why not?"  It took a while to do these, but it was enjoyable work for Maddie and I.

As always, Mom set it all up for us, and so Maddie and I sat there working on our creations as we watched a few things on television.  We saw this year's Living Christmas Tree from the First Baptist Church in Gainesville.  

It was a great program as always.  We also watched "How the Grinch Found Christmas," our own program from last Sunday.  The recording of it was pretty decent, and we enjoyed watching it again.  We also watched "Jingle All the Way" too - that was right about the time when we were finishing up with the gingerbread houses.  They turned out pretty good!

It's been a rainy day here, and unfortunately a very scary stormy day in Tennessee.  We managed to make our way around without too many difficulties.  We sent out Christmas cards and got some things ordered for Mom for Christmas too.  We read tonight, saying our prayers afterwards.  It was a good day for us here, although the sugar we've eaten was probably a bit much!