Brrr-itos

Jingle Bell and Snowflake remembered it's Taco Tuesday, so look what they had under the tree this morning!  It's a little joke to go along with our recent book reading, but also there's a gift under that tree - a taco holder.

Actually, there were two taco holders, two dinosaurs!  This is the one Maddie used tonight.  Mom and I picked up several tacos from the drive-thru tonight, and had ourselves a tasty dinner.

So today was the now annual gingerbread house contest, which gets pretty crazy.  There are pieces stolen, destroyed, and things you have to use even if they make no sense (like a potato or a DVD of the Grinch), and there's a limited amount of time too.  It's zany, fun, heartbreaking, and just crazy.  About five minutes before the end, everyone's houses were largely completely destroyed, so what you're seeing here is an attempt to cobble together the ruins of a gingerbread house at the last minute... and it wasn't too bad!

That last house got totally destroyed.  Not much to do to help it but add a little caution tape and explain it away as a Christmas disaster area.  Anyway, we're in the Christmas season here, with all the trimmings!  Mom and I are busy getting things ready for Sunday, but also the Christmas Spectacular, another massive event in just two Sundays.  We've got another tech week and another series of late nights again, with lots of costumes.  One of the big things Mom has to do is gather an army together for a rhinestone party, getting dancer costumes prepared by attaching hundreds of small rhinestones to them.  That's tomorrow.

Tonight, Maddie requested a ride on the Polar Express, and we sure did!  Mom got these WONDERFUL hot chocolates made, with chocolate spoons and candy canes in them, plus whipped cream on top... yummy!  It's my favorite Christmas movie!

This morning we enrolled in an online course, six-class lesson dedicated to "A Christmas Carol."  It was super interesting, and just the start, complete with a quiz at the end.  We learned a few things about Charles Dickens, staves, the Industrial Revolution, and more.  We're also continuing the daily audio advent theater version of the story, which has been fantastic.  Also, there's this tonight:

Krampus comes tonight, but not here to this house of course.  We put boots out at the fireplace, and we'll see what happens tomorrow to see what gets put inside.  Still, tonight we were tempted enough to look up the latest Krampus parades from Austria and the Alpine regions, one of which you can see above.  Snow falling and Christmas lights... and these hideous monsters trolling up and down the streets to cheering crowds.  The sounds of cowbells, growls and screaming children put you in the Christmas spirit something fierce!

Staying in Europe, we checked out the Gävle Goat too, and sure enough it's there.  It's looking a bit more robust this year, and the video feed is a lot clearer.  We'll have to check in from time to time on that - the snowfall there can be beautiful.  

Speaking of snowfall and cold, tonight we finished up with "Wintersmith," and it's a happy ending.  Tomorrow we'll probably pick right up with the next Tiffany Aching story, because why not?  Rob Anybody was reading a book at the end of "Wintersmith" and that book is called "Where's My Cow?"  We might read that one next for fun.  Maddie won't remember the last time we read that one - it's been thirteen years or so.  

We said our prayers, and we got to bed.  Most of us did, anyway.  Mom was up late again, working on more costuming for the upcoming production.  We'll have our rhinestone party tomorrow.