Gingerbread Houses

Alexa and I bought a gingerbread house and set out to build it this Sunday. But, knowing how our attention could wane after the tedious work required to assemble those gingerbread houses, we planned ahead and put in the movie Elf.


But it didn't play, so we had to watch it on the laptop.


Here is our set before we began


And here is the house after we glued all the big pieces together! (for future reference, it's better to decorate all the pieces first. this assembly step should definitely be the last one).


Of course I had to sample the frosting as we went along. For all those that are curious, the beautiful handiwork on the roof- yes, it's mine.


Alexa has the deft hands, so she was the one to put the star on the tree...

...and most of the ornaments on the hard side of the tree.


And, more or less, this is our finished house! We also added a candy pathway


Ta da!

We set the timer for one last picture, and I couldn't resist smearing my gorgeous wife's face with some leftover frosting.


She was not very happy about that. Seriously.


So I let her gunk my face up. Aren't I nice?

A Happy Birthday!

We had a birthday party this weekend! Now, Alexa's birthday actually isn't until the 11th, but because of the trauma caused from the Chap stick Incident (see below), we decided that early festivities were appropriate.

We started with a package that came in the mail from Alexa's family. She was excited about the Costco gift card, but ecstatic about the persimmons and guavas that were in the box under the present.

She was kind enough to model a winter jacket that she received.

I thought some children's books would be fun too, seeing as how Alexa is going to be an elementary school teacher and all!

I guess she was getting tired of all the pictures.

But she got over it with the excitement over the sign that she gets to make for our front door. If you have any ideas for a good set up for the sign, let us know.

Happy birthday Alexa!

A Sad Day for Us All...

There was a tragedy in the Larsen home last evening. It started like most other Thursday nights, but by the time Alexa and I had gone to bed, we had been numbed by the devastating loss we had experienced.

Alexa, the sweet wife that she is, usually volunteers to do the laundry all by herself, often while I am gallivanting at Hogi Yogi. I was home this time, though, and tried to help her cart the massive volume of clothes around the corner to the Union Square Laundry room.

Later, when the clothes were done drying, I went to go pick them up. To my surprise, when I opened the dryer we'd used for our darks, I found this:


That's right. Amidst our clothes was this stick of chapstick. I, not knowing the harm it could cause, laughed as I got back to our apartment. "Hey, babe, funny story. Guess what I found in the dryer?"

Alexa, knowing the problem chapstick could cause, was less jovial. To make a long (and sad) story short, more than a few of our clothes had greasy chapstick spots. A few of the casualties are pictured below.


Alexa wasn't going to be much help that night. Like a rookie soldier seeing her first dead comrade, she was a bit of a mess. I sent her to bed before the psychological scarring became permanent.

With the new found calmness in the apartment, I set to work, breaking out the big guns- Spray 'N Wash...


... And then washing the clothes by hand in our sink, and laying them out to dry all over our living room.


Sorry to say my efforts weren't very effective, but then today we used some dish soap and the washing machines (that had been closed by the time we needed them the night before), and saved most of the clothes.

But it was still a sad day, and one we won't soon forget!