The Hazard Chronicles

Ok- it's been a busy week. We did a lot.

First things first though. I'm sure that the pending results of the gingerbread house contest have been weighing heavily on everyone's minds. Well, here's the bottom line. Team A won. The official count was 21 votes for "A" and only 15 for "B."

Now for the part you've really been waiting for: who was on which team?

Team A:

Team B:

As you can see, it was a guys vs. girls thing. And it shows. I think it is really intersting that, except in a few rare instances, guys voted for team B and girls voted for team A. I also think it is interesting to note that the audience for this blog is mostly female. I'm not trying to make excuses or anything- just stating a fact.

I also think it was interesting that Lindy, one of my dental assistants, said that she thought I was on team B. I asked her why. Her response: "It just looks like it was built by a doctor or an engineer or contractor or something." I kid you not. Those were her exact words. The irony? I, of course, am a doctor. Brandon was a contractor and is also a mechanical engineer. Wesley is going to med school. I think she had us pegged pretty well- but she didn't know any of that when she made the comment.

She is right though. It DOES look like it was made by more "analytical" minds. It was really interesting to listen to the two teams talking as we made the houses. It was something like this:

Team A: Oh- that is such a cute little boat, giggle, giggle. We need to put a person on it!
Team B: So, 39 minus 7 is...alright, and add 4 to that...okay, minus 3. Got it. So there we have the possible dimentions of the exterior walls.
Team A: twitter, twitter- what a funny little marshmallow man!
Team B: Now, structurally, what kind of candy would work well for the internal cross-bracing?
Team A: Oh, oh- I know- we should make a PALM TREE! That would be awesome!
Team B: ...and to reinforce the walls we can use Ritz crackers. Go get a ruler and a level so we can draw a structural footprint.

All said and done, I would say that both teams did a great job and that we had a lot of fun doing it. Thank you to everyone who voted, and thanks to Rachel's family for making our Thanksgiving such a good one.

On to the next subject. "Campfiring." This is Evelyn's word, and it has stuck in our family. On Tuesday night we used left-over graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows to make s'mores. Evelyn loves that we can do this in our back yard and she was very "helpful" in teaching Jackson how to effectively start things on fire using a flaming marshmallow. Addy was grumpy so we put her to bed. She will have to campfire with us a different night.

Also, this week, not to be outdone by the grown-ups, the kids made their own gingerbread houses. Well, technically I made the structures, cheating just a little bit with a hot-glue gun for the sake of time, and the kids decorated them. They all won awards too: To Jackson goes the best decorator award. Evelyn earns the "tell-everybody-else-what-to-do-but-don't-do-much-yourself" award, and Addy gets the award for eating the most candy without allowing it to come anywhere near her gingerbread house. It was a fun activity.

We also made some upgrades to our house this week. The biggest one is that we now actually have some furniture in our family room! WooHoo! Rachel has been searching diligently on Craigslist for couches ever since we moved here, and finally she hit the jackpot. Two matching microfiber couches in great condition, the color matching perfectly with everything else in the room while also being dark enough that you won't be able to notice little stains (not that we'd ever allow that to happen...), and the couches themselves being comfortable enough for me to easily fall asleep on either one of them- Final price: $50 for the set! I have to say, I sometimes make fun of Rachel for speinding so much time browsing the offerings on craigslist, but she did good on this one!

Well, this post has actually gotten pretty long. I was going to step onto my soapbox and rant for a little while about "Real Life," but I guess you'll be spared my personal opinions until a later day when we've had a slower week. Too bad.

Here are some pictures. Enjoy your week!

 You'll notice small snowflakes in the first picture. The kids got cold after a while so we came to our other "campfire" in the house instead.

Even with the couches this room still feels massive. We need to get a pool table or something...one day.