My Maud loves Christmas music. While visiting the northwest for a week, she somehow managed to find a radio station that played only holiday music 24 hours a day and left the kitchen radio on for pretty much all of each of the 24 hours in each of the 7 days she stayed. When my brother came back from Paris he had the audacity to challenge my knowledge of each of the reindeers names. First off, he was so sure that I was mistaken that Claus had in fact named one of his pets Vixen. I think he was even irritated that I wrote it out on the coloring book page I was sharing with little Maddy. I was like, "believe it man, one of them is named Vixen." He had no idea I had just spent 7 days in a row having the names repeated over and over like a festive nail gun to my head. He also didn't believe Cupid. We were both confused about Blitzen though, hemming and hawing over whether it is actually Blixen or even possibly Blizten? It all ended in waging bets, as most of my discussions with siblings do and before googling the results, we each named our prize. I imagined a split-level gingerbread house with tiny gumdrop shrubs and candycane fencing inspired also by my Maud and her insistance that we watch the gingerbread house bake off everytime (about three times daily) it came on The Food Network that week before Christmas. Here is what he came up with. Did I mention he is an engineer? The cookie in the foreground was made with earnest concentration by my niece Breck. I have to say I am very impressed. By both of them.
