The Post - Christmas Winter Party

Salut mes amis,                                                           

The quints surprised me with yet another gift: a gingerbread house-making kit! Even though the making of gingerbread houses is typically an activity to do around Christmas, I decided to save the kit to do with my friends back at Fair Hollow School for Girls. 

So, last week, I told Jessa, Chiara, and Nathalie to meet me in the school kitchen for our very own 'Post - Christmas Winter Party.' After all, we'd never even gotten to celebrate Christmas together, with me being back in Paris and all! The four of us gathered around the large wooden table where I'd laid out the gingerbread pieces and contemplated how to go about building the houses.

Chiara grabbed the instruction booklet and proceeded to read the step-by-step directions aloud to Jessa, Nathalie, and me. Slowly but surely, the three of us worked together to build two of the four houses included in the kit.


It was really difficult not to lick the icing while we were spreading it onto the edges of the houses, and I'm pretty sure that we all snuck bits of icing into our mouths at some point (I did, I'll admit to it!).

When we'd stuck enough icing on the houses so they'd stay up without falling, it was time for the best part: decorating the exteriors! First, we needed to spread icing on the roofs of the houses. This, I decided, was my job:

Then Nathalie spooned candy onto the roof of the first house. The candy wanted to roll right off of the roof, so she had to be very careful about applying it the right way:

Jessa spooned candy onto the roof of the other house:

Chiara added colorful gummy candy onto the ridge of the rooftops:

We took turns adding jellybeans and conversation hearts to the houses, though you can bet some of those scampered into our mouths in the process!

When we finally decided that we had enough candy on the houses, Nathalie and I added the finishing touch: mint - flavored gummy trees!

Here we are with the finished houses! That's Jessa on the far left, then Chiara, Nathalie, and me! 

Here is a closer look at our finished houses. The one on the left didn't come out as cleanly as we wanted because it fell apart mid-decoration! None of us girls has ever been great at assembling gingerbread houses, but as long as we have fun, perfection doesn't matter . . . right? 

The quintuplets had also baked us a cake roll and a tin full of holiday-themed cookies. So, after we cleaned up a bit, we each pulled up a chair and loaded up a plate full of treats. There were plenty of gingerbread men (and women!), sugar cookies, and slices of strawberry jam-filled cake roll to go around, and we washed it all down with mugs of cold milk (the mugs were also gifts!). 

Here Jessa munches a sugar cookie decorated with red icing while Nathalie sips milk from her adorable new penguin mug:

And here we have Chiara eating a gingerbread (wo)man while I'm sipping milk from my gingerbread (wo)man mug:

These cookies were really too pretty to eat - at least, that's what we thought initially! However, they tasted just as nice, too!

Thank you, Sabina, Violeta, Zipporah, Catalina, and Tatiana! Jessa, Nathalie, Chiara, and I had a great time attempting to build and decorate the gingerbread houses you sent us, and we definitely enjoyed eating the cookies and cake roll you sent, too!

Have you ever made a gingerbread house? What kind of candy did you use to decorate it? 

~Sophie

Presents from the Valdez Quints!

Salut mes amis, 

Bonne Année 2013! Happy 2013! This is my first post of 2013, and I'm happy to report that I'm still in Paris with Juliette, at least for a little while longer. The school semester has already started, but I put in a special request to take a leave of absence.

Last week, Juliette and I received more Christmas presents - from our very best friends, Sabina, Catalina, Violeta, Tatiana, and Zipporah Valdez! We each received a new Christmas stocking in our favorite color (Juliette's is pink; mine is blue), and each stocking was filled to the brim with presents.


We sat down on our bedroom floor and proceeded to open them:

The first present that we each found in our new stockings was a Nutcracker! Juliette found a Nutcracker with a blue coat, while mine had a red coat. Aren't they adorable? Juliette was particularly enthralled with hers, as The Nutcracker is one of her favorite ballets. She'd love to dance the part of Clara one day, and even I'd like the chance to be in the ballet (I'd be happy dancing the part of a Party Girl, however!):

Next we found kaleidoscopes - a sparkly red one for Juliette and a sparkly blue one for me! We spent several moments looking through these at the pretty beads inside:

The last item we found in our stockings was a little handheld arcade-style game:

 

In addition to the stockings, the quints also sent us a ton of postcards from Wisconsin and Michigan, the states they visited while on vacation last summer. Neither of us has been to either of those states, so we were especially excited to look at places undiscovered by us. Maybe someday we'll get to visit!

 

  

We each received a book of stickers - Juliette a book of ballerina stickers and me a book of butterfly stickers:

Our final presents were Color-By-Number coloring sheets, complete with a set of colored pencils for each of us. These were our favorite gifts by far because we love art and collecting art supplies! And wouldn't these be perfect for Saige Copeland, the new Girl of the Year for 2013?

Everything we received from the Valdez Quints! Thank you so much, Sabina, Violeta, Tatiana, Catalina, and Zipporah! We love everything! You are so kind to send us presents!

Before I sign off for today, here are a few bonus shots of Juliette and me in our matching Christmas sweaters; aren't they lovely? Juliette is on the left, while I'm on the right:

Have you ever received a special gift from a friend? What was it?

Ton amie,
Sophie