Three Kings Day...

Recently I was complaining to Ben about the monotony of my days and how I wished it was still Christmas... I really don't like how there's this humongous lead up to Christmas Day and then all of the sudden it disappears in one swift night just to be replaced by the next mass marketed holiday (no offense Valentine's Day... I really do like you). So to appease my longing to rewind the clock and to something special on a not so eventful week we celebrated Three Kings Day. It was really cool actually and I think we will do it every year now. Three Kings Day (the 12th Night, Epiphany, the last day of Christmas... whatever you want to call it, it's all the same thing... google it if you want to find out more) is basically a celebration in honor of the Three Kings' (wise men) visit to baby Jesus and confirmation that God has indeed come and made himself among us. It widely celebrated in the rest of our world, just not here in America... go figure.

In preparation for our last night of Christmas, Lizzie and I made a Dreikonigskuchen, a German version of a Three Kings Cake. It was basically a sweet yeast bread with cinnamon, sugar and currants and/or raisins... it tasted like a big giant cinnamon roll, so good! We hid a our little baby Jesus figurine from our Playmobil Nativity inside the twists (Playmobil is awesome and must celebrate this holiday since their website said the baby was bake-able... I think I need to go back to Europe)! We printed out crowns for the girls to wear and play with (thanks Dora and Nick Jr.) and then ate a meal together as a family. After dinner Ben read the story of the Three Wise Men from Lizzie's new Bible (we actually ended up reading the whole Christmas story) and then ate cake. Lizzie was the one who found the baby Jesus in her slice (it was slightly rigged... shhh don't tell) so she was the one who got to pick what we did that evening as a family together. I'm sure you all can guess what we did... yep, two rounds of her Littlest Pet Shop board game, we play it so much even Abby joins us now! ;) It was a such a nice way to end the Christmas season and remember what it's truly all about.

Lizzie's piece of cake with a little something special inside!

Abby thought finding toys in food was the coolest thing she's ever seen.

Bye, bye Christmas... I'll miss you!