Consider the Thought: What We Really Did: Gumbo

Kendo Papa was widgeting during the party so I stole his photo from Facebook of the gumbo! heehee

Today was Hinamatsuri, but what we really did was clean our filthy house so that we could welcome guest for a gumbo party. We missed out on Fat Tuesday because, did I mention my husband works too much? We had to wait for his month of call to be over as if that has ever stopped anyone from calling him, but I digress. Gumbo is my husband's dish so he has to be home and awake to cook it.

It felt like spring today. The sun was shinning, it was almost warm, the sky was blue, and we were all cleaning like mad. It felt great! The Mule swabbed the patio, my husband vacuumed the lampshades, the Moose kept asking when the kids where coming, and I gathered two months worth of dust. My only thought was that we should be listening to Avalon by Roxy Music and not the zydeco tunes my husband had playing on the iPod. Avalon was the cleaning CD my roommates and I played in college when we cleaned our house. We cleaned every Friday and the house generally stayed in good shape through the week. Now I clean everyday, but you can't tell because I clean the same spots over and over and make little to no progress on the wider mess that accumulates.

We did manage to clean up for the guest. I always feel bad that our guest have to be within bicycling distance or at least walking distance with the limited parking here in Kamakura, but they do it. The kids seem to manage better and better each year with the lateness of a party. Gumbo is definitely a great dinner party food as it is mainly cooked ahead, is unique offering here in Japan at least, and it goes well with red wine and bottle of brown beer (Newcastle). Plus it was a great excuse to hit my favorite bakery in Zushi for baguette- we misjudged the number of loaves necessary and actually have leftovers. French toast for breakfast!

A Japanese friend did tell me that my alcohol free beer is not alcohol free. The big zero is for the lower calories. It is apparently a light beer. No wonder I love the stuff. Darn, I was thinking it was great and no calorie and no alcohol. Just proves that there is no free lunch.

The after party mess is mostly gone so we still get to enjoy a fairly clean house tomorrow. I am so thrilled. The Japanese deep clean at the end of the year, but I have to say for me, there is nothing like a nip of spring to make me want to clean! I enjoy the freshness of a cleaned aired-out house.

We did pack up the (Hinamatsuri) dolls since we weren't sure if we were supposed to pack them up tonight or tomorrow. If you don't put them away the story goes that you won't get married when you grow up.

My close up camera lens is broken. I had to switch to another lens this week which I haven't used in a long while. I keep screwing up my shots. I missed several photos I really wanted this past week including two school events and tonight's gumbo, but here's the pot which was filled to the rim!