A Story about a Boy & A King Cake

When you live in Louisiana, you don't get much of a break once the Christmas holidays are over because you jump right in to king cake & Mardi Gras season. During Tyler's first week back in school, they celebrated Epiphany/Twelfth Night by making a king cake in class, which officially kicks off Carnival season. Carnival season begins on the day of the Epiphany which is 12 days after Christmas because tradition states that it took the three kings twelve days to travel to Bethlehem to see the Christ child. When they arrived, they honored him with gifts, as we all know.

To celebrate this day, we now make king cake! And king cake season extends all through Carnival season, ending with Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday). (I bet you didn't know all of this partying was in the name of religion, eh?!!) King cakes are traditionally decorated in Mardi Gras colors of purple, green, and gold. Purple represents justice, gold represents power, and green represents faith. In each king cake, there is a small plastic baby representing baby Jesus inside. It is tradition that whoever finds the baby hosts the next king cake party or provides everyone with the next king cake.

So, on January 6 (Epiphany or Twelfth Night), Tyler's class made their own king cake and a girl in his class found the baby and provided a king cake for the next day. So, on day #2 (January 7), I picked Tyler up from school and as I was driving up, I could tell he was about to jump out of his skin, he was so excited about something. He hopped in the car and immediately announces "Mom, I got the baby today!!!". It was hard not to be super excited for him, even though it meant I had to come up with a king cake for him to take the next day!

January 7 was a Friday, so we had the whole weekend to wait to pick up a king cake and take it to school on Monday morning.

In the mean time, Tyler was being a serious goof ball trying to get his picture taken with the baby. He thought it was downright hilarious, I guess!

So Monday morning came and we left the house extra early so we could head to Rouses before school. We ran in and picked up our king cake and were good to go. Tyler was pretty relieved to have it in hand and know that he was going to be able to follow through on his assignment!

And thankfully, they include this warning on every box. :) I love it! King cake season extends clear through Mardi Gras (which was a long season this year since Mardi Gras wasn't until March 8) and they had king cake in his class every Monday and every Friday. I'd say those kindergartners had their fill of king cake this year! And each time Tyler got in the car and told us they'd eaten king cake that day, Sam would get so sad since he didn't get any. It's hard to be the little brother sometimes!

It's times like these when we participate in a fun cultural tradition of this area, I almost have to pinch myself to see if I am living in a dream world or something since it's hard to believe that THIS is the life we are living right now and things like this are the 'norm'. It's a far cry from the way I was raised in Blackfoot, Idaho! Sometimes that makes me really sad that my kids aren't having the same experience growing up that I did. I love Idaho and I loved growing up there! But other times, like these, I am grateful for the experiences we are able to take part in that have enriched our lives and made for a lot of really fun memories along the way for our little family!