Thanksgiving: the Portal for Christmas

Looking back to our day in Williamsburg Thanksgiving weekend while staying with Alan's family at the Great Wolf Lodge. Here are the girls all over Thomas Jefferson. (Evelyn's kiss was completely spontaneous--like so many of the things that she does!)

 The girls' first Santa of the season--I love that he was a colonial one.

 We sat as a family and watched a 20-minute, quirky, outdoor version of "A Christmas Carol" that was quite entertaining. We were close enough to the stage to get a dusting of fake snow, as you can see. And Amelia is on my lap...but out of the frame of the picture.

 I made the girls sit on this bench outside an adorable little coffee shop. I thought it would look SO cute. But one realizes that lack of enthusiasm on the part of the subjects of a photo has an effect on the photo itself...

 Evelyn walked right up to this man and said, "Why are you wearing such weird clothes?" He didn't miss a beat, asking her in colonial English about her own, strange attire. She didn't miss a beat either, replying, "Why do you talk so funny?"

 A lovely Williamsburg walking path. We love our holiday hikes!!

So our Christmas season really started Thanksgiving weekend in Williamsburg. You might think I'm using that as a way to excuse how long it's taken to post these pictures. But I'll stick to my guns and say what a nice start it was to Christmas to spend Thanksgiving weekend in Williamsburg!

The Christmas Season

 "Chris" the Elf, hiding in one of his many spots this month. 

 Our tree--the biggest we've had in years! We actually had to move furniture to fit it in the entryway. It shows we've reached a new phase of parenting that:

1.) We wanted to get a tree (we skipped the tradition for 4 yrs as a sanity-saving measure. It sort of worked.)

2.) We were willing to move furniture to get a big one (this may not seem a big deal, but I assure you, it was)

 A Cousin Camp Christmas overnight. We went to the Hamilton Christmas festival, made great paper bag hats, and met Santa (they didn't sit on his lap--they sat in his sidecar, after he arrived on his Harley.)

 Aunt Jenny's pretty tree in her pretty living room in her condo in Canton. We went there to watch the Ravens' game one Sunday and eat her awesome Thai Curry.

 Amelia dancing in her Christmas program. She and one other little boy had special parts, and she relished it!

Evelyn playing The Bear (front and center and blurry) in her Christmas skit. She said her lines loudly and clearly and loved her role!

Merry Christmas, everyone! In spite of some busy work weeks (and weekends for Alan!), this month has been delightfully stress-free and serene. While we started the month with strep and pneumonia and has some stomach flu in the middle, we also managed to go to some Christmas concerts, walk the neighborhood looking at lights, participate in neighborhood events, go out to dinner, and I even watched "It's a Wonderful Life" with cousin Kate one evening (she was feeling wild and crazy and came over on a total whim. You gotta love that.)

Today we're going to pass out some Christmas treats to neighbors, prep some food for tomorrow, and go to a Christmas Eve service at a Lutheran Church where Alan is playing.

Tomorrow, we head to Mom and Dad's for the big celebration--joined by Jon & Courtney & the kids, Aunt Barbara, Uncle Diego, Lindsy & Kelby. (And no Christmas turkey--salmon! Jon is the main course mastermind. I'll be bringing locally-grown organic veggies to roast, Mom's doing appetizers and dessert, and Barb & Diego will provide the goods for the toast! :) Can't wait!!

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" (II Cor. 9:15)

Overheard Recently

(These are in no particular order.)

Evelyn: (writing a letter to a cousin) How do you spell "romance?"

Amelia: (handing me an armload of dresses) Laura Ingalls only had three dresses: her Sunday best, her work dress, and her second-best. I won't need the rest of these anymore.

Amelia: (upon hearing that the cousins were coming for a sleepover) I'll wear my work dress.

Evelyn: (watching me make her lunch) I won't eat that. I won't eat any of that.

Amelia: (while desciphering her homework) Mommy, I'll ask my teacher. Teachers are smart. Teachers know everything. (Upon being reminded that her mother is a teacher) You're not a REAL teacher. You're a MUSIC teacher.

Evelyn: (referencing the "Elf on the Shelf"--thank you, Aunt Becky!--that we've been hiding each morning) I know he's not real. I saw his tag. And I touched him.

Evelyn: (upon being reminded that the "Elf on the Shelf" loses his magic if touched.) But he's not real. I saw his tag and I touched him.

(Here I add that, in spite of the fact that he is not real, has a tag, and has been touched, finding "Chris" the elf has become a daily morning highlight.)

A Great Wolf Thanksgiving

Alan's parents came up with a great, non-traditional idea this year for Thanksgiving. We all met in Williamsburg at the Great Wolf Lodge for two days. I think I am the last person on the planet (at least in my circle of friends and colleagues) who had NOT heard of the Great Wolf Lodge, and I admit I could not wrap my head around the phrase "indoor water park." How do you fit a water park inside a hotel??

Turns out, the water park is only ONE of the things there that makes kids' eyes pop. There's an arcade, a pint-sized spa, lots of places to eat, AND there's this magical treasure hunt played all over the 3rd and 4th floors using cool wands that make pictures talk, and all sorts of things light up. I know, right??

In Evelyn's perfect phraseology, "Mommy, I think this hotel has a great mind for kids." Indeed. And, a great mind for parents who love water park rides, too! I've never felt MORE like I earned the Thanksgiving feast. We'd originally hoped to eat our picnic-style feast IN the water park, but turns out the hotel doesn't allow you to bring "outside food" in, so we just waited. We were good and hungry by the time we were enjoying our spread in my sister-in-law's hotel room.

Thank you, Mom and Dad Blackman, for the suggestion! (And how grateful we were that you were only a few doors down the hall, and Evelyn the Early Riser had someone to visit first thing in the morning!)

Pictures, as usual, are still on my camera. :)

Clouds

So many songs and hymns talk about "blue skies" and "cloudless skies." Those skies are nice.

 But I have to say it's these kinds of skies that take my breath away. Skies with clouds.

 If it weren't for storms and threats of storms, these skies wouldn't exist. It's the storms that make the most dramatic, breathtaking skies.

Same with life. It's the stormy stuff that paints the dramatic and breathtaking pictures. But sometimes you have to be willing to stand outside in the wind and look up to see it.

Take today, for instance. We drove home from Williamsburg, where we spent a really enjoyable, delightfully non-traditional Thanksgiving w/Alan's family in the Great Wolf Lodge. The drive COULD be 3 1/2 hours. Today it took about six. But when do Alan and I get that much time together for conversation? When do our kids get that many consecutive hours to practice their creativity? And how nice to still have hours in which to finish reading "Little Town on the Prairie"aloud even after all that other stuff. Unwanted storm. Beautiful sky.

(NOTE: these thoughts represent only the opinion of their author, and not necessarily those of the driver of the car in which she had them. He would definitely have found WAY more beauty in only 3 1/2 hours of conversation, creativity, and reading aloud, even though he has a great deal of genuine appreciation for dramatic, stormy skies. :)

Alan Quotes

"If it were up to me, Christmas shopping would be done in an hour."

This was said as we--I mean I--deliberated over what gifts to order for the family names we drew, along with a few things we still wanted to get our girls. I admit both of us think it is fun to shop online, but Alan thinks its fun only if he can do it FAST.

I think we were done in under an hour. Without me, Alan probably would have finished our Christmas shopping in about 15 minutes. All of this made possible by that most wonderful gift-before-the-gifts: the list! How I like to shop from a list! I tend to be a disappointment to those hoping I know their minds and moods well enough to surprise them with the perfect thing (I much prefer to do that on a random, inspired-by-the-moment basis), but this Santa is more likely to shine (a.k.a. give people what they really want) with a list.

And I'm so excited--Alan and I are giving each other the gift of going out to the movies together! Looking forward to seeing The Hobbit and Lincoln...any other suggestions?

So it was a month ago...

...but today I was telling my friend Lisa about Evelyn's reactions to opening presents. These pics are from Evelyn's birthday morning last month. These are her fancy beaded, Native-American pen/pencil sleeves.

 Aunt Betty gave her two so she could be like a Hobbit and GIVE presents on her birthday.

 So Amelia got one of them. I think that was pretty well received. Good idea, Aunt Betty! (And I just re-read "The Hobbit" in preparation for the upcoming movie--date night in December for sure.)

 A watch in a fancy pink box from Aunt Lisa.

 Her card from Grandma & Grandpa Blackman--hopefully soon we'll have pictures of the ice skating included in this gift!! :)

 Of course every birthday morning should start with a candle in a cupcake, right? The more chocolate before sun-up, the better! (Thank you, Aunt Lisa, for the cupcakes!)

 And the dress--oh the DRESS. SO glad I actually captured the feeling Evelyn had opening the fancy dress from Aunt Lisa.

Yup. It's fun opening presents, isn't it? 

And just tonight I looked at  Alan and said, "We're only two weeks out from Christmas tree season!" The girls have already decided that we're going to stick with our tradition of getting the tree December 1st. We've not done that every year, but we've been pretty consistent. I admit I'm pretty excited. :)

Oops

This week I did a first--I asked a woman when her baby was due and she replied, "three days ago!" Yup. She'd HAD the baby. Three days ago. In my defense, the woman was a notary public who'd come to our house with a giant stack of re-fi papers for us to sign. I mean, who DOES that after having a baby three days ago? And she looked really cute and seemed completely sane--like, more sane than I feel right now. Certainly more sane than I felt while signing a million documenst as I processed my faux pas and tried not to think, "Can a person who had a baby THREE DAYS AGO possibly keep all these papers straight??"

The only thing I wanted to do three days after having a baby was curl up in a fetal position and SLEEP for 23 hours. But maybe that's because I'm not a notary public. Maybe if I were a notary public, I'd have wanted to jump up, put on my cute outfit, run to the office, photocopy a million documents, find some strangers' house and sit at their dining room table explaining all the documents breezily while they sign them.

Obviously I'm still processing this.

Christmas List

(Picture from last January. Wow they were smaller. Our tree was pretty small, too. Small = manageable. Manageable = more sanity. More sanity is very, very good.)

With a nod to this Momastery post, I had the girls make their Christmas lists yesterday. Amelia came up with hers pretty quickly: Plastic Hello Kitty locket necklace, a "real" watch, a box with a lock (for keeping treasures), a new journal (with NO lock), and a new school backpack. All in all, pretty straightforward and simple.

Evelyn was silent for a long time while considering this. Then she said enthusiastically, "I know what I want: MY OWN ROOM! You can move the stuff out of the library--except my desk--and you can put my bed in there and that can be my room!"

"That's a cool idea," I said. "But I thought you didn't like sleeping by yourself."

"Oh yeah, right," she replied, suddenly deflated. "I forgot. Never mind."

Scratch the room off the list, Santa.

The Case Against Collecting Acorns

Who knew there was such a thing as an "Acorn Weevil??" Certainly not us. Weeks ago the girls stuffed their pockets and shirts with acorns. We took them home. Amelia dumped hers in the back yard. Evelyn used every pretty container, music box, and jewelry box in her bedroom and filled them with acorns. I did not know this.

 I have no idea how the weevils get IN there, but at some point they come OUT. And they came out by the HUNDREDS. We did not know where they were coming from, only that the floor of the girls' bedroom was covered with what looked like hundreds of squirming (I shudder even THINKING this!!)...maggots. 

 The little buggers had drilled out of their acorns, pushed up out of all the boxes, and fallen to the floor of the bedroom. We kind of freaked out. Then we vacuumed, cleaned, took the beds apart, and even ripped up a corner of the carpet to figure out where they were coming from. As we were doing this, the girls were hopping around excitedly, saying things like, "Wow! LOOK at them all! I'm going to tell everyone about this at Morning Meeting tomorrow in school!" To which Alan and I calmly responded, "NO NO NO NO NO NO!!! Don't tell ANYONE that we have BUGS in our HOUSE!!! Do you hear me?!? Don't tell this to ANYONE!"

Then Alan got on the internet. And found acorn weevils. Then our question was, "Girls, do either of you have acorns in the bedroom??" Bingo. Out came the boxes, and out came hundreds more weevils.

Shudder!!!

Technological Boast

Today I made myself proud. Since the instrumental music teacher and I teach on totally different days, we rely pretty much on e-mail and phone to coordinate our lessons. Rehearsals start this week for our winter show, and I was trying to write out for her choreography for "The Russian Dance" from The Nutcracker. As I wrote it I couldn't believe how long, dull, and confusing my instructions for this one-minute's worth of music was.

So I did something totally 21st century (and totally NOT me.) I had a colleague use my phone to video tape me DOING the choreography. Then I SENT the video to the other teacher's phone. (It helps that she's 25.)

Wow I feel so cool. The only thing that dulls this feeling of cool-ness is the video itself. Which is precisely why it is not included here. :)

Funny the things you want to remember...

Amelia has a really quirky side. I admit I love this. Quirky has a lot of appeal to me. Alan tells me I have a few quirks of my own, but I have no idea what he's talking about.

I also have no idea where this next thing started or how, but all last winter Amelia would randomly say the phrase, "The people to touch the toes" in a funny little voice. Often she would say it while, of course, touching her toes. Like I said, quirky. But I got a kick out of it--it was just so random--and as so many phases do, it passed. Last April I talked her into saying it on camera:

I was reminded of this tonight when, in the car on the way home from a nice visit with Uncle Steve and Aunt Joan, Amelia started randomly saying, in another funny voice, the phrase, "Bonus Features." This I CAN trace. She'd watched a DVD at their house, and at the end, after the credits rolled, the menu page came up. She went and got her notebook and a pen and began copying all the words on the menu page over and over.

Her favorite must have been "Bonus Features." I'd say she and her older sister are OUR favorite Bonus Features.

Thank you, Sandy.

It took a hurricane to get me to carve pumpkins with my kids. It sounds lame, but October's usually so full of things to do that I've never prioritized the pumpkin thing, as much as it appeals to me. But this year was different.

 This year we'd spent a few days cozied up in our house making crafts, playing ponies, and trying to get some work done. (Working from home can sometimes be a BAD thing!) It was great of Aunt Jenny to come over Monday evening and play Boggle while the wind blew! Otherwise we had no company except one another. Which doesn't seem to affect us at all. Ahem.

 I get pumpkins every year. That's never the issue. It's making the time to DO something with them. So when school was out for the second day in a row and AWANA was cancelled, that left the evening open for playing with knives.

 Just kidding. I did all the carving. They did all the hard part--the prep work. It's amazing how fun a messy job is when you talk it up. "Wait until you SEE what's INSIDE these! And wait until you FEEL this awesome SLIMY-NESS on your hands!" And it crossed my mind to save the seeds to meticulously wash, dry, salt, and roast them. But that's as far as it got.

 Evelyn wanted her pumpkin to have eyelashes.

 Amelia wanted hers to have eyebrows. They'd drawn pictures of their pumpkins for me to copy. I admit I felt a little proud of how well they turned out. I mean, they're no great works of art, but after eight Halloweens' worth of parenting, these were the FIRST jack-o-lanterns. Brings tears to your eyes, doesn't it?

Here's hoping it won't take a hurricane to get me to do this again next year.

p.s. The girls are growing their bangs out. My apologies for the lack of barrettes. Everything goes to pot around here when I don't have to get dressed, go out, pack lunches, supervise homework, etc.

"Everything is a phase."

My cousin, Barbara Bisset, said this to me at one of my baby showers when I was pregnant with Evelyn. It has seen me through sleepless nights, a fussy infant, endless attempts at potty training, and times when it feels like I've got all the parenting stuff backwards. EVERYTHING is a phase. This, too, will pass.

But right now that phrase is not so much a sigh of relief as a sigh of nostalgia. I've only been a parent for eight years, but I already know that the things they seem to do/say ALL the time...suddenly go away. EVERYTHING is a phase. Even the things you wish would go on forever. Such as:

The Nature Book Phase from this summer. Totally did it themselves.

 (Projects like these are one of the many reasons SCOTCH TAPE is at such a premium at our house.)

 The Book-Copying Phase. Again, all summer long, they would sit each evening (and sometimes on their own) while I read Laura Ingalls Wilder books and copy books. Yes, word for word. Page after page. Numbered, stapled, treasured.

 Amelia at her desk copying a book.

 (So THAT'S where the magnetic hide-a-key box is! Serving as Amelia's paperweight to keep her book flat as she copies.)

 The Let's Make a Fort Phase. This phase comes and goes, and I will really sigh with nostalgia the day I realize it is gone forever. This was an umbrella fort:

 The ever-popular blanket fort:

 And the Make-Your-Own-Crown Phase. Evelyn had three other hearts on this crown--one each titled "Dad," "Mom," and "Sister." Well if that just doesn't turn me into a puddle.

 Amelia's crown expressed her love for her current teacher, but the flash washed it out. 

Yes, everything is a phase. The rough stuff comes and goes, and so much of everything else does, too. I will REALLY cry when they don't care for me to read aloud to them before bed; and when they feel compelled to do something ELSE on a wintry Friday night besides going to the MD Science Center with their mom; and when they stop yearning and begging to climb the trees in the front yard.

Yes. Everything is a phase.

She's Eight

Yesterday was Evelyn's birthday. We started with presents before breakfast (thank you Grandma Blackman, Aunt Betty, and Aunt Lisa for the cards and gifts you sent--she LOVED opening those!) Then I brought rice krispy treats that she and I had made to her class at the end of the day. Then Mom joined us to go shopping for clothes. While it was fun to pick out some new outfits at JC Penney, I was SO happy to see her fall in love with stuffed animals and sparkly journals at the "Justice" store. It just feels too soon to be focused only on clothes! She and  Amelia have already created a whole world for those stuffed animals. :)

Evelyn's full of life and doesn't like missing anything. She loves people and can give so unselfishly. She's a great eater and will try pretty much anything. And she looks so cute in Alan's glasses and the Laura Ingalls bonnet. I think this was from a day she and Amelia were playing Little House "school," and she was the teacher. She very well might be a teacher someday. I've certainly learned a lot from this kid! We love you, Evelyn. 

This is what it was like...

...on the first day of school this year.  They're a little wired.  A little tired. And a whole lot of wonderful.

 Evelyn is holding metallic star stickers. She wanted to give sheets of them out to her friends. Amelia  has her "rainbow pointer" in her left hand. When we'd had her "summer conversation" with her teacher, Amelia had noticed that the teacher's pointer looked old. Amelia took her pointer to school and traded with her teacher so her teacher could have the newer, prettier, rainbow pointer. My heart just bursts with love.

Look at those girls. My how we love them.

Look, Ma, a normal dinner!

My go-to recipes have titles like "Egyptian Kusherie," "Red Lentil Dahl," and "Pakistani Kima." They are heavy on cumin, curry, and turmeric, and are usually one-pot meals served over rice or couscous. Oh, and they're often vegetarian. Not because we're vegetarians. We're budgetarians. Once we decided to go organic with the vegetables and dairy, we had to cut something, and meat usually gets scratched.

 So a dinner like this sticks out at our house. "What IS this, Mommy?" "It's a chicken leg." (Which, I might add, is breaded with homemade bread crumbs. It's one of my nerdy food things to save every heel, extra roll, stale loaf, etc. in the freezer and then bake them into homemade breadcrumbs. Why is that so satisfying? I just get such a kick out of using up every last thing. Like I said, nerdy.)

So here we are enjoying an all-American meal: chicken, mashed potatoes, and broccoli. Totally normal! Oh right--except that the mashed potatoes are pink. That's because the locally grown, organic potatoes we've gotten from our CSA this year are purple! We've eaten purple cauliflower, purple peppers, and now purple potatoes. How perfect for a family of Baltimore Ravens fans. And it is really cute to hear the girls exclaim about the anti-oxidants in naturally purple or blue foods (to think I lived so long under the impression that blueberries were the only blue/purple food! Seems our grocery stores have been holding out on us. Kudos to the brave, local, organic farms!)

And yes, these girls put away ALL that broccoli. They make the clean-plate all-star team!

Now that summer's over...

...we'll reminisce about it. (Mostly because I'm so slow at getting the pictures off our camera!)

 Amelia was..and still is...in her Laura Ingalls phase. She wore this bonnet a lot this summer. Many thanks to the Licharowicz family, who handed it down to us in a very appreciated bag of costume goodies.

 Evelyn had a play date, so Alan and I took Amelia (in her bonnet) to the Hamilton Tavern for burger night. She sat perfectly quietly in the restaurant reading her books and writing in her journal. Oh yeah, and eating a burger. Then we took our shadow picture on the walk home.

 Our little babe-in-bonnet had a GREAT time digging holes in the front yard. She would slip out quietly and amuse herself quietly...which is why it took us so long to realize what a land mine our yard was becoming.

 But she was so doggone cute, especially when I went out to tell her she couldn't dig holes in the front yard and she was giddy with delight over finding a worm. That's our little treasure-hunter...with her treasure.

 Alan played an awesome gig at The Cylburn Arboretum. Speaking of treasures, this place is one of Baltimore's relatively undiscovered ones. We love coming here.

 Isn't that the most incredible tree? 

 And look at the English Garden. And you can come wander around here for free!

 I love the sister conversation happening here. We highly recommend the Cylburn Arboretum.

 And our summer is never quite complete without the annual trip with my mom to the state fair, which always ends with ice cream. It starts with a tour of the animal barns and has a huge marathon of midway rides in the middle.

 Every year I'm always a little disappointed in myself--I get so worn out so fast, or get a headache or just have that out-of-body feeling as I follow my kids and my mom around in a fog. This year I felt incredible. What was the difference? I rode no rides this year. 

Wanna bet I'd have felt differently if I'd ridden these two gems w/my girls? Yep, they're on both of these, which were their two hands-down favorites of the fair. Me? I took video while sitting on a bench having pleasant conversation with my mom. Another happy summer memory--this one with no headache attached!