Merry Christmas!



 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

Like always, we had a busy December, with advent calendar activities and a visit from Mina and James, not to mention meeting Santa Claus nine times.  And we started a lot of new traditions, like the Hollywood Christmas Parade and the living creche at St. Mark's (a manger scene featuring live animals, with caroling and snacks).

 

This year I got very into making these simple conical trees - I made nine in total, out of everything from tinsel to twine.

 

Yesterday I asked Beatrice what she wanted to do on Christmas Eve and she answered, "Eat crabs and do scarf dancing."

 

So, we did some Christmas Eve scarf dancing (and we're having crab later this week):

 

Watching a movie on Christmas Eve:

 

 

Beatrice went to sleep very excited on Christmas Eve, but then she and her brother slept until almost 11 the next morning.  And when she woke up, she seemed to have forgotten it was Christmas at all*, or at least forgotten all about Santa and presents.  Instead, she became immersed in helping me make cinnamon rolls.  I was curious to see how long this would last (and enjoying my leisurely coffee-drinking) but finally Dev got impatient and took B to see her presents.

 

Christmas morning breakfast:

 

 Cinnamon rolls rising

 

 

His Santa sippy cup was a present from Beatrice.

Looking outside for evidence of reindeer - Beatrice left a bowl of popcorn outside for them the night before:

The remains of Santa's cookie plate

 

Opening stockings:

The contents of Arthur's stocking

Arthur was mostly interested in the clementine.

The contents of Beatrice's stocking.

 

Opening presents:

 

Arthur checks out his gift from Santa, oversized blocks.

 

 

 

Arthur's favorite toy was this truck phone from Nana and Nani.

 

A gift for the adults: a stunning silver tea set from Suzan and Naresh.

 

 Dress-up shoes from Nana and Nani.

 



After presents and breakfast, we took a walk around the neighborhood to try out the scooter Beatrice got from Santa:

 



 

Dev helps B learn to use the scooter.

 

 

Christmas dinner table:

 

 

 

After dinner (roast leg of lamb), the kids played with their toys a little more before bed. 

 

 Dev and Beatrice play her new board game.

 

Then, after the kids were asleep, Dev and I watched a Finnish horror movie about an evil Santa Claus.

 

Sadly, Beatrice asked several times during the day, "Is it going to keep being Christmas?" and when I told her no, "Will it be Christmas again someday?" 

 

Happily, it will.  In the meantime, Happy New Year!

 

 

 

* Dev has an alternate theory as to why B didn't mention Christmas at all when she woke up today.  He thinks Beatrice knew it was Christmas all along but didn't want to acknowledge it because she couldn't bear for Christmas to end.  He may be right - it certainly fits with her personality (and mine, and Dev's) and also,  Dev was giving so many hints about Christmas and Santa and presents, it's hard to believe Beatrice was really that obtuse.



The Spindlers' Christmas Visit

Mina, James, Rosemary (who just turned five), and Louis (who turned three last October) spent more than a week with us this month celebrating "pre-Christmas," including making gingerbread houses and ornaments, decorating the tree, meeting Santa, and hiking in the snow. 

The first night of their trip, Mina and James joined us at Dev's company Christmas party, eating dinner underneath the wings of the space shuttle.

(Not the best picture, but it does give you a sense of the shuttle's scale.)

 

Then we were up early the next morning to take the kids to a Santa breakfast put on by Burbank's Park and Recreation Department at a local mall food court.  The kids loved the event, which featured games, crafts, and photos with Santa, but mostly eating huge amounts of candy at 8am.

 

Over the following week we went to the zoo and the park, played with new Christmas toys, and even got hair cuts for all four kids.  We also did tons of holiday crafts and activities, guided by the advent calendar.  We also had a few misadventures, including car trouble, a (very minor) fender bender, and vomiting episodes from both Beatrice and Arthur, but we weathered it all just fine.

Mina, James, Dev, and I had a wonderful time together, but the best part was watching the interactions of the four cousins, especially Rosemary and Beatrice, who got along very well despite being extremely different.  Louis and Arthur also got in some bonding time, enjoying toy trucks and tools.

At an all-barbecue-duck restaurant in Koreatown

 

Arthur enjoyed the barbecued duck more than I've ever seen him enjoy anything.

Gillian and her boyfriend Sam also came down for three days in the middle of the week - Gillian hung out with me and Mina while Sam impressed Louis with photos and stories of his life as a wilderness firefighter (Louis was particularly enamored of Sam's firetruck, which looks like a regular firetruck but with huge off-roading tires).

James spent almost the whole week working on building us an absolutely beautiful chicken coop for Lenore and a second chicken we hope to buy soon.  The one thing I wanted for Christmas this year was a nice chicken coop and this one is ten times nicer than what I had envisioned (photos to follow when it's 100% done). 

Louis spent hours each day patiently helping James build the coop.

 

 

 

Sadly, Dev and James also killed and ate the turkey - I have mixed feelings about the poor turkey's end, but it was certainly a memorable experience for them both.

 

Beatrice and Rosemary making cinnamon ornaments:

 

Watching "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and eating popcorn:

 

 

Making gingerbread houses: 

 

 

 

Louis is covering his face to conceal illicit candy-eating.

 

At the L.A. Zoo:

At the park:

On Mina's last full day in town we took a drive to Mt. Pinos, about 60 miles north of Burbank, to let the the kids play in real snow (and to engineer a Christmas photo opportunity).  Rosemary and Louis were brave adventurers; meanwhile, after five minutes both of my kids started crying because they were too cold.  But we did get some good photos out of it.

Not handling the cold very well.

Dogs in snow.

 

Beatrice was heartbroken to see her cousins leave - rather melodramatically she declared, "I want my cousins to stay! I want my cousins back! I will never ever see them again!"

But she doesn't need to worry, we're already planning on visiting them in Texas this spring.  Until then, though, we miss them too...