'Tis the Season

Charlotte is very excited about all things Christmas.  Not just the presents, but everything (of course presents are discussed too).  But it has been fun to see completely wrap her head around the fact that this is a very special time of the year, just like I remembered it.

We had this paper advent calendar growing up that we reused year after year and I always liked getting up in the morning to open up the next day's window.  So I told Emily about that and last year she got this awesome felt advent calendar with 24 pockets and each day you take a new felt "ornament" out and put it on the felt tree.  And Charlotte comes down stairs and sees the calendar and the first thing she'll say to me is "Daddy it's day 11!" and she'll wait for me or Emily to come over to work the calendar with her.  It's a pretty nice way to start the day.  Or on mornings we all forget, it's a great way to start our post work/school afternoon together.

She loves the tree.  Emily brought the kids' table in their bedroom downstairs and put it next to the Christmas tree.  Charlotte is allowed to have her breakfast and snack there, and she'll just sit there looking at her tree and her Christmas stocking, eating.  Sometimes Happy joins her, sometimes she wants to sit in her high chair.

She loves Christmas music.  We have been listening to KOOL 108's Christmas music so much that Charltotte thinks it's a CD and not a radio station because we have heard each song they play at least ten 8712098123 times.   She makes up her own songs as kids do her age, and they are Christmas songs fused with some nonsense about Frozen.  But today she walked past me singing "and then we go KOOL 108 Christmas music time" and she did in the same tune KOOL 108 uses to announce itself.

She loves Christmas books. And Charlotte's personal librarian Suze has done a great job of keeping connected to Haps and Charlotte even though she can't be here with us this time.  She sent Charlotte some stickers, one sheet which is still untouched and a regular decoration at the dinner table.  And Charlotte used the other stickers to make holiday cards for decorations.  And then all on her own she made a card for Suze, but wants to me to add a message to Suze from Charlotte before I send it off.  We haven't found a good time to that because whenever I ask, Charlotte is busy coloring.

Anyway, two days ago Suze sent some Christmas books for Happy and Charlotte and immediately they were a HUGE hit.  Here they are when they first got them.  Note the homemade ribbon Charlotte is sporting.  She asked Emily to make that for her.

And the last few nights Charlotte has created her own agnostic manger to sleep in.  She always gets her stocking, which she treats like a doll, to sleep with, as well as the 'Twas the Night Before Christmas book from Suze (that poem was also a big part of our Christmas as a kid).  Then she gets her Rody bouncy horse we bought for her for physical therapy that she never once used in any physical way.  Only Rody isn't Rody anymore.  He's Rudolph.  And when I tuck the girls in I have to give Rudolph a kiss and then Charlotte makes sure he kisses me back.  And by that I mean she acts like the green reindeer that looks like a pony is licking me like a dog.  "Look Daddy.  Rudolph is kissing you like Pancho!"

So Rody didn't make the shot in the picture below, but there is Charlotte is in her manger.  Every night she lets the cat and book have half her bed.  Note the cat stocking has a matching homespun bow that Emily made at Charlotte's request.  Also, Charlotte is trying to make the exact same face that the cat is.  She came pretty close.  She has a bizarre knack to pretty much match any character's facial expression in a book.

Meanwhile Happy could care less couldn't care less could care less couldn't care less doesn't care about Christmas (sorry, it's an old Linguistics joke).  She's all like, "y'all do you're thing and I'll do mine and if we cross paths, that's cool.  I love you guys and all but I got stuff to do.  Speaking of which, I'm off to find a container, any container, full of stuff that I can dump on the floor.  This time make it super challenging so I REALLY have to earn it this time."

Well that reminds me.  There is one thing she loves about Christmas.  Pulling ornaments off the tree.  She's trying to train us to deal with it and we're trying to train her to stop doing it.

So far it's a stalemate in that regards.

The Last Word on Christmas 2012

Oy to the world!

When I was a kid, my aunt made a JOY for each family.  At some point, the J fell off of ours and my sister, Jessica, hung it on her bedroom door.  We were left with the OY to hang up with the Christmas decorations.  My sister has the original OY, but last year for Christmas she made me my very own.  Isn't it cute? 

To wrap it up, here is a slideshow with random highlights from Christmas 2012.  A little background:  the adults in my extended family do a white elephant gift exchange.  Many of the gifts come from Ray's Closeouts (the off-sale store by the cottage), but some people get really creative.  We play a game, everyone ends up with a gift, we sing Moon River, everyone opens their presents at once and laughter ensues.  It is super fun.  This year we got to have two Christmases because Suze came yesterday!

More Christmas

 Shoot!  Mike posted my cat dancer video before I got to.  I had a post all planned, but I guess the early bird (that would be Mike) gets the worm.  For your viewing pleasure, here is the video again.  Charlotte played with this cat toy more than any other gift.

And, as you can see from Nacho's girth, he could really use the exercise.  I see a lot of cat training in his future, courtesy of Charlotte. 





Have some pride, Nacho!



Christmas Post

Christmas was nice for its familarity and relaxed pace that Emily and I strive for.  I always tell people the best gift we give each other at Christmas is we really don't do gifts.  We exchange stocking stuffers and rarely does a gift for one another exceed $20, unless it is a functional gift... like I am getting a storm door and having it installed "for Emily" this spring, and I really could use an iPad for work so we are looking at buying a refurbished one.  Such is life in a poor city school district.  I have several co-workers who are using refurbished iPads they had to buy with their own money.  Meanwhile in the suburbs there are entire schools outfitted with iPads, one for each kid and the teacher.  Yet we are all judged by the same standardized tests.  But I digress, unless your idea of holiday cheer is a No Child Left Behind rant.  Just writing that makes me miss Adria.

Anyway. Emily did get me a three pack of SmartWool socks.  And if you know me well, you know that there is no article of clothing I appreciate more than a comfortable pair of socks.

Charlotte enjoyed opening presents and eventually grasped the concept that there was something inside each present for her.  But then she wanted to re-wrap the gift.  As you can see in the first two videos below, she really liked the Yoda key chain I got for her.  I wanted her to have her own set of keys so she can develop the skills of keeping track of her keys that her father so desparately lacks.  So Emily and I put Adria's old house keys on the chain which is somehow nice feeling but I have no idea why.  Her other favorite toy was the cat dancer toy for the cats.  Emily has a pretty funny video of Charlotte playing with it, which is the last video listed.

Charlotte also got a couple CDs, a book from out friend Nathan, a plate and mug set (she calls the mugs "Charlotte's coffee") from her Suze, mittens for the snow, plastic animals, a bracelet (which you can see on her arm in the video) and hair clip, and bathtub paint.  My mom comes to visit tomorrow and rumor has it some gifts from Charlotte's Texas kin are coming with Suze.  All in all, it was a good day the week gets better and better with her Suze coming.

I have no idea why the videos are out of allignment but my hunch is that it bothers me more than it bothers you.

Conversations With Charlotte #7831

I had a meeting at work this afternoon that turned into this evening.  I got home and Charlotte had already eaten dinner, so I assumed she was ready for her post-dinner relaxation routine... hanging out in the living room and playing with whatever her favorite toys of the 36 hour interval are.  But then out-of-the-blueshe put her hat on and said, you guessed it.  "hat on.  hat on."  Only to be followed by "jacket on. Charlotte jacket on?  Daddy put jacket on?"

Crap I thought, she wants to go for a walk.  It's freezing.  She hasn't asked for a night walk ever, until today.  But I have been talking to Emily about going on night walks with Charlotte to see the Christmas lights and I am pretty sure Charlotte overheard.

So Charlotte and I got Pancho and went out to see our neighbor Greg's lights.  I thought that would suffice, but no, Charlotte wanted to make like Ernest Shackleton and explore the whole block in the freezing cold.

When we got to Marys' house on the corner of 45th ave and 42nd street Charlotte stopped for awhile (big shocker there) to stare at Mary's lit-up manger scene.  She pointed at the plastic Mary (the Virgin one, not our neighbor Mary) who was holding baby Jesus and said, "Baby!"  And from there we had our longest back and forth yet.  Resevior Dogs it ain't, but our conversation went a little like this....

Me: Yep.  That is a baby.  His name is Jesus.

Charlotte: Polar bear.  Roooooooar!

Me: No, that is a sheep.

Charlotte: Baaaaa.

Me: That is indeed what a sheep says.

Charlotte: Baby sleeping.

Me: You best be quiet.  You don't want to wake up Jesus and get his dad angry.

Charlotte:  Quiet.  Night night baby.

Me: Good night Baby Jesus.

Charlotte: Wheres a crib?

Me:  They're in a manger.  They have no room for a bed..... or crib."

Charlotte: No crib.

Christmas Day

What a Christmas!  It was 40 degrees here.  Unlike last Christmas when we got ice dams for Christmas, this year we got a Texas Christmas weather-wise.  We met the Garvins at the dog park for a nature walk in our lightweight jackets.  Ben took our portrait.  Don't mind my ill-fitting hat.  

Art and Lewis got binoculars for Christmas.

We spotted this spotted owl.

We didn't get any pics from Christmas morning because we can't find our camera.  Ooops.  It wasn't that exciting since Charlotte still does not understand opening presents and we had to do it for her.  She does understand toys and she got some fun new things to play with.  Suze sent her a baby doll and Charlotte bent over to give it a kiss - pretty much the cutest thing I have ever seen!  It fits perfectly in this little doll cradle that my sister found in my mom's basement.

O Christmas Tree

Mike giving Charlotte a closer look at all the shiny objects.   She was underwhelmed.

Mike and I always give each other ornaments.  Here he is showing Charlotte one of my favorites.

Merry Merry

Our $20 free range organic Christmas tree from Mother Earth Gardens.  If you want to see the harvesting of free range organic Christmas trees in Northern Minnesota, here is a cute video complete with Vince Gauraldi music.