Holiday Card Reject

 

Every single year I take thousands of photos.  Maybe a few are good.  Maybe a few more are real good.  All of these get stored in a file in my brain for the "holiday card."  And then the time comes and I have to choose just one.  Hard to do and many good ones are rejected.   This one was a real good one that fell to the wayside.  Not holiday "ish", although certainly joyful.  There are more like this - great photo's of the two boys that I simply relish, but not quite right for the card.  This ride they are on here was from the fair, truly they must have gone on it one hundred times or more.  Thrilling to them, the fact that they could lie there and be spun almost upside down.  Even more fun to try it standing up.   So, if you read my blog and get my holiday card, this one didn't make the cut, but certainly was too good to not make the blog.  

Birds Nests

Tonight we put up our tree.  Boxes of decorations were brought out.  Each one so carefully packed up the season before.  I have many ornaments that are well over 30 years old.  I was one of those kind of people who couldn't wait to have a home and a family of my own, so I started gathering early.  In fact, some of my most fragile and favorite ornaments I found when I was still a teenager.  The ones I am thinking of are formed from very thin slices of wood and look like a flower or a star with a little red wooden bead in the center.  They are very European and traditional looking.  I have ruined one, so I treat the remaining five like fragile eggs.  Speaking of eggs, I also love birds nests, and I especially love them in my Christmas tree.  Many years ago I also started saving the nests I found when I was out walking.  I then started going on nest hunts after all the leaves had fallen.  I love the amazing intricacy of a nest design.  I love the idea of this comfortable cozy hidden place in the crook and safety of a tree.  I imagine the adult birds fluttering about gathering just the softest things they could find for their eggs.  Home.  A beautiful home for baby birds.   A great metaphor, and I think it really captures my sentiments about home too.   

 

The boys like the tree decorating as much as I do, and tonight they helped me get the tree in its stand and they hung many of the ornaments.  I want to say here that as they hung them they were playing.  Kuba was a dog owner and Anders was the dog.  Anders picked the ornaments up gently with his mouth and carefully hung them from the lowest branches and Kuba would give him a treat for completing this. The treat was a piece of cereal, corn chex to be exact.  Kuba, as the human, could hang them higher and use his hands.   This made for a very entertaining experience for me as I watched them work so nicely, man and his best friend together, decorating the tree. 

 

Most of our ornaments are made of straw and are from Sweden.  Our family in Sweden has sent us many, many ornaments over the past ten years, and I like all of them.  There are red wooden dala horses, red wooden hearts, plump little tomten and a variety of other sweet things.  There are hand painted clothespins from Poland, brought to me by a traveling friend.  I don't think she even knew how much they would mean to me.  There are lots of feathered birds, and of course birds nests.  I'm almost finished decorating now, but I remembered I wanted to do one post a day, so interrupted my work to write this.  There's something nice about it.   Writing about this as it's actually happening and as the experience is so alive.      

Family? Yes!

 Kuba's drawing on the chalkboard tonight. 

Christmas Toys

When I was younger, oh, about 20 years before I had children, I would buy toys that I thought my kids would like to play with one day.   I bought this fun wooden bowling set with six Santa's, six snowmen, six trees, and a few wooden balls to roll and knock them down with.  When I was teaching in England, I bought brightly painted, stacking wooden soldiers.  I started collecting tops.  When the kids came along, I started collecting wind-ups.  Then holiday books.  Now, when we bring our holiday boxes up from the basement, the kids gleefully pull out these toys and they play with them.  All of them.  The ones that only come out at Christmas time.  The ones I just knew would be loved by my kids, way before I even had kids.  The ones that are getting old now with chips of paint flaking off.  The ones that bring delight from tradition and history.  The ones that were meant for them. 

River of Light

Tonight we met friends in a small town about thirty minutes from home.  We went to see the River of Light parade, a celebration of the transition to the winter season and the change in light.  The boys and their friends loved the snow that had fallen earlier that day and built some quick snowmen while waiting for the parade.  They loved the gigantic bonfire at the end of the parade and they totally loved hurdling their bodies down a snowy bank at the end of the night, penguin style.  It was a great kick off to the rest of our holiday season.  I hope it's followed by even more festive and artful evenings. 

  

Friday Nights

Our usual routine on Friday night is pizza and a movie.  The kids look forward to it, and I have to admit I too relish the "nothingness" of Friday evenings.  Tonight however, was a different story.  We left Anna's office and spontaneously decided to stop into a bar/restaurant right near her office and get dinner.  They are famous for their French fries.  We had no idea that it would be so empty at this early dinner hour, and that there would be two bright orange pool tables beckoning.  So - with a large order of fries, chicken tenders, and some burgers on the way, we proceeded to play some pool.   Or at least the kids did.  Their joy at just shooting the white ball into a pocket (for free I might add!) was just as big as shooting all the other balls into the pockets, striped and solids alike.  We are home now and YES, we are watching a movie.  Or should I say - they are watching a movie and I am typing this. 

Who's Leading Who?