Christmas time is here

On December 1, the kids started their Advent calendars, thank you Nana. Kate had been talking about it for a couple of days beforehand, and on the 1st she came down saying, "Jack! We can open Door No. 1!" We hauled out all the Christmas decorations, and I set up everything on the front lawn, including the Christmas Pig, while they decorated their rooms. They played with the Nativity pieces, no doubt faithfully re-creating the first Nativity (or having the animals chat together about football, one of the two), and also with all the stuffed toys we have accumulated over the years - Santa, Frosty, Rudolph, Penguiny, etc.

On December 7, we went to the Holiday Breakfast at school, where we ate bagels, drank orange juice, and watched A jovial Santa, played I believe by one of Jack's baseball coaches. One of Jack's friend's Grandmas played piano and a bunch of kids, including Jack, sang along to Carols - Frosty, Rudolph, etc. Kate didn't stand up, but she sat at the table holding the song sheet, singing along.

Afterward, we went to get our tree. Jack picked one. Then Kate picked one, then Emily picked one, then I picked one. Then we actually agreed on one and got it. On the way home, Jack said, "that's what I want for a job.  I want to pick up the tree, bang it on the ground, and wrap it up and put it on people's cars." I said, well, I don't think that's his full-time job...he probably does something else the other 11 months of the year.

On December 9, it was icy, and school was delayed. Then on December 10th, it snowed and school was cancelled entirely. We went outside and the kids made snow angels and went down the slide. We had a small snowball fight, and then we played "Abominable Snowman," where I ran at them roaring and they either ran away screaming (Kate) or hit me in the face with a snowball (Jack). That was fun. Then I said, let's go make a snowman, and I was going to just make a standard one, but Jack wanted to make an Olaf, from the movie Frozen, as we had talked about when we saw it. He talked me into it, we made Olaf.

All along, we've been watching Christmas specials in the evening. Rudolph last Wednesday. Charlie Brown last Saturday, Santa Claus is Coming to town on Wednesday. I heard some commercial about, You watched them as kids, and now you can watch them with your kids, the kind of thing I would have scoffed at not so long ago. But here we are.

The Christmas Pageant was Monday night, where all the 3rd 4th and 5th graders would sing songs they'd been practicing at school. Frosty, Feliz Navidad, Silver Bells. Jack got to introduce one of the songs for his grade, representing the class, that was cool. He had a cold and his nose was twitching beforehand, we were waiting for him to sneeze, but he didn't. What was cool about the show, which we watched with Kate between us, was that she was fidgeting and complaining before it started, but once it began, she was totally engrossed, smiling and clapping and singing along quietly. She loves music, she sings absently almost all the time, it's awesome.

And that night they dressed up in red and white and were beautiful.