It's a tradition, something I've done with my family since I was a young girl, a tradition that we have continued together year after year after year. A brunch of seafood chowder from Monahan's, and bee-bim bop from Kosmo. Shopping and browsing and giggling and taking pictures.
No matter how cold it is, this is the warmest time of year.
Today was recital day. We baked treats, we started a crock-pot dinner, we practiced the piano like crazy, we straightened the house. The recital went well. Some of Jon's students have come and gone over the years, but a couple of them have been around for us to watch grow up. There's a certain joy in that. I realized today that I've been baking for recitals for about seven years now, although it feels a little different now that our own child is among the performers. Calvin seemed to take it all in stride, and he did well, but apparently I got nervous enough for him that I forgot start the video camera on time, and I failed to take any stills while was playing. Thankfully we shot his practice session at home.
After the recital we came back to our house with all four grandparents for that crock-pot dinner and some more piano, this time some good old fashioned Christmas carols. The art of caroling through the neighborhood seems to have perished, but carols around the spinet are another matter, at least in our house. We each have our favorites, be they traditional or more modern, and we have enough piano books around here, and piano players, to have every song covered, so we play and sing a lot and it was fun to share it with our families, too. Calvin did the playing tonight from his newest Christmas book.
Obviously we're music fans around here, and Christmas music is something that we collect—not just for the piano, but recorded music as well. Like with Christmas books, we buy each other a new album, or at least a new song or two, every year. We have sort of eclectic taste, and our collection ranges from big band swing to traditional classical, and some more modern pop collections. Some of our favorite albums from over the years (not in any order):
And O Holy Night as performed on Studio 60 on the Sunset Stripby Trombone Shorty and a group of musicians from New Orleans just getting back on their feet after hurricane Katrina—one of our all-time favorite finds. It's a stunning and emotional arrangement worth hearing, although I'm not sure it's still available or download anywhere.
Plus we're always open to new suggestions if anyone has any...we're still looking for this year's awesome, eclectic album to add to our collection.
It was the weekend of our annual Christmas outing with our good friends. Calvin spent Saturday night with his grandparents while we enjoyed cheese, fruit, wine, scallops, an evening of festivities at historical Greenfield Village, and, finally, more fruit, cheese, wine, and dessert.
This evening is magical very year for us. It was frigid this time around, temperatures dipping to near twenty with a brisk wind, but the sky was clear and the moon was full. We all have a great time together with good food and lots of laughs, and there is something very beautiful about Victorian Christmas traditions, or really anything Christmas and historical. And making creme brulee together was a lot of fun.
Calvin also had a great night, and has yet to stop talking about the shaped pancakes his grampa made for him this morning (including a liopleurodon, apparently—we'll never be able to top that).
We did some serious lazing around yesterday, and thanks to a lack of sleep and we also did a fair amount of cranking and avoiding chores, and even a little napping. All of which is good for the soul from time to time, but today felt wonderfully normal. No bickering, no sleepiness, and not even an ounce lazing. No chores, either, but one step at a time is good enough.
Today was actually Saint Nicholas Day—oranges and pocket change in wooden shoes by the front door. At least, that's what it means to us. And a new Christmas book and music are part of the tradition, too. We found a great L. Frank Baum book for this year—beautiful art in a picture book version, and the original chapter version for reading aloud. This year we also gave him a puzzle that we spent part of the morning assembling before some math, some geography, and the thank you notes for the gifts he received from family at our Sinterklass Avond party on Sunday.
Tomorrow is good for chores.
Of course Playmobil would make a Sinterklaas figure (and of coures Oma would find him!)—very fun.
I've had to take a couple of days away from the computer to enter into the magic of old-world holiday life—a Christmas celebration in our little downtown on Saturday, and tonight our annual Saint Nicholas party. These things always fall on the same weekend, along with the Messiah performance, which I'd love to see sometime, and Christmas at the historic farm in Waterloo, which we'd also like to see sometime. But we had a great time in town yesterday, and a wonderful, warm evening with family tonight, and thankfully tomorrow is just a normal day, followed by a couple of normal weeks, when we can maybe take a break from all the holiday shenanigans and do things like laundry, and reading, and Legos, and...
12 days of Christmas, 
