December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas to all!

What with all the Christmas festivies, a house filled with the joys of special visitors, and then a quick out of town trip, we have been away from our computers for over a week, but there are now newly updated pictures in the Dec 15-21 album, and there are more Christmas Eve pictures in the Dec 22-28 album.  We wish you all a safe, joyous, and blessed Christmas.

Calvin, meet Sinterklaas

In our household a strong Dutch background combined with a keen desire to separate the commercialism of American Christmas from the religious significance of that day to bring us the annual celebration of St. Nicholas Day.  In years to come we plan to teach Calvin about the sainted bishop from the fourth century who is celebrated annually on December 6th for his many good works and his kindness to others, and we hope to help him understand the connection between this kindly religious man and the jovial fictitious character who gives the commercial tradition of Christmas it's white haired, red clad mascot.  Our hope is that it will help him understand the meaning of giving during this festive season, and tonight he welcomed the tradition with his usual enthusiasm.  Yes, we realize that we are one, if not two, days behind schedule, but since Calvin is as yet unaware of the religious calendar we moved our celebration to a Friday night so that his grandparents would be better able to join us.  He spent the entire day, when he wasn't napping, that is, helping is mother clean and prepare the food and the house, and he spent his entire evening entertaining his four doting grandparents (it's a hard job, but someone's got to do it).  His paternal grandmother, who even spent a portion of a school year in The Netherlands, brought with her not only memories, but also several traditional props and present to add a true feeling of tradition and festivity to the air.  We snacked on Dutch cheeses and Dutch beer, and ate pork and Dutch potatoes for dinner.  Before dinner we were visited by the spirit of Sinterklaas in the form of trinkets accompanied by poems, and followed by chocolate letters spelling our initials.  The evening was truly one to be treasured, and we could not have asked for Calvin to have received a better introduction to this wonderful holiday.

Be vewy, vewy quiet, we're hunting Chwistmas Twees

Yes, we went Christmas tree hunting today.  It was a much colder field trip than in previous years, but we bundled up with the appropriate clothing, including reindeer antlers, and drove a half hour into the country in search of the perfect tree.  Calvin was far more impressed with the hay ride from the parking lot to the tree patch than he was with the car ride from the breakfast restaurant to the tree farm.  The farm had a lot of beautiful trees and it didn't take long to find the one we wanted to bring home, and that's when Calvin really started to enjoy himself.  He thought it was pretty funny that his grandpa was crawling around underneath this tree, and that it was down right hilarious when the tree fell.  We cut two trees, one for us and one for grandma and grandpa, and both times Calvin just laughed and kept saying "boom, boom, boom" over and over again (his new found voice has been a great source of comedy for us).  he thought it was just as funny that when we got home we brought the tree in the house, and who can blame him?  After spending hours trying to get our old lights working to no avail, we wondered the same ourselves.  So the decorating will have to wait another day, but our house is already filled with the wonderful, Christmassy smell that is the fresh cut pine tree in our great room, and we know the season of advent has begun.

More hunting pictures are in the Dec 1-7 photo album. 

The wonders of the season.

Be it the strange decorations  that have come out of the basement or the sudden change in the weather, the crowds of people or simply a spirit in the air, the wonder of this season is more than just a commercial phrase coined by companies such as Coca Cola and Hallmark.  we know this to be true because we have already seen the look of wonder spread across our son's guileless face.  On Friday morning he stood agape, staring at our singing and dancing animatronic snowmen when first they appeared (and performed).  Saturday afternoon he traipsed through stores with a cheerfulness that can only belong to one who has never been responsible for holiday meals, deals, or clean-up.  Then tonight, as we enjoyed our first real snow of the season, he stood wide-eyed on our deck, face turned up to the heavens, a look of fascination on his face that clearly knew no cold.  Though last year may have been his first Christmas, we are ever more aware that this one will hold a place in our memories that is so much more special.

 "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science."
-Albert Einstein

The food we celebrate

What is Thanksgiving if not a holiday about food?  Sure, we know it's about giving thanks for those things which we cherish in our lives, but food on the table and good company is a really good place to start.  In our house Thanksgiving is also a sort of kick-off day of preparing our home and our lives for the upcoming season of advent.  So first thing in the morning, while enjoying a yummy family breakfast, we bring all the Christmas decorations out of storage and begin the job of dressing the house for the season.  It's a tad early this year (we won't have a tree until next weekend) but Calvin greatly enjoyed removing each and every seasonal trimming, twice finding himself stuck head first in one Christmas bin or another (be sure to note the santa hat).  Which brings us to the great food and company that we celebrated later in the day, where Calvin enjoyed being the center of a universe that consisted entirely of his devoted followers:  two grandmothers, two grandfathers, an aunt, and an uncle.  Oh, and two parents, too, of course.  Calvin took this celebration of food and thanks to a whole new level with his grandmothers:  he continually conned his gram into giving him snacks from the kitchen, and his grandma brought him the most brilliant set of wooden food we've ever seen, complete with stylish cutting board and knife (it's needed to cut apart the slices of healthy food that are velcroed together), which kept the entire household entertained the whole evening (whether because of the toy or the Calvin, we can't say). 

Pictures, for which are thankful, are in the Nov 17-23 album.