We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Christmas really crept up on us this year with family visiting, our trip and illness. Before we knew it we were behind with the advent calendars, family calendars, Christmas cards, shopping and pretty much every other holiday preparation. So we hit it - Christmas preps 24/7, and we made it and slid into home with pretty much everything ready to go.

It is amazing how my perspective of this magical holiday has changed over the years. As a child I was completely smitten, a star-crossed Christmas kid, soaking up and enjoying every single moment and small detail, to the point where I didn't even sleep on Christmas eve until my 20's. As a younger adult I could still feel the magic, despite a lack of religious affiliation and Santa-stuffed pillow sacks no longer on my bed on Christmas eve. Now, as a parent of young kids, to be honest, it has just become SO MUCH WORK. Greg took out our boxes of decorations this year and I shocked myself when I realized that I had actually said "ugh." I don't think its that Christmas is really that much more work with kids, maybe there is a bit more shopping, but there is just less time to devote to Christmas preparations, just like there is less time for pretty much everything. It becomes about the work, the to do list, the teacher gifts, the racing to meet the Christmas mailing and ordering deadlines, fa la la la la, la la la la....

So I turn to my children, to soak up a bit of their spirit. In their faces I see the anticipation and how they are slightly mystified by this overwhelming and confusingly magical holiday that eclipses all others, even their own birthdays. They welcome Christmas in their own ways. This year they slept with their doors open for the first time; I think they are a bit more comfortable with the idea of the man in the red suit coming into our house while we sleep. Teia writes notes and draws pictures for Santa. Some of them she sets out with Dasher, our "giving deer," to take back to the North Pole each night. This year both kids were brave enough to sit with Santa at Greg's work party and Teia gave him explicit instructions about the doll house she wanted for Christmas. Kai was satisfied with the Lego ambulance he received from Grandma and Poppa Mike at our early Christmas so he was leaving Santa in the dark.

Christmas Eve arrived with the extra excitement of picking up Auntie, Uncle and Baby M at the airport.  A bit of a San Diego tradition has been to watch the sunset on Christmas Eve at the beach. We all miss the snow terribly at Christmastime (even Teia, who doesn't remember her white Christmases but desperately wants one), but we try to embrace the beachie Christmas as best we can. We enjoyed the sunset on the pier. 

No dolphin sightings this time but there was a storm swell so the surf was big and hammering the pier and making it shake. The girls in the family must be the nervous ones b/c after one particular sway of the pier, A, T and I all looked at each other said "Earthquake!" and prepared to run off the pier. If a quake does hit, the dilapidated crystal pier is definitely not where you want to find yourself. The boys thought it was all quite funny but we decided to head back to solid ground anyway. 

After dinner and fondue, we tracked Santa on the Norad website. The kids were pretty riveted. Thanks to Auntie for grabbing this shot. 

So our kids were eager to get the cookies, egg nog and carrots out for Santa and his reindeer and scurry off to bed. When I checked on them sleeping, I swear I could see the sugarplums dancing around Teia's little sleeping head. 

And Santa made his delivery. Despite not quite knowing what to bring for Kai, he did alright. He also remembered to drop off stockings for baby M and his mom and dad. The kids were interested in how the heck did he know to do that?

Once again, we were treated to kids who slept through the night. I guess they have not inherited my can't-sleep-on-Christmas gene. It seems I was the one waking up repeatedly, wondering if they were awake yet. 7 am sharp, Teia was beside our bed announcing "Merry Christmas!" and before I could stop her, waking up her brother to tell him there was a red van in the living room. Quick like a flash, they zipped from his bedroom and directly into the side door of his new VW van tent without noticing anything else under the tree. Santa's last minute inspiration paid off. 

Here they are opening their stockings in the morning light. 

Kai watches with quiet anticipation as Teia sorts through the gifts under the tree. Love his face. And his backwards pajamas (of course). 

Auntie, Uncle and Baby M joined us as our own real live snowman, rudolph and baby elf on Christmas morning! So silly and cute! 

Santa delivered with the dollhouse and Teia didn't even notice that it didn't come with a second bathroom as per her request to Santa, nor an entire family. A miniature human replica has not even stepped foot in that dollhouse yet, nearly a week past Christmas. It has been inhabited exclusively by tiny animals, wooden and/or soft. Its kind of more of a furnished zoo, than a doll house really. 

She was also completely thrilled to receive a booster seat. She has been asking since she was about 3 when she could ride in a booster and sit in the 3rd row of the mini-van and this Christmas, both of those dreams came true. 

Baby M enjoyed exploring his Christmas prezzies and those of his big cousins and generally just charming everyone. 

Here he is all ready for Christmas dinner with Dad. 

And a San Diego Christmas day wouldn't be complete without a little bit more beach time, even if it was a wee bit chilly and a king tide meant that the only dry sand we could find was the big man made piles. Didn't keep Kai out of the water. 

LOVE!!!!

And what Christmas day wouldn't be complete without a picture of exhausted children and decadent desserts????? They finally fell asleep after a wonderful, magical day where they opened presents from morning til bedtime b/c they are so lucky and spoiled by family and friends, and where they got to share in their littlest cousin's first Christmas, something they'll likely never forget - as well as special time with Auntie and Uncle. 

Our post-Christmas hangover has included runny noses, throwing up and clogged drains. Greg has become quite a good amateur plumber thankfully, and I do my best as a mommy-nurse. AND its snowing in the mountains as I write. So Teia may get her snow after all, so long as we can find a pair of snow boots for Kai in a San Diego store tomorrow. Seems we just don't keep stocked up on stuff like that these days....

So after my whining about how much work Christmas is, and the general grumbles about commercialism and people not saying Merry Christmas anymore lest it offend someone, watching a child experience something as magic, a dream come true, and believing in something that they can't see or touch, and feeling the love of a family coming together really does make Christmas a pretty special time of year, no matter what you believe in. Its about celebrating a connectedness that we often don't slow down enough to appreciate the rest of the year. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! 

Victoria Adventure

Louise and I flew back from Victoria recently.  I was there for a job interview and some dinners related to future employment opportunities (ie, who is going to give me the biggest bonus so I can set up my hand-built standup paddleboard workshed?) and Louise came along to hang out with the hubs sans kids, look at some more schools, take me to at least 3 restaurants a day that didn’t serve Timbits, check out some more neighborhoods, and get more Mount Royal bagels (in a paper bag).

Helping us on this adventure (mis-? You decide, read on…) were Grandma Barb and Poppa Mike.  Selflessly flying three more time zones just a few days after a long trip from France, they absorbed the download from Louise on the many nuances required to keep up with which animal Teia may be impersonating at any given moment or which vehicle Kai might be loving.  We were thrown for a loop by a late-breaking fever on Kai but after some reassurance he would survive (including Teia’s kindergarten teacher priceless observation “I’m sure the grandparents have dealt with a fever before”), we confidently marched out of the house towards victory (job offer, school choice, dream neighborhood, Mount Royal Bagels in a paper bag).

We were also hoping for some relaxing time alone, enjoying a quiet kid-free trip for a change.  Just as Hannibal’s plans to invade Rome went pear-shaped in the Alps (elephants don’t do well on snowy cliffs), so did ours go pear-shaped in Seattle airport (boxes of chocolate don’t walk by themselves).  Louise had purchased some chocolate in San Diego to give to a friend.  After the flight into Seattle, we boarded one of the trains that go from one terminal to another when a woman next to us blurted out “I forgot my poster!” and darted out the door (I initially thought she said “I forgot my COASTER” which made this action even more surprising.  She may as well said “I forgot my floor mat!” or “I forgot my canuba wax!”).  As I was thinking about what else one might forget as random as those things, Louise looked up at me with a start “I forgot the chocolates!” and sprinted off (seemingly in pursuit).  Without a second to think, I ran after her, narrowly avoiding a vivisection from the closing train doors.  I can only imagine what the other passengers in this train must have been thinking.  Surely they weren’t expecting such excitement or profound forgetfulness.

Now, some may not realize that Louise has wanted to run a sub-seven minute mile for awhile.  Recent injuries and life’s demands have made it difficult to train for this goal.  However, leave some chocolates abandoned somewhere in Seattle airport, and brother, that 7-minute barrier gets broken like a dry twig.  Stairs were taken 2, 3, 4 at a time.  Her body angled around the corners like she was on a banked track.  As she approached the potential drop zone, she realized they might be near a water fountain.  A logical person may reason that the difference in speed from a 2 mph saunter and 20 mph sprint isn’t significant over a 20m distance (its about 27 seconds).  But lost chocolate does not lend itself to logic or calculations.  So onto her toes for the final sprint did Louise go, zipping around the corner to a mighty “Huzzah!  Huzzah” as the chocolates were found by a water fountain.

(the chocolates were a gift for Louise’s friend & colleague, Dorothy.  If only she knew how much panicked passion and cardiovascular output went along with that gift)

With the heartrates down and back in the terminal for our connecting flight to Victoria, we boarded a tiny Dash 8 for the 30min trip.  So far, other than the poster mis-placer (and ourselves), we hadn’t met too many interesting characters.  That was about to change in a toque-bundled flash.  Many of you may know of Bob and Doug McKenzie as pretty famous but over-the-top stereotypical Canadian “hosers” in “Strange Brew” and various SCTV episodes.  Well, Louise and I sat in front of their cousins on the flight from Seattle to Victoria. 

I’ve never heard two people talk so much… about almost nothing.  It was sort of a stream-of-consciousness on various male interests.  Getting drunk in Burger King waiting for a flight, watching the landing gear go up and down (and the subsequent changes to drag and speed, unless power was increased), takeoff distances of the Dash-8 versus other aircraft models, commentary of the geography and terrain below us (whether there were clouds or not to block our view, it didn’t seem to matter: clouds merely led to discussion over what we had just flown over), comparison of current credit card limits vs. the taxes for a new Breitling watch for sale in Las Vegas, and on and on.  It was a pretty quick 30min flight.

Prior to our trip, one of our selling points to the kids (other than they’d have Grandma and Poppa Mike spoiling them crazy!)  was that this would be a business trip for mom and dad.  No fun would be missed. No kid-friendly activities.  Our first indications we had inadvertently lied through our teeth came when we were walking from our hotel towards the harbor.  We only intended to walk along the water then grab a bite.  We quickly noticed folks hanging around each street corner.  In some cities, ne’re do wells hang out on street corners; they ask for money or smokes, occasionally they let you know their opinion on things at the top of their lungs.  I thought it odd that in Victoria, the ne’re do wells were young families with kids in strollers, but hey, I’m flexible on the socio-economic classification of vagrants I should be wary of.

But as we walked further along, we noticed more & more families.  So the corner-stalkers weren’t actually stalkers, they must all be waiting for something.  But what?  We asked a couple young people in BC Transit safety gear.  The answer: “ Trucks.”   Um, what kind of trucks?  “Lighted Trucks.”

OK, let’s check it out!  The Lighted Truck Parade, as we’ll call it, was running a little late, but was pretty spectacular once it cruised & honked on by:

The quintessential Canadian moment:

After the lighted truck parade, we watched the slightly quieter, slower, more stately lighted boat parade, then decided to check out the Empress, a famous hotel in Victoria, with equally famous Christmas Tree competition. 

As we crossed the street from one direction, another family crossed from another.  We met at the corner, stopping before a collision. The following conversation occurred (it doesn’t really matter who said what):
“Oh sorry, excuse me.”

“Sorry, excuse me!”

“Go ahead”

“No, no, you go ahead”

“Its OK, sorry, you go ahead.”

“Oh no no, its alright, you go ahead. So sorry!”

How do you break a Canadian Sorry Spiral?  Apparently, you need an American (me), to steer Louise around the back of the other family before we spent the rest of the night on that street corner trying to out-sorry each other.  As we walked away from each other smiling, laughing, with prolific, apologetic head nods, a woman from the other family stated proudly/humorously: “Canadians!”

Yes, indeed!