Off-Label Toy Uses

Yesterday Gavin was playing with his Hexbugs and got a little bored. Or creative.

He decided his Hexbug tracks would make a perfect saxophone.

He spent a good part of the next hour happily jamming away.

This isn't the first time Gavin has used his toys in some interesting and innovative ways. Remember Ghostbusters?

We watched it with the kids a few weeks ago, and now Gavin loves to play Ghostbusters.


All he needs is his duffel bag -- worn like a backpack -- and the launcher for his Stomp Rockets. Who ya gonna call? Gavinbusters! He ain't 'fraid of no ghost!

The Stomp Rockets are also useful as microphones for Lucy's performances. Gavin is accompanying her on a "bongo drum" that is actually his new bungee jumper.

By the way, while we were searching for a Ghostbusters picture on GoogleImages, I found somebody's Lego version. So the kids decided to make their own. This is Egon, Venkman, Spangler and the other guy fighting the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. Lucy made the marshmallow guy while Gavin assembled the Ghostbusters from various other Lego people. You might recognize Indiana Jones' and Harry Potter's hair on bodies mostly taken from Star Wars sets. As usual, I'm amazed by their inventiveness! I hope it's a long time before they feel constrained by convention -- at least as far as toys are concerned.

Christmas Week 2010

I know I've been posting a lot about Christmas and Holiday events this year. I can't help it -- I really love Christmas, and I love Christmas traditions, old and new. But I did try and hold off so I could put all the fun stuff we've done this week into one big blog post.

On the last day of school, Gavin's class put on a performance of the Kindergarten classic "Christmas Cookies and Holiday Hearts." Gavin was the baker -- it was his job to introduce all the different cookies. The whole thing lasted all of ten minutes. Nothing is sweeter than singing Kindergarteners dressed up as cookies.

With the kids out of school (and some snow on the ground, finally!) Austin was able to get out his new (to us) snowmobile and pull the kids around the field.

The ski helmets, goggles, and balaclavas were perfect for a snowy ride on a beautiful but frigid December day.

I found these fun Gingerbread houses at Costco and we spent an afternoon decorating them. Lucy frosted the front of her "toy shop" house to look like the picture on the box but made the back look like a big red barn. Love it. These kids are such Vermonters -- of course Santa would need a barn to go with his house!

We fed the gingerbread house and barn to the chickens for their special treat on Christmas Day.

We continued our tradition of the Bethlehem Dinner, inviting friends over for a multi-course Middle Eastern dinner (hummus, cheese, grapes and olives, followed by lentil soup, then chicken, tilapia and couscous with olive tapenade, and baklava and fruit for dessert.) Luckily, people in the Middle East eat sitting on the floor, because we don't have a table that could accommodate so many people! After dinner the kids (and a couple of good-sport teenagers) put on the nativity play.

Christmas Day was wonderful. Lucy got a My American Girl doll and a camera from Santa, but her favorite gift seems to have been a sewing kit. She spent most of the day working on sewing projects.

Gavin got the Lego Hogwarts Castle. I was figuring my Christmas day would mostly involve me and Lucy building it for him, but it turns out he wanted to do it all by himself. And he did. I was impressed -- those were some long and complicated instructions. He spent hours totally absorbed in building Legos.

By nighttime he'd got the first two towers completed. He's so proud of himself.

And Lucy finished her first ever sewing project, a little felt cat.

The only lame thing that happened on Christmas was that our oven finally gave out for good. No hot rolls, no turkey dinner. But in the grand tradition of A Christmas Story, we made Chinese food instead. Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra, ra Ra Ra Ra! Guess I'll be getting a new range for my birthday.

How To Identify a Real Santa

We've long explained the proliferation of Santas (and varying qualities of their Santa gear) by telling the kids that Santa Claus is very busy and sometimes needs to employ "helper" Santas. The Helper Santas report back to the big guy at the North Pole. So when the kids see Santa at the store, or at the ward party, or at the Northfield VFW, I ask them whether they think this is the Real Santa or one of the Helpers. They've determined that the Wal-Mart Santa is definitely a Helper. The others can be hard to tell.

Lucy has decided that if she's ever seen the Real Santa, it has to be the Santa from the Polar Express ride. I have to say, he's one cool Santa. Scraggly white (and obviously real) beard, brocade Santa gown, and big gold hoop earrings. Kind of a cross between Captain Jack Sparrow and St. Nick. The Polar Express Santa has Santa's larger-than-life presence and deep Ho-Ho-Ho, but other than that, this Santa is like no other Santa we've seen.

Yesterday the kids and I were at the Berlin Mall getting some "angel tree" gifts. (Santa needs help meeting with good girls and boys, and he also needs help making sure that every single child gets a toy for Christmas.) Lucy and Gavin saw Santa and wanted to tell him about the toys they found.

So was this Real Santa or a Helper Santa? Definitely a Helper, Lucy stated. "How can you tell?" I asked her.

"I checked, Mom. He didn't have pierced ears!"

So there you go. It's not the quality of the beard or the kind of fuzzy red suit he's wearing. You'll know it's Real Santa by his earrings.

Santa Lucia 2010

This is the day when Lucy gets to be a Saint

and Gavin gets to be a Star.

My oven died halfway through the cookie baking so we had to do with store-bought this year, but we still had a wonderful night.

Christmas Carols

Saturday we took our two little elves on the Polar Express. The train ride is the best part of the night, and singing Christmas songs from the little songbooks they give us is the best part of the train ride.

Lucy got to choose the very first song! The conductor had her stand right up on the train seat and help him lead our train car in a rousing rendition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Sunday morning we woke up to the sounds of Lucy and Gavin singing Jingle Bells together on their way downstairs for breakfast.




Then Sunday night we had some of our LDS Norwich students and their roommates over for dinner and caroling. They're all musicians and game to sing Christmas hymns for hours.

Lucy and Gavin had had quite enough Christmas music and gave up on us after a while but we all had a great time.

Accidentally fashionable

This summer while I was exploring the Roots store in Quebec City with Christina I found these fun armwarmers. I had to buy them because I hate it when my wrists get cold between my coat sleeve and my gloves. And I loved that they were colorful when most of my winter gear is black and boring.

I wore them the other night to see Deathly Hallows with Austin. Guess what Hermione Granger was wearing in the movie!

I had no idea my fashion tastes were so hip! I feel so awesome!

Eat Your Veggies

I was recently making pot pies with the leftover turkey from Thanksgiving. Gavin was watching me closely.

Gavin: "Hey, Mom, what are those colored things?"

Me: "What colored things?"

Gavin: "Those ones right there, you just dumped them out of that bag."

Me: "You mean the mixed vegetables?"

Gavin: "Those are vegetables? I didn't know vegetables came in orange!"

This is how I know I'm a terrible mother. Apparently, my 5 year old has never seen a carrot before.

Where's Grandma?

Lucy's newly-invented word of the day:

Gramoflage

When Grandma is hiding out somewhere, reading her book, trying to quietly blend into the background, she is not camoflaged, she's gramoflaged.

But Lucy and Gavin can always seem to find her anyway.

I'm so grateful she's here. Not just to take care of me -- also to give the kids someone ELSE to sit on since at the moment they can't sit on me.

My Early Thanksgiving Gratitude List

I have so many things to be grateful for right now.

• I'm grateful that the enormous, football-sized tumor they removed from my belly yesterday was TOTALLY BENIGN. No cancer, not even any "pre-cancer." So I got to keep my other ovary and uterus and stave off menopause a little longer. Yay!
• I'm grateful to live in a society with advanced medicine. I'm particuarly grateful for anesthesia at the moment. Keep that morphine coming.
• I'm grateful for a husband who hasn't left my side since I got out of the OR. He spent all afternoon yesterday feeding me ice chips and keeping me distracted. He even slept here at the hospital last night. That's way above and beyond the call of duty. I love that man.
• I'm grateful for an awesome family. Mom got herself a plane ticket as soon as I told her about the surgery, and she's home spoiling my happy kids right now. Dave and Kara are here too. Austin and Dave gave me a beautiful blessing the night before my surgery and Kara zoned my feet. And Anna and James gave me lots of sweet hugs and kisses. Howard, Sharon, and Sheridan fasted for me from Utah and I definitely felt the love even from far away.
• I'm grateful for wonderful friends. Everyone has really rallied for us. We've had enough dinner offers to last us through Christmas, and lots of people willing to take our kids for as long as we are willing to give them up. I feel so loved and supported.
• I'm grateful to have two weeks free to be able to recover. I have a lovely stack of books next to my bed at home. Can't wait to just sit and vege and read.

I'm looking forward to wearing my favorite skinny clothes again. It's a little ironic that now I have a bikini body but with a lovely six-inch incision down the center of my belly I probably won't be wearing any bikinis anyway.

Thanks for all the support, thoughts, prayers, and book recommendations!

Ugh.

So . . . I thought I was just gaining a little weight from spending too much time sitting at my desk.

Nope.

I went to the specialist in Burlington today and confirmed that I have a nice big tumor growing on my ovary. Massive, actually. 21 centimeters. My belly is about the size of a person who is 5 months pregnant. No wonder my clothes don't fit!

Next Thursday, November 18th, I'm having surgery to have the whole mess removed. We're hopeful that it's just a weird benign growth, but the doctor is acting aggressively just in case it's something else. My mom's mom died of ovarian cancer so I am considered at risk, despite my age and the fact that I have no symptoms at all other than an enlarging waistline. We'll know for sure after the surgery.

In the meantime, we're doing pretty well. I'm determined not to freak out about all of this unless I'm given a good reason to. (And I'll let you know either way.) Mom is on her way out for a couple of weeks to help while I recover. But I would gladly take your prayers. And some suggestions for some good books to read while I'm laid up in bed!

Triple Trick or Treat

Harry Potter and his angelic sister had a very happy Hallow-week!

The school's UNICEF costume parade had to be held in the high school gym due to weather, but the kids were not deterred.

Lucy and her bunny-friend Chloe.

Gavin and his fifth-grade "big buddy" Rowan. They walked together in the parade even though Harry-Potter-Gavin kept yelling Expecto Patronum at the Rowan-Dementor.

Trick or Treat #1: the civilian dorms at Norwich. The students really got into it.

I love the pizza guy.

These girls must be from a warmer state than Vermont.

Trick or Treat #2: the ward party on Friday night.

Trick or Treat #3: despite the fact that it was SNOWING, the kids had to go out to Central Street to shake down the neighbors on the actual Halloween night. They came home with some serious loot for some serious trading. Austin and I stacked the deck by buying a bag of Sour Patch Kids (their favorite!) to trade for all their best candy bars. Everyone's going to bed happy and a little bit sugar-buzzed tonight.

Pumpkin Party 2010

My camera was out of batteries, so I didn't get any pumpkins-in-progress.

Montreal

This past weekend I was invited to a Liberty Fund conference at the swanky Hotel Nelligan in Old City Montreal. Since I was going to be holed up in a conference room with a bunch of academics talking about nationalism and secession (a sore subject in French Quebec, which wants to secede from Canada), my crew decided to come along and enjoy the hotel and its neighborhood.

They started every morning at a local patisserie, where Austin enjoyed croissants and chocolatine pastries and Gavin gorged himself on baguettes.

Lucy still refuses to try French breads and pastries, but she willingly joins in drinking family-sized cups of Chocolat au Chaud.

The first day was rather rainy but these kids are Vermonters -- always prepared for any weather!

Austin and the kids went on a boat cruise down the St. Lawrence River. The rain spoiled the views somewhat but they had a great time anyway.

When it cleared up they walked around and found their favorite entertainment: a street performer.



Who wants to help with the next part of his act? Lucy does!


She was awesome and got a huge round of applause. (I hope this doesn't give her any career ideas.)



I joined the family in visiting some amazing Montreal churches, like the Basilica of Notre Dame.

I think Lucy takes after her Gram. As soon as we got in the building, she snatched the camera and photographed EVERYTHING. All of these pictures are hers.

We also visited the smaller pilgrimage chapel of Notre Dame de Bonsecours. It is notable for the models of ships hanging from the ceiling which, for some unaccountable reason, Lucy actually didn't photograph.

Lucy DID get a nice picture of the shrine of St. Marguerite Bourgeouys and the original 17th century "Notre Dame" she brought with her from France. It's the dark little statuette in the center. Apparently it rescues sailors at sea -- hence the hanging ships.

Our hotel didn't have a swimming pool, but the kids quickly got over their disappointment when they discovered that we had our own "hot tub" in the bathroom! Their reward for being so good in this very un-child-friendly hotel was that they got to go "swimming" pretty much whenever they wanted!

P.S. we rushed home after my conference ended so Gavin could make it to the birthday party of his best Kindergarten friend, Elyas. They had face painters at the party who made Gavin into a super-scary skeleton. He refused to look in the mirror because he scared himself too much.

I was just standing there watching the face painter when I noticed the painting behind them and realized -- THAT'S MY BARN! Elyas' dad is an artist and he came by about 18 months ago to take some pictures of our hay barn, but I completely forgot about it. The picture made it into a couple of juried exhibits and hung at a gallery for a while but hasn't yet sold. I stood in front of the painting during the entire party trying not to think about how great it would look on our wall.