Merry Christmas!

We had a lovely Christmas this year. My sister V came up to visit, and we had such fun spending time with her. I'm glad that she got to spend some time with Lucy, especially since she is growing and changing so quickly (and to top it off, V was not up here for Thanksgiving last month, when the rest of my family was in town). I'm also glad that V got to be with Sam on Christmas, which is such an exciting day for him.

We had a nice Christmas morning with V and my in laws. This was the first year that we had Christmas in our own home, so we tried to do things that could potentially turn into traditions. We intended on just looking at our stockings before breakfast, but we ended up opening presents too, since my father-in-law had to go to work. For breakfast J made ninety-minute cinnamon rolls with some really amazing icing, and I think that we will continue to have these delicious rolls in the years to come.

Here are some pictures from the weekend. We also had fun today with some cousins in the area before V had to fly back home, but we were so busy visiting that I forgot to pull out my camera for pictures.

On Christmas Eve morning Sam and J went with the cub scouts to pass out breakfasts to the homeless people in Pioneer Square. I think this is a great tradition and I hope we continue it in the years to come. In this photo J and Sam are riding on the bus to Pioneer Square with Sam's friend Leo.

Christmas Eve

Lucy with Gram on Christmas morning!

When J was growing up, his parents would take a picture of each child with the gifts that they received. As an adult, J has enjoyed looking back at those pictures to remember his toys and people who gave him those gifts. He wanted to be sure that we started the same thing for Sam this year. So far, Sam has enjoyed playing with his Angry Birds Transformers telepods, the magformers, and the Pokemon cards.

 

Lucy's big present was a jumper toy. She loves it! She also got some gifts, but she was more excited about the wrapping paper and ribbons than what actually was wrapped inside!

Christmas breakfast with our crowns from our crackers (although Lucy is wearing a separate crown that was a gift from V). Lucy also tried solid food (rice cereal) for the first time on Christmas morning, which was fun. She has been really interested in eating food (and even would practice masticating her little jaws while she watched us eat), while helped me realize that she was ready for trying to eat something new.

 

 We went to Zoo Lights for the first time this year with V, and it was really fun. One of my favorite displays was of the giant octopus on top of the aquarium (you can see some of its tentacles on the far right side of this photo).

 Sam with his glowing light saber that he carried around Zoo Lights

We are wearing semi-matching outfits from my sister C

The Benefits of a Cough

Yesterday Sam stayed home from school, due to a hacking cough that not only was probably contagious, but would have been a big disturbance in a classroom setting. Otherwise, though, Sam felt fine and was quite cheerful about getting to spend the day at home. He decided that it would be the perfect opportunity for him to pretend to be a cyborg character like General Grevious (who coughs due to a flaw in his technology). It was cute to see him think about his horrible cough in a positive way.

Alphonse Mucha Girl

The other day, Lucy was a bit grumpy (she was in want of a good nap), so I decided to dress her up in a bright and cheerful-looking outfit from my grandma, with a little headband that my friend Joanna made and gave to Lucy. I don't like a lot of headbands that are made for little girls (especially those with huge flowers that look as big as a satellite dish), but I think Joanna makes some very cute ones.

I think I have flowers-in-hair on my mind lately too, because I seem to come across books and calendars with art by Alphonse Mucha wherever I look. It seems like Mucha is really trendy and hip right now. I actually really like the Art Nouveau aesthetic of his art: it's flowy and gauzy and classical (in a timeless, female-personification sort of way) and celebrates nature. Plus, the images of women with flowers decorating their hair remind me of representations of Ozma by J.R. Neill (like this one from The Lost Princess of Oz). I used to think Ozma was the most beautiful creature, and I still regret not having the idea to be her for Halloween until I was an adult. Now I'm too old to convincingly dress up as the girl ruler!

Anyhow, here is my little Lucy, dressed up in her girly, flowery outfit. Perhaps her hair is too wispy and her cheeks are a bit too roundy round to let her pass for a Mucha girl, but I like to think that she fits with the aesthetic in a roundabout way. Here she is paired with a detail of Amethyst (1900) from Mucha's The Precious Stones series:

We love this little girl, even on her grumpy-ish days. She usually greets everyone with a big smile, right from the moment that we pick her up from her crib in her morning. She brings us a lot of joy.

"The Grapevine Connection" and a Valley Girl

When I was in fourth grade, I was in a musical called The Grapevine Connection at my elementary school. I wanted to play the part of Abby, a valley girl. I remember when I auditioned for the part, I took off my headband and handed it to a friend, so that I would be able to use my hair more easily as a prop (in order to sweep my bangs away from my face when I said phrases such as, "Like, fer shurr!"). My music teacher Miss Kendall watched me take off my headband and she paid close attention to my audition. When I got the part, I was convinced at the time that removing my headband helped me secure the role.

I remember that there was a boy in our class named Zach Smith, who played the lead role as a nerd named Stanley. He played an excellent nerd and the whole class was cracking up when he auditioned for the part. Years later, I thought it was amusing that in high school Zach became one of the star quarterbacks of the football team as a freshman, and he was instantly catapulted into high society with the popular kids. I used to wonder if he was embarrassed about his role as a nerd in the elementary school play, when he hobnobbed with the elite in high school.

Anyhow, when I was in the play I had to sing a solo about Thomas Edison. The song, which discusses the invention of the light bulb, is set up in such a way so that it shows how Abby, the ditzy valley girl, is actually more intelligent than one might assume. I still remember the lyrics of the song, and for some reason the lyrics of the chorus came into my mind:

"A drifter, a dreamer,
He lit up the world,
And he did it incandescently."

However, when I was thinking about the song an these lyrics in my mind yesterday, I was surprised to realize that I didn't pronounce the word "incandescently" correctly in fourth grade. I stressed the incorrect syllable back then, singing the word as "in-CAN-dee-scent-ly" instead of "in-can-DEH-scent-ly." And now that I've realized this, I wonder why my music teacher didn't correct me on the pronunciation. Did she not notice? Or did she not know how to pronounce the word herself? Perhaps she thought it would be in character to have a valley girl mispronounce a tricky word that isn't normally part of a fourth grader's vocabulary? I will never know!

I can't find any video clips from this musical on YouTube, except for this performance of the chorus number "Way Back." This isn't my elementary school, but I think that my performance was about the same year (circa 1992).