Rosemary and Louis's Adventures: Christmas and other December Fun!

The last Friday of November James's rugby team had a field clean up day, and James took Louis to help. He was the star of the show, not just on account of his being a cute kid, but mostly because everyone admitted that he was about the hardest worker there. For several hours, he shoveled mulch and picked up trash alongside the guys without rest!

We went to the usual fun Austin season kick-off events, the lighting of the Zilker tree (along with Alicia and Amity's family, and thermoses of wine!) and the gingerbread village at the Four Seasons. This year, we had a special treat as we watched the bats on the back lawn after admiring the gingerbread village -- they stayed late in Austin this year, I suppose due to the warm weather.

This year, we had all the decorations up early! By the first weekend of December, we had already:

Had our first sleepless night (Rosemary was in our room about six times on November 30th -- one time singing "Jingle Bells") -- what was the source of extreme excitement? Opening up the first day of the new Playmobil advent calendar!
Made peppermint bark for the neighbors and teachers
Had the tree up and decorated, as well as the outdoor lights
Purchased teacher gifts and sent family gifts
Strung cranberries and popcorn for the birds (I was a little sad about this, as Rosemary was SO into this last year, but didn't care that much about it this year)
Made several kinds of ornaments -- sequin ornaments, and neat ones out of clear glass balls and feathers from Rosemary's collection
Done some volunteer work with Little Helping Hands, this really wonderful new organization we've become involved with that sets up family volunteer opportunities. We made cards for an Angel Tree to benefit a homeless shelter and helped Operation Blue Santa (Austin police force's Christmas charity which benefits 3,000 families! Very impressive) wrap gifts

How do you like that organization?!?!? It was so much stuff that I had to keep the kids home from school one day just to do Christmas-related decoration and activity.

Kyle and the kids rocking out playing "Jingle Bells" on the piano, guitar, and sitar:

We had a wonderful visit to Burbank with Summer and Dev that was a really fun low-stress (and by that I mean for US -- might have been a little more for Summer and Dev :-) early Christmas celebration (see Summer's post here, and the completed coop here). James of course needed a project, so, in addition to helping Dev kill and cook a Turkey (see Summer's post), he built Dev and Summer a chicken coop, with Louis (shown below wearing various "worker outfirts" as he calls them -- one is the fireman costume which he wore on the plane on the way to Burbank, and one is a train engineer costume Dev and Summer gave him for Christmas, which he insists is a "fire worker" costume) and the girls's help.

Louis immediately found the toy chainsaw I had given Arthur for his first birthday and took it over... pretending to cut you or screw parts of you together with tools is a sign he likes you.

A few years ago I wouldn't have necessarily pegged Summer as an agenda girl, but sure enough, she had activities planned for us every day! Part from her Christmas activity advent calendar, and part from her shopping and cooking calendar. It was all very fun and one of the best parts was seeing how incredibly wonderfully the older kids -- and especially the "girls" got along. Last visit with the Kumars in June there was more tension between the two as their polar opposite personalities clashed, but this time Rosemary was feeling more benign... as Beatrice suggested crazy things or wanted to pretend to be crazy things, Rosemary would laugh and indulge her most of the time and then occasionally turn to me and let me know, "we're just pretending" (mostly of course to reassure herself that she knows the difference." Similarly, just before we went to Burbank, I read her Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which she truly enjoyed, but had to let me know about halfway through: "This book is pretty much wrong. The author is pretty crazy with his imaginations."

That said, the girls spent much of their time in the car together giggling about how everything was a french fry, and on the way home from seeing Christmas lights, Beatrice announced to me suddenly and heartbreakingly sweetly, "I'm really going to miss you when you're gone!"

The kids watching a Christmas movie projected on the wall

My beloved Marie and her wonderful husband Rich invited us over for dinner one night ...I also got to see other wonderful friends: Way-Ting and David (James and I actually met them out for dinner, sans kids), Larry and Maria, and Nadia. Unfortunately I don't have pictures, but it was really especially great of Summer to host a craft party for the kids and invite some of our old friends so the kids could get together.

We took the cousins to see their first (for some of them... maybe all except Rosemary, I can't recall...) snow!

Making awesome and easy apple cinnamon ornaments...

When we got home, Rosemary, Louis and I painted them...

You know you're having fun when Louis... one of the world's most successful sleep-fighters... conks out on the couch completely voluntarily, in the middle of the afternoon, amidst barking dogs and talking people.

Fun at the LA Zoo...

Beatrice looking a little bit like a bag lady...

Thank you Summer and Dev for a really great time. It was great to see the cousins together having so much fun, and always fun to see you. Summer, I don't think I will ever forget that sushi lunch where Arthur threw up all over the table and restaurant, we calmly cleaned it up, and then ordered more sushi. This is what five years of combined parenting experience has earned us!

When we got back the kids had one more day of school and Christmas chapel (sniff... Rosemary's last -- between the Sandy Hook shooting and related opening prayer, it being Rosemary's last Christmas chapel I cried quite a lot!) and then were off for Christmas break! (Note: I do think we should get a parenting medal for not having the kids in school from approximately December 7 to January 8). You will note: LOUIS SUNG! No tears! No Ms. Melissa holding him! That was almost the most sad of all!

One of Louis's interesting installations...

As soon as we got back, Julie came to town (after a 24-hour trip -- lots of "weather" delays) and we proceeded to have a really wonderful time. I don't think I took a single picture on Christmas day, unfortunately, so this is all I got. This was our trip to see the lights at Johnson City with Aunt Julie and Aunt Mo -- they were spectacular! It was our first year to host the extended family, Mamo came down and stayed with us, and mom and dad stayed at a nearby rental place. We ate well... smoked prime rib, bacon stuffed duck, and partied at the Silvergleids and with the Barkers, and had overall a really fun time! No illness this year and little drama that I can remember!