The Carousel of Life

The kids have discovered Mary Poppins. They are mesmerized by it, the songs, the dancing, and the accents have them completely star struck. Luke copies the way Bert dances and I have to say he is pretty spot on with the moves. When it's time to go one of them will say "spit spot" well, actually Ellie says it more like "split splot". The scene where they ride the carousel horses is one of their favorites so when John told them about the carousel at the New York State Museum Ellie was all in and wanted to go straight away.

Today we happened to both have the day off so we whisked them away for a carousel ride and took a trip back in time for ourselves. The State Museum looks the same as it did when we were kids. The statues of loggers, the stuffed giant wholly mammoth, the vintage displays of Adirondack campers and the Native American Longhouse are all exactly as I remembered them. There is now an entire wing devoted to 9/11 which is of course solemn and breath-taking. I peered into a trailer of all of the "trash" that was saved of make-shift memorials from families of the missing. It was eerie, it reminded me of this and as I walked away I made the sign of the cross because I just didn't know what else to do.

We meandered through the diverse neighborhoods of Manhattan, saw lots of bird species and bones of fish, the skeleton of a mastadon, and made wishes in a fountain. It all felt like we were living in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Every so often John would grab my hand as we watched the kids take in the magic of what they saw. It was just the right kind of magic to distract me from what happened on this day 9 years ago.

She named her horse "boy" and was saying, "bye bye boy!"

Seriously looks like a scene from Ferris Bueller right? I mean, if he had kids and was 36, not 17.

Saying good-bye to the train conductor.

Too young to understand what this means.

Father Daughter Dance

Ellie handed him B and said, "you wear B. You be the Prince daddy. And I'll be the princess. Come to the ball with me. Okay?"

So he did.

It's pretty clear that we desperately need a real camera.

Lately

The pics say: We roasted marshmallows in the fireplace.

The truth: The kids were happy as clams, and loved it.

The pic says: We went to the movies. And we look happy.

The truth: We spent $50, Luke "needed" to pee 5 times, so we were that annoying family who gets up and down multiple times and then he wanted to leave early. Ellie loved every minute of it. Not quite the family bonding time we had hoped for.

The pic says: It snowed.

The truth: It did.

Snow + Angels

We had the littlest bit of snow last Friday. Luke took advantage of that and as I was getting Ellie into the car he laid right down and spread his wings.

Aunt Hannah and Uncle Joe gave Ellie a princess castle tent for Christmas and the kids have been enjoying playing in the new "fort". Last weekend they had a little kissing session in there and I'm so glad I was able to capture it, even though the pictures are terrible the expressions on their faces are priceless.






And just because I loved this little moment, here's another:

Perspective

I've been thinking a lot lately about how blessed I was to have had so many years of continuity with all of the holiday traditions that my family celebrated. I spent 33 Christmas Eves at my grandmother's house with my cousins. 33 years is a long time. It grew to include our spouses and children, her house was literally filled with laughter. There was the hole we felt after my grandfather died and then again after my dad was gone and then when my grandmother's brother passed away. Always moments of remembering in our way individual way, but still merrymaking to be had. My father would put the money envelopes we were given in his shirt pocket. I loved that. The windows would fog up with all of us crammed in there, so we'd have to open the front door. My brother would have us listen to his fire scanner as the local "authorities" tracked Santa. Hess trucks would be coveted. Pizza was consumed. Yes, pizza. This all encompassing tradition has now ended, new ones will begin, the Hess trucks remain. How lucky though that I had an obnoxious amount of years of expectations that were quite literally always met.

Christmas 2011 in pictures

I'm home with the kids all week and thus have more time for pictures than words. Enjoy and Merry Christmas.

Christmas Eve at Grandma's. We can hardly contain our excitement.

Luke got a guitar from Auntie Kristie and Uncle Tom. He has waited so long for one that his reaction was priceless. "It's a gui..." he could barely say the word he was so happy.

Taking a break to gather our thoughts.

Christmas morning and Luke does in fact have tape in his stocking. Thank you Santa.

What is in the big box??

A dollhouse for Ellie.

The Nerfman cometh.

Dart tag!

John gets some alone time with the guitar.

We need a bigger house.

Luke got a camera from Grandma, so we took a little walk around Crandall Park and took some pictures as we tested the water with a stick.

Luke "Bono" Stevens.

He kills me.

Ellie and her dollhouse.