Merry Christmas, Happy
Chanukah, Feliz Navidad and Happy Holidays!
I
have to begin by telling you that our Christmas tree is a lemon this year – not
a lemon tree, but a lemon of a tree.
It’s our own fault. We
trudged through the tree farm, selected the beauty and cut it down
ourselves. It was only after we
hauled it home and installed it in our living room we realized there were
several problems.
The
first issue: this tree is very pokey.
I know most real trees can be bristly, but this one is like decorating a
cactus. Our three, sweet children
were attempting to help us decorate the tree, but couldn’t get the ornaments
very far on the branches. This led
to multiple cries of, “Ornament down!” As the fragile heirlooms kept crashing on the hardwood
floor Tyler suggested the kids try to put the ornaments a bit further back on
the tree. I couldn’t really blame
them, though, as my own wrists were stinging and sticky from the spikes.
The
second bummer is that this tree stinks.
Instead of the anticipated fresh smell of evergreen we have evergreen
mixed with something truly awful.
Tyler, with his winemaker’s nose, finally deduced the noxious smell was
like body odor. I’m afraid he is
spot on. The tree is really pretty
it just smells like a locker room. So please come and see us this holiday season – we’ll have a
clothespin for your nose and a seat by the fire far, far away from our
porcupine tree.
Mr. Shoes I’ve always known Tyler was a rock star, but
this year we got confirmation when our favorite shoe brand, Fluevog, created a
shoe and named it after Tyler. It
is really too crazy to believe but you should check it out for yourself. It all began when Tyler was telling a
friend someone should design a shoe for winemakers that would work in the
cellar and when entertaining a customer.
This friend wrote Fluevog and before we knew it Tyler received an email
saying his shoes were ready, not just “The Winemaker”, but the “Tyler Thomas”. If you’ve ever wanted to walk a mile in
Tyler’s shoes, now you literally have the chance.
Mrs. 5K I started running again this year. I actually enjoy running and back when
I was 10 and 11 I was pretty good at it until tendonatitis, Sever’s disease and
chronic shin splits led to a permanent feeling hiatus from running. So far with constant stretching, icing
and devotion to my compression socks my body is letting me run. I did my first 5K and my goal was just
to run the whole way with no walking.
I saw a photo of a man running and the back of his T-shirt had the
following bullet points: 50, fat, diabetic, ahead of you. After appreciating the humor of the
shirt I sighed realizing he was right.
I may not be fast, but I am so happy to be running.
Mr. Director Micah’s current career choice is to be a
filmmaker, followed by a Lego designer or chef. He has a good chance at any of these. I’ve heard some of his script ideas and
let me tell you they are action packed.
Micah really does like creating stories and his current cast of
characters (i.e. his family) often gets more than enough of his direction.
In
addition to his big screen dreams, Micah has been really into science, sports
(baseball, swimming and soccer) and music. Taking into account that I am his mom, Micah has brought
tears to my eyes with how beautifully he plays the piano. I guess maybe he’ll have the music
scores for his future films, too.
Mr. Speller Elias loves to spell everything and I mean
everything. He’ll run in the house
calling, “M-A-M-A!” I’m not a very
auditory person, so it always takes me a beat to even figure out he is talking
to me. Throw in the possibility
that he could be spelling in English or Spanish and it’s wonder we can
communicate at all. It is fun to
watch him unlock language.
Big
news for Elias this year was breaking his right arm twice. The first time he was riding his bike
and just fell over. It was a
doozie. The new hinge in his
forearm left no question about the injury. Two months later he was playing goalie at soccer camp and
fell just right on his not completely healed bones and re-snapped them. No surgery was needed, but he has spent
5 months of this year in a cast.
Our ambidextrous boy has declared himself officially left-handed. His wish list this Christmas includes
lot of good physical therapy: a left-handed baseball glove, a tennis racket and
a ukulele. Oh, I mean u-k-u-l-e-le.
Miss
Animal-Changer Noelle has
always loved animals and always loved playing with her big brothers. This year she has entered into their
games as a variety of animals: owl, puppy, kitten, penguin, etc. This has spilled over into her
interaction with Tyler and me.
When you speak to her you don’t know if Noelle is going to answer or if
it will be a very friendly mammal or bird (she usually chooses from those two
categories, but I did meet a very cute snake at one point this year.) I have been greeted on many a morning
with a very sweet, “Squaaak!”
That’s baby penguin, in case you were unsure.
Noelle
began preschool this fall and has also tried her hand at ballet and recently,
gymnastics. If she ends up having
the interest she certainly has the aptitude and physique for gymnastics. Weighing in at 27 lbs. this
four-year-old is a petite dynamo.
I think perhaps all her animal games have confused her and that is why
she eats like a bird.
“…LORD
of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged
wine …
He will swallow up
death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the
reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth … It will be said
on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might
save us …This is the LORD; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
--Isaiah 25:6-9
