We had a great Christmas! Lots of presents, snow on the ground outside, plenty of cookies, our gas fireplace purring in the corner, and the excited wonder of children to make it special.
However, we did not anticipate how much our 1.5-year-old Graham would want 5-year-old Simon's toys. Our usual rule is that they don't have to share toys on the first day of receiving them, but Graham was squealing and squealing for Simon's livestock truck and the toy Winnebago. So we made an exception to the sharing rule, since Simon had plenty of toys anyway. Graham finally opened up his own school bus and happily played with it for an hour. What a good little guy.
The Bane of Fathers On Christmas Day has changed from lack of batteries, to those pesky wires that they use to attach toys to their packaging so strongly that Jimmy Valentine himself couldn't separate them. Why do all four wheels have to be tied into the box? There was also a Hot Wheels dual racetrack with a hundred parts that I had to put together, but eventually I was able to follow the instructions to their successful conclusion. Good thing my brother sent us that package of sausage, cheese, and crackers from Hickory Farms!
By 10am our living room was completely filled with wreckage, so Christmas must have been a success.
I took Isabel (7) and Simon ice-skating yesterday on her new ice skates. She's a natural! I had to hold up Simon, since he is a little wobbly on his first time out. Me, I haven't been ice skating for 25 years. But I did okay. Ice skating comes back quicker than differential equations.
I played "O Holy Night" on my guitar for church on Sunday morning, all three verses. I even hit the Bm chord successfully a couple of times! I need to play with a group in order to get better, though, like I did for the Christmas Eve service. We had: me on 12-string guitar, a six-string guitar, a bass guitar, a harp, a cello, a flute, a bongo drum, and three singers. That makes good combo for Christmas carols.
The Triumph of Hope over Experience
