You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December 2008.
Not much to say other than, take a look at these guys! Two hours outside in the cold. Hearty midwesterners we are raisin’ here, I tell ya!
Another snow day in less than two weeks! This is some sort of record for a northern city that went 5 years without calling a snow day. New superintendent? Maybe. Weather changes? Possibly. Absolutely magical? YES!
For the one person who reads my blog, I promise to get some pics of the boys up today playing in the snow. One of them is still sleeping as I post this. However, check out my big, big boy playing in the snow.
A Man and His Machine.
Dueling Snowblowers. Ian SO kicked this guy's butt. Of course, his competition is, like, 80. But still ...
Check out our snow!
Here is the first of many, I am sure, pictures of Oscar in the snow. He is only 6, but it is up to his knees!!
Up to my knees in snow!
Every year my husband Ian and I have a brief battle with Christmas and what it means for our family. We are not Christian, we don’t belong to any type of church or religious organization, and we are too old to truly believe in Santa. To complicate the matter further we have a menorah and several dreidels in our home even though we are not Jewish because our children have gone and go to an amazing Jewish preschool. I was raised Catholic and Santa came to my home every Christmas Eve after midnight mass. My husband’s family led a similar religion-less life much like our own now. They spent time with family and friends on Christmas Eve which became a tradition that would go on today if they had not left Carbondale. But for us, for this family we still are trying to figure out what Christmas means?
We started to try to define it as Family Time by attempting to tone down our family’s conspicuous consumption on December 25th. To do that we decided to adopt our friends’ gift giving plan for Christmas. It works great for them as they are Catholic and do not have any of the above mentioned Holiday Angst. Their plan is simple: three presents for each child. If three presents were good enough for Jesus then three presents are just fine for their children. Of course they have not mentioned the value of the gifts given the Christ Child, but their kids are smart and they will figure it out in time. So two years ago we sat Oscar down to explain the above mentioned plan. He sat. He thought. Then he looked right at me and said, “Who the hell is Jesus?”
Right. And that begs the question, So what the hell is Christmas? I guess for us for now it is all about magic. Santa is magic, you know. How else would he get all those presents to all those kids? And even magic has its answers, right? Copperfield, Penn & Teller, David Blaine all have their secrets and they all have answers to the age old question, “How did you do that?” they just choose not to answer. However, this brings about yet another one of the worries that Ian and I have: once the Santa Magic has been uncovered will we get the question of, “Why did you do that?” “Well … on nights you didn’t want to go to bed for a brief moment in time we had the upper hand?” or “In desperate times you use desperate measures?” or how about this “Magic doesn’t happen all on its own, it always has a helping hand.”
So maybe that is what our Christmas is about, at least for now: Magic. The belief in something unbelievable. The joy of being with family. The wonder of knowing that every year someone will bring you a treasure no matter what. The delight in knowing that for a flicker in time my children believe in something much, much larger than life.
I vividly remember Snow Days as a child. They were days filled with magic. And it didn’t matter if I could go outside and sled, or if my mom spent the day amusing me, or if I spent it snuggled up with a book or if I got extra T.V. time; it all was under the glow of the power of a Snow Day and so it was GREAT! Today I have the opportunity to share that magic with my two boys.
During the long winters in the upper Midwest it is sometimes difficult to see the magic and beauty of cold mostly dark winter days. Especially since our winter lasts longer than most. But on days like today with over 3 inches of fresh new snow and it is still falling, you have to smile. This is the magic, the joy and wonder of winter. Everything is quiet. We are insulated under a new blanket of snow making everything look new and exciting.
Although we will need to stay in for a while this morning (the wind chill is at 12 degrees and that does not make for a Fun Mommy outside) we will be out and about once the sun comes up and tries to slightly warm our newly blanketed plain. For now, I will enjoy the quiet and my cup of tea and start planning crafts and other activities. Today I am staying home with my boys.
