Some Assembly Required

Christmas Day has always carried with it the semblance of the paradoxies we hold most dear. We celebrate the Savior of the world come born in a stable trough. We celebrate the birth of a King whose gift of eternal life was manifest in His own death. And we celebrate the birth of this new life on one of the darkest days of the calendar year. A recently discovered paradoxy of Christmas day is the unassembled "gift".

We are all gathered in Illinois this year for Bug's family gathering. The girls are eating up every second of it. Our friend Freddie is here from Albania, by way of Boston where he is studying at the Fletcher School at Tufts. The authentic vanOrman Christmas will occur tomorrow, upon the arrival of the rest of the family, but today, for good measure, Tua and Pip were allowed to open two presents. They came unassembled and Freddie and I spent most of Christmas day flummoxed. The directions were written in a dialect of English which was foriegn to me. At the end of the day though, there was a new easel and kitchen set which were both met, like all new gifts on Christmas day, with about as much sheer joy as the indifference that followed.

pre party party

It's December and we've got lots of birthdays over the next few weeks. Tonight we got underway with a practice session. Tua and Pip's joint pre-party party at Grandma & Grandpa Whiteford's house. The girls were thrilled. They got to hang with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. Pippa got to blow out her first candle with the help of her sister.

Christmas Photos

Random shots from our ancient camera. It will be retired soon due to the fact that it can't keep up with toddlers.

More November

Below are some shots from thanksgiving weekend at Seth's folks house. The girls did well, Tua out-eating her mom and dad in turkey and Pippa winning the prize for the most winsome smile at the table.

Trees

Tua made a gift for us today. During crafts hour at nursury, the children were all given material to assemble into trees. Every branch had a word that represented what the child was most thankful for. I can only assume that Tua does not grasp the concept of gratitude yet and was only fishing for words out of her small (but growing) collection of language, because the branches of her tree bore two words only: 'mommy' and 'cheese'.

The Musician and the Cook

cut

Last week, Seth's hair had reached the length required for donation.






The hair will go to Locks of Love, a hair replacement charity which offers wigs at little or no cost to children who have lost thier hair to surgery, cancer, or disease. If you've got a fast growing top and don;t mind a drastic shearing every few year or two, I would recommend the hair donation route.






Tua and cousin Pascal reacting to the new look.

Pippa in her oft frequented leaf pile.

This one was taken tonight just before bed. Pip has taken to this rocking chair like a duck to water.