holiday musings

since we are not christian (dh is muslim, i'm a pagan-leaning atheist), christmas is always a bit of an exercise in purposeful action and a LOT of thought. i rather enjoy solstice and all its meanings, and i recognize that the celebrations surrounding christmas are truly pagan celebrations anyway. khary has really gotten into celebrating all the various american holidays, and christmas is his new favorite. (no matter how many times i try, he still says "christmas" instead of "solstice" or "winter," though he will sometimes say "holiday." small victories.) anyway, we needed some family traditions now that he's cognizant of such things and itching to start some family traditions.

first, our wintry bough. it is not a christmas tree. it is a stark branch representing the barrenness of winter. we make ornaments for it and decorate it to make it beautiful and warm, just like we spend more time together to make the cold, barren winter feel warm and cozy. i know that evergreens were traditionally used for their color and fragrance (as both were representative of life amidst the lack thereof in the rest of the winter landscape). but i barely got dawud to agree to a branch at ALL, much less an evergreen branch.

the salt-dough ornaments, just out of the oven:


and the wintry bough:


we also got a candle to burn the night of solstice, and while it was burning we'd tell family stories, reminisce about the past year, & talk about hopes for the upcoming year. but the 2nd round of throwing up germs got in the way of that. we may get to do it on new year's day, though. that's the only night we're not booked for a while!

i think we'll fill the birdfeeder tomorrow, too, since it's getting cold again and we didn't get a chance to put birdfood out on solstice either.

we didn't send cards out yet, either. in due time, though.

khalil's amazing hands (now with video)

he's clapping all the time & soo tickled by it.

he also clapped/brought his hands together on his own when we showed him the sign for "more"! he'd take a bite, look at us, clap, look at us again, then lunge at the food for another bite.

also, i've noticed that when we're all done with something & i make the sign (the one where you brush your hands together as "all done"), he claps and says "dah". now, he says "dah" a lot, but he consistently puts them together.

crazy kid. he's amazing.

he also cruised for the first time yesterday, rather than dropping to his bottom and crawling for something he wanted.

he also learned how to high five yesterday. i have some CUTE video of him and daddy high-fiving.

finally uploaded and formatted the video:



khary's hands aren't bad, either. ;)

sleep, mama, sleep

tuesday morning i woke up feeling like i'd been hit by a truck. khary, on the other hand, woke up with a tanker truck of energy to spare. not a good combo. my friend katje very graciously and generously offered to host khary so i could get some sleep, bless her. so off i shipped him, where he played with his best buddy lincoln (katje's son) in the snow. apparently katje gave very clear instructions about which snow was edible and which was not (the yellow kind). i got 3.5 hours of restful sleep that afternoon. ahhhh!

(rinse and repeat on wednesday.)

khary and linc:

cookie exchange madness

for those following on facebook, you know i've been working on peanut butter balls for a cookie exchange. success! and the cookie exchange was wunnerful.



a list of the fare:
dark chocolate truffles (dusted in cocoa).
rocky road, chocolate-peanut butter cookies, chocolate chunk cookies, and mini cupcakes.
cranberry and pistachio biscotti.
sablé snowflakes.
peanut-butter balls.
fudge.
nut bread, gingerbread (thin), and chocolate pretzels.
chocolate chip cookies.
pumpkin cookies.
oatmeal raisin cookies.
chocolate crinkles.
chocolate chip cookies and the cookies dipped in crushed candy canes.

EDITED TO ADD:
apparently someone brought an unexpected surprise: pukey germs!!! o_O it was an epidemic. and apparently not an isolated incident but part of a larger midwestern outbreak of pukiness. just glad we got ours out of the way right away. a lot of our friends got the next round & had pukey christmases. :(

resourceful kid

yesterday morning khary was watching "lazytown," a show i'm not allowed to interrupt, lest he miss his opportunity to copy one of sportacus' crazy-ass, death-defying moves. so that's when i come downstairs to the computer for a facebook fix, usually.

all is well and good until i hear the microwave open. and a plate being placed inside.

mind you, the kid is 3 and not yet 3.5 feet tall, so operating the microwave is not a regular or *permitted* activity.

i go upstairs and find that he has actually acted quite responsibly. his multi-step thought process was thus:
i'm hungry. open refrigerator, see 2 chicken nuggets left over from supper.
nuggets are cold, must be heated up. (grab bottle of ranch dressing.)
must be placed on plate.
must be heated in microwave.
must get stepstool to get plate and reach microwave.
stepstool is in the laundry room.
must remove child safety doorknob cover to get into laundry room.
get knife. pry doorknob cover apart.
procure stepstool, proceed to procurement of plate.
place nuggets on plate, open microwave door, place plate inside microwave.
O_O
tell mommy how proud you are that you could open the stepstool by yourself. (you know, cause THAT'S the trickiest part!?!)

he didn't make a mess at all, btw!

reality check re: santa

in a bedtime conversation tonight, khary and i were discussing what we were going to do in the morning (as usual). he said he wanted to make a "postcard" for santa, meaning he wanted to make a card to send. a red one, because he always wears red things. "oh, and i want to give him my old toys." "why?" "so he can give them to kids who don't have any & they'll be new to them." :::melt:::
damn, he's sweet! (ugh, i'm weeping now)

ALSO, he was talking about santa delivering all those toys and i asked if it might be that other people pretend and act like santa to give gifts instead. his reply? "that's not fun." AHA! "so it's more fun to talk about santa being real." "yeah." ah, mama sees now.

he also wants to leave santa a gift on christmas eve so he'll be surprised. i suggested milk and cookies, but he said he doesn't know yet, but it should be a better surprise than that. asked if he likes surprising people with gifts, he said it makes his tummy tickle when they're surprised and happy.

a great day to remember

yeah, yeah. it's been a while. whatev. today was a really fantabulous day, so i'm recording it here, lest i forget. :P (we did a lot)

earth scouts, where we went on a very short hike, gathering leaves for leaf rubbings. then we ate lunch @ the nature center, and khary played hide and seek with the other awesome homeschooled kids. (nevermind the crabby lady who told us not to let our kids run off like that. ugh. myob!)

came home, and khary still didn't want to nap, so we watched "word world" and just chilled for an hour.

went to the waldo bus terminal to meet some friends for a very short bus ride to brookside. walked to reading reptile, then to foo's fabulous frozen custard. bridget was nice enough to get us some custard. ;) i even found a couple of books at reading reptile that i may use for my black history unit in the homeschool co op. then caught the bus home.

played "the 1-2-3 game" with khary. he really does know his numbers (at least 1-5 anyway) and had fun. so much fun, we played "itsy bitsy spider" and then "sesame street bingo." all with NO tv! miraculous, i tell you! it was so fun.

we also say a blessing at every meal we eat together, especially supper:
blessings on this meal,
peace on the earth
and in our home
(and in our cars).

we're happy to be.
we're happy to be here.
we're happy to be here together.

very sweet.

just an absolutely gorgeous fall day and a really great day with my boys. (despite khalil and myself having an icky cold.)