Watch Words

This notice of an overdue book from the library at Joe's school arrived the week before the winter break. We thought you might also be amused by the book's title, Fans.

The Letter Game

Also from the entertainment files, while at the Grandparents Trump's, we played several rounds of The Letter Game around the dinner table. Longtime Fans may recognize this game as the one in which players in turn name words beginning with the letter selected by one of the players.  (When you hang with dorks you must roll like a dork!)  It is fun to hear the bambini's respectively emerging vocabularies. Someone--Joe or Clara--picked V, a groan-inducing letter that proved a surprisingly rich vein. (Oh no they didn't! Oh yes, we did, Fans. We did.)

That's Entertainment! | Here We Come A Wassailing and Laughing All the Way

The return trip.  "Red" packed to the brim!

We drove to Chicago which means we needed to entertain ourselves for at least two seven-hour stretches without driving off the road. On the way down to the Grandparents Trump's this meant Joe trying to sight read both music and lyrics from a book of Christmas carols sent by the bambini's Great Aunt Susie and Great Uncle Les. Maestro Joseph was quite taken with Deck the Halls, and really, what's not to love with its repetitive but rousing fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la (that's eight la-s! la!!!) refrain? At one point, Julie explained that "don we now our gay apparel" meant "put on our party clothes" and Joe substituted that phrase right in instead of "don we now our gay apparel."

The bambini are also trying to figure out how to tell jokes and the way back home provided this exchange which typifies Joe's still-oft propensity for mistakenly giving away the punch line and Clara's for making unintended jokes by missing entirely the subtlty on which they so often depend:

Joe: Mommy! A cowboy named Friday rides out Friday and back on Friday. How is this possible??? And the horse is named Friday.

Julie: [beat] I think you just told me how it's possible: the horse is named Friday!

Clara: Hey! What if the cowboy is named Friday and the horse is named Tuesday?!

Ted: I love your jokes Clara.

Joe: What about my jokes?

Ted: Yours, too.

A Merry Little Christmas

Fans! We are back--with a three video post!--from Chicago and environs where we celebrated Christmas with the Grandparents Trump, and our tenth wedding anniversary with the help of the Grandparents Trump. They watched the bambini while we spent three days and nights in Chicago where Ted shot this short clip from the window of our hotel room.

And here is a video shot by stringer cameraman Grandpa Charles after we'd gotten off the train upon our return from the city. Turn it up or listen close to hear how Birdie Girl sometimes makes like To Kill A Mockingbird's Scout and calls close adult relatives only by their first names. And what a sweet, make-your-heart-burst welcome from our two dear little heroes.

Santa found them at their Grandparents Trump's house, though the doll house he gave to Clara he left in Minnesota. Clever Santa! He correctly hedged that this miniature mansion would not fit in our car what with all the other gifts the bambini received from their legion adoring Fans. (See first moments with it here.)  Christmas morning outtakes can be seen below, together with pictures of the cookies the bambini decorated for Santa. (You might be amused to note the gender of certain of these gingerbread people by the unwitting, but careful, placement of gumdrops and other decorative flair by Our Hero. You need not be keen-eyed to do so.) 'Tis the season for merry making!

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Bambini, post-show

Joe was on the upswing last Sunday afternoon when we went to see How the Grinch Stole Christmas at the Minneapolis Children's Theater. It's on the short side, so it was just the thing, and our seats were in a row just four seats long, stage left, lower balcony. The bambini were on the edges of their seats.  Joe was gripping the rail, and had his face pressed to it, his eyes peering up over it.  Would the Grinch bring back Christmas?!?! The relief was visible when he did.  After it was over, Julie waited with the bambini for the house to clear while Ted got the car, so that the bambini could check out the orchestra pit.  Biride was full of questions for the usher tasked with making sure no one took pictures inside the theater or went up on the stage: how did the people get out of there [the orchestra pit]? Where were they now? What about the other people [the actors]? Where were they? Why did we need tickets? Brigade, we can only say this usher was A+ at her job.  After the show, we drove home by way of the chain of lakes, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show house!  And Fans, we discovered it's for sale!  Julie posed in front of it and made a slightly embarrassed Ted take her picture like she was a tourist in want of a hat to toss in the air.  You only go around once.  The Grinch knew it, too.

We're gonna make it after all!