Photo Shoot

Today was picture day for siblings at the KinderCare. The bambini were decked out in their matching-but-not-too-matchy-matchy finest. You never know how the shots will turn out so we took a stab at home, too.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

It was a rainy cold afternoon here in SLP and we needed a good post-nap activity to occupy both Joe and Clara for a while, so we decided on a PlayDough extravaganza! The whole family got into it. Joe made a big pancake, Clara was mesmerized by the Fun Factory, Julie made snowmen for the kids, and Ted made spaghetti and meatballs - seen here being manhandled by Clara. Much fun was had, no tears were shed, and an afternoon was filled with fun!

Scarf

Joe's class has been listening, of late, to The Lion King soundtrack on CD. Yesterday, he said to Ted, "Did you know Scarf lives in a cave? He's not nice. From Lion King. The CD." For Fans who may not have seen The Lion King movie (and Joe of course does not know there is a movie, and was a movie first), we should say that its villain is Scar.

Creche

The creche is also on display. Ted is in charge of this and Fans, he really outdid himself this year. Certain of our Fans know well that our creche is comprised of a motley crew, ranging from a panda bear to a tiger. Each year, Ted chooses one animal for each of the bambini to add to the menagerie; this year's have not yet been selected. This holiday season, working from left to right, Ted has created the following areas: angels-we-have-heard-on-high, a jungle, a dessert, a meadow, a farm, and a woodland. The woodland area features a lake made of blue construction paper. For our Fans familiar with the creche from its days at Ted's childhood home at Camel Hollow Road, we know that the question on your mind is "Where is the tee pee?" (Now, for other Fans, the question on your mind is "Tee pee. . .?") The tee pee is on the shores of the lake in the woodland area. The baby Jesus in the middle of it all, between the jungle and dessert areas, in front of both of those areas. Our babies visit the creche after their baths and affect migrations of various creatures--just like the Star of Bethlehem did!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

The first words out of Joe's mouth this morning were (you guessed it, Fans): "Can we put up the Christmas tree?" We got it out. While the bambini were awake. From then, until Ted left with the bambini in tow on a cloud of Julie's everlasting devotion, it was a glittery and shiny mess. Joe wanted to hang ornaments, so Clara did, too. Joe is capable of taking some--we stress the word some--direction; Clara, of course, is not. So Joe ferried ornaments to Ted to hang, while Clara got relegated to the carrier, where she was permitted to play with the Rottweiler jingle bell ornament. (She also played with her pink phone which she kept holding up to Julie's ear and saying, "Ello? Ello?!") That fragile peace lasted less than an hour.

After Ted and the bambini left (for Ridgedale mall as it turns out), Julie hung ornaments at a furious pace until reinforcements arrived in the form of Grandma Connie and Grandpa Charles. Grandma Connie trims a mean tree, but also has been known to spend a day doing it. Julie told her time was of the essence. Things were pretty well done by the time the bambini sailed back in, but there were enough ornaments for Joe to get his hand in it all again. Julie's heart smiled when she heard Grandma Connie giving him his first lesson in Tree Trimming According to Grandma Connie: the ornament has to dangle freely.

The tree is now trimmed. Julie finished the top up after the bambini had gone to bed. Ted helped after he saw her standing on the arm of the sofa again.*

But before that, and after nap, Clara managed to pull one ornament off, and is rather taken with turning on and off the lights. So although Joe could manage a "gentle touches" rule, and learned the word "delicate" in Christmas seasons past, we feel confident that a "no touch" rule must be the law of the season this year.

Oh but Fans, you should have seen Our Hero tonight, in his pjs, dancing around the tree, counting all the red ornaments as high as he could go, finding the purple one, and the snowmen, and the penguin and so on. Such joy.

*Longtime Fans may recall that Julie was chastised for pulling this stunt "when she was like, nine months pregnant." Let the record reflect that she was seven months pregnant:

http://joeekkers.blogspot.com/2010/02/unauthorized-cleaning.html