Freedom of the Press

The man who bravely stood up for humanity is imprisoned and tortured, while those responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands and suffering of millions more are free.

The Nutcracker

'Tis the season of family traditions. I'm not sure if this is one we'll keep.

This is the third year we've added it to our holiday traditions. It's very expensive and can feel more like a chore than holiday magic. I didn't know I had a passive-aggressive side, but I put off getting tickets for the show this year -- memories of a nutcracker-inspired tantrum or two still sting.

It's a local production with two performances a day, for three days. This year it was Friday, Saturday, and today. Tickets, if there were any left, would be available an hour before curtain at the theatre. The show was to start at 1:00, so at 11:45, I asked the girls if they wanted to give it a try. They got dressed quickly and we hurried into town, while the 6yo made up a song about how it was fun to run into town on a very wintry day. The 8yo offered "a merry wintry day." We got to the theatre and got in line. I asked for the best three seats together that they had left (the price range was $30, $35, and $40). The ticket person handed me my three and said, "That will be $90, please." And $90 bought us three seats in the center of the very last row of the very top balcony.

A surprise treat for me: the party people are performed by non-ballet folks from the community.
The fella playing the Father this year (the guy on the right), is a friend of mine.

The 8yo seemed captivated by the show.

A pas de deux

By contrast, with a few rare exceptions when her attention was grabbed by the action on stage, the 6yo whined about one thing or another through the entire show, eventually nearly growling.

The big scene-stealer: kid reindeer

We walked home after the show, not floating on air from the magic of a shared family holiday tradition, but griping about cold feet (the 8yo); lack of sweets (the 6yo); and the desire to cross this tradition off the list (me).

Mother Ginger and her enormous skirts

We got home and I administered emergency molasses cookies to the girls. Then they made up a ballet or two while I made supper. After supper, we sat down for the pre-bath hair-comb, which requires a movie. The girls surprised me by choosing the dvd of the Baryshnikov Nutcracker instead of Kung Fu Panda.

As we watched, we began to talk about some of the things we had enjoyed from today's live performance. And we were re-writing the day's story to give it a happy ending.

I still don't know if we'll go next year. I gotta learn my lesson some day, don't I?

Molasses Cookies

The girls and I made these yesterday.
There are still a few left...

Roller Coaster Ride

When I lived in New York, one of my favorite things to do was ride my bike from my apartment on 107th street, through the city, over the Brooklyn Bridge, and out to Coney Island. Once there, I would ride on the Cyclone roller coaster.

google image

I often said it was like instant therapy: approximately 60 seconds of non-stop laughter and thrills.

Peace.

Haunted Houses, Part II

The girls worked for hours on their houses today, mixing colors, cutting shapes, gluing and painting. I didn't do much to mine, except color a couple panels yellow, then notice a curly footprint someone had made on one of them when she accidentally stepped on it, then take the shoe and make curly markings on both panels...

The 8yo's doorway.

The 6yo's corner, with vines.

My swirls.

Instead of shopping today, we're in the shop!

We watched The Nightmare Before Christmas, even though the 6yo, worried about it being too scary, had said, "Ina. It's called 'Nightmare,' so that means nightmare for me!"

As we were watching it, the 6yo kept saying, "So far, so good." It turns out it wasn't scary, it was inspiring!

So we're making our own haunted houses...

We're gonna need a bigger paint brush...

A Modest Feast

Our modest feast, at our humble table: Turkey that I had basted with a butter/lemon/garlic/basil mixture; Cranberry sauce (just water, sugar, and cranberries); Garlic mashed potatoes (with some grated potato skins included); Sweet potato steak fries; Romaine with basil sprigs.

I had an inspiration as we were preparing the pie after supper. I had originally planned to make a pear/blueberry pie, and had even bought a little over-priced out-of-season container of berries. Then, as I was looking at the big bowl of pear slices, I decided to skip the blueberries, and instead, I added two scoops of the cranberry sauce leftover from dinner. I also added some lemon zest and some candied ginger bits. This was possibly the best pie ever! And what a flaky crust!

The 6yo really wanted to make a pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin and have it look exactly like Snoopy's does in the Charlie Brown movie. When I couldn't find a sugar pumpkin this week, she still wanted to make a pumpkin pie using canned pumpkin. This is the standard pumpkin pie, except that my quarter cup measure was out on the table with flour in it left over from when I was rolling crusts, so when I reached in the drawer to grab the smallest measuring cup to measure three scoops of sugar, I actually grabbed the one third cup. Instead of three quarter cups of sugar, this pie has one cup of sugar. Yeah, it's a little too sweet. We thought we might try it with a scoop of greek yogurt tomorrow instead of whipped cream.

I am grateful for this delicious food, for my family, and for the strange cyber-family I have found here.

Peace to you and yours.