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Friday, November 14, 2014

Anticipation



When I woke up this morning, I was excited to find it was snowing heavily. I've never minded the snow - and have even been known to gush over the romance of chopping wood on a snowy day for a crackling fire - but now I see the enchantment of those fluffy flakes all the more because of my son. I hurried to his room to get him out of bed, anxious to see his reaction. "Drake!" I said, "It's snowing! Do you wanna come see it?" 

"Uhgay!" he squeeled, jumping up.


I swooped him up and we went to the couch. He stood on the cushions with his elbows propped on the back of the couch and his nose to the window. His eyes were wide with delight at the white world outside. "Is Kissmass snow?!" he asked.


The question surprised me. He'd never shown any understanding of the coming Holidays before. We haven't even been talking about Christmas in the house yet. When I finished giggling over the adorable toddler incorrectness of his question - the simple connection he had made in his brain between snow and Christmas - I explained to him, "Yes, Christmas comes in the winter. But not yet. First we have Thanksgiving, then your Birthday, then Christmas."


To which he responded, "My burfday?!"



My son is anticipating. What a fun thing to watch happen. Last year, he had a good time at his birthday party and at Christmas. He liked the games and the toys and the people and the lights. But he never knew any of it was coming, and not because we hadn't told him. But this year, he is old enough to understand that something fun will be happening soon, but not yet. 

Patience and anticipation. I think that may be at the heart of what I love most about the holiday season. The build up. The excitement. The planning and preparing. And this year, it's even more exciting, because Drake is excited. 

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Fixed Up For Halloween

Well, it threatened to go badly a couple of times - like when he fell asleep in the car on the way to Trick or Treating - but in the end we had a pretty great little Halloween. The promise of candy roused him and we even made the busy, crowded Downtown loop without any meltdowns. He handled the phrases "Trick or Treat" and "Happy Halloween!" much more easily than last year and it was incredibly cute to watch. He even started giving people a thumbs up after he saw an adult do it. I was definitely that gushing, proud parent. After our afternoon of Trick-or-Treating, Mommy had to go to work, and Daddy and Drake headed home to pass out candy to the other kids. I understand that Drake called them all his friends, and even passed out candy without Dad once when Justin was in the kitchen. Justin heard Drake's tiny voice say, "Happy Halloween!" and came to the sunporch to see two little girls walking away down the sidewalk. Sweet child of mine.







Our first family costume came together pretty darn great, though not very many people understood it. In case you don't know, it's from the movie Wreck-It Ralph, a super cute kids' movie about video game characters with a life outside of their games. If you've never seen it - you should. If you need an excuse to rent it, borrow a friend's child under the age of 10. But I've never been above a good animated movie myself. Sometimes feeling like a kid is a good thing. But I'm getting off point.
Halloween costumes. Justin was the "bad" guy, Wreck-It-Ralph - a character who destroys buildings with his fists. Drake was the good guy, Fix-It-Felix, who has a magic golden hammer to fix what Ralph wrecks. I was Vanelope Von Schweetz, a character from a candy go-cart game called Sugar Rush.

Putting the costumes together was a fun challenge. I have always preferred the homemade and creative costumes where you find a way to re-create the major elements of a character or idea without simply putting on a replica or mask.

For Drake, he definitely needed a blue ball cap, a golden hammer, and tool belt. The tool belt we had from a Christmas gift from his Papa Rick last year, along with the hammer, which I just lightly sanded and spray painted gold. The blue ball cap we found at a pawn shop, though admittedly, it was a little small. I drew a blue FF on white felt, then colored in a yellow square around it and glued it to the hat. The shirt, jeans, and carpenter boots were all Good-Will finds and are items he can wear over and over, so that's a plus. He was so very handsome in his little contractor outfit. Most people thought he was Tim the Toolman. Oh well. For the ones who "got it," Drake would hold up his hammer and say, "I can fits it!" (Spelling intentional.)

For Justin, big hands were a must, along with overalls and a shiny medal. We found Hulk hands at the same pawn shop, and I spray painted them with a red primer to cancel out the green, and then an off-white. The overalls Justin already owned (and was a very good sport for wearing them! They were insulated Carharts - incredibly hot on a 65 degree day). We bought a red thermal at Good Will and cut the sleeves. For the medal, I taped two yogurt container lids together with electrical tape, wrote the word HERO on one side with hot glue, and the spray painted the whole thing gold. I glued it to nylon strapping I bought at the hardware store. Voila! A "bad" guy who wants to be a good guy.

For myself, I needed a simple green pullover hoodie (so much harder to find than I expected!), a black ruffle skirt, green striped leggings, and candy in my hair. I finally settled on a green hoodie from Good-Will, though it was short sleeve and not quite the right color. I dug through my enormous yarn stash to add some hot pink strings to the hood and the pink XX's on the pocket. The black ruffle skirt I had from the years when I used to dance/perform Latin ballroom. For the green striped leggings,  the closest I could come was tall green and pink striped socks over black leggings. The candy in my hair was the fun part. I hot-glued (thank goodness for my hot glue gun! It got a lot of use this year) Runtz and pinwheel mints to bobby pins that I stuck randomly all over my head. The licorice that she had tied around her ponytail was hard to recreate, because no licorice I found was long enough to do that. In the end, I just stuck a couple of sticks into my bun.

And that was it! Halloween 2014, all wrapped up. What did you do this year? Any fun family costumes? Whatever you did, I hope you had a Happy Halloween, from my family to yours.