Dear Santa

J dictated his letter to Santa to me. He really wanted it to just say, "Dear Santa, I want a Power Ranger, from J" but I told him he had to say something nice first and also explain if he'd been good. So this was his second attempt:

Dear Santa,

Thank you, Santa, because you give things to little kids if they've been good boys. I was good because Mama didn't yell at me or scream at me. I ask when I can take my seatbelt off when I don't hear the engine. I don't say bad things about the dinner. I always ask politely for milk.

Please, I want a Power Ranger.

D has also been good. D would like a car.

I like you Santa. Please.

J

Christmakkah begins

We've been celebrating the first nights of Hanukkah. J is finally old enough to really participate; he loves to light the candles, eat suvganyot (sp?), and spin the dreidle. D is a bit bewildered but the one thing he is definite about is that a kippah is not going to stay on his head, thank you very much. Roni ordered the powdered sugar donuts, but did the fillings himself. I made latkes of ever improving quality, and the two of them were our dinner Friday night. We've since added vegetables so we won't die by the end of the eight days.

Sunday we drove to a tree farm to get our Christmas tree, our first time cutting our own since I was a kid and we cut a couple of spindly trees on our property and put them together to form one decently bushy tree. It was kind of fun wandering about looking for the perfect tree - it had to be round, not too tall, not too wide, very straight, and not be one of the expensive types (I'm tree cheap). We found a perfect grand fir, compared it to all the others, declared it the winner, and then realized that we'd left the camera in the car. Then discovered the batteries were dead. Then discovered after charging the batteries that the camera was dead. So, no pictures of Roni cutting down the tree, but he did a masterful job while the rest of us sipped hot chocolate and gave advice.

Then home, via Costco for a new camera, where we put the kids down for a nap. Roni headed out to the pump house where he tried to change the filter but instead broke off the filter and the pipe it was attached to. Oops. So, no water for us for the next 24 hours.

When the kids got up, we had a great time getting the lights and ornaments sorted out and everyone put some on. J's favorite is his Snow White apple from last year during his crazy-for-Disney phase. D really likes the glass panda since he sleeps with his panda bear every nap and night.

So, an expensive day, what with electronics and plumbers, but in the end a lovely one.

Such . . . creative . . . children

A long while ago, Roni's mom gave the kids fingerpaints, which I promptly put up in a very high cupboard. Today we finally remembered them and got them out for the kids, who had a blast.

Unfortunately, the blue turned out NOT to be washable. Oops. Yesterday was my friend Paige's annual cookie party, which is always chaos and great fun. The children created these, complete with the ever traditional Christmas dinosaur and foot. They also are very stuck together in places, creating permanent cookie towers. But I can personally attest to the fact that they are very tasty!
(Not sure why the picture keeps turning itself sideways.)