Xmased

Pardon our brief absence. We are just now climbing out of Christmas-type mayhem.

It was a dandy time around these parts lately. In the week leading up to Christmas we had a swell visit with pals Uncle Mister Miller and Television's Molly Lloyd (if you don't know her name yet, you will). On Wednesday it was time for the annual preschool holiday madhouse, featuring loud music, mumbly singing, magic tricks, disorderly shuffling, an inexplicable appearance by Scooby Doo, and this guy:

We call him Dadoo Claus.

Kiddo was suffering from a bit of a cold, but she hung in there and did her part despite being either incredibly suspicious of, or just plain baffled by, the whole affair.

To her credit, and her mother's delight, she was the only person clapping on the beat.

We all had a few days off before Christmas, so we took advantage of a few of the local "things to do" around town. In what is becoming a tradition with us, we took a spin on the "Christmas Carousel" downtown. We ate lunch across the street first (side note, we went to a chain quasi-Chinese place and when I asked for a Chinese beer, the very southern waiter said, "Aw, we don't have any" and I said "Really?" and he said, "Well, we have Kirin" and I said, "That's Japanese" and he said "It is?" and I said "Don't you have Tsing Tao?" and he said "That's Japanese, too" and I said, "No, that's the Chinese one" and then he looked at Mimi and said "I always mix those up" and Mimi did NOT ask him, "Do you know which one I am?") and Yuki could see the carousel from the restaurant so she asked no less than 36 times, "Is that the Christmas Carousel" and eventually we just answered, "Still."

We also paid a visit to this guy:

We call him Teaching Moment Claus

He was a great Santa, very soft-spoken and warm. Kiddo was a little bit uncertain at first but was eventually won over by the promise of a candy cane. Afterward, I couldn't stop myself from telling her, "You may not ever take candy from anybody unless they ask Mommy or Daddy first!" And of course her reaction was more or less "Whatever, can I eat this thing now?"

We didn't put any presents under the tree ahead of time, so as to preserve some of the magic (and to keep from having to answer "no" every 10 minutes when asked "can I open this?") so after finally finally coaxing the kid to bed and waiting for her to fall asleep, there was a marathon present-wrapping session and "Operation Santa" was complete.

We are changing our names to Currier and Ives

Santa came through with the highly coveted purple unicorn pillow (I think Mimi bought this thing in October).

"I will name him George and I will love him and pet him and squeeze him."

Then something truly magical happened. Periodically throughout the morning, Kiddo would stop opening presents to spend time playing with something. This is not a behavior her father ever modeled.

mmm ... wooden cookies ...

And the folks in Japan sent a couple of nifty Japanese DS games which she disappeared into for a bit.

They are language-based games and I am totally going to play them when she isn't looking.

We managed to create a pretty good bit of chaos, just the three of us, so maybe it's no wonder that she had to take a break now and again.

This wasn't even all of it.

At one point, the shiny new easel proved too much to resist and we all took an art break.

Just gonna make some happy little trees.

And this is the result.

Us: That's very nice.
She: It's the Care Bears.
Us: Of course it is.

And in a shocking display of questionable parenting, we gave her a trumpet.

She's still getting the hang of it.

Actually, it's a melodica disguised as a trumpet, so the sound is rather soft. Not total fools, we.

So we are now recovering from our holiday hangover, gearing up for Dadoo's birthday (okay, some of us are gearing up for it more than others), the New Year, and that one in the spring with the rabbit and the chocolate.

Go to sleep, little bunny.