Sunday, December 31, 2017

Scrooged

Christmas 2017
It started out so lovely -- we made the drive to Iowa in under 14 hours and found cousins and spaghetti (and wine!) waiting for us upon arrival. Uncle Bernie stopped by, Dave and Kara arrived from Colorado via Chicago and Indiana. It really looked like it was going to be an amazing Christmas.

And then Sam got sick.

Really, with that many cousins and that many Christmas cookies, it's sort of inevitable that at least one of the kids will have some sort of stomach ailment, and Sam quickly recovered -- he was able to go to The Last Jedi that afternoon. And so we might have been lulled into a belief that we could still have a Merry Christmas.

And then Nora announced on Christmas Eve that she didn't feel well.

The announcement was made following a large dinner, a concert performance with her cousins (including choreography and lots of jumping) and a nontrivial amount of ice cream for dessert. So while not terribly concerned, we did send her upstairs with a bucket as a preventative action. Then we went downstairs to find Owen wasn't feeling great, returned upstairs to find that the bucket wasn't so much preventative as essential, and then went downstairs to discover that Owen was similarly situated.

So Allen spent the night upstairs with Nora while I spent the evening downstairs with Owen. None of us were up for Christmas mass though Nora did rally for presents (Owen had a fever and slept the day away). But as quickly and dramatically as the illness came, by Boxing day they were fully recovered and even managed a skating expedition the following day with Grace and Grant.

By the time we left Iowa, we were three days symptom free and so decided that we should take an extra day to stop in Pittsburgh to see the Mettenburgs. Joe and Cate made an amazing meal (with a lot of wine) and we all had a thoroughly enjoyable night...until around midnight when Allen suddenly found himself violently ill. It went on until about six am when he was finally able to get some sleep. But while Allen was sleeping, Western Pennsylvania was getting a generous dusting which meant that by the time we had Allen showered and we got him encamped in our car (where he spent most of the trip in and out of consciousness), the roads had gotten bad (as had the Mettenburg's driveway --it's kind of our White Whale), so while Allen slept, Allen's dad and I spent the next four hours white knuckling it on the Turnpike to make it back to DC.

The next day we were due for Christmas at Sharon and Don's followed by New Years at Katherine's. We were a little anxious (especially me -- I figured I was next) and kind of useless (traveling while sick is exhausting), but the excellent food (and presents, including period costumes) had a nurturing effect. At least for me and the kids -- Allen started feeling bad that night and decided not to partake in the cornbread waffles with poached eggs and all the makings for huevos rancheros.

Still, we got to spend the holidays with our loved ones and eventually everyone was fine, so really it was a great Christmas... we're just glad it's Christmas past.

(To see all the holiday pictures, such as they were, click here).

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Flightless Birds



Flightless birds, those wings are not for flapping
Flightless birds, their nest are not for napping
Flightless birds, they swim across the sea
And when they catch their fish, they feed them to their babies

Flightless birds, they huddle up for warmth
Flightless birds, their instincts are from birth
Flightless birds, they live 'till their like eighty
And when they finally say goodbye, they make their way to Hades

Flightless Birds!!!

Sunday, December 17, 2017

Owen's DCYOP Winter Concert


Owen moved up this year to the Young Artists Orchestra which meant he got to play more challenging music, for a longer period of time, with fewer baseball conflicts. It was a win-win for everyone (particularly since he now has a phone to play with during breaks). And while Owen almost missed his Winter Concert due to some confusion regarding call times and heavy holiday traffic in upper Northwest (coinciding with opening weekend at the Uptown for The Last Jedi didn't help either), we eventually all made his extremely successful debut.

Nora's First Viola Recital


While Owen has been an enthusiastic cello player from the get go, Nora was more borderline with her love of the viola. We decided this year was a bit of a make it/break it for her and thought maybe some private instruction might keep her inspired. Sadly, Owen's cello teacher from SWS, Mr. James, moved over the summer, which meant we had to look elsewhere. Enter "Music on the Hill" and Mr. Enrique.

At her first lesson, Nora feigned a stomach ache and tried to bail on the whole thing, but Mr. Enrique won her over and eventually had her not squishing the tomato (I don't know what that means, but he's very emphatic about it so I think it's important and Nora's gotten a lot better about it), lengthening her bowing, and practicing Edelweiss enthusiastically while preparing for a recital at Ebeneizer's Coffee House.

I thought she's be nervous to play by herself in front of a crowd, but in typical Nora fashion she marched on stage, played confidently and then took her bow as her adoring fans (mostly, Allen, Owen, Grandpa Fawcett, Grandpa Don and myself) applauded. Encore!

Monday, December 11, 2017

A Day at the Museums

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Sometime in October, there was a notice in the Stuart-Hobson newsletter about special tickets to "Morning at the Museum" at the African American History Museum for some time in December. I was so excited about the prospect of getting tickets to the museum (which has been open for a year but is nearly impossible to get into) that I immediately signed up without looking at the fine print (or really not so fine print): turns out the program is designed for kids with sensory issues that can't handle museum crowds and so they allow them to attend before hours for a less overwhelming experience.

Still, free tickets to the Museum -- you can't really pass that up, even if it is under false pretenses. So we woke up semi-early on Sunday morning (after Owen's third performance of Willy Wonka and Nora's DCYO concert) headed downtown, searched for parking and eventually made it in.

The museum is pretty amazing. The suggested order is to start several stories below ground with exhibits on the slave trade and the Middle Passage and then progress upward through the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights era. Owen tried to leverage his studies last year to act as curator, but there was so much more there than what any of us had covered in school. We were there for more than three hours and barely made a dent.

We went home, had lunch, the kids did some homework and Owen went to climbing before we packed up for dinner and headed to our second Smithsonian of the day.

The National Botanic Gardens has always been Owen's favorite place on the Mall, but it becomes all of ours during the holiday season when its annual miniature trains exhibit is on full display (and when, as members, we get to visit it at night). After such a sober morning experience, it was nice to end the day with a lighter, more festive cultural experience (especially with our friends, the Romans).

And of course, a photo bomb of the Capitol Christmas Tree.
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(To see all the African American Museum pictures, click here.)
(To see all the Botanic Gardens pictures, click here.)

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Nora's DCYOP Winter Concert

Violist

Nora's debut with DCYO debut orchestra almost didn't happen. There was inclement weather and a Willy Wonka performance to compete with and then we couldn't find her teacher. But in the end, it all came together, and she did so well that her teacher informed her she'd be moving on to the Level C orchestra in the spring!

Willie Wonka Jr.

Willie Wonka

One of the exciting things about middle school at Stuart-Hobson is the chance to be part of the musical. Back in Kindergarten, Nora's class got a chance to be part of the Stuart-Hobson production of Annie, and just last year Owen's 5th grades class at SWS was part of Into the Woods, so when Owen had a chance to be a part of this year's production of Willie Wonka Jr. he jumped at the chance.

We thought Owen might want to ease into things and be part of the stage crew for his first play as a 6th grader, but he decided to go ahead and audition for a role. He chose to try for the role of Grandpa Joe because he didn't have to sing for the audition, but it's actually one of the bigger roles in the play with several songs to sing. When he got the part, Owen jumped into the role enthusiastically. We were a bit nervous about him memorizing all the lines, and singing on stage in front of a huge crowd, but he did a great job preparing for it. (It might have helped that Nora devoured his script memorizing much of the play too, so she could lead her friends in a recess production of Willie Wonka Jr. Jr., so Owen had a willing partner to practice with at home ;-)

The premiere on Friday night was amazing, the theater was packed, the sets were beautiful, the kids running the lights and sound did a great job, the cast was wonderful, and we couldn't have been more proud of Owen. With two more shows on Saturday (a matinee as one of the kids while we were at Nora's orchestra concert, and another evening performance as Grandpa Joe), Owen had a whole great weekend to relish the attention. It really was a great experience for him being part of such a huge production, and pulling it off! We can't wait to see what they'll do next :-)

(click here for all the pictures)

Friday, December 08, 2017

Brazil!

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After last year's IAMC meeting in Beijing, this year's meeting in Recife, Brazil was literally a breath of fresh air. Recife was lovely, the beach was gorgeous, the water was warm (though according to the locals, too shark infested to swim in), and the meetings were fascinating. It was a quick trip, without any real time for exploring, but there was one cool adventure on the first night of the meeting. Our host informed us that because of the Supermoon, they would have the lowest low tide of the year. So we all walked a few miles down the beach at about 10 pm, right at low tide, to a spot where the reef comes up to the shore. With the lowest of low tides, the ocean retreated about half a kilometer from the shore exposing the reef, and we all could walk out exploring all the fascinating life in the exposed tidal pools. I just have to thank the moon for another super cool experience in 2017 :-)




Monday, December 04, 2017

Tea for Three

Tea for three

Last year, our friend Jacqui asked if she could take Nora (and me if I'd like to tag along) for a holiday tea party. We enjoyed it so much that we've decided to make it an annual event (complete with Allen being out of the country for it and my forgetting how much caffeine is actually in a pot of tea). Nora even poured (and danced) and found other forms of entertainment when she got bored.

Tea for three

It's the perfect way to start the holiday season and we can't wait for next year!

(To see all the pictures, click here.)