More Christmas fun

This year we had a white Christmas, something that doesn't happen often here in Seattle. So much so that there's a song (a really sappy song -- sorry to anyone out there who loves it) that goes, "Christmas in the Northwest is a gift God wrapped in green."

In fact, we get so little snow here that we're not properly equipped with snow removal trucks as a city, and driving became somewhat treacherous as the snow packed and then got slippery. And then, when it began to melt, well, it wasn't pretty.

So, our usual Christmas fun was expanded to include snow, chains on both vehicles, snowmen, snowshoeing places in our neighborhood, and other snow-fun activities. Here are some highlights.

Christmas fun

Among the usual activities surrounding Christmas, there often develop UNusual activities -- or phenomena -- that make it that much more fun. This year had several things like that. One was Naomi's creative play with the Nativity figures.

We learned a lot about the Holy Family from Naomi's demonstrations this year. For instance, they like to have a good meal with good friends just as much as anyone:



Also, and it seems important to point out that this was before Christ's birth, some of the members of the Nativity scene seem to have gone in for worshipping mammon. This phenomenon was not repeated after the Incarnation, though, thank goodness!




Jesus, true to his image in the Gospel, did like to hang out with some questionable people. For instance, this crowd, who are not above cruising with four people in the bed of their truck. I believe this practice is illegal in most states, although heavily practiced in at least one that I can think of.




And remember, when you're watching a movie, the Holy Family is watching with you! (Look closely at the coffee table in front of the TV to see Mary, Joseph, and Jesus -- in the manger, of course -- watching the ballet Sleeping Beauty!)

The rewards of hard work

Poor Michael has some sort of nasty virus. He's down and out. He started feeling terrible on Saturday morning, but managed to still come along and get our list for Saturday taken care of. Sunday he stayed home all day, and the mobile doctor came to check if he's got the flu. (Mobile doctors are provided for in Microsoft benefits -- OH MY GOODNESS, SO HELPFUL!!!) Not the flu, but some other nasty virus. Poor guy keeps going up and down as far as fever goes, ranging from chills to way too hot to normal temps.

However, the clearest sign that he's not well is that he didn't even attempt to get up at his normal time today and try to convince me he could go to work. He slept until 8, had a little breakfast, and went back to sleep until 10:15. He was up for 2 hours, and is now back in bed asleep.

So, his reward for returning to work is an awful virus.

Windows 7 Blog Post

OK, so it's not family news, but I was published on the Engineering Windows 7 blog, which was a cool thing in my professional life. See
here. It's all about Accessibility, which is what I do when I'm not playing with my dear children.

Cooler still, I've been translated into French!

Bedtime Reading, Advanced Edition

Knowing of my interest in Latin, my mother-in-law got me an amusing gift recently: Cattus Petasatus, a Latin translation of The Cat in the Hat. To be honest, this was one of those gifts that I looked at briefly, chuckled, and set aside.

Until now.

Naomi, our two-year-old, pulled the book off the shelf because she likes Cat in the Hat. She then demanded that I read it. I started to read it, thinking she would lose interest. She didn't, although after 13 or 14 pages she allowed me to switch over to the English edition. I thought for sure she wouldn't want it again, but she asked for it the next day, and the next day. She just loves it. Even her persistent questions have adapted: "Why 'nec ridemus, nec gaudemus', Dada?"

When Monica and I talked about bilingual education for our children, I don't think this was quite what we had in mind!

Rickrack is fun

Hannah, Naomi, and I recently did a Christmas craft that involved rickrack. This was a new term for Hannah, and she was excited to find rickrack on other things, too, like the table runner made for me by one of her Grandmas.

This is all very cute, except when the discovery is made in the reflective silence after communion at Mass on Christmas Eve. Looking at her dress, she suddenly, enthusiastically pipes up, "Look Mom! Rickrack!" Clearly she's reflecting on the wonder of the Incarnation...

Gato is next

The girls have some friends who are bilingual, so they've been picking up some Spanish vocabulary. They now refer to their horse toys (favorites for one of the friends) as caballos. The other friend loves her stuffed animal cat, so I'm sure that pretty soon we'll be talking about their gatos.