A friend by any other name...

Who said internet relationships weren't real?   Today we proved that guy wrong by blazing a new trail on the road of friendship, at least in our lives, that is.  A year ago Cortney joined an online forum of mothers who share a hobby in scrapbooking.  The original board was a relatively large one, but over time some individual friendships started to emerge and a few of the other women from the board started to chat via instant messenger.  Though they are, for the most part, spread across the continent, one other woman on the board lives only two hours away, and today we got up early, packed the car, and trekked over to her house.  Sure, anything could have happened:  the kids could have fought, the husbands could have clashed, and, perhaps worst of all, the two moms could have found that, as compatible as they were across internet, they just couldn't mesh in real life.  Fortunately for us, what happened instead is that the kids loved each other, the husbands exchanged stories, and the two moms picked up in person exactly where they had left off on YIM.  While there we shared bagels and coffee before heading over to the Frederik Meijer Gardens to enjoy the beautiful Christmas displays, especially the Polar Express train exhibit, and on returning to the house the kids (including the husbands) all played while the two moms went out shopping.  The day was a complete success, and we greatly look forward to future outings of all kinds.  So, to whomever it was that thought internet relationships couldn't last, we plan on proving you wrong, too.

An old fashioned Christmas

There is something unique about Christmas in that, of all the holidays, it seems to inspire a sense of nostalgia.  One does not often hear of an old fashioned Easter or Halloween, and even an old fashioned Thanksgiving does not have the same ring to it as a good old fashioned Christmas.  Someone at sometime has probably studied and could explain this phenomenon, but understand it or not we fall prey to its wiles just the same.  It's no surprise, then, that the Holiday Nights festivities held on weekend nights throughout the season at Greenfield Village, are a very popular place to be.  Every year we have heard the ads on the radio just a bit too late to get tickets to this consistently sold-out event, so last December we added a reminder on this year's calendar, and quickly snatched up our spots well before Thanksgiving.  The only risk, of course, is that the night you have chosen will be a bad one, since the festivities are all outdoors, and tonight was most definitely frigid, but it was also dry and calm, and we were even treated to a few snowflakes to add to the overall effect.  It was absolutely magical to stroll the streets of turn of the century homes decked out in the trimmings of a Victorian Christmas.  There were carolers and mummers to add to our enjoyment, chestnuts roasting on open fires, old country stores, and even a visit from Santa Claus from atop an old house.  The evening was very much about the festivities, and we will have to be sure to make another visit to this wonderful park in the warm light of a summer day when we can better see the homes and shops, but we are so very glad that we finally got to join in this wonderful holiday gathering.  We hope to make it an annual trip, even.

Calvin, meet Sinterklaas

In our household a strong Dutch background combined with a keen desire to separate the commercialism of American Christmas from the religious significance of that day to bring us the annual celebration of St. Nicholas Day.  In years to come we plan to teach Calvin about the sainted bishop from the fourth century who is celebrated annually on December 6th for his many good works and his kindness to others, and we hope to help him understand the connection between this kindly religious man and the jovial fictitious character who gives the commercial tradition of Christmas it's white haired, red clad mascot.  Our hope is that it will help him understand the meaning of giving during this festive season, and tonight he welcomed the tradition with his usual enthusiasm.  Yes, we realize that we are one, if not two, days behind schedule, but since Calvin is as yet unaware of the religious calendar we moved our celebration to a Friday night so that his grandparents would be better able to join us.  He spent the entire day, when he wasn't napping, that is, helping is mother clean and prepare the food and the house, and he spent his entire evening entertaining his four doting grandparents (it's a hard job, but someone's got to do it).  His paternal grandmother, who even spent a portion of a school year in The Netherlands, brought with her not only memories, but also several traditional props and present to add a true feeling of tradition and festivity to the air.  We snacked on Dutch cheeses and Dutch beer, and ate pork and Dutch potatoes for dinner.  Before dinner we were visited by the spirit of Sinterklaas in the form of trinkets accompanied by poems, and followed by chocolate letters spelling our initials.  The evening was truly one to be treasured, and we could not have asked for Calvin to have received a better introduction to this wonderful holiday.

The joys of the season

The tree is decorated and the stockins are hung, so now it's time to have some fun!  It's a strange phenomenon in our house that during the summer we go outside only on days that are free of precipitation, but during the winter we only take the trouble to venture out if it IS precipitating.  We tend to think that snow is more fun than rain.  After days of being cooped up in the house listening to the winter winds howling all around, the blustery weather finally moved off, leaving a dusting of snow in its wake as an invitation to get some fresh air.  Of course we likely spent more time getting ready than we actually spent out of doors, but that in itself is part of the physical exercise of the season, isn't it?  Calvin was looking mighty fine in his "stay-puft meets M.C. Hammer" outerwear, and had no problem moving about in his boots (no "I can't put my arms down" like last year).  He was immediately surprised by his new ability to leave footprints on the driveway, and wasted no time in ordering his mother to shovel (a difficult job, but someone's got to do it and it shoudln't be him, right?).  It wasn't so much the clean driveway he was after as the pile of snow he wanted made on the grass, though.  Perhaps it reminded him of the leaves he shuffled through not too long ago. 

See the rest of the funny pictures in this weeks's album, of course. 

Be vewy, vewy quiet, we're hunting Chwistmas Twees

Yes, we went Christmas tree hunting today.  It was a much colder field trip than in previous years, but we bundled up with the appropriate clothing, including reindeer antlers, and drove a half hour into the country in search of the perfect tree.  Calvin was far more impressed with the hay ride from the parking lot to the tree patch than he was with the car ride from the breakfast restaurant to the tree farm.  The farm had a lot of beautiful trees and it didn't take long to find the one we wanted to bring home, and that's when Calvin really started to enjoy himself.  He thought it was pretty funny that his grandpa was crawling around underneath this tree, and that it was down right hilarious when the tree fell.  We cut two trees, one for us and one for grandma and grandpa, and both times Calvin just laughed and kept saying "boom, boom, boom" over and over again (his new found voice has been a great source of comedy for us).  he thought it was just as funny that when we got home we brought the tree in the house, and who can blame him?  After spending hours trying to get our old lights working to no avail, we wondered the same ourselves.  So the decorating will have to wait another day, but our house is already filled with the wonderful, Christmassy smell that is the fresh cut pine tree in our great room, and we know the season of advent has begun.

More hunting pictures are in the Dec 1-7 photo album.