December 2011- the first half

Here’s another round of Which is Which?! Can you name this 11-month-old Chamberlin?

(Answer at end of post)

 

 

 

 

For all that November was kind of laid-back, December was packed full. And we took tons of extra pictures of it all since we got new cameras after seeing how many of our pictures from Gatlinburg were blurry or grainy! So, first off we had to get the Christmas tree set up and decorated. By we, I mean Chris and the kids. I’m kind of a grinch about Christmas – it’s just a lot of effort that I would never go to on my own. I DO love giving the kids their presents though, so I hope that makes up for it! Anyway, Chris and Katherine lugged the tree down from the attic, then worked together setting it up. The bottom third wouldn’t light up for some reason, but they worked it out.

 

 

 

 

Then it was time to decorate! Our poor tree couldn’t really hold it’s head up well around some of my friends’ beautifully-decorated trees, but it would definitely win some ‘huh?’ prizes for weirdness. What can I say? It fits us. We’re still pretty new to this Christmas thing, and we haven’t bought many ornaments, so most of ours are handmade ones that we’ve helped the kids make, like the tiger-bear Katherine is holding. And by we, I mean Chris. Chris has also made a lot of strange-but-interesting ornaments out of baked clay, such as the flying spaghetti monster, Chthulu, and random Celtic runes. No ribbons to be found here, but at least we didn’t get out the mardi gras beads to hang from it this year. And by we, I mean Chris. Here Rachel just found the flying spaghetti monster, complete with meatballs. There was a lot of that expression going around that day, since this was apparently very exciting.

 

 

 

 

 

The fireplace mantel also got its “traditional” fancying up. At least it looks traditional until you figure out there’re eyeballs looking back at you up there. And the pink is fairly lurid…

 

 

 

 

  That’s pretty much our entire Christmas decorating regimen (and by our, I mean Chris’s), with the addition of the giant flying spaghetti monster that hangs out front. The picture doesn’t do him justice, really. So now we were ready for Christmas.

In early December I took Katherine to Chris’s friend Dr. Cole to have the tiny hemangioma under her left eye removed. It’s basically a fairly common, non-cancerous tumor that might go away on its own over time, but might also grow pretty big and leave a scar. The worst ones occur in infancy, and this spot was a different type than those. At least the process didn’t involve cutting – Dr. Cole used a guiding needle to deliver a jolt of electricity to cause the blood vessels gathered together at that spot to disperse. This sounds very civilized, but was extremely painful to be on the “jolted” side. I was so proud of Katherine. It obviously hurt like crazy, but she just kept her eyes closed and nodded when Dr. Cole asked if he could “buzz” it again for like the fifth time. She’s just a really brave person, and she wanted that spot off her face, so she said she was fine over and over when it was clear she was hurting. When Dr. Cole finally let her up, she walked right over to me and got a really long hug, then we went out for ice cream!

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve always wanted to check out the LA Renaissance Festival in Hammond, LA (and by we, I mean Chris), so we decided kind of spur-of-the-moment to drive down on a Saturday. We had a great time watching hokey comedy shows, shopping for over-priced trinkets, and gawking at the more interesting costumes. It was a long day, but worth it! I posted all my favorite pictures, with captions, on facebook: click here.

Chris and Daniel had an interesting weekend campout with Daniel’s cub scout troop – they earned his polar bear badge! This means the temperature dropped below freezing. Can I just tell you how MUCH Chris did NOT want to go on this trip? He didn’t put any pressure on Daniel, but just once he offered Daniel the chance to back out, you know, if he just didn’t WANT to go – not usually an option for commitments, but hey, below freezing! Didn’t work. Daniel wasn’t going to miss out on a camping trip just because he’d be cold. So Chris sucked it up and went and generally had fun.

 

 

 

 

 

A word about homeschooling in December – ugh! After taking the week of Thanksgiving off, and with the prospect of Christmas vacation looming, the 2 weeks of school we did in early December accomplished very little! We’re just much more productive when we’re in an established rhythm. The main thing Daniel and Katherine learned in December is that they liked writing poetry. That said, I should point out that I’ve never really been a fan of poetry. My tastes tend to run more towards the Limerick than the Shakespearean sonnet. Most of all, it NEEDS to rhyme! I cannot express this strongly enough. Non-rhyming poetry baffles me. Maybe I need to slow down and savor more (or something), but I’ll admit I just don’t get it. I’m intellectually certain there must be something wonderful and worthy sneakily hiding just out of my perception, because I know some highly intelligent people who insist it’s there, but I can’t find it. However, I see no reason to point out my plebian literary tastes to my kids, so when their online homeschooling supplement wanted them to spend some time writing poetry, I was ALL for it. Here’s a couple of the poems they came up with (although I still say it isn’t a poem if it doesn’t rhyme):

Katherine’s first poem should come with a warning to diabetics – this is sweeter than buckets of corn syrup, and you should proceed with caution! (If Neil Diamond had seen this, he would’ve written “Sweet Katherine” instead of “Sweet Caroline.” I guarantee it.):

love is sweetest

so many things are sweet.

chocolate is sweet.

sugar is sweet.

friends are sweet.

but love is sweetest by far.

(Let’s hear it folks – awwwww!)

Here’s another one she co-wrote with a friend (whom I like, because she obviously understands poems should rhyme, and begin each line with a capital letter!):

Wonderful World

Kind people love and care.

The things they do are

Extraordinaire. Recycle recycle as

You can once you turn into a

Great big fan. Of the wonderful

world

Daniel surprised me:

The Storm

A storm has come with winds that

make the lions in the trees roar with

Beautiful music, that contains

fury, sadness, and joy at the tiniest of

cool Water droplets splashing  against

the earth while the earthworms stick

their minuscule heads Out of the earth

to feel the wind that made the lions

sing.

And poem #2:

Space

Space is the final frontier,

A world of wonder and magic,

Of exploration and imagination,

Of beauty.

To boldly go where no one has gone

before,

Is to take a step into history.

 

(I just have to say it – they don’t rhyme…)

 

Answer: Rachel (Yeah, it was an easy one! At least I think so, but Chris missed it, believe it or not! I’ve told you he stinks at this game…)