Holiday Traditions

The holidays are in full swing and all of the usual traditions are keeping us busy. Emily is thrilled that her elf, Frisbee, is back this year. The new thing that she and her friends are doing is writing notes to their elves to see if the elves write back. She asked Frisbee a number of questions - Is it true that you are actually able to fly to the North Pole and back within a couple of minutes? What is your favorite color? Do you like candy canes? Is it fun to be an elf? Is there a North Star only on Christmas?

Frisbee has been kind enough to answer a few of her questions, but she can only answer one a night because it is so tiring for her to use a human-size pencil. So far, we have learned that it is true that it only takes a couple of minutes to fly to the North Pole and back, her favorite color is candy-cane red, she loves candy canes, and it is great to be an elf.

Of course, we have our tree up and the house decorated. Emily has already bought a present for Abbie and put it under the tree; Abbie has done the same for Emily. Both girls have a Christmas list and Emily is again asking for a cotton candy maker. I still haven't given Frisbee the green light on that, though.

Once again this year, the girls continued the tradition of playing Christmas carols at a local retirement home. Emily contributed to Jingle Bells, Jolly Old St. Nick, O' Come Little Children, and two non-Christmas songs that the old folks seem to like - Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Go Tell Aunt Rhody. My camera angle is exceptionally poor, but here is the whole group playing Jingle Bells - four violins, a cello, and a bass. You can just barely see Emily between the music stands.

As for upcoming events, this is Emily's last week of school before the break. Their holiday program will be on Tuesday and their fancy holiday party will be on Friday. The holiday party is a big deal. All the kids get dressed up and have a formal holiday lunch together. To prepare, they had a half-hour lesson last week on proper manners, etc. As part of the lesson, the boys practiced escorting the girls to their seats and the girls practiced thanking them for helping them in and out of their chairs. Of course, it is all very old-fashioned and sexist, and Emily told me, "I can pull out my own chair, you know." Yes, honey, I know. LOL.

We will also be celebrating the holidays with a trip to New Orleans again this year. We are looking forward to three days and nights of great food, ghost tours, cemetery tours, and just general adventure. Hopefully it will be as much fun as it was last year and hopefully the weather will cooperate with us.