Pre-Christmas

"Incremental" describes our gearing-up for Christmas; outdoor lights (a first), including antler-swaying reindeer, with which I locked horns an entire Saturday afternoon. No big party this year; just small gatherings. Carolyn took the boys to see The Nutcracker this morning - an official kick-off of sorts, and I resurrected, after 2 years, my cookie baking - Russian teacakes, date bars, & anise seed cookies. We also had some students over for a pork roast dinner the last night of the term and had a great time.

The trees:

Plural because we buy a Charlie Brown tree for Michael & Jack:

Its been fun unpacking boxes of our collected ornaments, like these ceramic Italian tops & a starfish snowman - a gift from my brother, bought at a shop in Seal Beach, near where my family lived for many years.
Michael's Swiss kindergarten stocking above Carolyn's handmade red washi egg, from ol' Tokyo days. The memory tree.

Michael loves to decorate:

He placed Santa prominently front and center of his tree, firmly planting his gingerbread house ornament on the dirt below the branches - a literalist.

Last year's vintage toys from the Strasbourg Christmas Market; meet Gigantor:

(from the TV show I loved to watch). Like many children, I was attracted to the idea of transformation, mastery over time and space - ie flying, etc)

Michael, on the other hand, has been solidly introduced to Playmobil, which simply wasn't in my tradition. Ended up with an extra Nativity set, thus 2 baby Jesus.

This year, the Christmas activity dovetails with Tiger Scout meetings - cocoa, ornament exchange, and peanut butter cookies.

and the Chronicles of Narnia, which we've been listening to on audioCD in the car. We made a trip to Mrs Parker's Hound & Hare British shop down the road for Turkish Delight - gets featured in the stories - close to aplets & cotlets, but with the flavor of a rose. The Narnia film and BBC series boosted Turkish Delight sales 200% in the UK.

This year, I am more conscious of Christmas being part of Advent, each Sunday leading to the 25th being less a countdown and more a "count up" - less dripping with nostalgia and more permanent anticipation. Each beautiful piece of the puzzle embedded with a promise to be configured.

"Each piece was sweet and light to the very center and Edmund had never tasted anything more delicious. … the more he ate the more he wanted to eat … "

Frankfurt School theorist, Theodor Adorno, once commented that the the value of children's fantasies isn't that they are realizable or not; a child reaches for a star not to discover that he can't attain it. He learns to grab. Like Gigantor.