Christmas

Fighting a cold, I blog on Christmas, which didn't so much sneak up, but, rather, arrived with a hard landing. The bad economy, the shorter break since Thanksgiving, etc made it feel a little off - we stalwartly went through the motions without thought of reward; not sure reward was an appropriate category this year.

Started with the Christmas Pageant, which Carolyn was strong-armed into directing this year.
Michael has a great singing voice; we wish we could find a children's choir nearby (one advantage to Minnesota, where strong Lutheran choral traditions abound). Jack and Benjamin were hand-holding stars.

We took in a concert at Grace Community Church - a range of traditional, early American, and contemporary Christmas music, beautifully arranged and presented. The children loved the repetition of the Hallelujah chorus.Several years ago, orange rolls became our Christmas morning tradition. The glaze is a marmalade/frozen OJ blend with orange rind/butter filling. My best glaze came using a can of ready-to-make orange marmalade mix I picked up in Victoria BC - an entire can filled with thinly sliced orange peels (complete with a how to make marmalade instruction label).
Stockings were kinda low-key this year, filled with tangerines and pistachios and little gifts. Michael's chocolate coin was a euro. He really bought into Santa this time, prepared a plate of cookies and got his wishes in early.
Carolyn had the boys make homemade gifts - fire-your-own ceramics (espresso cups, mugs, and an electric tree).
Grandpa drove down from the Bay area with Uncle Dave and Aunt Stephanie. Jack continued his love affair with Thomas the Tank Engine.

Aunt Beth sent an elaborate Tin Tin book!

This year - bikes! A real hit.

On Saturday, we took a trip to the Getty Villa's antiquities collection, where M & J put on a Roman shadow play.

They really loved the blow-up bed. Stripes all!

At this point, our boys are the only children gracing family events; I distinctly recall how grown-up and boring Christmas felt all those years we celebrated in Macomb. We spoil them with gifts, while they bestow their charm and innocence on our events - and, generally speaking, all our days - while we taper their selfishness. Judaism, by contrast, having been called an "old man's" religion; Christmas is a child's holiday.

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.

704 Terra Firma

Here are some photos (compliments of Suzanne) of our house in Tacoma and newly done eaves work (compliments, Randy) and roofing (compliments, Troy at Armstrong). Originally designed by Albert Sutton,
apparently, an illustrious architect (one of the first to be officially licensed) who worked in Portland, San Francisco, and Tacoma, where he died in 1923. He drew-up the University of Puget Sound's layout and Jones Hall.

Fresh layer of snow hides the roofing, but we like it already.

Randy's eaves gives the house a more finished, cleaner look, I think.

The property only went through 4 owners; we bought it from some hippies (wood-fired hot tub, pond, spirit idols, Tibetan flags, and 12 chickens), who really cared for the place, selling it to us as "stewards" - less a sale and more like "open adoption."

We had a sleeping porch enclosed to enlarge our bedroom, from which you could see Mt Rainier.

There was, apparently, a front sleeping porch, as well, which a subsequent remodel turned into a larger front room, where you could see the sound and hear tugboats, trains - the 19th century (easier to romanticize older industries). Anyway, we could use some of the holly branches to decorate right about now. Thanks for the great work, Randy! Thanks for the referral, Patrick & Jayne!

Thanksgiving 2008

The week began with a visit from the Lancasters - this time everyone. An active bunch, we went to Paradise Cove to play on the beach.
I've grown accustomed to beach frolicking in late November and seems downright exotic and just a little weird.

Pleasures of a cul de sac: stick play without traffic. Also, no sidewalks here. People here jog and stroll on the edge of a 50 mph road nearby - NOT FOR ME (not for the unfortunate woman either who was hit several months back).

The Kwongs joined us for dinner, which they brought - both handy and tasty. Reminded me of my mother, who sprinkled curry powder in her beef stew and also served on rice. Since then, rice & gravy have been an unbeatable combo for my palate. That evening of 3 families demonstrated the structural weakness of our "great" room: looks nice but not so great for simultaneous & different uses of space. It's always satisfying to see my family's belongings, like the coffee table below. Memories need a material hinge.

Speaking of memories, holidays are not complete without baking rolls (thank-you, Edith Schaeffer!), which Michael (our sleepyhead) woke himself up early to take part in. Jack had sensory integration dysfunction, so tended to avoid the stickiness of dough, the way other children avoid noise or strong colors, etc. This year, however, he jumped right in and is doing well in gymnastics.
This year, all rosettes. Topped with sesame, caraway, and poppy seeds with a healthy dose of sea salt - kinda a pretzel effect; the remaining dough turning into either orange rolls or cinnamon buns:

This year we were joined by Vishal and Ruth Mangalwadi. Vishal is a philosopher/social activist who organized farmers in India and has had quite a colorful life. We first met at L'Abri back in 1980 or so?
R & V somehow raised a family without ever having a permanent home. They are based in SoCal now, as their daughter is a nearby medical resident. (Carolyn's killer smoked salmon/cream cheese dip in the foreground).
We all went to the Philen's for Thanksgiving. I'm quite stingy with holidays, so we roasted our own turkey on Saturday (Trader Joe's had kosher birds, so came brined!), also inviting some stray students up for round #2 of turkey dinner.

The Kwongs introduced us to Sycamore Canyon of Pt Mugu State Park, which connects to the Pacific Ocean; the longer trail passes a waterfall. This is definitely not the LA of my childhood.
Anyway, we never hiked as much as I imagined we would living in Switzerland. I've spent years in beautiful hiking country (upstate NY, Switzerland, PNW) without doing much hiking, so things are not likely to change much?

Tree, menorah, Gucci.

The courtyard of the upscale Topanga Mall. Christmas is probably the least Christian (most pagan?) of events in the church calendar (see Spengler for more on this), and probaby the most enjoyable, as a result. We bought baby presents and (given the economic climate) felt self-conscious and guilty walking around with shopping bags. This is going to be an interesting yuletide, no? Back to basics.

Lausanne Reunion

We had a Lausanne reunion at our home the Saturday before Thanksgiving. These students lead busy lives, and we're proud to say that many of them have gone on to become service leaders on campus - it's hard to get a date all can make, so 25 was an excellent turnout!
Played "fishbowl" - a word game kinda like charades. Loads of fun. My Swiss chocolate, game prize did not arrive, so I compensated with Lindt and Toblerone bought down the road.
Another dessert to mark dad's 50th. These delicious cakes were from Pastries by Edie - a brilliant Italian bakery we discovered while living in Woodland Hills. One of those "bakes for the stars" places (which she really does do), Edie maintains the Italian tradition of miniature-sized goodies:
that I first discovered at Ferrara's and Veniero's in NYC on cheapo flights from Minneapolis during college. Ferrara's boasts the first espresso bar (1892) in the US, but I think Veniero's has better atmosphere. Highly recommend.
I am attracted to immigrant enclaves in big cities. Visiting Hawaii for my cousin's wedding a few years ago - seeing all the Japanese businesses - I wondered if this is how it felt for an Italian to visit Little Italy way back when. I include an old photo of Fugetsu-Do, a Japanese manju/mochi sweet shop in Little Tokyo established in 1903 - just 10 years after Italians opened their pasticerria on the east coast.
Most of the Japanese-American culture (movie houses, nurseries, ceramic and grocery stores, etc) have disappeared, except for the Sawtelle district off UCLA. Seattle's International District maintains a vestige of the old days, in which families would go in for a Saturday to shop, eat, walk the streets, see a movie maybe.

Back to the reunion.

Brittany, Michael, & Alex. Brittany, Morgan, & JoAnne picked-up M&J from school on Tuesday mornings and Alex could consume an incredible amount of food from morning to evening.

We made subs. Great planning by Laura. Morgan, Alex, & Keith:

Getting physical

Family picture.Thanksgiving post to follow!