December 9

How to have a happy day...

1. Start on dessert early.

2. Spend over an hour in the tub. (He is 5 now and won't allow bath pictures, so a sunny, prune-y hand is all you'll get.)

3. Stack your Hanukkah presents nicely on the table after shaking them thoroughly.

4. Clean your kitchen and revel in the sunshine.

5. Study Hebrew with help from a nifty website.

6. Continue to count your lucky stars that you married a man with sisters who send you fabulous kitchen tools that you'd never break down and buy for yourself. (that's real love, people.)

7. Play board games with your mom only to quit the second your dad walks in the door, out of sheer unbridled glee.

Also recommended:

Numerous clandestine phone calls about the fdsjkf to confirm pick-up date and schedule vrngjfkje appointments

Resisting the urge to call your sister-in-law repeatedly to squeal about the fdsjkf. (Not because I don't love squealing with said s-i-l, its just that the kids would catch on.)

Reading aloud to kids, snuggled under big fluffy comforters.

Giggling about Derrida with your husband.

All of the above may help fend off hurt feelings when you learn that your husband actually hates mint brownies, after you've made a 9x13 of them and skipped knitting to stay home with the ingrate, I mean the beloved man.

But honestly it doesn't do much at all to lessen the blow of learning that your dog is dying. What were those cliches again? Must be time to make myself some tea... She's had a long and wonderful life and truly, her memory is for a blessing, but it still just plain sucks.

December 8

My feeble attempts at pulling a certain pre-teen out of a nasty slump this evening included more yelling than I needed to do and honestly, all of the following cliches: "Make the best of it." "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." "Look for the silver lining." "Look on the bright side." "Make do with what you have." "Just make up your mind to be happy." "You can be right or you can be happy."

But when it came right down to it, I was the one who needed to hear a snappy cliche. Sometimes all that's needed is a little tea and sympathy. Thank god I finally figured it out. We may survive adolescence yet.

December 7

A day that starts like this...

and ends like this...

has to be a good one!

The intrepid grandfathers set off early this morning in search of the elusive wild donut and returned triumphant, and with bagels and 'lox' taboot. Fueled up, we walked downtown, hit the library and shopped a bit. Met Chris for lunch, said goodbye to Grampy and then walked home. Then the remaining grandparents hit the road and some of us snuck a nap while others watch a Star Wars documentary. I also squeezed in some secret plotting with Keely and quickly it was time for book group and parade prep.

Today was the annual Lexington Christmas Parade, (yep, I live in a town that unabashedly holds a *Christmas* parade every year...) and the kids and I marched. Caitlin's book group was recruited to help with Boxerwood's entry and Caitlin carried a beautiful handmade illuminated sparkling paper deer puppet.

She was one of about a dozen 'animals' that walked around the tree sculpture you see in the background in the above photo. There were two big paper birds hanging from the tree, and a handful of the animals rode bikes instead of walking - the result was quite magical. Boxerwood never fails to delight me!

And then there was the knitting float!

A bunch of the lovely and talented Wednesday night knitters built and painted our fabulous float over the course of the last 2 weeks - a hearth complete with 'fire', stockings hung with care, piles of presents and 2 rockers in front of it all. Ben and I claimed a rocker and had a great time waving and throwing candy to the crowds. Fellow knitter Ellie treated us all to Rick Springfield and Johnny Cash Christmas carols and the other knitters worked the crowd, passing out hand knit corkies.

Sometimes small town living wears a bit thin, as do the assumptions of homogeneity that go along with it, but even so, I find things like this parade utterly charming. There is something wonderful about bundling up and spending the evening with friends, seeing tons of folks you know and laughing and hollering all through town. Going to bed tonight Ben asked if we'd be in Lexington for another year. I said I thought so and asked why he was wondering. He said, "That parade was really great. I'm going to ask the knitters if I can be on their float again next year!"

December 6

Grandpa 1...

and Grandpa 2!

Also on-site today were a grandmother and an aunt and her boyfriend. Who knew Lexington was such a hot spot?

December 5

"I've been waiting for this miracle all year."

-Ben, upon stepping outside and into the snow

You can just barely see it in the picture above, but Caitlin has a big splint on her left hand. She chipped a bone in her thumb yesterday so in addition to playing in the snow we also spent the better part of the morning in the ER. Luckily it hasn't interfered with her sledding at all. And also luckily, we live in Virginia where its still warm, even during a big snow storm.

Bonus! India Photo Map

It may surprise some of you to her that India has been on my mind a lot lately. I miss it, honestly. Mostly I miss the little monks, but I've got a hankering to go back and explore, even Varanasi. Looks like I'll have to wait until at least summer 2011 though.

I found a link to a great National Geographic interactive photo map of India that I think some of you will enjoy. For those who are new to the SLNC experience, we lived in Varanasi and Pune, both of which are on the map, and spent quality time in Goa and Delhi too.

Enjoy!

December 4

Prince Florizzle saved the day so many times over! We have the best friends...

December 3

Scenes from a play date...

a rowdy goat,

a lovely cow,

and a cozy kitchen bursting with life and beauty.

And yes, there were lots of children involved too, but for the most part they were moving to fast or screaming too loudly to be photographed. What with knitting group and gatherings at the farm the 24 hours between Wednesday evening and Thursday evening are consistently some of my best each week.

For Ne'ke

First fry in our new house, first fry since coming back from India, first fry in well over a year, and still soooooooo wonderful.

3 out of 3 generations of Haskett women agree, frybread is delicious!

How's that old Chinese proverb go? Give a girl frybread and she'll be happy for a day, teach a girl to make frybread and she'll be happy for the rest of her life?

You're such a gift, Ne'ke.

December 2nd

This is my living room rug, as it is now and as it has been since we returned from Madison. He was a bit slow to warm up to Legos, strangely enough. Somehow the 'mess' doesn't bother me...

December 1st

Ben investigating a giant fallen log, at Boxerwood. Spent the afternoon there with friends - excellent as always, with plenty of exploration and creativity and GUMMY WORMS.

I'm aiming to post one picture each day (at least) for the entirety of December, as a way of jump-starting the blog again. (No, the irony of posting this first post a day late is not lost on me.) Lately I've also been really captivated by the blog Micro-cosmic, written and photographed by a fellow traveller we met in Ladahk, Sarah Pletts. And so this project is also in part inspired by her work, as well as her spirit of a more conscious and consistent artistic engagement.

Let the good times roll...

Melvin Invasion

My mom and aunt visited us last weekend and by all accounts, a good time was had by all.

We did the Lexington tourist circuit, spent a day in Roanoke and had some delicious meals. Much shopping was also done, including my first visit to Target since before we went to India.

The kids outside the Southern Inn

Dinner at the Southern Inn

Meema, Ben and Aunt Margaret at Mill Mountain Park

Paying our respects to Stonewall Jackson. Did you know there is a tradition of leaving lemons on Stonewall's grave?

WTH?!

I spotted this sign a few weeks ago in Roanoke...

and then last weekend, this...

Mighty nice of Bud, don't you think?

Charlotte Airport FTW

The Charlotte NC airport has:

-lots of natural light
-free wi-fi
-rocking chairs everywhere
-a USO spot for soldiers to do whatever it is that soldiers do at USO spots in airports
-a live piano player in the main atrium
-pit-cooked BBQ, greens, beans, stew, etc, with decent hushpuppies and swayt tay, all dished out [on the day shift] by sweet old women who wished me a 'blessed day.'

Gogogo Charlotte Airport. I route myself through here whenever possible from now on.

Sorry, no pics.

Two for Ella

Believe it or not, Ella, I learned the Fifty Nifty United States song a million years ago when I was about your age. Here's the version we sang...

Beautiful Downtown Roanoke

Rough around the edges, but there are gems everywhere...

Halloween 2009

(As I begin to write, I realize that pretty much without exception, my family turns *any* holiday into a multi-day affiar...  good thing we're Jews - at least the mega celebrations are doctrinally correct on occasion.)  

Ben and I kicked off the season of candy and pumpkins on Wednesday with a pumpkin carving party at the library and lots of buddies.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Oz and his dad Josh get down to business

Gabe, Joshua and Ben in a rare hug-free moment that day

Then Thursday Batman and I hit the W&L Halloween carnival with Spidey, a Pumpkin Chef and their mom.  Pumpkins were painted, bad guys were chased far far away from the dorms...

After the carnival we braved the downtown Lexington Trick or Treating scene, which was an absolute mob.  You may be surprised to learn that my new home of less than 7000 ever has need for traffic cops, but I spotted at least 3 on duty, in the middle of intersections directing the hordes of kids through the W&L Parents' Weekend traffic.  (Who on earth thought it would be a

 good idea to hold Parents' Weekend over Halloween?!  Total zoo.)  No pictures as I had my hands full not losing Batman.  

Caitlin came home from NC on Friday so we waited on her to carve our pumpkins.  Unfortunately a pumpkin shortage in western VA seems to have driven folks to resort to squash larceny and we were down to three by the time we got down to business.  (That, or as Chris claims, a raccoon rolled one off...)  We soldiered on and even managed to gross out a neighbor kid in the process.  

Demure and undeterred, Caitlin de-goops like a pro.

The master again, in his element.

And then the main event.  Caitlin was a queen in mourning (you'll have to ask her from which century).  She proudly accomplished her goal of creating an entirely free and no-sew costume all on her own this year.  

Ben again kept Gotham safe.

And I rocked my witch costume, sat on the porch, read about King Henry the VIII's wives, drank beer and handed out candy.  (There's something I don't miss about Wisconsin - the frigid Halloween nights!)

Chris combined Jedi and academic robes for a costume too intellectually terrifying to document.  He had the privilege of escorting Batman on his rounds while Caitlin went off, sans-adult, for the first time ever.  By all accounts she had a blast...

...even if The Devil did horde her candy!