Back to School

Hard to do after a wonderful break.

To thank our neighbor for accompanying her at the recital (this entailed hours of rehearsals), XX invited him (and, as he calls her, his "boss") to dinner.  She planned and executed a great menu for our friends, including a delicious pear tart.  

It was a bit awkward as Galaxy, who always likes to see what's cookin', decided to go right through XX's legs on the stepstool.

XX learned to purl. A whole new world has opened up for her knitting. She's working on a hat (of course).

We took our annual trip to the Aquarium. By happy coincidence, one of her good friends was also there that day. The Aquarium, always a fantastic time, was even better times two.

They loved petting the sea stars and chitons.

 

 Pretending to be sleeping baby penguins.

 Examining a squid, feeling tongues, tentacles and, ew, eyeballs.

 What XX would look like if she could camouflage herself like an octopus.

XX's solution to headphones that are too big ...

The words "Does anyone have any questions?" always elicits this response.

 XX is still talking about touching the nearly invisible moon jellies.

Not so bad being back at school after all!

All Good Things

It was a much needed and much appreciated winter break. After her recital, XX spent two full days at theatre camp. There were classes in acting, dancing, singing and crafts. She said her favorite parts were dancing and improv classes. 

The kids made wacky headpieces, which XX loved to wear everywhere.

 
Camp gave me two full days to prep for Christmas (mostly cleaning a sadly neglected house). 

Super Red oversaw the frantic vacuuming from his perch on the back of the couch.

Galaxy could not stand the tension of seeing so many presents, which she loves, all wrapped up, so got under the tree beforehand and unwrapped three gifts (two of them hers and one of Red's).  We had to put all dog toy presents up high until Christmas Eve.

Suzie, Dave, Carver and Sebastian came over for Christmas Eve. Plenty of food and no stress. A perfect afternoon. 

Red made sure he kept Suzie's lap warm.

Kids and dogs lolling around after dinner.

There were Christmas Eve pajamas, of course.

Galaxy was excited all afternoon, but conked out later into a deep and happy sleep.

She thought nothing was better than Christmas morning. For whatever reason, she was the one who woke us all early, and she loved all the paper wrappings. It was so much fun, she woke early again the next day. Poor disappointed doggie ran to the stockings on the 26th to find them empty. 

She had a wonderful holiday season, playing with tinsel, as well as ornaments. We pulled tinsel from her nose, mouth and paws as the sparkly stuff was irresistible.
 

We stayed in and rested on Christmas Day. And the day after that and the day after that. And that felt so good, XX and I decided to skip yoga on Sunday and take one more full day off. 

Blissful days. I caught up on some work, and XX caught up on some kid time.

With Bing Bing and YiFei.

Though we have a tree full of oranges, nothing tasted better than the perfect orange Santa left her.

Everyone rested.

We went out to play stomp rockets. John got a great workout chasing the rockets. Galaxy chased nothing but ran lots of figure eights by herself.   

 

Then there was zoo camp. XX came home talking about cleaning tiger, wolf and bear habitats, spreading out donkey poop for all to play in and hiding snacks for tigers to hunt down. She signed her first petition, about tiger poaching, and was fired up about the evils we humans cast on the rest of the animal kingdom.

The rest of last week was spent with more unstructured days. The only constant was violin. Long laughing hours of new pieces accompanied by excited shrieks at passages mastered and growls at uncooperative fingers. 

Red and Galaxy watched XX practice.

 

XX thought she might try staying up to welcome in the new year but not only did she not make it neither did John or I. Galaxy was especially happy to get into bed early.

To end our two week break, we went to see a dinosaur show.  XX wore her dino hat and boots, and took her toy stegosaurus. It's hard for her to be a spectator but as she was a little afraid of the giant dinosaurs onstage, she said it was good to watch. She really enjoyed the program, sitting up high in her seat and grinning the whole time. 

She ended the break with a performance at our neighbor's church. She was thrilled to receive flowers afterwards and also to sign her first autograph. I'm glad to see she learning to be gracious. Best of all, she was offered yet another performance playing for a women's group sometime in the next few months, this time she's been asked for 30 minutes of repertoire. 

But like all good things, the winter break had to end. It has been a crazy year full of change; we're all still making adjustments and figuring out what "normal life" looks like now. Our dreadful spring has turned around to produce many blessings. No complaints from any of us, while we turn our eyes forward.  "Good" comes in many guises.

With Best Wishes for All Good Things.