I took Claire and Molly over to the Trail of Lights just before Christmas this year. I love the Trail of Lights in theory, but so far it always turns out to be an exhausting death march, even this year it was just a short walk from my place. We waited through an extraordinarily long and fast line to get in and waited in an extraordinarily slow line for food at the Chi’ Lantro trailer, where we had to settle for kimchi fries instead of chicken wings. The final insult was dessert at another trailer, where Molly and I got pretty good ice cream sandwiches, while Claire opted for the “warm chocolate brownie”, which turned out to be a cold chocolate cookie. We got back home late and with our energy and senses utterly exhausted. Still, I’m glad we made the effort, and at least it wasn’t cold the year.
Had had a rare Christmas week off the year, something that will only happen once a decade or so. Since she could travel this year, we decided to head down to her parents’ house in Corpus Christi for Christmas for a change. The girls will stay on in Corpus for a few more days of their winter break before heading back home to Austin next week.
In Corpus, we had Kit’s parents, Kit’s uncle Bob, and my parents. We had a great, slow Christmas day with the whole family. We stuffed ourselves on ham, green beans, salad, and pecan pie. We watched Home Alone and sat around chatting while the kids played. It was a good day. People were curious and excited about my new job at Whole Foods. We also headed down to Corpus Christi waterfront for a sunny afternoon walk and to let Molly try her Plasma Car on a big, wide sidewalk.
We also got to visit our friends, the Carroll’s. The highlight of that visit was Claire and Ze doing a “science experiment” from one of their Christmas presents in the Carroll’s bathroom. They overdid an ingredient from the experiment and clogged the bathroom sink, left a mess on the hall carpet, and ruined some bathroom towels. We were concerned that the kids might have gotten some science goop in their eyes or mouths, but it turned out alright.
This year, with Kit working 70-hour weeks leading up to Christmas, and me starting my new job the week before Christmas, we were overwhelmed and frankly almost did not get all the presents we needed. We just eeked it out this year! Basically Kit and I need up with a two-hour window on the Sunday before Christmas to focus on shopping. We had between 3:00, when Kit was done with her work, and 5:00, when the babysitter had to leave, to talk and shop. This was not for lack of planning. Kit and I had been trying to do this since Thanksgiving, but we barely had time to talk about it, much less actually shop, at least when Kit was in a state where she could spare the brain cycle for it.
Anyways, Santa managed to find Claire a remote controlled indoor/door min-drone. It is a quadra-copter about the size of your palm, and with practice, you can fly it around the house. It was a tough start, getting hung up on the ceiling at first and later getting tangled up in Muffin’s tail hair. But Claire started to get a hang of it with practice. Santa gave Molly a Plasma Car, which is a 4-wheeled scooter you can ride around the house or a sidewalk. It was a perfect fit for Molly, and she spent most of Christmas day wheeling around the house.
The pile of presents from each other was huge and sweet. A highlight was a hand-made book telling the history of everyone in our family, both Purdy’s and McGonigle’s. It was meant for Claire and Molly to have and read decades from now, but we all got a copy of this amazing book. There were lots of other presents, everything from Playmobil sets to fitness bands to the Claire & Molly annual art calendar that I normally make.
The morning after Christmas, the girls and Kit stayed back in Corpus while I headed home to my new job and to try to restore some sanity to the tornado scene that is our house.
Driving Claire to a birthday party, just the two of us, Claire brought up the topic of Santa Claus. She started out asking in a roundabout way, “So what’s the deal with Santa Claus?” I provided a non-committal answer. After a little back and forth on the topic, Claire finally asked outright: is Santa real?
So she had figured it out. Of course I gave her a straight answer to a straight question. She said, “I knew it! I knew it!” with a big smile. Then she went through all of Santa’s presents and stocking stuffers from this Christmas, one by one, to ask who thought of each one. She seemed to really enjoy this game, sort of an inside track on a big secret. She asked a few more details about who easts the cookies we leave out, etc.
When Claire was done enquiring for details, I asked her, “How did you know figure it out? Did a friend tell you? ” She said nobody told her. She just figured it out herself. She said there were little clues. What really gave it away, she said, was the “believe in Santa” movies. They gave the most glaring clues. We’re talking primarily about The Polar Express and Elf, favorites with the girls this Christmas. If you watch the movies, you’ll see what we mean.
I congratulated Claire on figuring out this fun little trick, made a point of saying this was basically the only thing we had ever mislead her about, and asked for her help to keep this fun kittle secret safe for Molly. Claire agreed with a big grin on her face.
Claire and Molly put this together, with the help of Grammy, as a Christmas present for Kit and me. Most of the listed family attributes (laughter, kindness, loyalty, magic, generosity, and honesty) are taken from My Little Pony’s Elements of Harmony. Molly added “loving”.
We had Christmas as usual in Austin. In addition to Kit, the girls, and myself, we also had Kit’s parents, my parents, and Kit’s Uncle Bob. So it was a party of nine. Us adults can get pretty boring at Christmas, but not so much with the kids in the mix. The sneaking around to hide presents, stuffing stockings, leaving cookies and milk for Santa were all still in play this Christmas.
Claire reminded us several times in clear terms that Christmas is not about the presents. It’s about togetherness, Claire says, and she is right. At one point for fun, Claire and I asked Siri on my iPhone what the true meaning of Christmas was. Siri said it found a related article on the web. That is always her lame answer! Claire and I had a good laugh at that. Siri is great, but she should know the true meaning of Christmas from her heart, not some web page! 😉
For her part, Molly basically is a Christmas elf. She has exactly the right size and energy as an elf. You don’t get to have an elf join you for Christmas every year.
Even Annie joined us for Christmas.
Santa time!
Claire gifts her art.
Even Molly didn’t ask for presents for Christmas, and she didn’t snoop and poke at the presents under the tree. That may be because there was basically nothing under the tree until December 23 or so, as is our tradition. By the time Kit and I had agreed on what to get everyone, bought all the gifts, wrapped and labeled them, and transported then down to the tree, it is a miracle that Christmas has not passed by already.
Probably the best part of Christmas was seeing the girls have nice long days with all their grandparents, doing art projects, games, cooking, etc. It was almost perfect. Then there is the overlapping sound of different TV shows, music, etc. on the TV, the computer, someone’s iPad, etc. Kit made a rule that only one show/sound could be played at a time. In general, World War II documentaries dominated the TV. At one point, Kit and I resolved that there was going to be a goddamn Christmas movie on for Christmas. We put on White Christmas or something. Within an hour, it was back to the war documentaries. But that’s okay, at least it was one sound, and we all settled into it. And the kids had already seen plenty of Elf and The Polar Express in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
Sleeping bags!
The full tree scene.
Playing with Molly’s musical marble thingy
Molly tries on some elfish stuff.
Okay, so we have established that Christmas is not about the presents. You can stop here if you don’t care about presents.
Okay good, since presents don’t matter, I shouldn’t even mention them. But since they are kind of a time capsule, here are a few highlights… Both girls got sleeping bags for camping. They also each got a big fancy box from Santa to keep their stuff in. Many of Molly’s favorites were actually from Uncle Bob, including a 530-piece (!) paper activity set and some plastic princess shoes which Molly calls her glass slippers. She also ended up with a giant floor piano you play with your feet and a musical marble stacking/rolling thingy. Claire got some cool sets for designing clothes and making her own custom dollhouse. She also got her some shoes and roller-skates for her beloved Fluttershy stuffed pony. And a sewing machine that doesn’t work so much, or at all (oops!).
So there it is, Christmas 2013… Sometimes a little too fast, sometimes a little too slow. But this was still a real kids’ Christmas full of magic and togetherness. See the brief Christmas video too. Also, the girls’ very sweet present to Kit and me.
Molly decide to start a naughty & nice Christmas list for Santa Claus. Claire got into the idea. She wrote down all the items on the list and added some of her own. Molly’s list is dominated by things or people from school (naughty) and princesses (nice). Claire’s list of full of My Little Pony characters (all nice).
Last night when tucking Claire into bed, she sheepishly told me she had a question. “I heard from Harper and some other kids that maybe Santa Clause gets help from parents. Is that true?” I said with a smile, “That’s a secret, I can’t say a word.” Claire said, “I knew it! You do help! It’s a secret! That means you do help! ” Claire was smiling ear to ear and was very excited.
I was a little confused at this point. Why was she so happy and excited? Isn’t it sort of a let down if the parents “help”? Then Claire cleared it up. She asked, “What is Santa like? Is he nice? How exactly do you help him?”
I stuck by my vow of secrecy. Claire had one last question. “Who decides if the kids are naughty or nice? Is that Santa or the parents?”
McG Kids 