Christmas in Lafayette

We arrived at Noni's house on the 23rd, just in time to catch the last night of lights at Acadian Village. It was truly a (swamp-based) winter wonderland. The weather felt balmy to us at 65 degrees, but Noni was cold and wore Ed's coat.

Noni, Gill and Jonas

The boys loved the sights, including (all made of lights) a green alligator in the water, mosquitos, butterflies and woodpeckers hanging in trees, a carousel, castle, giant inflated Santa, train, and more. It was amazing and beautiful. We should do it every year.

The Chapel and bridge at Village d'Acadian

Next year's Christmas Card?

Christmas Eve was a blur of family, food and fun, staring around 4:30 at Jan and Bob's. Seafood gumbo, ham, turkey and all the fixings. Dessert was pecan pie (with cherries!), cheesecake, and cookies. Santa arrived around 6:00 and had gifts for each of the 11 children present: Kerri, Mia, Cheyenne, Nathan, Andre, Adrian, Abigail, Owen, Vivienne, Gill and Jonas; Jude and Sydney were the only ones missing. Some of the fun....

Cheyenne and Mia model white elephant gifts after a round of Dirty Santa

Santa visited the boys at Noni's house this year. Jonas woke up around 7am and peeked through the louvered doors from the upstairs loft, sizing up the gift pile. I'm sure he was wondering how Santa could manage a visit at Aunt Jan's and Uncle Bob's the night before, and then still deliver gifts to Noni's house later that night. But maybe he's not questioning yet. One of their favorite stocking stuffers was a telescoping magnet. I never would have picked that, but Ed thinks like a little boy I guess.

Gill demonstrates the magnet, without pants.

Jonas' main gift was a megazord (Power Rangers), which has been morphed into many different forms already. Both boys got building structures; Jonas' are pipe-like but have wheels while Gill got pyramid and soft rubber type construction pieces. Ed was happy to explain to Jonas the difference between male and female ends on pipes. Ed says he understood instantly. They both know the words periscope and telescope and have been building those to go along with a police submarine. Gill got a handy grocery cart (a metal look-alike to the real thing) to pile all of the toys into and wheel around. It's only a matter of time before they start riding each other in it.

Ed got me a remote starter for my car, a beautiful book by John Slaughter on Grand Coteau, and retro handle for my phone. I got him a pen and ink drawing of the old water tower in Kansas City. Mom bought us a gift certificate to the new Kauffman Performing Arts Center and we got her fun clothes (two vests) and a pepper grinder (she requested it!).

But the best part of the holiday was getting to meet Eli. Although this picture doesn't show it, he's a very content, happy child. He looks like Jennifer's side of the family, but has Dexter's eyes and mouth. What a precious boy! If you had told my mother 6 years ago that she would have 3 grandsons, she would not have believed it.

Patterns & Padawans

Jonas has taken a rabid interest in art. He is quite prolific.  When I pick him up at daycare, he has about 8 pages of artwork to take home with him.  Though some of it involves stamping, he prefers raised stencils; he makes rubbings using crayons. We've started organizing all of it with sheet protectors in a binder so he can flip through and look at it. I'm struggling with my urge to recycle at least some of the 24 copies of a barn scene in brown. His favorite crayons are ones brought to him by Noni in a special truck carrier.  They don't have a paper wrapper and are triangular. I think the shape make them easier to grasp.

His teachers let him borrow the stencils from school.  When I helped him understand that there was a scene on one side and a pattern on the back, he was fascinated. He didn't know what a pattern was, and continues to pronounce it like Padawan.

Speaking of Star Wars, he has green light saber shoes and a cheaper pair of red Lightening McQueen shoes. Gill has light up shoes as well....red fire trucks. Recently, Jonas enjoys wearing one green shoe and one red one. People notice - you'd be surprised. I tell people that he's a clown in training.

On the food scene, Jonas has discovered miniature bagels, and loves them with whipped cream cheese. But his favorite food remains the corn dog. Gill likes them too but peels off the breading, eating just the "dog." Gill occasionally eats bananas like one would eat corn on the cob. He also enjoys fish pills - not swallowing them, chewing them. Yes, he eats fish oil, straight. We try to give him baths on those nights. He smells like a little sardine after a feeding frenzy of fish oil.

Our Special Yankee

Tonight, after dinner, we decided to teach the boys the song "Yankee Doodle Dandy." I think it had something to do with the fact that they were eating macaroni and cheese.

Anyway, we went through the song a few times, explaining the obscure words like "mind the music and the step" means "pay attention to the music and dancing." We'd start the phrase and have the boys provide the last word. When we got to the last line, "and with the girls..." Jonas finished with "behave" instead of "be handy."

So, would you correct your young son if he made that mistake?

Yeah, we didn't either.