Author - Lorri

This week between Christmas and New Year’s has always been my favorite week of the year. The frenzy and stress that precedes Christmas is gone but the decorations and good feelings remain. There are few obligations at this time of the year, so it is a quiet time to enjoy the tasty treats and presents. I like to continue to play Christmas music, right through to New Year’s, though I tend to choose instrumentals now.

So how was your Christmas? Ours was wonderful. We started with Mass on Christmas Eve. Here are Boo and Pumpkin Girl all decked out. If you look carefully, you can see the remnants of Pumpkin Girl’s black eyes.

They were both in the Christmas play. Pumpkin Girl was a sheep again and Boo worked up enough courage to be a Wise Man. Phil sang a solo during the play. Unfortunately, I missed most of it because I had to be in the crying room with Bip. Here’s a picture of Boo afterwards.

Back at home, we had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of tamales, rice and beans. I don’t know how it happens, but every year my mom manages to get us some homemade tamales. Even when we live in Korea. Got them right past customs, even. Right before dinner I heard a lot of sirens in the area. I thought how sad, to need an ambulance or fire truck on Christmas Eve. But ho ho ho, look who it was:

The next day, children were up bright and early. They were genuinely surprised and delighted to find their stockings filled, especially given their behavior of the previous couple of days. They got everything they had wanted for Christmas “and more,” as Pumpkin Girl said. She got her very first Barbie doll. We managed to hold her off until this year, when she started asking for one. No matter what, she always came back to Barbie. I had a Barbie as a child, and I turned out ok. Well, more or less. But whatever issues I may have are not Barbie’s fault. So we are now a Barbie household. I need some help, though. Where does one buy Barbie clothes? Our base PX only carries the dolls, no extra clothes. Of course, her clothes need to be conservative and modest. If anyone knows of a good online source of decent Barbie clothes, please let me know.

Boo was please to find a popgun and a Lego Star Wars Gameboy cartridge. He and I are spending all our spare time playing Gameboy now. I really like the Lego Star Wars game. Boo plays Star Wars with his friends all the time, but he’s never seen the movies. Even Episode 4 or whatever we call it these days, the first one that came out in the ’70s, is still a little too violent. It’ll definitely give Pumpkin Girl nightmares, and there is no way for her not to see it if Boo is. Anyway, the Lego version is fun and cute and gore-less. You don’t even need to know the story line to play. We’re enjoying it very much.

Bip really got into opening gifts. He was thrilled with all of his gifts, which aside from a wooden rocking horse fell into 2 categories: things to pound and cars. Such a boy!

My gifts were almost all from Europe. A beautiful rosary and rosary box from the Vatican library collection and a Swarovski crystal Nativity from the Vatican are some of the highlights.

About the Girl: Pumpkin Girl fell off our shed on Sunday and smashed her face. How many times do you have to tell them to GET OFF THE SHED? I don’t think she’ll forget anymore. Her nose is swollen and bruised (think Marsha Brady when she got hit with the football) and scratched on one side. She has two black eyes. I don’t think it’s broken because it’s sore like a bruise, not painful like a break would be. I’d post a picture here, but she looks like she got beat up. I don’t need a visit from CPS adding to my Christmas Cheer. Not that three hots and a cot wouldn’t be nice about now.

About the Boy: Phil had The Talk with Boo. Or rather, read him The Book. On Sunday while Pumpkin was lying on the couch with a bag of frozen peas on her nose, Phil took the opportunity to take Boo to his room and read to him. Reports are that it went well. Phil told him that if he had any questions, to feel free to ask. Boo’s reply: “No, that pretty much explained everything.” Well, everything an 8 year old would want to know. By the way, if you have a child that needs to know about the facts of life, then this book (#2 in a series) is a great one. Check out the reviews on Amazon (follow the link above) – I pretty much agree with all of them, especially the one dated June 28, 2000.

About being neat and tidy: I let a strange man into my house today. Well, he wasn’t a strange man, he seemed normal enough, but he was a stranger. He was a federal investigator doing a routine background check on one of our friends. He interviewed me for about 10 minutes and was done. We get a lot of these investigators in their overcoats and hats, flashing their badges. Most of the time I don’t know the people they are investigating. Boo, ever the inquisitive one, always asks who was at the door. One time I told him that it was a federal agent, wanting to know what he’d been up to. His eyebrows shot up into his hair. I had him going for quite awhile until I finally admitted that while the man indeed was a federal investigator asking questions, he wasn’t asking about Boo. So when I let the man into the house today and Boo found out who he was, he made himself scarce pretty quickly. I guess he wasn’t taking any chances. But see, just one more reason for keeping your house clean – you never know when the Feds are going to knock on your door.