Red Pen Mama

I keep meaning to post photos of the Christmas festivities (such as they are), but DearDR disconnected the digital camera port, and I haven’t figured out which wire goes where yet.

I have been looking around the blog-o-sphere, and it looks as if everyone has had a good time. I have no complaints myself. It was too busy; it always is, especially now, married with kids. I said to DearDR, “One of these years, I would like us to just be in one place all day long on Christmas.” He replied, “That would be nice.” I added, “How about Italy?”

What? That’s one place.

Come back Friday. More to see; more to read. My house is a zoo, and Bun’s birthday is Sunday. Oy.

Oh, yeah, Happy New Year too….

“There were shepherds in that locality, living in the fields and keeping watch by turns over their flocks. The angel of the Lord appeared to them…, and they were very much afraid. The angel said to them, ‘You have nothing to fear! I come to proclaim good news to you — tidings of great joy to be shared by the whole people. The day in David’s city a savior has been born to you, the Messiah and Lord. Let this be a sign to you: in a manager you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes.’ Suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth to those on whom his favor rests.’”
Luke 2: 8-14

Below is a version of my favorite Christmas hymn, “O Holy Night.” Those nice boys of Il Divo do a lovely job.

Yes, Virginia, it is really Saturday.

I’ve been reading a number of blogs from the NaBloPoMo days. Some people manage to take some really nice pictures and post them. Now, I enjoy taking pictures, and I do love the world of digital photography. But I am not the experts that these people are. I have a little point-and-shoot; I don’t photoshop much — I can remove red eye if hard pressed. And crop.

Anyway, the point is: I decided to see what my little point-and-shoot could do. I experimented with some extreme closeups; I bracketed to see if they worked better with or without the flash.

This is from the centerpiece I had on the dining room table for DearDR’s party. I received quite a number of compliments on this exceedingly simple decoration.

It’s a large white decorative bowl filled with Christmas ball ornaments. I came up with the idea all by myself. I had meant to hang the balls from the curtain rod in the front room, on lines of differing lengths. But I never got around to that. The fallback was very pretty, though.

With a flash.

No flash.

Flash, but too close.

No flash. Definitely too close.

I’ll have to experiment a little more (aren’t you lucky?). I can see that the flash adds shadow and depth in some cases. But I guess I can’t get too close because my camera can’t focus.

So it occurred to me for the first time tonight that it is entirely possible that Monkey (never mind Bun) doesn’t actually know about Santa Claus. She knows who Santa is, culturally; when she sees a picture of Santa, she exclaims, “Santa!” We have a couple of Christmas DVDs (notably, “The Year Without Santa Claus” with the Heat Meiser and… what was his name? Ice Meister? Snow Meister? I don’t recall at this point).

But I don’t think I’ve ever gone through the whole, “Santa Claus is this guy who makes toys up in the North Pole — well, actually, his ELVES make the toys — and then he flies around on Christmas Eve delivering them to all the good boys and girls.” As Wikipedia puts it, “the mythical gift giver”. The fat, jolly guy dressed in red. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

She knows about St. Nicholas, and Mary, and (of course) Baby Jesus.

In her life, then, Santa Claus is just some guy whose imagery shows up around Christmas. She has never been to visit Santa, to tell him what she wants; we haven’t written a letter to Santa. He is neither an icon of wish fulfillment or a creepy Big Brother figure who knows when she’s naughty or nice.

I haven’t deeply examined this, but obviously I’m primarily motivated by my desire to keep the birth of Jesus in the forefront. And I’m not a grinch; Monkey and Bun are going to get plenty of loot, some from us (and labeled as from Mom & Dad, not Santa), more from grandparents and other relatives.

What to do? Should I introduce the myth of Santa to her? How? Should I use Santa as a motivator to be good, as so many people do this time of year? Should I wait another year? I have my own mixed feelings about the whole Santa-myth and secular “holiday” time as it is.

At the same time, I don’t want Monkey to be the kid in kindergarten telling all the other kids that there is no Santa Claus.

(This is going to be all over the blog-o-sphere pretty soon, if other versions of it aren’t already.)

The version I am looking at started at Rockstar Mommy. Cynical Dad raised the stakes.

And tonight, kids, I’m going all in.

Number of Christmas trees erected at the Casa di RPM: 0
Number of Christmas trees that will be erected this year: 0
Number of lights on the house: 0
Number of times per mile while we are in the car Monkey says, “Look at all the lights!”: 42
Number of Christmas cards mailed: 0
Number of cards that will be mailed: 0
Number of cookies baked (or to be baked, by me): 0

(Are you seeing a trend? It gets better!)

Number of times in public my children get asked, “What is Santa going to bring you this year?”: 36
Number of times my children have gone to see Santa (or will): 0
Number of presents wrapped: 0

(I do have to say, I am almost done Christmas shopping. Not only that, DearDR is almost done shopping because of my efforts. The only person for whom DearDR needs to buy presents is ME. Do you need a list, honey?)

Number of presents each person in my household will receive: 3
Number of presents I still have to buy for Bun: 2
Number of presents I still have to buy for DearDR: 2
Number of presents I still have to buy for Monkey: 0 (She was easy this year. In part because of this; again, from Chag at Cynical Dad.) (I do too read other blogs.)

Here’s where I raise the stakes.

Number of parties we are hosting at Casa di RPM this year (including Christmas Eve): 2
Days until the first party, an Open House to celebrate DearDR’s license: 2
Number of people expected to come to Open House: 100
Number of rooms actually ready for Open House: 2, if I don’t use the kitchen from today until Saturday. So, 1.
Number of rooms in my house that will probably get some use that weekend: 7
Number of rooms in my house (not counting the basement): 9
Number of children in the household who projectile vomited in two rooms tonight: 1 (Bun)
Number of patches of baking soda and/or fabric cleaner in those two rooms: 6

I had Monkey’s third birthday party here last month. Next month, I will probably have Bun’s first birthday party here, too. It’s a good thing I’m married to this guy.

(I am going to add briefly here: I am not a Scrooge or a Grinch or any of that. I do like Christmas, because of what it represents spiritually, i.e. the birth of Jesus Christ, the Savior. But this is not that post, so I’m not going to say anymore at this point.)

Edited to add: Make that 4 rooms in which Bun has vomited. This time, we just changed the sheets in the pack n’ play, and we made it to the sink to make room number 4.

Number of children who proceeded to stuff cotton batting up her nose when she should have been sleeping: 1 (Monkey)
Number of parents it took to get cotton out of Monkey’s nose: 2
Number of parents at Case di RPM who are having nervous breakdowns: 2
Approximate number of hours I will sleep tonight: 2