Mommy & Shara Day

First let me say that I do realize I can't have a day off of work, especially with Shara, where ice cream isn't involved. And I'm not apologizing. So there. Alan got to play Wednesday & Thursday, but Friday was my day. Shara & I both slept late and took our time getting up and out of the house. We had to deliver the presents Shara bought at the school store for all her relatives, which we forgot to bring with us to New York. It was very disappointing because Shara used her own money to the school store, and is still very excited and proud of what she picked out for everyone. But no fear, we dropped them off at Liz & Jesus' and they will be delivered this weekend. So we had to take a trip to Watertown, and I realized that it was very close to one of my favorite family lunch places - Cabot's Ice Cream. This is the second trip Shara and I made there and this time she ate about a tablespoon of her sundae. So not to let it go to waste, I finished it. She decided to go for the oreo ice cream with hot fudge and marshmallow. I had the coffee ice cream with bittersweet hot fudge and marshmallow. Both were wonderful, but the oreo was the better one. Shara thought I'd prefer vanilla and I almost went with her suggestion, but changed at the last minute.

The next stop we had to make was at the market to get our first night badges. We then took a quick stop home to go to the bathroom, but the groceries away and then headed out to the playground. It was already getting a little dusky, but this is the event Shara was most looking forward to. She even passed on going to the movies. We had a lot of fun. First we ran into her bus driver and talked to her while on the swings. Then we played some tag and I think we ran around for about 20 minutes before going to the play structure and playing hide and seek. That was lots of fun. She first looked for me near the big slide because that's where Alan hid yesterday - he laid himself down in the slide and she didn't find him right away. The area is probably designed to not allow anyone to go unseen. There is no place that is totally obstructed, between the mesh and open areas, it was quite a challenge. But where I had the advantage was in my speed. She'd try to get me to come up to her, then I'd start and wait for her to think I was committed, then turn around and run flat out and get her in the other direction. Then I got clever and tried to run up a slide and wiped out, somehow hitting my chest. Oh well, I recovered!

We then had to leave since it was almost dark and dinner was calling. We did our French Fridays dish today - cauliflower au gratin. We all ate it but Shara said she didn't like the broccoli taste. I think she ate it because she wanted pop-rocks for dessert. She had them and it took her about 1/2 hour to eat them all. The pop-rocks lead to us showing her the life cereal commercial and talking about how we used to eat them when we were kids and what happens when you chew them? Another resurrection from my childhood this week - the game Mastermind. We've all had lots of fun playing, though sometimes it can lead to tears. Just sayin...

Great visit with grandpa & nonie

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First time holding a baby

Shara got to hold her little cousin lily today at bubbe's hanukkah party. As you can see, she was very excited.

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Christmas

Had a very nice day yesterday at Oma and Jidor's. I came into the office this morning to start having my coffee and Shara came out of her room, took one look at a pink office chair that was at her desk and her eyes lit up. "What's that?" she asked and got so excited that Santa brought her an office chair that fit her and her desk perfectly. I wish I had my camera to get a picture of her face. Too cute.

A little early

Celebrating christmas a little early, at oma & jidor's.

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Food is Beautiful: Snowflakes

Food is Beautiful: Snowflakes: Decorated yesterday with Shara. She was very impressive with the pastry bag! We had a very nice time with these.

Present wrapping

Even though Shara was home sick today, she did have the energy to do a lot of present wrapping. Pooped out before she could finish but she did a great job and what a big help!

As for sick, she has alan's cold. No one likes to go to school or work with a runny nose, but she did relax in bed much of the afternoon. Then we had fun playing Sorry. then we had a cranky evening. She went to bed fine but we gave her some medicine so her nose would stop running to give her a chance to fall asleep. She had to go to school tomorow, at least in the morning. She should feel good enough early in the day to go for a couple of hours or so.

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Traditional Christmas

Last night I was looking at what was happening this weekend and came across the Old Sturbridge Village candlelight Christmas festivities. I thought it sounded interesting, but really didn't want to go out in the cold to walk around with no good idea of whether it would be fun or not so I asked Alan and Shara what they thought and Alan thought it sounded good and Shara thought it sounded really good, so we gave it a shot.

We got there about 5:30 pm. It opened at 4 pm and went until 9 pm. Right after we got out of the car we could tell it was going to be beautiful, if nothing else. The had white christmas lights on all the fencing and as we left the main building in search of Santa, we saw the paths were lighted with candles in lanterns. The houses were decorated as well. The didn't get rid of electricity, but it was only used for the christmas lights. Everything else was how you would find the place at a regular time of year. We decided to wait to see santa in favor of going to the carole sing-along. We were in a house with benches throughout the room and two men at the front, one playing the guitar and both sang. They let the kids pick what songs to sing from a song booklet of the classics and gave a short history on each.

We then decided to get to the next presentation that was of interest and that was How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Not exactly period, but that was ok. Then on to Santa, with a stop at the general store to play with old fashioned toys like tops and a jacobs ladder and then to the middle of the green where they had a nice fire and chestnuts, hot chocolate, and cider for sale. We got a hot chocolate and bag of chestnuts, which are rather difficult to eat while walking. Santa was great. He talked to each kid for about 5 minutes each and was very funny but kind as well. He even weaved some Santa history and folklore into his conversations. When it was Shara's turn, she said she wanted a castle in the backyard. Santa wasn't sure it would fit in his sleigh but he'd see what he could do. After Santa we checked out the barn where they were teaching the dance from A Christmas Carol and then grabbed a carriage ride around the green. We were going to leave then, but I thought we should go into at least one more house and what a good one! It was the tavern and they were showing how chocolate is made, from the roasting of the raw beans to the grinding on a Molcajete. We even got a sample of spiced hot chocolate. Across the room they were making Marzipan and learned a little of that history too, such as in the middle ages, at feasts, in between courses they brought in elaborate designs in Marzipan, which was then served as dessert.

So it was a great evening, ended with cookies in the main building. Shara slept all the way home and only woke up to help me get her out of her seat and plop her into bed.