There's never going to be a year when December isn't too busy so that part seems hardly worth mentioning, but honestly this year's holiday season has beat all records. Aside from the usual rush that comes with Aaron's career in music, we had two kids at rehearsals for
Oliver every night of the week. Then Aaron had to fit in a surgery for a hernia that has been bothering him for a while before an insurance change, and I insisted on taking Addy on a (pretty late) 8-year-old trip that she had been dreaming of for quite a while. Even with all that, I hope that we erred on the side of more fun, not just plain more stress.
It didn't take long for the
Oliver rehearsals to start taking their toll. Running from at least 6:00-8:00 pm Monday through Thursday for all the kids, with an additional hour or two for Theo 2-3 nights per week, it was running the kids ragged. Additionally, working out carpooling for the days that I teach piano classes was a challenge. The first few weeks of rehearsals were held up at Aaron's university, which is a 20-25 minute drive depending on traffic, and though it allowed him to bring the kids home several nights, it still made scheduling quite hectic. I let Theo skip his first block classes a few times so he could catch up on sleep (even a night owl can't run at 100% after being out until 9:30 or 10:00 pm on a school night), but the school got after me about that. One day, when I went into excuse his tardy and one of the office staff gave me a hard time about it, Theo went on to pretty seriously hurt himself falling off a treadmill during P.E. I can't deny that a bit of my mama bear came out after that.
Anyway, two weeks into December I found the great groupon that I'd been waiting on and talked Aaron into letting Addy and I slip away for a three-day weekend to Chicago while he held down the fort. It was during that Thursday's rehearsal that the show's directors called to talk to Aaron about Theo. He was acting tired and lethargic during rehearsals, and the directors wondered if he was going to be up to making it through the show, especially since rehearsals were only going to intensify. Since Theo was actually coming down with a cold and spending practically every minute he had at home asleep, together, they decided that it would probably be best for Theo to downgrade to the role of orphan alongside Addy. Though it wasn't an easy change to swallow (Theo ended up liking the fame and glory more than he expected), there was a definite feeling of relief for all of us because of it. He has already enjoyed feeling less pressure during rehearsals, more time to joke around with the other orphans, and especially cutting down on the time he had to sit, posed somewhere on the set, while the adults rehearsed around him. Hopefully this brush with stardom has given him a taste of the work that is required, so that if future opportunities present themselves he will be able to both make good decisions and prepare himself.
As for Addy's special trip to Chicago, it was really wonderful. We stayed at the old-fashioned Millenium Hotel on the Magnificent Mile, and spent our days visiting the Chicago Art Institute, attending a surprise performance of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, watching a mother gorilla show off her baby at the Lincoln Park Zoo, visiting the Field Museum, and cruising the shops (including the American Girl store) along the Magnificent Mile. I spent the entire car ride up to the train station (2 hours) giving Addy a run-down of art history from the middle ages through the twentieth century, then I spent the train ride telling her all about Van Gogh (if you're sensing a theme of Van Gogh obsession in my posts, you can credit it to the enormous biography I recently read in preparation for my own little Van Gogh book). I gave her alternative versions of both the story about his cut-off ear and his possible suicide. Possibly she wasn't bored to pieces the whole time, though I won't make any guarantees. I may have worn out her little legs with all the walking once we got there, but there was too much to see to miss any of it! Since I had also recently read
The White City by Erik Larsson, I had a fair amount of Chicago history to share as well, from its early days of pig slaughtering, to the building of all the skyscrapers on floating foundations, to the World's Fair in 1893 (which complemented our discussion of the Paris World's Fair attended by Van Gogh just three years earlier in 1890). I like to think Addy had a chance to fit a word in edgewise between my academic lectures, but when I write it out like this I start to wonder. Sorry, Addy!
As soon as we got back, it was Aaron's turn. He went in for a hernia surgery the following week, and sadly didn't bounce back quite as quickly as Emerson and Sera did after theirs. He was laid up for several days while I took care of getting ready for the holidays. We went the easy route again this year, picking out a tree from Lowe's, and decorating it sort of hap-hazardly for family home evening. To give Aaron a break, I took the kids to the Old Fort again (where we went for the haunted tours in October) where they had some wonderful Civil War era activities, memorabilia, and goods for sale. We got some delicious honey sticks, the kids played games with hoops and sticks and took their turns eating donuts off strings. We watched the carding and spinning of wool, huddled close to the little fires that warmed the small buildings, and generally got a much warmer view of life during the 1800s than we had gotten from the haunted tours. Still, I'm not sure I'd want to travel back in time to that period--or if I did, I'm not sure I'd want to stay long.
Aaron's concerts this month were wonderful as always, with the Home for the Holidays concert being broadcast for the second time this year. We had a Christmas talent show at church, and while the younger kids all played songs on the piano (Emerson and Sera played a
Jingle Bells duet), Theo took the opportunity to show off his lovely milky tone on the trumpet, playing an arrangement Aaron came up with at the last minute of
I'll Be Home for Christmas. For only three months playing it, he's gotten pretty good pretty fast. Emerson and Sera, obviously, were adorable. I think sometimes both they and I wish they were twins, since they look it anyway and get on so well together. They had as much fun practicing for the program as playing in it. Addy did a great job playing
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, and the primary children did a great job singing their songs,
Picture a Christmas (junior primary) and
Joseph Dearest (senior primary) with me leading them for the last time. I have loved serving as the primary music leader for the past two years, and am sad to give it up, even though I've always thought being a Relief Society (grown-up!) teacher would be an awesome calling and I look forward to giving it a try.
Our Christmas was lovely, now that I have the holiday celebrations down as well as I probably ever will. We had a family nativity, delivered some secret gifts, and made gingerbread cookies for Santa. We had Cinnamon, our elf-on-a-shelf, watching over us, and we must have been pretty good, because the kids were well spoiled. Theo got a ukulele and a speaker for his iPod, Addy got a new doll and an art set, Emerson got a new
Cars Lego set and a
Cars talking geography game, and Sera got new baby doll with a stroller and an art set. Of course everyone got a big stack of new books from me, and from Aaron they each got a fun new board game.
The sad part of our holiday season, as of everyone's I'm sure, was hearing of the tragic shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Small-town Connecticut is close to our hearts, and we remember driving past Newtown many times. A dear friend of ours, Ryan Murphy (currently of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) actually grew up in Newtown and went to elementary school there. We are awed by the gifts of love offered by the victim's families, and angered by the circumstances of law and society that gave rise to such a horrendous act. We grieve deeply for the families and their beautiful children, full of life and gifts to offer the world, now lost to all of us. As we hug each other a little closer this holiday season, we hope we will have our eyes open for those in need of our love and support, and that as a country we can do a better job of meeting the emotional needs of those on the outskirts of society, as well as in protecting the innocent among us.
