Valentine’s Day is just about the only highlight of February and a subpar one at that. You won’t now be surprised to hear that Evan and I don’t celebrate the holiday. Don’t get me wrong — we used to but ceased probably the year after Evan made me a scrumptious late evening meal of bone marrow with parsley salad. Nothing screams poetic love like a giant beef bone charred to perfection and split half way to expose marrow.
Cheesy as it may be, Valentine’s Day is just the opportunity to break up the monotony of cold winter days. The Fleisher Art Memorial‘s Print Love-In provided just the respite from a weekend of Legos, arts and crafts, and more of the same old.
The girls, Evan, and I spent the most glorious 1.5 hours we had in quite some time learning and making. Screen printing, lithography, and many other printmaking methods made available for practice by novices young and old. Not only were the premises impressive but also the artists who served as most patient and willing teachers.
Watchin so many little hands reaching across the print screens excited to see how the picture turns out may have shaken the Valentine’s cynic out of me. And, Evan and I were pleased to observe Eliza and Sophia as most enthusiastic budding artists.
The dull drums of winter really are here. That inevitable slowdown we all feel after the humdrum of the holidays and after realizing that spring, any sign of it anyway, is still months away. Being in the city helps since we can walk to quite a few places and an outing for an activity or change of scenery doesn’t have to be a big event. We took the little ladies to the theater on Sunday to see A Year with Frog and Toad. I thought it to be simply spectacular. There was something for both kids and adults to enjoy and seeing Eliza take in her very first theatrical performance was amazing. Eliza sat through the two hour performance, taking it all in, without fidgeting or whining.
There’s something marvelous about a weekend morning spent in pajamas. Those mornings are the kind have hot chocolate with your breakfast. Homemade hot chocolate. We’re tend to start with crafts where play doh and painting are among favorites. Not to be outdone, imaginative play is still king and Sophia is finally old enough to play real hair salon. Thankfully, she now has a playmate to be her customer and that playmate is rarely me. The fruits of her labor are evident in the picture below.
And, as I mentioned before, she’s also keen on photography. This is what she took all on her own yesterday.
There is something to be said for old-school paper correspondence and especially for holiday cards. This is the picture we used for this year’s cards and it is just one of a series Evan and I took over Thanksgiving holiday break.
It is surely a Monday kind of a Tuesday. The day is dreary and I woke up at my usual too early to be awake time convinced that it is still the middle of the night. For good reason, too—I haven’t had to get up before 6 AM for almost two weeks and found that no amount of coffee helps remedy a case of the Mondays Tuesdays.
It is finally 2017. Many, and I among them, say that 2016 was a difficult year. It remains to be seen what 2017 will be like, but I’ll be optimistic and wish everyone a Happy New Year! On to bigger and better things — how we spent the holidays. This year Hannukah and Christmas overlapped giving grown ups much to think about and kids much to celebrate. The girls celebrated Hannukah on New Year’s eve with a New Year’s tree—a tradition from my childhood—opening presents. Please note that *all* the presents you see in this picture are from my sister. To say that she is a firm believer in eight nights of Hanukkah is an understatement but more than that, she is an amazing aunt. My kids are incredibly fortunate.
After opening all of these presents on 12/31 because it was, after all, the last night of Hannukah, we feasted on homemade chicken noodle soup and herring under a fur coat. Evan and I barely lasted until the ball dropped that evening having flown home from warmer climates where we spent time with Evan’s family.
Warm weather always brings a smile to my face. The girls finally embraced the water… mostly… kind of … sort of …
Digging for treasure keeps kids occupied for quite a bit of time. We found shells, built castles, dipped our feet in the azure blue atlantic ocean and embraced the “its vacation so you can eat whatever you want” mentality. That meant that Sophia now consists of 70% pasta and 30% ice cream and Eliza 60% pizza and 40% something else. And if you ever find out what she means by something else do let me know because I’d really love to know. Terrible twos appear to be roaring and here to stay.
Two-on-two vacations continue to be quite a bit of work mostly where meals are concerned. We had a lot of fun, warmed our cold limbs thoroughly and listened to the calming sounds of the sea. Lovely. Beautiful. Relaxing for the mind not the body. Happy to get home and still have two days off, we embraced the remainder of the weekend in what has becoming more or less the typical; the girls spent most of Saturday catching up with Alex, Baba, and Deda and, for the first time in years Evan and I piled up on the couch binge-watching tv and resting from vacation.
These two — discussing their next adventure together. These times of peace and quiet can at times (especially now) seem untenable but when they suddenly appear out of nowhere like a rainbow after a rainstorm, they’re so beautiful.
As the year is coming to a close, I can honestly say that 2016 has been eventful; we’ve moved, I’ve changed jobs, we’ve overcome a children’s surgery, and generally tried to keep afloat. There’s nothing our little family needs more than R&R.
What a blustery, blistery, and cold weekend. Someone told me that a cold front was moving from Siberia of all places down through Canada and toward us. I’ve never been to Siberia but I imagine that Friday evening’s weather was exactly how cold it must be there.
The kids are at this great age where they still believe in princesses, fairytales, and magic. Marveling and relishing this, we decided to start some new (to us) traditions like having the girls decorate a gingerbread house. We also baked snickerdoodle cookies—an experience that included a completely flour-covered kitchen, many giggles, and lots and lots of snacking too close to dinner.
We spent the rest of the weekend watching movies, decorating a new year’s tree (a tradition from my own childhood) and wrapping Hannukah presents. The highlight of the weekend, which also concluded it, was a visit to The Miracle on 13th Street where we marveled at a beautiful holiday oasis that seems to appear out of nowhere as you drive deep into South Philadelphia. Lovely.
We didn’t notice if it was cold outside when we were walking through this wonderland — we were too enchanted.
