My little lambs at last year’s pageant (I have NO photos from this year!)
This Christmas, I directed our church’s annual Christmas pageant.
Notice that I don’t say, “I volunteered to direct our church’s annual Christmas pageant,” because I didn’t. How I came to head up this massive production is still unclear to me. Say you’re standing on a dock, looking up at an enormous cruise ship, and you turn to a nearby crew member to inquire where the ship is going. The crew member whisks you inside, dresses you in the captain’s uniform, sits you behind the controls, and says, “Anchors away!”
THAT’S how I became the director of the Christmas pageant.
Because Christmas is really more about the outtakes….
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire? Dashing through the snow? All is calm? Peace on Earth, goodwill to men?
Is that how your Christmas is looking this year?
Mine, either.
I have a little piece over at On the Willows today about our expectations for Christmas, and how they’re never quite realized. A version of something I published here last year, but I like the new one better. Click here to read.
And the posts just keep on coming! Here’s my latest over at On the Willows, about some life lessons I’ve learned from home improvement. Click here to read.
You know that thing that you’re always supposed to say when your kids are acting up? (And by “acting up,” I mean behaving inappropriately, driving you crazy, whining and crying and not listening and pouting defiantly…)
You’re supposed to say: “I love you, but I don’t like this behavior.”
This print was our introduction to the charming work of California artist and storyteller Brian Andreas. In case you can’t read the text around the image, here’s what it says:
We lay there and looked up at the night sky and she told me about stars called blue squares and red swirls and I told her I’d never heard of them. Of course not, she said, the really important stuff they never tell you. You have to imagine it on your own.
You may remember that, just a few months ago, I wrote about the Sweeties — White and Pink — on this blog. I’m deeply saddened to tell you that Pink Sweetie, described by Campbell as “the one I love most of all,” is no longer with us.
It happened this past Saturday, a hot and humid day, when we decided to take the ferry across Lake Champlain to get ice cream in the quaint town of Essex, New York. The ferry ride was refreshingly breezy. Very, very breezy. Pink Sweetie was along for the ride. And then, right in the middle of Lake Champlain, Campbell held on to Pink Sweetie a little too loosely, and Pink was ripped from her hands and blown overboard.
The last photo of Pink Sweetie.
All things considered, Campbell has made us proud with her stoicism. After initial cries of “I want to STOP THIS BOAT!” and “How will I sleep without Pink?”, she moved on, embracing her one remaining Sweetie (although the plan apparently is to dye White Sweetie pink as soon as possible), and consoling herself with the idea that Champ, the lake monster who trolls the bottom of Lake Champlain, has now acquired a new blankie.
You were a good Sweetie, Pink, and a very important member of this family. As Campbell once put it, you “smelled like love.” And a water burial seems appropriate; Erick can rest easy that you will never be dirty again. You will be missed.
AND NOW:
Something a little different from me over at On the Willows, in which I respectfully disagree with my resident development economist over whether NGOs, short-term missions trips, humanitarian tourism, and Bono really can make a difference. Click here to read it.
Just for fun: “Having it all” – popsicles after the wading pool – this past weekend.
Last week, several friends forwarded me Anne-Marie Slaughter’s article in The Atlantic, titled “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All.” Usually I keep my mouth shut after I read articles on this topic, which I file under “The Mommy Wars”: the emotionally charged battle over work-family balance for American women today. But this time I didn’t keep my mouth shut. For better or worse, my response is published today over at On the Willows. Click here to read it.
Hello! Just wanted to let you all know that On The Willows published my piece on gifts vs. fame, as interpreted through Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. (Yes, I know: another post in which I draw heavily on children’s literature for my philosophy. Sorry, but that’s about as highbrow as my references get these days!) Click here to read it.
It’s been crazy busy here in the woods lately: last week we had 5 family members from California staying with us — Erick’s parents, his brother, sister-in-law, and our almost-two-year-old nephew. We dragged them all over central Vermont and had a blast. Now we’re down to grandparents-only for the next week, but the weather’s beautiful which means we’re usually outdoors in the wading pool, with three girls, three chicks, a dog or two, maybe a couple of friends…and a partridge in a pear tree.
Here’s a picture of the Gong Girls leading their beloved cousin Aiden into Green Mountain National Forest:
Hope you’re all enjoying the outdoors in your neck of the woods!
Over at On the Willows today: my little reflection on Charlotte’s Web, or: how to change the world, one web at a time. Click here to read.
As a bonus, here are a couple Memorial Day weekend photos of Fiona and Campbell. (Georgia is covered in mosquito bites and looks kind of leprous right now, so we’re hiding her).
Dipping their toes in Iver’s Pond.Preparing to march in the Middlebury Memorial Day Parade with the Public Library group. (It was WAY more fun than it looks).
The Pickle Patch 