Greetings after a long silence, friends. Here, as promised, is a greatly expanded answer key to our little Christmas Quiz. I hope that you enjoy it, and if you like blogs and that sort of thing, try checking back early in the new year. I hope to be better at writing here.
1. Something Old
The cello was Matt’s first instrument, but he had not played it since eighth grade. We had talked about him picking it up again for the last year or two, so one day this summer, when we had a night to ourselves, we rented a cello to try it out, and it was such fun that we’re still renting it. When I heard him play for the first time, I realized how much the cello shaped the way that he sings. He’ll improvise the same lines on the cello that he would sing, and they have very similar ranges. When we were asked to play at the wedding of two friends in October, it was the first time since DC that we have played in public as a duet and the first time that we’ve ever played classical music together. (And honestly, it was also the first time I've played classical music in public, period.)
2. Something New
Lily took an interest in soccer after watching a game of the Women’s World Cup this summer, but by the time fall came around, she was pretty set on ballet again. Matt and I really want her to try new things and not become too serious about something too young, so we compromised on trying new things in the fall and returning to ballet in the spring. She made a pros and cons list (with a smiley and frowning face at the top of each column) to help her rank her options, and she ended up with soccer and theater. We had hoped that she’d be on a soccer team with a friend, but we registered so late that she ended up on a team of strangers, most of whom were, like her, first time players. The rec side of the league was very casual, but just by playing and practicing regularly, she learned and improved throughout the season. She took more naturally to defense and made good plays on that end in all of her games, and by her last two games, she also scored goals. Her team, which by luck was Team USA, got nicknamed “The Screaming Eagles” for doing their team cheers in that ear-piercing frequency seemingly shared by birds of prey and elementary girls.
As for theater, this summer, she participated in a week-long day camp that put on a short version of Frozen Fever, in which she played the cake-loving Olaf. She thoroughly enjoyed the experience, so she signed up for a semester-long class putting on a condensed and modified version of Peter Pan. She was drawn to the part of Tiger Lily primarily by the name, but also because the character description praised her bravery. When she got the part and started learning her blocking and choreography, she had even more fun: she learned that she’d get to have a bow and arrow (she is very keen on archery) and that she’d get to wear her favorite teal moccasins on stage. The play will take place on a real stage this coming Saturday night, and we are all looking forward to it.
3. Ants
Mema bought Corin an early reading book on Marvel’s Avengers in the Spring, but it didn’t really take off for him until he heard the movie theme from Ant-Man over the summer. After that, the Avengers, and Ant-Man in particular, experienced a huge surge in popularity. He was even Ant-Man for Halloween. Cars are still his undeniable first love, but the fact that Hot Wheels makes Marvel-themed cars allows him to combine both of his favorite things. FYI: be careful with your tissue boxes. The Ultron car has been known to hide out in them, evading the Avenger cars for hours...
4. Lions
My parents took Lily to see The Lion King in San Antonio last Christmas, and the experience became the stuff of childhood legend when Lily’s costume was noticed by an actor after the show who then invited her backstage to meet both young and adult Nala. So, naturally, she was still on a Lion King high come February. When you Google “Broadway Lion King Party” you don’t find much, but we wouldn’t have really wanted it any other way. We love a good DIY project, and we are starting to form a tradition of making the birthday party or some kind of birthday experience the highlight of the birthday rather than gifts. This year’s party happened for her with lots of butcher-paper wall decorations, genuine African beads from a friend who visits each summer, a foam and poster-board modification of Matt’s fantastic lion mask from last Halloween, and a lion obstacle course in the back yard.
5. Cooper Duper
For months, or perhaps years, Corin stared at the neighbor's Mini Cooper Power Wheels longingly or talk about it in hushed tones of awe. Then, one day this spring, I came home to find the Cooper parked outside our front door and a text from our neighbor saying that it was all ours; its original boy had grown too big for it, and he knew a place where it would be well loved.
It was a little sluggish at first, but Corin was ecstatic anyway, and
over the summer, Matt replaced the battery and doubled the voltage so
that it could really zoom. Corin drives it like a pro. He can spin it 180
degrees by stopping quickly and turning sharply; he drives in reverse
while looking over one shoulder, and he has been known to parallel park. Hence, to the tune of Do You Want to Build A Snowman:
Can I drive my Mini Cooper?
I want to drive it fast.
You can put my old car on the shelf.
It doesn't move itself.
It's in the past!
My Cooper has a pedal,
And two different gears,
Plus its own steering wheel!
Can I drive my Mini Cooper?
It has to be my Mini Cooper.
It drives for real.
6. False Alarm
Matt’s chest pain incident was not as stressful as it sounds. We both knew that the odds of him having a cardiac incident were really low; he is in excellent health, has regular check-ups, and has no family history of heart attacks, so when the doctor’s office refused to see us and basically ordered us to the ER, we understood their caution but were at least as much annoyed as concerned. We had to scramble to find somewhere to take the kids (our neighbors across the street kindly let them crash their daughter’s birthday party), but the whole incident only took a few hours. The ER sent Matt home with a pain prescription that made him very drowsy, and Lily was still recovering from her tonsillectomy, so we pulled the futon into the living room for them to convalesce together. Then, of course, Corin had pretend to be sick also, just for the fun of it.
An interesting side note is that all of the other answer choices on this quiz question were based on events that happened but did not lead to the emergency room. We did have a run-in with cactus quills, but the sufferer was Lily, not Corin, and we bought a pair of precise tweezers and spent about two hours pulling them all out. Lily did have a tonsillectomy, but it went very smoothly with no complications, and I did fall off of the kitchen counter while taking glass jars out of a high cabinet, but apart from a sore hand, I was unscathed. As best I can tell, it would have been a spectacular fall to watch: I felt myself wobble on the way down and reached for the oven handle to steady myself, but the oven door opened, and I fell onto it, which slammed it onto a stool, which shattered the door glass. The door broke my fall, though, and I managed a sort of tuck that sent me rolling several feet away, beyond most of the glass. Though I’m not proud of having had a potentially catastrophic accident while doing something I’d be somewhat embarrassed to explain at the hospital, I am pretty proud that I didn’t hurt myself.
7. Anger Management
Corin did not see Inside Out in theaters, but he loved it when we watched it at home. Though he is a cheerful, easy-going kid most of the time, he was drawn to the character of Anger. It took only a few days…or maybe only a few hours…for him to formulate a voice to use whenever he played Anger, and he latched on to one of the movie lines and combined it with his own life to make the phrase, uttered as one long word, “Austin-Texas-San-Fran-Stinktown.” When the keyboard came from Mo, he was using it as a control console within minutes. I am pleased with his creativity, and I love that he hasn’t divided movies in to boy and girl categories yet, but I will say that I’ve had to tell him more than once: “stop talking to me like Anger.”
8. Chapters
I have been teaching Lily to read since the summer after she turned four. She was not keen on chapter books until this spring, but once she latched on she became a bit like Belle from the opening of Beauty and the Beast, literally walking around with a book in her face. We kept track of how many books she read over the summer, but I stopped counting after that. I did a quick survey of her bookshelf when I sat down to finalize the Christmas quiz, and I reached 59 chapter books that she’s read, and that does not count what she’s checked out from libraries. I am very proud of her reading, not only because it’s something that I taught her and something that I also enjoy, but because she is very enthusiastic about it and does not have to be asked to do it. In fact, I had to pressure her a little to let me start reading chapter books to her again at night because she wants more reading time for herself.
9. Bands
Band #1: The worship band at Brodie, our small church that was a second location of an established church some miles away- We played with this group for about eighteen months, and we considered it a privilege. It pushed us both musically; it connected us with our church and with our fellow musicians, and it was just plain fun.
Band #2: The worship band back at the main church once Brodie was discontinued- We were sad to see Brodie come to an end, but we thought that it would be easiest on our family to give the newly reunified church a try. The worship leader there has been very gracious about including us in their existing band, and we were also asked to provide live music in the elementary kids’ program every other week, which leads to…
Band #3: Weird Celtic Potatoes, the kids band consisting of me, Matt, and another Brodie friend- The name reflects where we were born or where we grew up: Austin, Scotland, and Idaho. Trying to match the sort of recordings the kids used before they had a live band, the style is very different from anything I’ve played prior this year. Let’s just say that I’m slowly becoming acquainted with the strange world of synthesizers.
Band #4: A barbershop quartet composed of Matt and some church music friends- This got its start when Matt told two guys about singing barbershop in high school, and instead of feigning interest or laughing at him, they told him to find his old music so they could try it out. If you want to know the quartet’s name, you’ll have to ask Matt. It’s rather inappropriate. If you want to hear them sing, we have some recordings on our phones.
Band #5: The camp band for Zephyr Kids camp this July, for which I got to play keyboard and sing, not necessarily because of my talent, but because last year’s band needed a female vocalist, and the camp director happened to know me (being my mom and all). That band got to record the camp song at an actual recording studio, which was a first for me. When we showed the recording to some friends, and Corin nodded his head in an “I’m so cool” way and said “That’s my mom,” it made my summer.
12. Jessie
Coming to us from a local rescue organization, Jessie is a dog of many breeds and many names. Her “real name,” Jessie, honors the Toy Story tradition of Woody and Buzz, and it also happened to match the name the shelter gave her: Cowgirl. But within a day of her living with us, I’d started calling her Jessie Bessie, and then just Bess…or Bessa….or Bessa Beast. She is definitely part pit bull, or American Staffordshire Terrier if you prefer, but she has other breeds in there as well that give her long legs, a more slender body, and a tendency to point when she’s squirrel hunting in the back yard, which she does relentlessly. Sometimes, she stares at them and literally drools with longing. Sometimes, she attacks the fence like a Velociraptor in order to shake them loose and get them to run. In terms of height and weight, she is a medium-sized dog, a little over 50 lbs and a little over two feet tall, but her legs are so long that she can easily reach the kitchen counters standing on her hind legs, and she is pure muscle. The squirrels do taunt her like they did Woody, but they taunt her from much, much higher up in the tree.
I thought I was prepared for a big dog when we adopted her, and Matt and I had agreed to look for a medium to large dog who could withstand the kids' activity.
Still, it has been more of an adjustment than I expected. For one thing, early bonding was inhibited because she has a weird tendency to smell like rotten fish if there are any fish products in her food. It took us two weeks to figure this out, during which time she walked around exuding fish smell like PigPen emits a cloud of dirt. By the time we fixed that, she was a few pounds heavier and definitely not on Buzz’s good side. As a puppy in her foster home, she was very respectful of Buzz. Once she moved in, she wanted to play with him, and he did not return her interest. We didn’t know Buzz knew how to bare his teeth until she came along. They have become more used to each other since, but they’re not quite buddies.
On the upside, Jessie is far more trainable than any dog I’ve had before; after 20 years of little dogs, it’s a bit odd to have one that listens. She can sit, lie down, shake, stay, come, catch, and, sometimes, “drop it.” On the downside, her normal puppy behaviors—like chewing or digging—are far more destructive than a dachshund’s, and her personality is very different, too. On the upside, she is extremely patient with the kids, and quite gentle with them also. On the downside, she’s hyper, and non-dog-people can find her a bit much to handle. My grandmother is definitely not fond of Jessie, so Jessie, naturally, follows Mema around when she visits and tries to sit in her lap.
Though we had thought first of a big dog for Corin more than anyone, the person Jessie is most attached to is Lily, who adores her. They make an odd couple: the short, whimsical girl and the brawny, long-legged pit bull mix, but never insult Jessie in front of Lily if you don’t want a lecture on her merits and your rudeness in not seeing them.
And, to end on a fun and festive note, Jessie has also given me one of my favorite holiday memories of 2015 so far. Frosty the Snowman was a jolly, happy soul...until he tried to enter Jessie's yard.
1. Something Old
The cello was Matt’s first instrument, but he had not played it since eighth grade. We had talked about him picking it up again for the last year or two, so one day this summer, when we had a night to ourselves, we rented a cello to try it out, and it was such fun that we’re still renting it. When I heard him play for the first time, I realized how much the cello shaped the way that he sings. He’ll improvise the same lines on the cello that he would sing, and they have very similar ranges. When we were asked to play at the wedding of two friends in October, it was the first time since DC that we have played in public as a duet and the first time that we’ve ever played classical music together. (And honestly, it was also the first time I've played classical music in public, period.)
2. Something New
Lily took an interest in soccer after watching a game of the Women’s World Cup this summer, but by the time fall came around, she was pretty set on ballet again. Matt and I really want her to try new things and not become too serious about something too young, so we compromised on trying new things in the fall and returning to ballet in the spring. She made a pros and cons list (with a smiley and frowning face at the top of each column) to help her rank her options, and she ended up with soccer and theater. We had hoped that she’d be on a soccer team with a friend, but we registered so late that she ended up on a team of strangers, most of whom were, like her, first time players. The rec side of the league was very casual, but just by playing and practicing regularly, she learned and improved throughout the season. She took more naturally to defense and made good plays on that end in all of her games, and by her last two games, she also scored goals. Her team, which by luck was Team USA, got nicknamed “The Screaming Eagles” for doing their team cheers in that ear-piercing frequency seemingly shared by birds of prey and elementary girls.
 |
| Note: She did not lose those teeth playing soccer. |
 |
| Whatever snow does in Summer |
3. Ants
Mema bought Corin an early reading book on Marvel’s Avengers in the Spring, but it didn’t really take off for him until he heard the movie theme from Ant-Man over the summer. After that, the Avengers, and Ant-Man in particular, experienced a huge surge in popularity. He was even Ant-Man for Halloween. Cars are still his undeniable first love, but the fact that Hot Wheels makes Marvel-themed cars allows him to combine both of his favorite things. FYI: be careful with your tissue boxes. The Ultron car has been known to hide out in them, evading the Avenger cars for hours...
 |
| Our Astonishing Ant-Man |
 |
| This is why I sew: to get that look of delight. |
My parents took Lily to see The Lion King in San Antonio last Christmas, and the experience became the stuff of childhood legend when Lily’s costume was noticed by an actor after the show who then invited her backstage to meet both young and adult Nala. So, naturally, she was still on a Lion King high come February. When you Google “Broadway Lion King Party” you don’t find much, but we wouldn’t have really wanted it any other way. We love a good DIY project, and we are starting to form a tradition of making the birthday party or some kind of birthday experience the highlight of the birthday rather than gifts. This year’s party happened for her with lots of butcher-paper wall decorations, genuine African beads from a friend who visits each summer, a foam and poster-board modification of Matt’s fantastic lion mask from last Halloween, and a lion obstacle course in the back yard.
 |
| Nala on the Savannah at Sunrise |
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| Corin roaring at Pride Rock with a Viking Helmet and a Roman Shield...because, why not? |
5. Cooper Duper
For months, or perhaps years, Corin stared at the neighbor's Mini Cooper Power Wheels longingly or talk about it in hushed tones of awe. Then, one day this spring, I came home to find the Cooper parked outside our front door and a text from our neighbor saying that it was all ours; its original boy had grown too big for it, and he knew a place where it would be well loved.
 |
| Cooper Ownership: Day 1 |
Can I drive my Mini Cooper?
I want to drive it fast.
You can put my old car on the shelf.
It doesn't move itself.
It's in the past!
My Cooper has a pedal,
And two different gears,
Plus its own steering wheel!
Can I drive my Mini Cooper?
It has to be my Mini Cooper.
It drives for real.
6. False Alarm
Matt’s chest pain incident was not as stressful as it sounds. We both knew that the odds of him having a cardiac incident were really low; he is in excellent health, has regular check-ups, and has no family history of heart attacks, so when the doctor’s office refused to see us and basically ordered us to the ER, we understood their caution but were at least as much annoyed as concerned. We had to scramble to find somewhere to take the kids (our neighbors across the street kindly let them crash their daughter’s birthday party), but the whole incident only took a few hours. The ER sent Matt home with a pain prescription that made him very drowsy, and Lily was still recovering from her tonsillectomy, so we pulled the futon into the living room for them to convalesce together. Then, of course, Corin had pretend to be sick also, just for the fun of it.
 |
| the sick room |
 |
| The worst thing I've done to an oven since burning a plastic cutting board. |
Corin did not see Inside Out in theaters, but he loved it when we watched it at home. Though he is a cheerful, easy-going kid most of the time, he was drawn to the character of Anger. It took only a few days…or maybe only a few hours…for him to formulate a voice to use whenever he played Anger, and he latched on to one of the movie lines and combined it with his own life to make the phrase, uttered as one long word, “Austin-Texas-San-Fran-Stinktown.” When the keyboard came from Mo, he was using it as a control console within minutes. I am pleased with his creativity, and I love that he hasn’t divided movies in to boy and girl categories yet, but I will say that I’ve had to tell him more than once: “stop talking to me like Anger.”
 |
| "Sure. I'll eat my dinner. Right after you eat this! AAAAAA!" |
I have been teaching Lily to read since the summer after she turned four. She was not keen on chapter books until this spring, but once she latched on she became a bit like Belle from the opening of Beauty and the Beast, literally walking around with a book in her face. We kept track of how many books she read over the summer, but I stopped counting after that. I did a quick survey of her bookshelf when I sat down to finalize the Christmas quiz, and I reached 59 chapter books that she’s read, and that does not count what she’s checked out from libraries. I am very proud of her reading, not only because it’s something that I taught her and something that I also enjoy, but because she is very enthusiastic about it and does not have to be asked to do it. In fact, I had to pressure her a little to let me start reading chapter books to her again at night because she wants more reading time for herself.
9. Bands
Band #1: The worship band at Brodie, our small church that was a second location of an established church some miles away- We played with this group for about eighteen months, and we considered it a privilege. It pushed us both musically; it connected us with our church and with our fellow musicians, and it was just plain fun.
Band #2: The worship band back at the main church once Brodie was discontinued- We were sad to see Brodie come to an end, but we thought that it would be easiest on our family to give the newly reunified church a try. The worship leader there has been very gracious about including us in their existing band, and we were also asked to provide live music in the elementary kids’ program every other week, which leads to…
Band #3: Weird Celtic Potatoes, the kids band consisting of me, Matt, and another Brodie friend- The name reflects where we were born or where we grew up: Austin, Scotland, and Idaho. Trying to match the sort of recordings the kids used before they had a live band, the style is very different from anything I’ve played prior this year. Let’s just say that I’m slowly becoming acquainted with the strange world of synthesizers.
Band #4: A barbershop quartet composed of Matt and some church music friends- This got its start when Matt told two guys about singing barbershop in high school, and instead of feigning interest or laughing at him, they told him to find his old music so they could try it out. If you want to know the quartet’s name, you’ll have to ask Matt. It’s rather inappropriate. If you want to hear them sing, we have some recordings on our phones.
Band #5: The camp band for Zephyr Kids camp this July, for which I got to play keyboard and sing, not necessarily because of my talent, but because last year’s band needed a female vocalist, and the camp director happened to know me (being my mom and all). That band got to record the camp song at an actual recording studio, which was a first for me. When we showed the recording to some friends, and Corin nodded his head in an “I’m so cool” way and said “That’s my mom,” it made my summer.
12. Jessie
Coming to us from a local rescue organization, Jessie is a dog of many breeds and many names. Her “real name,” Jessie, honors the Toy Story tradition of Woody and Buzz, and it also happened to match the name the shelter gave her: Cowgirl. But within a day of her living with us, I’d started calling her Jessie Bessie, and then just Bess…or Bessa….or Bessa Beast. She is definitely part pit bull, or American Staffordshire Terrier if you prefer, but she has other breeds in there as well that give her long legs, a more slender body, and a tendency to point when she’s squirrel hunting in the back yard, which she does relentlessly. Sometimes, she stares at them and literally drools with longing. Sometimes, she attacks the fence like a Velociraptor in order to shake them loose and get them to run. In terms of height and weight, she is a medium-sized dog, a little over 50 lbs and a little over two feet tall, but her legs are so long that she can easily reach the kitchen counters standing on her hind legs, and she is pure muscle. The squirrels do taunt her like they did Woody, but they taunt her from much, much higher up in the tree.
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| Jessie: Then and Now |
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| "She's attacking the fences systematically..." Clever girl. |
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| growing together |
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| Even when they were closer in size, Buzz preferred Bess asleep. |
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| You know you want to love me. |
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| Pit Bulls are a Girl's Best Friend |
And, to end on a fun and festive note, Jessie has also given me one of my favorite holiday memories of 2015 so far. Frosty the Snowman was a jolly, happy soul...until he tried to enter Jessie's yard.
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