Crumpled Home

It’s a little quiet at home right now. LR is away at horse riding camp and the normal level of intensity at our place has dropped a bit – although only a little bit, the RJ reality distortion field is still fully operational.

Pony camp is an amazing place — I get all fluttery just thinking about it — a magical land where you spend all day riding horses, cleaning and scrubbing horses, feeding horses, and (be still my beating heart) shoveling horse manure and cleaning out stalls. Mom insists that this is little girl heaven, but I’m not totally convinced.

For the first time in her life, she has ‘her own’ mobile phone with her (it’s a spare that we’ve borrowed from Poppa for the week). We told her it’s just for emergencies or if something goes wrong and she needs to talk to us. After giving her one or two instructions on how to use it, we carefully put it in her backpack and waved goodbye.

Five hours later, while deep in the middle of one of my projects,  I was interrupted by an unexpected phone call… from LR and a room full of 7 year old girls suffering some kind of ‘emergency’ involving a large amount of giggling. Apparently, she had to test to see if the phone was still working properly…

Regardless, I’m looking forward to having her back when she gets home… as long as she leaves her boots outside.

Just before she left, she drew this on the fridge for us.

The fridge cow will keep you company while LR is away.

With a huge overseas vacation looming, the first half of December was filled with the last days of the school year, some early Christmas celebrations… and a lot of silly hats.

December means the Advent calendar gets brought out. We like to pretend the kids appreciate the tradition and fun puzzles and clues that we leave in there for them...

(while jumping on the trampoline)

RJ: (bounce, bounce) I don’t believe in Santa, you know.

Dad: Really? Why is that?

RJ: (bounce) Well, there are too many problems with his story.

Dad: Such as?

RJ: (bounce) Well… We don’t even have a chimney in our house. How could he get anything inside?

Dad: Couldn’t he sneak in a window or something?

RJ: (bounce) That’s the other problem! He’s way too fat! He wouldn’t fit and his hat would fall off!

Dad: Fair enough. Then what –

RJ: (bounce) BUT! I do believe in Sinterklaas. He’s the Dutch Santa.

Dad: Really? Why do you believe in him?

RJ: (bounce) Because he has Black Petes to help him out. He is way smaller, and fast. They can sneak in anywhere with the presents. Also, his hat is smaller and round, so it wont fall off so easily.

RJ: (suddenly the bouncing stops) … AND Sinterklaas rides a horse. Who ever heard of a such a thing as a flying reindeer? It’s just so ridiculous!

(after delivering bowls of rice pudding covered in fresh raspberry sauce)

Dad: (whispering to RJ) I think it’s monkey brains.

RJ: (whispering) No. It’s not.

(a few minutes later)

RJ: (yelling) It’s Santa brains!!!

Dad: But doesn’t Santa need them?

LR: Naah. He’s done that trip so many times, he doesn’t need brains to know where to go.

RJ: He’s so good, he doesn’t need them, and we get to eat them up!

We took advantage of the long weekend to get our Christmas tree and ornaments taken down (trees dry out fast here, and end up looking like something out of Dr. Seuss). LR ran into a bit of trouble with the lights, but after some detangling we got her sorted out.

There's a small problem with the lights!

The picture we posted on Christmas was a gingerbread house that Mum and the kids made. On Christmas night, the kids get 5 minutes to eat as many lollies and bits of candy off it as they can, then the battered remains get put in the rubbish. Thanks to LR for the green laser effects on the xmas tree!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas to everyone from all of us!

In Australia some families (ours included) carry on the British tradition of the Christmas pudding. It’s a magical beast, vaguely like a fruitcake (in the same way a rhinoceros is vaguely like a lamb), but heavier, denser, drenched in brandy and delivered to the table covered in blue flames. Fantastic stuff.

One of the traditions when making the pudding takes place after the ingredients have been put together and mixed. Everyone in the house gets to stir the bowl and make a wish. This year, the kids (LR, RJ and their cousins from Melbourne) helped out.

Grammy: And after we mix everything together, we each get to stir the pudding and make a wish!

LR: Why do we get to make a wish?

Grammy: Because the pudding is magic.

LR: Why? When does the magic get in there?

Grammy: After you put everything in and mix it together.

LR: (inspecting the bowls of ingredients in front of her) But where does the magic come from? Is it in the ingredients?

Grammy: No. It just happens after it’s all mixed together.

LR: … but…

Grammy: It’s like birthdays when you cut the cake. You just get to make a wish, okay?

(Unsatisfied with the explanation, LR drops the issue and adds it to her long list of the nonsense that adults insist on believing.)

Sorcery! Witchcraft! Complete and utter rubbish!