Is Santa Scary or Splendid?

This past holiday season, we contemplated the age-old question of Santa Claus, whether he is truly jolly ol' Saint Nick or the epitome of scary fright nestled snugly in a red felt suit with white furry plush edging.


To help you come to your own decision, we present you with Exhibit A, a photo of happy, smiling Helios, eyes sparkling during a recent visit with the gloved wonder (no, not Michael Jackson, which would decide the scary v. splendid question easily enough). Santa would make light conversation with Helios, inquiring as to his behavior, whether he was good to his little brother, and other such appropriately paternal inquiries. In every visit with Santa or one of his helpers, Helios asked for the same thing: "a big present, a really, really big present. I want a big wrapped box for me to unwrap." Several people tried to pry into Helios' Christmas request, inquiring what should be inside that Christmas-wrapped box. Every time, Helios said, "nothing. I want a really big box to unwrap and Santa needs to bring it. He needs to, Mommy!" Every night, along with a prayer for his family and friends, sandwiched between "Good night, God" and "Good night, Jesus" was "Good night, Santa Claus. Don't fall out of your sleigh!" Clearly, Santa Claus is held in very high esteem. Love and concern for Santa emanated profusely from every pore on Helios' 3-year-old body.

Now, please consider if you will, Exhibit B. This is Hesperos, screaming in bloody terror during a preschool visit by Santa. This was not a single occasion. Every time Hesperos was approached by the hairy elderly guy who liked to have children sit on his lap (hmm...), his reaction was the same. Whether Santa came bearing candy canes, toys, coloring books, or just a jolly laugh, Hesperos recoiled in fear from the plentiful beard, suddenly wanting to cuddle with anyone in the continental United States who could take him far, far away. Since Hesperos still wears diapers, it's unlikely, but in the picture at right, the shading on his pants looks like Hesperos lost his bladder control during this visit to Santa.

Santa: scary or splendid? Include this among the important decisions you must make in 2008.

School Photos

In a lot of ways, we find that preschool is like a concierge service for parents. We drop the boys off in the morning, where they run to play with toys and spend the day doing various activities. Someone else helps them clean up their mess, ensures they're fed and clean, and deals with the struggle of putting them down for naps. Although we occasionally feels twinges of guilt for not "working" as hard as we should to handle our children's necessities and spend more time with them, it's an undeniable truth of being a two-parent working family that daycare is a necessity. All that said, the preschool does lots of "little things" that really make having the kids there a pleasure. For example, the preschool periodically invites a hair stylist in to do hair cuts, so we send in a check and the kids come home with their hair coiffed. This is a task that Mommy and Daddy often don't tend to until the boys' hair curls to a length that rivals Cousins Rose's and Jasmine's.

Something else the preschool takes care of for us is pictures. While we take plenty at home with the digital camera, we've never taken the boys to a real photography studio (or even one of the shopping mall drive-thru style photo stores). Given that the boys are the only grandchildren on Daddy's side, we know that good, frame-worthy photographs are a requirement.

So how lucky are we that the preschool brings in a photographer semi-annually to take "real" pictures for us, with the prints received just in time for holiday gifts! (Perhaps one of the nicest things about being young parents of the only grandchildren is that holiday gifts are taken care of for the next 10 years or so. If the kids put their hand print on a t-shirt, *poof* it's a gift for Grandpa. If the children make a drawing, *poof* it's worthy of Grandma's refrigerator. If the children string together some beads on a pipe cleaner, *poof* it's a bracelet for one of their aunts.)

A photo was taken of each boy, with one picture of them together. Both boys look as handsome as ever, with Helios looking a bit more animated while Hesperos has the same half-frozen smile in each shot. What was the photographer making Hesperos look at to elicit such a look? We have no idea.

But what we do know is that you take take each of these pictures, put them in a frame, and then what do you have? That's right...

*poof* Christmas presents for the grandparents and great-grandparents!

Carol of the Drums

'Twas two days before Christmas when all through the house, two little boys were napping, allowing Mommy and Daddy the opportunity to clean up the garage, including moving the fabled drum set to a less conspicuous location.

Unfortunately, all our sneakiness was for naught. Daddy got distracted by some shiny things and some perceived inadequacy of our garage door, so he started working on that, creating a ruckus that awakened the boys from their mid-day slumber. We heard a few "pad pad pad pad" sounds, with increasing speed as little feet made it down the stairs. The door to the garage swung open with a gust of air and Helios, sleepy eye dust barely rubbed out of his eyes, ran in with his "DRUM SET!" war cry.





Quiet time no more, Helios sat down to work on his rendition of "Jingle Bells" using drums and cymbals as his only musical backup...and this time, caught on video!

A little later, Hesperos was able to get into the action, too, with a couple of well-placed thwacks when his brother wasn't looking.

(Postscript: The drum set was listed on craigslist.com this weekend. Two prospective buyers have already contacted us. Here's hoping!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving dawned sunny and cold, but with everyone in the home very thankful for different things. Hesperos was thankful that his breakfast was hot and waiting for him when he got downstairs. Helios was thankful that none of his favorite trains were in Hesperos' clutches. Daddy was thankful he was allowed to sleep in, and Mommy was thankful that the entire family was spending Thanksgiving dinner at the home of one of Mommy's friends...relieving Mommy of the responsibility of cooking a Thanksgiving turkey and requisite additional responsibilities (such as shoving her hand into the orifices belonging to a dead bird's corpse to remove its organs -- YUM!).



However, Mommy still had a bit of cooking to accomplish to do her part, specifically a pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust, stuffed mushrooms, stuffing/dressing, and cranberry sauce. (Note that the very excellent recipes were authored by Mommy's extremely talented friend, Rebecca.) Children running amok is not conducive to working in the kitchen. So what to do with the little darlings?

That's right...send them outside with Daddy to decorate the house for Christmas! While our neighbors may have thought that we were either holiday-decorating go-getters or overly-endowed with Christmas spirit, those inside the house knew the truth: shiny lights, inflatables, a hammer and nails, and anything with a hint of electrical shock or danger are all great ways to occupy human beings with Y chromosomes.

Daddy donned his warmest working-outside outfit, complete with 1980s Flashdance-style headband (what a feeling!) as he nailed the icicle lights into place on the front porch. Meanwhile, Helios was overseeing the inflation of the Santa train while Hesperos looked on wistfully from the warmth of inside. Standing next to Hesperos is a musical, roller-skating Christmas bear, a gift from Grandma Joan (the toy is much-loved by Helios, tolerated by Mommy and Daddy, and capable of inspiring a paralyzing fear in Hesperos when it's moving).



After the lights were hung on the awning with care and the train inflated, it was time to assemble the skeletal snowman. This was possibly Hesperos' favorite part as now he'd finally found a Christmas icon that was more his size.





With the house decorated and the very-tasty-if-I-do-say-so-myself cheecake made, we clambered into the car to go to Thanksgiving dinner. The kids ran and played, we ate, drank, were merry and the womanfolk praised each other's cooking skill (with tones hinting to our spouses that they had not complimented us sufficiently). Stuffed like a traditional turkey, we left just a little heavier than we were upon arriving.





Once home, it was very late, very dark, and the kids were surprisingly very awake, allowing the rewarding feeling of hearing they both coo from the backseat "oooo!" and "wow!" at the sight of their recently electrically-upgraded home. The boys chomped at the proverbial bit to get out of the car and get a close-up look. Helios stood there and, doing his best Santa Claus/pregnant Mommy impression, put one hand on either side of his imagined big belly and shouted "Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!" Hesperos, a bit more intimidated by the lights and fanfare, needed some coaxing. Daddy walked him over to the train and held him aloft to see the reindeer the pops out every 15 seconds with a little gift. (We don't know what the reindeer does for the 15 seconds he's inside Santa's train out of sight, but I assure you that under the influence of beverages, the adults have speculated!). Hesperos is a little scared of the reindeer's jack-in-the-box style popping action, but we believe with counseling and psychological care, his aversion to reindeer should be overcome by next Christmas.

Happy Halloween (Almost 2 Months Late)

This year's Halloween brought with it no ghosties, ghoulies, or long-legged beasties but it did come with two little boys primed and ready to go trick-or-treating in their costumes.

Halloween day started off with the boys cramming down breakfast, possibly the last semi-nutritious food they'd have for the day, before clambering into their costumes. Because Mommy didn't want the boys to wear their "real" costumes to daycare, we pulled out Thomas the Tank Engine for Helios (this costume's second annual engagement!) and threw together a Bob the Builder ensemble for Hesperos. Off they traipsed to school with Daddy, carrying with them boxes of homemade pumpkin cupcakes with cheesecake frosting and pumpkin cookies to share with their classmates (because there's nothing better than 40 children under 4 years old pumped full of Halloween adrenaline and sugar...and knowing that only 2 of those kids will be coming home with you!).

After work and school, the family gathered together to put on their real costumes, created by Mommy and inspired by Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat. Helios and Hesperos made their appearances as Thing 1 and Thing 2, respectively. Daddy helped make it a trio of motley characters through his appearance as the Cat in the Hat (looking a little bit like the Cat was recovering from a weekend bender). At the time this picture was taken, Hesperos wasn't too keen into wearing his fluffy wig, so we just told people that Thing 2 was going through a coming-of-age hair style crisis.

Following trick-or-treating activities, we ran into Uncle Elmo, Aunt Sully, cousins Oscar, Rose, and Jasmine, and Aunt Tiffany and Uncle Igor at the local burger joint, where Helios was appropriately horrified by perhaps the most terrifying event of the evening: being hugged by Uncle Elmo. But, Helios was revenged upon Uncle Elmo. Mommy tossed Uncle Elmo the black cat tail that Daddy had used (and been sitting on). Uncle Elmo rubbed it against his cheek, casting lustful cow's eyes in Aunt Sully's direction as he waxed eloquent about how soft the tail was and how sexy it'd look being worn. When Mommy told Uncle Elmo that the tail being caressed had previously festooned Daddy's bottom, Uncle Elmo dropped it like a hot potato, with an appropriate amount of horror.

After dinner, we went home and did the requisite, time-honored fight for candy privileges, filled with the normal, labored arguments and negotiation. ("No more candy until tomorrow." "That has nuts and you can't eat it; give it to Mommy." "That's too small for Hesperos, he could choke." "No gum because you'll swallow it and it'll stick to your teeth." "NO JAW BREAKERS! DO NOT PUT THAT INTO YOUR MOUTH!" and on and on...) Helios was distracted from the debate a few times when we finally gave into his desire to try on Daddy's Cat Hat and tail (apparently everyone wanted a little tail that night). He walked around the foyer, shaking his bottom, saying "meeeeow! I'm a cat!"

The evening was concluded by a much-needed, post-chocolate-eating-frenzy bath, and two little Things who snoozed the night away.