Tag: holidays (Page 14 of 19)

A few notes from our Easter celebration.

M., who it should be noted is getting smarter by the minute, had an interesting observation last week. She suggested that the Easter Bunny exists simply so Easter is exciting for kids. She’s received a healthy dose of why Easter is significant, going to a Catholic school and all, but apparently she was unimpressed. She said she knows all about how Jesus died and they put him behind the rock then he came back to life and moved the rock. But, she said, “That’s not fun for kids.” Thus, the Easter Bunny.

OK, then.

A couple days later she told us that both Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are really parents putting out presents and candy for kids. So many myths shot down at once! They grow up so fast!

Despite all that, she charged into our room at 6:00 am Sunday, with C. right behind her, begging to go downstairs. Once again, I benefitted from sleeping on the side of our bed that is opposite the door. Every 10 or 15 minutes I would hear one of them creep over to S.’s side and then hear her yell, “It’s not time yet!” and send them back into the bonus room to watch TV.

When we did finally unleash the hounds, they were thrilled at what the Easter Bunny brought them. Some candy, of course. Water guns. Coloring books. Pens. But the big thing was M. got a Nintendo DS and C. and L. both received Leapster 2’s. We bought them for our trip to South Carolina next month and figured we should go ahead and let the girls have them now so they have a month to learn how to operate them. So, as S. said, “I’m not sitting in the back of the van with them trying to read the instructions.” Smart lady.

And so the girls were engrossed with their games for the next, oh, 13 hours or so. S. had to go to work for a few hours and the games gave me the perfect distraction to get my treadmill time in. They played while I ran, they played while I showered, they played while I cleaned the kitchen, they played while I did prep for Easter dinner, they played in the van on the way to my in-laws’, they played before dinner, they played after dinner, they played on the way home, they played until bedtime. It wasn’t quite that bad. We did rip them out of their hands for a few hours in the morning and afternoon. But they played the shit out of those things when they had them. It was a rainy day. It was either that or watch TV, and they didn’t make much noise when they were playing so the choice was pretty easy for us.

I sensed we may have a problem when M. was kneeling in front of her game, bowing down in the “I’m not worthy” pose and chanting, “DS! DS!” Not even a day into her video game career and she already needs an intervention.

Otherwise we had a fine Easter celebration with our local family.

Well, this is it. The final post of 2010. Everything will be different the next time I post. Or nothing, really, other than the date stamp.

It’s been a solid break here at the B. house. The girls have driven us a little crazy, but we’ve survived. An experiment to finally get all the girls sleeping normally – putting them all in one room – showed promise early, but has gone off the rails a bit the last few nights. But there’s still hope that sometime in 2011 we will go back to sleeping like a normal family.¹

We’re actually heading out tonight for our first New Year’s party in recent memory. It’s kid-friendly, and we’re unlikely to make it to midnight, but it will still be nice to get out of the house for a change and spend the evening talking to adults.

I hope each one of you has a safe and happy New Year, no matter how you spend it and who you spend it with. Thanks for checking in and putting up with all my nonsense in 2010. There’s plenty more nonsense to come in the new year!

The always entertaining, much anticipated B. family Christmas review.

So the girls were wound up last week. Actually, they were about ten steps beyond wound up. A long week of no school with sub-freezing temperatures meant they had been cramped up in the house. Threats about Santa skipping the home of girls who didn’t listen to their parents didn’t work anymore. They were getting too many sweets each day, there were too many guests, and there just wasn’t enough running room in the house to get all that energy out. They were 1000 miles per hour, screaming all day, every day leading up to Christmas.

Despite that, they were generally excellent at Christmas Eve Mass. Which is a very good thing, because this was the longest Mass I ever had the privilege of sitting through. 90 minutes. We were fortunate in that we got a late arrival waiver thanks to the kids. Several of the in-laws spent over 45 minutes holding seats for us before the Mass even kicked off. But M. and C. sat and read books quietly most of the time while L. passed from person-to-person and enjoyed the sights and sounds.

We went into church as the first flakes of what promised to be a decent snowstorm drifted down. I thought back to another Christmas Eve in Indy, in 2002, when we were in the midst of a blizzard while in church. That night, you could see waves of snow blowing past the windows during Mass. This time, the storm petered out and only left a dusting on top of all the snow we already had. So the Christmas was white, but it was going to be white anyway based on the last couple weeks’ storms.

We were up a bit late, between Mass and the traditional family meal afterwards. We put the girls to bed close to 9:30, and it was about the easiest night we’ve ever had. They all went to sleep quickly. We gave M. strict orders not to come out of their room before 6:00 AM. They were nice enough not to charge into our room until 6:20. We had them turn on the TV and they gave us another 30 minutes or so of dozing before they came and bugged us again. M. and C. were ready to go, but L. had crawled into bed with us and was more interested in getting some more sleep. While we prepped to go downstairs, she laid in our bed with her arm thrown over her eyes to keep the light out.

Down the stairs we went and, Lo!, Santa had come! The jolly old elf brought some fine gifts for the girls. A Rapunzel tower and Toy Story 3 for all the girls. A Rapunzel doll for M., a fashion Barbie for C., and some dress up dolls for L.. A Toy Story 3 play set. A Lego farm. An Etch-a-Sketch. Some books. We had not loaded up stockings before, but this year we filled them with all kinds of goodies from the dollar aisles at Target. They enjoyed those as well.

Santa brought Ye Olde Blogger an official Kansas City Royals road jersey. No name on the back, thankfully. It would have sucked to have received a Greinke one, no?

Later in the day we hosted a family brunch and then returned to the in-laws for dessert and visiting.

It was a good holiday. The girls were pleased with the gifts. They had each pulled some last minute changes to their lists on us, but were reasonably pleased that what they got didn’t always match what they had been asking for.

Now another week of trying to keep the girls occupied until school starts again. Fortunately, the weather is supposed to improve as the week goes on, so perhaps we’ll be able to get them outside.

I hope you and yours had a fine Christmas as well.

❖

Wrapping up the weekend while watching the predictable destruction of the Colts by San Diego.¹

First off, we had a happy and healthy Thanksgiving, and hope you did, too. We had 20 people in our home Thursday for dinner. I cooked two turkey breasts², brought in a ham, and then added the usual trimmings. Other than that mad dash in the last hour to try to get everything cooked and warmed in one oven, I thought we pulled it off successfully. The girls were reasonably well-behaved and our guests seemed to enjoy themselves.

Perhaps the highlight of the day came while we were eating. Poor L. was a bit overwhelmed by all the excitement and our many guests. Shortly after we put a plate in front of her, she decided it was naptime. Poor kid. Naturally, I took a picture. Father of the year!

No Thanksgiving is complete without popping disk two of my Cheers Season Five DVD set into the player and watching the “Thanksgiving Orphans” episode. 24 years later, it’s still a fine piece of television comedy, especially when coupled with a fine Scotch. Then came the big bonus of the first USA Network showing of Elf for the season. I was full of holiday cheer (and scotch) by bedtime.

I think Black Friday is my least favorite day of the year. You can’t take the kids to the mall or restaurants, since they’re overrun. So you’re stuck in the house with a bunch of hyper kids who are excited about not being in school. Throw in cold weather, and we were locked in the house trying to figure out how in the hell to entertain these monkeys. We broke down and unpacked some of the holiday decorations to distract them. I went into the front yard to put up our lighted Santa. Sadly only two of Santa’s three segments will light up. I spent 30 minutes in the cold swapping out fuses and trying different cords to no avail. So we have an unlit Santa in the yard, much to the girls’ chagrin. The rest of the decorations inside did keep them occupied a bit, though.

Saturday we bought our tree and put it up. The girls were very excited to help, and placed about 30 ornaments on the same three branches. It took some parental clean-up to properly distribute the ornaments.

We put the kids to bed Saturday and I had a couple hours to waste before the KU-Arizona game began. What better way to fill that time than to finish my novel? Well, I finished the 50,000 word requirement for NaNoWriMo, but I wouldn’t say I finished the novel. There’s still work to be done, even for a clumsy effort like this. But I knocked out the words and claimed my digital prize. I’ll offer some more detailed thoughts on the process later this week.

Sunday we attempted to take pictures for our Christmas card. It’s always a tough job trying to get three girls to focus and smile and keep their clothes in decent shape. Sunday was apparently the wrong day to try. My sister-in-law shot over 300 images, and none were perfect. Much of the 30-45 minutes we shot included some kind of pleading/yelling/shouting at the girls to sit down and look at the camera and smile. Someone was always refusing or standing up or messing with their sister or pouting or making a stupid face. I think we have a cute card, but it could have been cuter and the frustration of fighting the girls had S. and I agreeing afterwards we won’t try this again for a few more years.

And that was Thanksgiving at the B’s’.

A fine Christmas for the B’s.

It appears that the Elf on the Shelf did not take any news of naughtiness back to Santa,* for the girls were well rewarded on Christmas morning. M. received a Hannah Montana guitar, a kid-proof digital camera, and a box full of Littlest Pet Shop animals. C. also got a digital camera, some electric drums, and a talking cash register. L. cleaned up, as well, getting a crawling, talking doll; a toy vacuum cleaner; and broom. (She loves to take our real brooms out and “clean” the house.)

All of them were thrilled. M. did her normal cheesy excited thing, saying the guitar was exactly what she wished for. C. became a Santa fan for life when she got her camera. For the last month, if you asked her what she wanted for Christmas, all she would say was a toy camera. Her eyes were as big as saucers when she opened that box. Oddly, M. has spent more time with her camera, already running down the batteries by Saturday night, while C. has been more interested in playing with her sisters’ toys.

(For you Modern Family viewers, when Phil threatened to cancel Christmas because of the burn mark on the sofa, S. gave me a look. Apparently I’m prone to, when agitated, making grandiose threats towards the girls. For the record, I would never threaten to cancel Christmas.)

Santa was good to me, too. I received an electric smoker, so I can finally start learning to smoke fine meats and stop complaining about the lack of decent barbecue in Indianapolis. I figure I need a signature sauce, too. One of my missions for 2010 was to knock out one or two classic TV shows that I’ve never watched. Thus, Santa dropped the complete <em>The Wire</em> boxed set on me. I’m very excited about that.

Beyond presents, most of the rest of the holiday went well. My sister-in-law who has spent the last three years in AustraL. has moved back and is spending some time with us before she picks a final destination. The girls have had great fun hanging out with Aunt Margie.

We attended a late afternoon Christmas Eve Mass that was so well attended that I had to drop everyone off and park well away from the church. As I walked back across the parking lot, a large deer ran across the church’s football field. That’s some kind of omen, right? L. decided to entertain herself during Mass by clawing a chunk out of my cheek. That was fun.

Following church, the family returned to our home for our traditional dinner. Ham, turkey, lots of sides, wine, beer. Good food and good company.

We sent the girls to bed at their normal times, and M. and C. were as quiet as could be as soon as I closed the door. Neither made a peep all night. Unfortunately, after sleeping for 10 hours the night before, L. was up most of the night Thursday. I think I squeezed in four hours of sleep around her antics, which made me nice and grumpy Christmas morning.

After presents at our house, we went to the in-law’s for our traditional Christmas brunch, followed by some more presents. Thankfully, L. and I were able to find a bed and take a nap together.

We had two other pleasant holiday gifts. First, we’ve been waiting for the mirror to be installed in our master bathroom for roughly two months. It’s a long story not worth going into here. Anyway, they finally did a temporary installation of the mirror on Wednesday. I shaved in our master bathroom for the first time since August on Christmas Eve!

Also, we’ve eagerly been awaiting word from Denver, where another sister-in-law was due with her first baby any moment. Her water broke Friday night and Saturday morning, the girls got another cousin: a healthy boy. So that was fun, and they are very excited, although confused about the fact they’re not going to see him with S. and her sisters this week, or that he won’t be hopping a flight to Indy immediately.

So that was the B. Christmas. The holiday season seemed to fly by this year. Not the “I have tons to do and it’s making time go by quickly” type of flying time. More the I realized last Monday that Christmas was four days away and couldn’t figure out where the month had gone kind. Usually I’m big into extended Christmas through the following week into New Year’s Eve. I keep listening to music, watching movies, etc. I still need to watch Elf all the way through, but I’ve moved all the Christmas music to my hard drive’s version of the attic. We’ll keep the tree up for another week but this year Christmas seemed to have a clear ending point on Christmas night. Perhaps not coincidentally, our yard Santa stopped lighting up Christmas night. I did some cursory investigation Saturday, but am worried all our rain on Christmas day did something to it.

I hope all of you had happy, safe, healthy Christmas-times.

❖

‘Tis the season of tiny tots with their eyes all aglow. Thus, some words about the girls. OK, over 1000 words. It’s been awhile.

The big sisters are especially excited about Christmas this year. It’s all clicking for M., and C. has reached the first level of understanding. We’re doing the Elf on the Shelf thing this year, so every morning involves a frantic search through the house to find Elfie, as they named their Elf. There have been a couple mornings where I forgot to move Elfie, so I had to quickly come up with excuses for why he was in the same spot. Fortunately, they bought the high winds excuse both times.

It’s funny to watch C. take the things she’s learning at preschool and apply them to Christmas. One day she said, matter of factly, that Joseph and Mary don’t have a baby anymore because he’s in heaven. She seemed concerned that their baby was gone, which was sweet. One of the songs her class sang in their Christmas program had a lyric about the “glorious kingdom.” Yesterday she asked me how Jesus got here from the glorious kingdom. I reminded her that Mary was Jesus’ mother. How did Jesus get in Mary’s belly? That was a tough one, because I didn’t think she’s ready to grasp the immaculate conception yet, and I didn’t think the drop-off line for school was the time to have a refresher of the “how babies get in mommies’ bellies” conversation. Plus, I’m not the best source for explaining stories that are the roots of Christianity. Fun times all around.

Since M.’s been through the dog and pony show that is Christmas a few times, she’s been wound as tight as a five-year-old can be wound since Thanksgiving. As the leader of the girls, she’s constantly creating games that involve Santa Claus, reindeer, and the parts of our nativity scene. She’s as much excited about her aunts and uncles coming home for the holidays.

She’s also our sensitive child, and cried when we left the church last night after the Christmas program, since she won’t be back at school or see all of her classmates until January.

Speaking of the Christmas program, it went well. C. didn’t freak out, sang her songs, and seemed to have fun. M. had a brief speaking part, and completed it with aplomb.

Our big kid news is that L. is no longer sleeping in her crib or drinking from bottles. After months of claiming we were going to get tough with her at nighttime, we finally bit the bullet and did everything in one night. She helped us throw away all the bottles and then we took the mattress from her crib and placed it on the floor. We spread out a sleeping bag and some blankets next to the mattress. When naptimes and bedtime come around, one of us will lay down next to her for awhile, get her to sleep, and then escape.

Well, that’s the idea. When I put her down, she tends to want to play for half an hour. The only way I can get her to stop is to close my eyes. Which generally means I fall asleep before her and wake up an hour or two later with her laying across me, snoring. That’s not the ideal situation, but we’re in better shape than we were two weeks ago. She even slept for eight straight hours one night this week, a personal record.*

(I wrote that part yesterday. Naturally last night (Wednesday) some teething pain kicked in and the early stages of a cold kept her awake until after 1:00. The up-side was that I got to clear out a lot of programs on the DVR while I let her sleep on me downstairs.)

Other kid news: M. is learning how to read. She’s doing a great job so far. She brings home a book each Thursday that they’ve practiced on during that week. She rips right through it each time we review it over the weekend. She’s looking at unfamiL.r books, magazines, and signs and trying to figure out what they say. She is constantly spelling things, or at least attempting to spell them, out loud.

We had our first-ever call from a teacher about a girl’s behavior last week. When she got home, C. said that one of her friends was mean to her and pushed her. We brushed it off, because she almost always claims that a classmate pushed her. That evening her teacher called and said that C. had said some mean things to her friend. As soon as we asked C. what had really happened, she protested and then began crying. She needs to learn if you’re going to bend a story to make yourself look better, you don’t cave the second you’re confronted with the truth. Then again, if she’s the honest kid that can’t lie, it’s going to make our lives a lot easier.

C. went through a small relapse on the potty-training in October, but got through that and is again doing a terrific job going to the bathroom. She’s quite proud of herself, in fact. When she has a bowel movement, she feels obligated to offer a description when I go to help her clean up. Sometimes she’ll just say “TA-DA!” lift a cheek off the toilet, and point to what she’s deposited when I enter the bathroom. Others, she’ll tell me all about the size, shape, color, etc. “Dad, I have a great big giant poop!” Always good for a laugh.

L. is expanding her vocabulary each day. She has lots of animal sounds down. She says “sisssss” for sister. Has said “C.” and “M.” a time or two. “Bah!” is a remnant from bottle, but means milk. Unfortunately, she’s entered the stage where she wants things but doesn’t have the proper words to ask. So she’ll point and grunt and if you don’t guess correctly, those grunts turn into shrieks and yells. Not fun. But when you do guess right, she grins, closes her eyes, and nods her head in a slow, exaggerated manner. It’s like she’s saying, “Yeeeeeaaaaah, you got it!”

She loves looking at pictures. We don’t have tons of family pictures around the house, but those that are on display are constant areas of attraction for her. She loves to be carried over to them so she can point, laugh, and talk about who is in each pic.

❖

Some extended weekend. Here, in 2000 words or less, is a summary of how your trusty blogger passed the holiday.

We were hosts for the local family this year. It sounds daunting to say that we fed 17, but when you factor in that we are a family of five, hosting 12 people isn’t really that big of a deal. Certainly not in my wife’s family. With only three of my sisters-in-law and no brothers-in-law attending, it qualified as a small gathering, I think.

Dinner was good and without incident. The girls, especially the older sisters, were in a fever pitch much of the day. Watching the Macy’s parade got them going and the knowledge that a Christmas tree was in their future kept their fires stoked. I managed to pop in the Cheers “Thanksgiving Orphans” DVD around 9:00 pm, which is just about perfect.

Friday we stayed comfortably entrenched in our home bunker. No shopping for us. At least no shopping that didn’t involve using our internet connection.

That night I covered my first boys basketball game of the year. My team was tied after the first quarter and blew the game open over the final three. Good game, good interviews after the game, and my story was filed at 10:17.

Saturday was Christmas tree day. As has happened the past couple years, we had a lighting failure that postponed the complete trimming of the tree until Sunday when we could make a trip to Target. We did get the tree inside and in the stand, though, and brought most of the decorations down. Fortunately, it was a beautiful day here, so I was able to take M. and C. outside to burn off some energy while I assembled our yard Santa.

Our local ABC affiliate was showing the Miami-USF game, for some odd reason, so I followed the KU-MU game on my phone. With what’s happened to the football team over the last six weeks, I was about as non-excited about a KU-MU game as I’ve ever been. There have been years when MU was clearly a lot better and I knew an ass-kicking was coming that I had more enthusiasm for than this year. But it turned into another very exciting game, and ABC even switched over for most of the fourth quarter. I got to see Dez’s big catch-and-run*, a solid defensive stand, and then perhaps the worst play calling in the history of the world. I’m not going to run through the numbers for those of you who did not watch, but if there wasn’t already an excellent chance we’ll have a new coaching staff next year, the offensive coordinator made sure his ass is gone with three unforgivable calls late in the fourth quarter.

(I missed his two huge fumbles, I guess. I love Dez, but he’s sucked this year, given the expectations he entered with. Way too many dropped balls, especially in big situations. He’s not shown me he’s ready for the NFL, and I wonder if his stock is down enough that he’ll come back.)

It was like the good old days of the Glenn Mason era, when pretty much anytime we needed ten yards to put a game away, we’d get eight, punt, and give up the game-winning score just before time ran out.

Perhaps it’s better that way. I’d hate to have seen the kids who have Mangino’s back try to carry him off the field had we won.

LOVED the Jayhawk on the helmet. Keep that big beautiful bird where the whole world can see it. Wasn’t quite as keen on the uniforms. A bold attempt, with some heavy 1970s overtones, but I’m not sure they worked. Not as bad as Mizzou’s uniforms from last year’s game, to be sure. And not as bad as those awful helmets MU broke out. The uniforms were fine but the black on gray or whatever those helmets were? I’m sure lots of old men from across middle Missouri called to complain to Mike Alden during and after the game. I suppose by registering my thumbs down I’m identifying myself as an old man from central Indiana.

(I have to laugh at Nike’s marketing pitch for the new unis they’ve been busting out over the last couple weeks. Do uniforms really weigh so much that shaving half their weight off will make a difference?)

Oh, and it sure seems like the move to Arrowhead was a resounding success. Three different games that were all great in their own way. Lots of money for both schools. Lots of national attention. And from what I heard, it sounds like the game day experience has gotten much better as they’ve tweaked things. Of course, it helps that the two programs are both about as strong as they’ve ever been at the same time. We’ll see what happens if the fallout from this autumn causes KU to take a serious step back for more than a year.

Lots of names being thrown around, but my personal favorite for next KU coach would be Kevin Sumlin, the current Houston coach. He’s an Indy native, so I’ve read a lot about him this year. Seems like a great guy, a solid coach, and he’s spent the last decade in Texas or Oklahoma, prime recruiting ground for every Big 12 program. And while perhaps it’s too transparent of a move, hiring an African-American coach can’t hurt given some of the racial contexts that have surrounded this season’s various controversies.

On to the evening. After working hard to get L. to bed, and being puked on as reward for my efforts, I was able to watch most of the second half of the Indiana 5A state title game, which featured my local team that my tax dollars support and whose defense is coached by my man Coach Hebs.

It was the fourth-straight state title appearance for the local 11. In that stretch, they’ve lost, won, and then lost again, last year giving up an 18-point lead in the fourth quarter.

This year, playing one of their local rivals they narrowly beat earlier this season, they carried an eight-point lead deep into the fourth quarter. The opposing 11 drove inside the ten. After three incompletions in the endzone, they went to the ever-popular fade to the corner. The receiver leapt for the ball as one of our local boys shadowed him. The receiver came down with the ball but appeared out-of-bounds. The referee raised his arms, signaling a touchdown. It was a two-point game with :01 to play. A replay was shown both on TV and inside the stadium. The receiver came down a foot out-of-bounds. Boos errupted from our local fans. The TV announcers didn’t bother to explain what the high school rule on these situations is. They just said it looked like he was out-of-bounds.

Yet, our local 11 was still up by two. Hold on the conversion, and they would be state champions.

They could not hold.

The teams exchanged TDs and two-point conversions in the first overtime. Then our local 11 failed to score in the second, while their opponents marched in for the game winner on their possession.

In the postgame show the announcers still failed to explain why that referee might have signaled for a touchdown at the end of regulation. It wasn’t until I read Sunday’s paper that I learned that in high school, a referee can use his own judgement as to whether a defender pushed a receiver out-of-bounds, and award a catch if he thinks the receiver would have come down inside the line without contact. Apparently that’s what the ref thought. There was contact, but the receiver was heading out-of-bounds already, and I don’t think the defender hit him hard enough to force him out.

So that was a pisser.

Roll on to Sunday. We got our replacement lights and were ready to start trimming the tree while watching the Colts’ game. By the time I got the lights on, the Colts were down 17-0. I figured they would come back, but also wondered if this was the week their luck ran out. I’d not been sleeping well, because of my own cold and L.’s issues. So I laid down, put on <em>Little Bear</em> for the sisters, and took a 90 minute nap.

Wake up, it’s 28-20, Colts. Nice. I’ve already sent a few friends who are bigger fans than me messages saying that I’ll happily take money in order to sleep through every Colts game.

And now, as I’m putting this together, I notice Dennis Dixon is quarterbacking for the Pittsburgh Steelers tonight. I know Dixon well from his days at the University of Oregon. I did not know, until tonight, though, that he is also a graduate of San Leandro High School. I spent roughly a year at that fine institution back in the day. Dixon is my homie! SL in the house!

I hope all of you had happy and safe holidays as well.

❖

Halloween was a success. Well, an <em>A-</em> I suppose. Mostly good with a few of the standard issues that are known to plague the holiday.

Our girls went as Dorothy (M.), the Wicked Witch of the West (C.), and the Cowardly Lion (L.). “Big fans of the Wizard of Oz?” you ask. No. In fact, our girls have never seen the movie, although we’ve read part of the original book. Two of M.’s classmates announced they were going to be Dorothy about a month ago*, and she quickly hopped on the bandwagon. S. figured this might be the last year we can control how they all dress, so the two younger sisters got Wizard of Oz costumes as well.

(One of those girls dressed as St. Dorothy for All Saints Day Friday. Obsess much?)

We did a dry run Friday so we could go to the grandparents’ house and show off the costumes there. That ended up being a good call, but more on that in a moment. Everyone was happy and excited to be in their costumes. M. didn’t ever want to take hers off again. We told her after Saturday night, she could sleep in it all she wanted.

Saturday the girls were bouncing off the walls all day. M. and C. didn’t talk about trick or treating all day, but you could tell they were wound up because of what was to come. S. was working so they were driving me crazy.

When it came time to get dressed, it was the standard herding cats routine. M. and C. couldn’t calm down and would race throughout the house. L., who refused every opportunity to nap all day, was suddenly rubbing her eyes and whining. When S. was ready to braid M.’s hair, she refused to go into the bathroom. C. refused to have her face painted, so the pictures we took Friday will serve as our official pics, I suppose.

We finally got everyone in their gear and headed out. Within five minutes C. was complaining about being cold. It was a bit brisk, but I think she was just stressing about having to deal with strangers and wanted to get home and dig into her candy. S. ended up taking her and L. home a few houses early.

That left M. and I, and she got all kinds of raves from the people at the remaining houses we visited. Unlike C., she was digging the attention. We generally only go to a handful of houses, and after we had hit all the usuals, she said, “Dad, we could go to a couple more houses.” What an idea! I agreed, but before we could cross the street, she decided she was cold and wanted to go home, too.

Once we got home, ate some dinner, and they checked out their treats, both girls were very happy. L.’s mood improved greatly once we took her costume off. Like the past couple years, M. and C. were really into handing out candy. They even went out on the front porch with their aunt for about 30 minutes and waited for kids to come by. So much for being cold.

We probably had the fewest trick or treaters we’ve ever had. I think part of it was the cold, this was probably the coolest Halloween since we’ve lived here, and a neighborhood party that preceded trick or treating that may have wiped some kids out. Also, not knowing a lot of people in the neighborhood and living in a cul-de-sac always keeps the numbers down. When M. was handing out candy, she told a group of pre-teen girls that they could take four or five pieces. One of the girls was shocked by that, and my sister-in-law said that not many kids had visited. The girl looked at her friends and said, “I TOLD you there would be more candy back here!” So I guess we pleased a few people.

A good holiday, once we got past the afternoon and into the evening activities. I’m wondering if next year M. will want to branch out and visit more homes, weather permitting, and if C. will be comfortable enough around strangers to want to tag along. And I also wonder what M. will be choosing for her costume then. I doubt we’ll have much input on the concept.

One last note. I had no idea this is the 70th anniversary of the Wizard of Oz until I saw a display at Barnes and Noble in Kansas City last week. Every place we went on the Plaza seemed to have Wizard of Oz displays or trinkets for sale. M. was amazed by them. She kept asking why there were so many Dorothys in Kansas City.* I reminded her that Dorothy was from Kansas. “Oh yeah!” she would laugh.

(The girls club she and her friends put together last Friday at the N’s featured two other preschoolers who were dressing as Dorothy this weekend. What’s the deal with girls that age and Dorothy? Is it just the shoes?)

And now we get to start working on the Thanksgiving menu and Christmas lists.

❖