Would you like plastic grapes and water brought to your room at 5AM? No? Well neither did I! This week in school, the Teddy Bear Class is covering "Christmas Around the World". Monday Madeleine and Emily learned about St. Lucia Day in Sweden. Allegedly, this involves the eldest daughter in the family waking her parents with "treats". So....just shy of 5AM on Tuesday, Madeleine, with Emily half a pace behind, came in with the plastic grapes from their kitchen and small cups of water, shouting "Happy St. Lucia Day". Don't "ohhhhh", it wasn't cute. It.was.before.5AM!! The rudely-awoken sleeping dragon that is their mother screamed (I confess) "Get back in bed! It is dark out! It is the middle of the night! Good night!" The girls went to their room where they had a fine time not at all sleeping but, in fact, messing around until the appropriate time.
Perhaps I wouldn't have been so grumpy if we had not had a similar occurrence Monday morning. Monday morning was Nikolastag on which "good" German children awake to find their shoes have been filled in the night by Nikolas who leaves candy and small gifts. You would think a few pieces of chocolate and a couple of trinkets (necklace and bracelet) would not merit an early morning. Nope! Emily was up at 4:30 and Madeleine at 5:15. I have a feeling Christmas morning may start early this year.
So, let's recap. Monday morning is Nikolastag (wake-up 4:30-5:15), Tuesday is St. Lucia (wake-up 4:55) . Tuesday night we are all in bed early and sound asleep. Then, at 12:30, both girls awake crying because their feet itch. This is fair. They both have eczema on the soles of their feet and it is a constant battle. So, medicine applied and back to bed. A smoke detector beeps. Are you kidding? I have no idea which one and there hasn't been a second beep, so obviously it was just lonely and saying good night. Drifting off ... "beep"! Swear and get out of bed, convince the girls it is a low battery beep (ALWAYS at night) and the house is not on fire. Decide it is downstairs detector. Go down and stand under it...nothing. Back to bed, "beep". Stomp downstairs and attempt to rip smoke detector off the ceiling while standing on a kitchen chair. I am too short - thus saving the physical integrity of said smoke detector. Till removes detector, we replace battery, plug the stupid thing back in to the wires hanging out of the ceiling and go back upstairs. "Beep" Swear and go back downstairs. Push reset button (very sad to say I got this idea from a Friends episode where Phoebe and her smoke detector have middle of the night issues). Back to bed. Dozing off. Blood curdling screams coming from the girls' room following a huge crash. The box of instruments (maracas, bells, rhythm sticks) on their closet shelf not only went crashing to the floor, it threw open the closet doors. Two five-year-olds are justifiably terrified. Back in bed. "Beep". That's it! Smoke detector removed again, wrapped in about 8 dish towels and put in van in the garage. Back to bed. "Beep". From the garage? Go downstairs and realize the carbon monoxide detector is jealous the smoke detector got new batteries and it did not, so it is now beeping. Batteries removed and choice made to sleep without fire or carbon monoxide detection capabilities on the main floor for one night. Take girls to guest room (2:22 AM) where the three of us go to sleep and sleep until 7:06 this morning. Fingers crossed for tonight.
Madeleine and her pumpkin! 
Jack-O-Lantern designed by Madeleine.
Emily and her pumpkin.
Jack-O-Lantern designed by Emily.
Madeleine (L) and Emily (R) ready to go to their friend, Larissa's, Halloween costume party.
Preschool "Harvest Parade", "Sun" Emily!
"Fall Tree" Madeleine!
Witchy Emily
Madeleine the witch.Halloween was a success this year. Many, many people complimented Emily and Madeleine's witch costumes and said they had not seen anything like that around her. This is not surprising as the witch costumes were brought to us from Germany by Oma and Opa. Grandpa and Grandma were here for Halloween and we had a great visit. We went up the Children's Museum of Richmond again. Madeleine and Emily had a fantastic time and I once again wished it was closer to us. We also went to the Science Museum of Virginia and about the best I can say is I'm really glad we didn't pay due to our membership in a partner museum. Maybe if Madeleine and Emily were older, maybe if the displays had been in working order, maybe if I liked science....who knows?
Yeah, whatever. Total waste of time.Thanksgiving was a bust this year. I'm not a Thanksgiving person. Well, I am if someone else does all the work. I'm not the hugest fan of cooking and the girls are really picky eaters. However, there had been a lot of talk about Thanksgiving at preschool....so, I dragged out linens, china, crystal and silver. I bought half a turkey breast (I didn't say I was really going to cook) and all the stuff to create short-cuts. The table looked nice; and that is the highlight. I got grumpy because I felt pressure to go out on our Thanksgiving Day escapade to William and Mary's Sunken Garden, but also be home cooking. When the meal was ready, the two girls sat down, refused to eat and started crying. This, despite promises from Madeleine she would "try any food Pocohontas ate". I lost my temper and it blew-up there. Never again! I think next year we will look for a volunteer opportunity and then come home to grilled cheese sandwiches. Overrated holiday celebrating one of the first official interactions between races of people, eventually leading to government-sanctioned attempted genocide of a noble people and their culture.
Emily packing her Salvation Army stocking.
Madeleine packing her stocking for the Salvation Army.With the trauma of Thanksgiving behind us, we are moving toward Christmas and checking off our Christmas traditions with amazing speed. Once again each of the girls filled a stocking for the Salvation Army and delight in dropping money in the bell ringers buckets. Note to Salvation Army, please stop giving my children a sucker every time they give you a quarter! We are trying to teach them to give to others without expecting anything in return and you make them think they are buying a sucker from the person with the red bucket. Also, I want the money going toward your programs!
Waiting for the parade to start! Madeleine in green and Emily in yellow.
Before the parade.
Last Saturday we braved the just-below-freezing temps to watch the Christmas Parade. It was overall a hit, although we need to move about half a block down so the bands start playing "real songs" instead of cadence as they pass us. The Colonial Williamsburg Fifes and Drums Alumni Association marched. I'm not at all musical, and there are many things I don't like about living here, but listening to the Fife and Drums, both current and alumni, is one thing I'd miss if we left. The parade had resulted in a little disappointment. In years past the preschool has always had a float in the parade and was planning to do so this year. But, the man who had the truck, etc. sold it when he sold his business. Our consolation was that we got to see Santa Claus at the end of the parade and would have been unable to do so had we marched.
Madeleine on Nikolastag.
Emily on Nikolastag.
Madeleine in green and Emily in yellow visiting the real trees at a tree stand. We have to have an artificial tree because of traveling...but we always stop to sniff the real thing!Monday night we went to Newport News and drove through the Celebration in Lights and this Saturday is Breakfast with Santa. And...NORAD is up and running...go to Kids' Countdown for your daily Christmas prep update as well as the opportunity to play Tic Tac Toe against a snowman (Dec. 1).This evening Emily and Madeleine received a rather unexpected phone call. It turns out Santa had some extra time, so he called us!!! Yep, Mrs. Claus put the call through, but Santa took over from there. On our end there was not a whole lot of verbal communication because, frankly, we were rather dumb-struck by the possibility. After we hung up, we could not believe what had just happened and there was quite a bit of excited hopping around.
