Happy Festivus

Or Christmas, or Chanukah, or Kwanzaa or whichever winter holiday you are celebrating.

The Hoffmans are off to Texas for two weeks to enjoy my parents' newly purchased retirement abode in the now-not-so-small town of McKinney, 30 minutes north of Dallas. Weather looks to be better than at home, so can't complain too much. The Bean was given a Hello Kitty CD player for an early Christmas present, and I am hoping that it will serve to entertain her on the plane. We shall see. I have brought pretty much every CD she's ever expressed delight or even mild interest in.

I bid you all a wonderful, restful, calorie laden holiday. See you in 2006.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

We're traveling this holiday, to see my parents' new house in Texas. Thus, our decision to get a tiny Christmas tree, more for decorative purposes than anything else. Also, because we will open our immediate family presents before we leave for Texas, and it's sort of nice to do that at least near a tree and a fire.

Got the smallest tree available at Home Depot, and laughed the whole way home about how very "Charlie Brown" our tree was. Except, really, it's not...it's not sad or droopy or unloved, it's just really really really small compared to our previous trees. I will say this for small trees...they are *damn* easy to carry home and install. Not to mention decorate. I think I used one string of lights and two star garlands (in addition to the lighter annual ornaments).

Basically it's just awfully darn cute and looks terribly sweet against the living room wall on a medium sized table. In a way, it feels more realistically Christmas, that is, the Christmases of the 19th century, where all trees were table top ones, and the presents you got were small enough to hang from the branches. We are shifting our traditional roast, Yorkshire and plum pudding dinner to a buffet style party, and I think this year's tree fits the Victorian theme quite well.

O kleine Tannenbaum...

I Need A House Elf

It's that time of year for winter schmutz; the Bean has already cycled through her first bout for the most part. I kept my fingers, toes, and eyes crossed that I wouldn't get it myself, to no avail. My own stupidity is that I stopped taking zinc tablets a while ago because my nose piercing had pretty much healed--what I neglected to remember is that the zinc had probably been keeping me healthy through other kid-borne illnesses this year.

So alas, I sit here draining nasally, feeling like crud and realizing if I want tea or a snack or more Kleenex, I have to get up and get it myself.

I so want a house elf.

Parental Perfection

The Bean has been mildly ill the last few days; nothing too drastic, and she seems to be well enough to go to school tomorrow. Certainly her fever is gone, so that's the big key. Nonetheless, last night she was still a bit out of sorts until she had a long bath and got tucked into bed. Things were going well, sleep was being had, etc, until about midnight when Gene and I went to bed ourselves and saw the tell-tale flickering LED that said the Bean was at least stirring. We plodded in to her room, only to find she had kicked off all her covers, but was basically still asleep; she was, however, not comfortable, as it's been down in the low 40s if not upper 30s at night out here (I know, crazy, eh?). We
pulled her covers up and lightly patted her back. At which point she emitted the most precious, contented, sweetly inflected sigh I'd ever heard from her. In two seconds, she summed up the perfect balance of coziness and comfort and trust.

It was, in truth, a moment of parental perfection we keep discussing.

Sugar Overload

Instituted a new Hoffman family Christmas tradition this year, purely on a whim from Costco. I saw a gingerbread house kit, and thought, oh, why not? Bean may not be able to see the pieces or the end result, but she can certainly smell and taste all the components, and it's a fun thing to do on a sleepy Sunday afternoon in early December. So, we papered the dining room table in aluminum foil, wrestled her into her art smock, and away we went.

Gene did a great job of ensuring structural integrity, once he ignored the instructions and did what made sense from a caulking and engineering standpoint, Bean tasted jujubes and M&Ms and icing, and helped push candy into the appropriate spots on our admittedly eclectic house. As Gene observed, "it certainly looks like a 3 year old gingerbread house". Well, it is.

For a grand total effort of about 20 minutes, we all had a really good time, and I think it will be a nice way to kick off the holiday season in years to come. Plus now we have snacks for weeks to come.

Jazz Baby

We were at Tower Records last night, killing time while Gene scoured CompUSA next door for a part to make sure our mail server stops crashing every 30 seconds. To amuse the Bean, I took her to various listening stations, finally fetching up in the Jazz section. She had liked the Christmas cds, but once I put the headphones on and she heard the dulcet strains of Miles Davis, that was it. From a fairly sleepy and quiet kid slumped in a stroller, we ended up wiggly, chuckling and dancing kid in a stroller. It's pretty amazing to me that she already has impeccable taste in music.