Christmas Eve - Part I

Ever since 2005, I have spent Christmas week with Dan's family in South Carolina. (Sorota Christmas is coming later this week!) Dan's dad takes the week off work, and we spend most of our time sitting around the kitchen table playing cards and eating.

Everyone comes to Dan's parents' house on Christmas Eve. This year, it was Dan's Aunt Lynn; his cousins Beth and Cory; their kids Cody & Raegan; Dan's cousins Wayne and Rachel, their kids Kayla, Katie, and Olivia; and Dan's Uncle Lloyd.

I don't have a group shot of everybody... I'm looking back now and seeing that most of my pictures are of the kids opening presents. Cody's greatest wish this year was for a Nintendo DS, and his great Aunt Brenda (Dan's mom) bought it for him. As you can see, he loved it.

His little sister Raegan got a "talking dollhouse" -- also from Brenda -- and I think Bailey liked it as much as she did. Bailey was into everybody's presents, especially the wrapping paper.

Bailey also likes tickling Cody!

Thanksgiving in Huntsville

We spent Thanksgiving weekend at my great-aunt's house in Huntsville, Alabama. Most people probably think it's boring to spend time with their great-aunt, but mine is amazing, and I love every minute I can be around her. She is my mom's aunt (my grandmother's sister) and we call her Aunt Sis.

I was 14 the last time I had been at her house - she lives on a 50-acre farm with beef cattle, a lake, three German shepherds, a garden full of vegetables, and about ten tractors made between 1940 and 1990. It was my favorite vacation spot of all time when I was younger (I think it still might be), so I could barely contain my excitement, knowing we would be going there for Thanksgiving.

THURSDAY:
Mom, Dad, my brother Nathan, Dan, and I drove down on Thanksgiving morning. Everything about Aunt Sis's place was the same as it had ever been. Here is a mini-tour of her farmhouse.

Above is a view of the front porch from the inside of the house - note the freezer - it is full of frozen vegetables from the garden and other delicious things that Aunt Sis has cooked.

This room (above) is not the kitchen - it is like a front-porch room where you do laundry, wash vegetables off when you bring them in from the garden, read magazines, and toast yourself by the wood stove (see Aunt Sis and me below). The stove keeps the whole house warm.

When we arrived, our first job was to enlarge the kitchen table:

Here is the beginning of our Thanksgiving feast (just the salads):

After lunch, the guys (Dan, Dad, Nathan, and cousin Michael) went to practice shooting with multiple types of pistols. Mom, Sis, and I took a leisurely walk around the lake.

A while later, we returned to the kitchen for a supper of taco soup and other treats: pie, ice cream, tassies, and a huge tub of homemade cracker jacks.

The evening ended with a game of Balderdash. I can't remember who won [winner, feel free to comment if you are reading this blog post], but the funniest round of the night was one about a crazy law. It went something like this: "In Japan, during childbirth, it used to be required for the father of the baby to________." and of course everyone is supposed to fill in the blank with their own answer. The correct answer was "lie in bed and imitate being in labor." (Sorry to ruin it for fellow Balderdash players who haven't come across this one yet.)

Nathan's answer was: "The father of the baby is required to drape himself with not less than three pounds of meat, symbolizing 'breadth' and 'depth.'" Guess who racked up the points on that round.

FRIDAY:

Played with the dogs - here is Mack, the puppy.

Took a walk to check on the cows and make sure the fences were in good shape.

Nathan and Dan wanted to learn how to re-load bullets (make new ones from gunpowder and old brass), so the guys all went to collect their shells from shooting the day before.

By evening, we were all back inside the house, discussing the laws of physics. (Really.)

Aunt Sis is a mathematician/physicist and used to work for NASA in the rocket department. When she retired from that, she taught higher math and physics in high school. It makes you feel smart just to look at her bookshelf:

Aunt Sis always made me want to be good at math... it's because of her that I loved trig and calculus... (though I am sad to say I don't remember much of it). You never know what you'll find sitting on her shelves here and there.

I don't know what Dan and Nathan are discussing in the picture below, but somehow I don't think it has anything to do with a science lesson.

SATURDAY:
Spent more time outside, playing with the dogs. Here is Sarah, another of the German shepherds, and the back of the house.

Mom, Sis, and I looked at old family photos like the one below. This is Aunt Sis and her twin brother (Uncle Bud) when they were babies.

It was very hard to leave that afternoon - we could have stayed for days. To Sis and Michael - THANK YOU FOR SUCH A WONDERFUL TIME! Can't wait to come back.

(See facebook for more photos.)

Smashed

Broke a glass the other day. It happened as I was washing a set of crystal-looking juice glasses that had lived in a cardboard storage box for over three years. I set a clean one in the drying rack, and then... it crashed onto the floor and landed in a thousand pieces.

At first I was mad that I hadn't taken time to set the glass in the rack carefully enough.

Then I was sad because the glass broke.

Then I was aggravated because I needed to clean it up - huge shards along with bits as small as dust.

Then I thought, "I need to go put some shoes on."

Then I thought, "And now I'm sounding like Mom."

So, the kitchen floor has been swept with a broom, the swiffer, and the vacuum. I can't help thinking I'll find a piece with my foot later on.

I apologize to our 6th guest who will not get the fancy crystal juice glass like everyone else. Sorry, but you'll have to drink out of a jelly jar.

On the bright side, the floor is really clean. And there is more room for stuff in my cabinet.

First Post

My friends and family inspired me to start a blog. (They've also been encouraging me to publish my first post, too!) So, to Megan and Ellie especially: here it is! I hope you enjoy reading my blog as much as I love reading both of yours.

It's not going to be a "business" blog, or a chiropractic-educational blog, or a music blog - just notes about normal life.

I've recently been collecting cute-and-funny quotes from my students (that's what you do when you don't have any kids of your own that you can talk about), so I will share. If any of my student parents are reading this and you happen to recognize your own child's brilliant wit or humor, enjoy! Thank you for letting me teach your child - it's wonderful to watch them grow and advance.

Here are just a few. Some of them I may have talked about before.

1. My 7-yr-old violin student. He kept dropping his violin onto the floor, at least 4 times during lesson. I finally said, very seriously, "The next time you drop your violin, I am going to charge you a quarter. Make sure you bring some money to your next lesson." After a few minutes, we started working on "playing position" and the exercise of holding his violin under his chin with no hands to support it. Finally he said, "I think you have something you REALLY want to buy, and you must need 25 cents more... because you are trying to GET me to drop this thing!"
(I bet his family listens to Dave Ramsey)

2. Random comments from a 7-yr-old piano student (she gives me a hilarious quote every week):
-"I wish this was a glass piano that you could see through, and I wish it had butterflies on it."
-"My fingers are like robots."
-"The Twinkle variations are my counselors."
-"When I come into my lesson, all I ever think about is piano. I forget about my family, school, and even my toys."
-"Judy Carmichael [professional swing/jazz pianist] plays all sloppy." (She said this after attending a Judy Carmichael concert).

3. "Mommy, take notes!!" (whispered urgently by 8-yr-old piano student, one of my best ones.)

4. A nine-yr-old girl, working on a Schumann piece. I explained to her that it was from the Romantic period, and that it needed rubato and dynamics and emotion so it didn't sound like a machine. She responded: "Romantic?! Ughghg! That's yucky! I hate romance."

5. Older sister occasionally takes baby sister to the bathroom while middle sister has her lesson. The girls would always come out of the bathroom, with the little one holding a few squares of clean toilet paper. I finally asked the big sister why. She said, "Oh, Mrs. Hall, she LOVES your toilet paper because it's so soft!"

6. Same girls: I used to teach in an apartment building with loud neighbors. One day my student came in, and neighbor was BLARING rap music from their stereo. My student said, "I told myself, 'I know that's not Mrs. Hall - she would NEVER play music like that!'"

7. "My daddy spilled wine on my book." (6-yr-old violin girl).

8. Overheard this at a recital. Little sister whispers to her older brother after his performance, "You made FIVE mistakes!"

9. From an 11-yr-old girl: "I like the recitals better when there aren't any BOYS on them. Boys make me nervous."