singing & dancing

Another good weekend began with Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) on the kitchen computer with Cyndi and the boys and me dancing. Bacon was in a fry pan, the griddle was heating up, and I continued to make pancake batter. Cyndi continued to practice her dance steps for a "flash mob", and the boys ran around the house, playing with their legos. Ry and I set up the little outdoor train on the lawn while Jackson and Cyndi did some quick shopping.

Then it was time for the flash mob in the afternoon. The boys and I dropped Cyndi off at the Little Theater parking lot for their final practice. We left Cyndi there, with Dorie and Elley and about 50 other dancers. Maybe a little more than that. The boys and I drove to Old Town and hung around the plaza. There was a wedding party taking pictures near the gazebo in the plaza, where a tuba band was setting up for a Christmas concert. There were many tourists and shoppers on that overcast day. We talked to some Knights of Columbus volunteers building a manger in front of the church for a live nativity on Christmas Eve. We plan to come back then, to walk around the plaza and then among the homes in the old Albuquerque Country Club neighborhood to see all the luminarias at night.

We sauntered over to the small shopping plaza west across from the church, where there's a tall Christmas tree constructed from over 100 real trees. Pan pipes were playing. The flash mob began to walk over and mix among the shoppers, eventually outnumbering them. The filmmaker Cyndi met a week or two ago was there to document the street performance. After some time, All I Want for Christmas Is You came on. A singer descended the stairs, two or three couples began to twirl and then dancers broke out onto the plaza. Cyndi and her sisters were among them. The boys and I watched from the balcony, and in the second verse dancers on the balcony joined in. When the music finished, the flash mob went on their way, but a few lingered on, excited by the event.

Cyndi was quite excited. She had been practicing for days. The choreography was complicated. The company of dancers included local professionals, young and old. I think many were from the annual Nutcracker company. Afterwards we went to Church Street Cafe in Old Town.

Sunday we went to Belen to set up a tree. Ariel was scheduled to fly to Washington that day.

Next: Singing & Dancing: The Movie. (I've had a "flash mob" video posted for some time on this blog. Look for the Do-Re-Me link in some stuff under Bottom of the Scroll.)

catching up

It's about a week before Christmas. We are in for over 24 hours of rain, turning to snow tonight. Temperatures are warm. The storm is moving from Flagstaff and across Gallup and looks to be centered in Santa Fe, with more precipitation moving from California. There's no snow predicted ahead for Christmas Day, and very little snow now in the northern mountains. We'd like to take the boys skiing, but I don't see how that is possible at the moment.

Ariel will leave Sunday for Washington. She's busy wrapping things up, and has a few jobs lined up to begin the new year.

We've managed to get some gifts for the boys already. It may be modest this year: a few Beyblades, some Lego building sets, a couple of things to add to the Wii, and a robotic spy camera that Jack wants. I did get Ry a Star Wars Lego set, as he wants. He'd settle for Indiana Jones, but I didn't see any around. He researches Legos on the internet constantly, so I'm not sure I got one that's high on his wish list. He's written several lists of Beyblades he wants (all of them really), and this weekend he constructed a North Pole scene out of paper and glue and color markers. Cyndi has done something very nice. I came home to find she had made bird's nest cookies, my favorite Christmas cookie. Ry says they're his favorite, too. They have walnuts, and Jackson still avoids all nuts for any possible allergic reaction. Jackson and I finished off the summer sausage over the last weekend. We also took out some chicken soup from the freezer and Rylee raved about it for two days, gobbling up bowlfuls.

We had a nice dinner at a new Chinese restaurant we go to since our previous favorite closed when their landlord increased the rent. We were gathered at the table, very talkative and boisterous. Both of the boys were kneeling on their chairs talking about this and that, joking with Cyndi and me. For once, they weren't wandering around from their seats. The boys love their egg drop soup, with a sprinkle of chow mein noodles, and a dash of soya. We get an order of sweet & sour chicken, with the sauce on the side, so that it's like chicken nuggets for the boys. And Jackson loves his rice. I know at one point we were talking about how to deal with YouTube videos that might not be appropriate to watch and we talked about kid's shows on tv, what favorites Jack watched as a toddler, what Rylee at that age watched with Jackson, what Cyndi and I watched.

From there we went to Jackson's third grade holiday concert at the school. The children stood on risers in the gymnasium, which was packed. Well done concert, the children singing with gusto, all in unison, with a few humorous Thanksgiving songs, including one about an Albuquerque Turkey, thrown in and a couple accompanied by rhythm instruments, including, of course, Jingle Bells. Jackson played a triangle and bells. One of the third grade teachers was the music teacher in the past. Jackson always loved her. Ry had a pj party during the day in his classroom. They will be off for two weeks.

Since Comcast has been transitioning to some new digital system (mandated by a law that the cable industry lobbied for, I'm sure, and which should allow them better access to monitor usage), we will be without a tv for about a week. I don't think the boys are really missing it. There's still DVDs, Netflix, internet and IPod.

Ry and I made French toast on Saturday, which was a very good day. We did a run to Costco. No one wanted to go. On the way home, we stopped at the theater to buy tickets for the matinee for Tangled, a Disney movie based on Rapunzel. We put away the milk and turned around to meet Elley and Don and Nicholas and Lauren at the theater. We brought some fruit rollups we bought at Costco, the tickets were cheap for the matinee, but we splurged on theater popcorn and kettle corn. We got there early and saved seats in the middle of the theater. It was a kick for all of us. We've never, all eight of us, gone to a movie together, and the four children sat in a row between Cyndi and me. It was more fun for me to watch their faces lit up by the screen, munching on popcorn. Ry crawled up in Cyndi's lap near the end, when the music became more emphatic. I almost dozed.

On Sunday we went to mass, the second week of advent. The boys went to the children's eulogy. Ry asked again that I not take him. I tell the boys not to sit in the back or in the corners. Ry said he sat on the carpet in front, and he even raised his hand. Finally, Jack has begun to settle into church, not so much squirming or hanging onto Cyndi, no playing, and, of course, Ry follows his lead. We even get the boys to hold hands for the Our Father. This was the first time Jackson received communion as we go up together as a family, with Rylee still crossing his hands for a blessing.

Let's see. We went to the mountain trailhead for pictures of the boys after that and a little visit to Trader Joe's, where we haven't been in a very long time. The weather was perfect, the sky blue.

I got a USAA rebate and a Costco rebate in the mail this week. We may use that to splurge on a King Crab feast with ABQ family, our Christmas gift. I'll say more as that develops.

november/december

This was a new process I tried. It needs to be redone, the audio particularly is wrong, but I'll leave this for now.

Jack's First

Holy Communion

This weekend was busy. It started with Cyndi driving to Santa Fe on Friday to see some filming production by a company she's thinking of doing some work with. The plan was for me to pick up the boys from school and then head over to the train station and take the Rail Runner up to Santa Fe. Meanwhile, Cyndi bumped into Robert Redford. The boys and I made it okay, and it was a pleasant trip. We sat on top. It was dark outside. There's wifi on board, so Jack could text or whatever on his IPod. Ry made a book about him fishing and riding the train. I even got some work done. We were hungry, and the boys were anxious to get to Santa Fe. Cyndi met us at the station and had already checked out the wait for dinner at Tomasita's next door. There wasn't any wait. We had our usual bean burritos for the boys, huevos rancheros for Cyndi, chicken enchildas for me, and Cyndi and I split a half-liter (mostly ice) of Margaritas.

We drove over to the plaza, and mostly we just stopped to get some ice cream. The lights were on in the trees in the plaza. It wasn't too cold, and it was quiet.

On Saturday, Ry and I made bacon and waffles. We spent a large amount of the day shopping for gifts for Jackson and Nicholas (our godson, and Jack's cousin) for their First Holy Communion on Sunday, shopping for clothes for Jack, and buying food for the meal after Sunday's mass. I got up the next morning and put a brisket in the oven and hung some lights outside, and the boys and I set up the Christmas village. Cyndi made oriental chicken salad.

Jackson and Nicholas were excited about First Holy Communion, walking in the procession, with their hands clasped in prayer, Jackson smiling with his new glasses on, so handsome, so mature, so solemn. Most of Cyndi's family was there in the pews set aside at the front. The mass was at Risen Savior, where both Jack and Ry went to preschool. The priest was gentle and funny, a wonderful and exuberant speaker. The altar servers rang bells. The small choir was beautiful. One singer sang a beautiful responsorial psalm, but I'm afraid another song sounded offkey to me. The members sang and responded loudly. I thought it was particularly interesting that there were two appeals to buy free-trade products, particularly coffee.

When it was time for the eucharist, the families went up with each child. Jackson took the host and the wine and Rylee was blessed, his arms folded across his chest. Afterwards, the children's articles were blessed. We gave Nicholas and Jackson little missalettes, and each got a cross and an engraved glass ornament.

The brisket turned out great, better than I imagined, and Cyndi and I brought our food over to Elley's. Bennie was there. The day was warmer than the week before, and the boys all took their meals outside in the backyard and played.

There was some talk about the Christmas party this year in Belen with all the extended family, just as it was in all the past years. Lola wanted to contribute to the food budget but didn't want to organize it this year. Cyndi and Elley and Dorie will likely organize it. There's talk of more brisket and maybe a ham, while everyone brings desserts. Pots of everything else. Some good chile from Aunt Erlinda?

I had to call Mom later because I made the brisket as best as I could remember how she used to make it. I found out that I was only marginally close, but still it turned out very tasty. I also told her we were finally able to find our favorite summer sausage in the local supermarket, after years of never being able to find it. Jackson has been asking for it for months. Jackson polished off one in a day, while the other we froze for later. Mom recalled how Ariel loved it, too.

Lola was sitting on Elley's sofa and was talking about her family and growing up in Belen. Cyndi told her that I often try to write down what Lola talks about, so the boys will have some idea of the history of their families. A few weeks ago in a cub scouts den meeting, the boys were talking about their ancestry. Jack was very interested. We talked about how our name was German and how Cyndi's family was Hispanic. And days later, Jackson talked about how he was German and how the Spanish came to Mexico and then to New Mexico. He's still a little uncertain about the Irish and Swedish sides and how they fit into the story.

Lola was talking about the Garcia family, how it's todo el mundo. She said, We don't know where we come from. She talked about how she was the oldest of the family and her mother died when she was young. She and Ursula went to St. Mary's, the same school Cyndi went to. It was about the time of the Great Depression, and they did not know English. The nuns, she said, were very mean to them. The nuns came from the Midwest and thought her family ate beans for breakfast, she laughed. We ate oatmeal, everything, she said. There were two teachers she thanked--one very mean, one very nice--for teaching her grammar when she was in high school. Her father, she remembered, bought a Model T from his veteran's pay. She remembered how she was embarrassed years later when the family still drove the Model T. She talked again about the farm, how plentiful the food was and all the fruit trees they had.

Ry, who is so fearless on his skateboard, dropped a heavy flashlight on his toe, and cried and cried that night. He's taken to a few stuffed animals only recently, a Christmas bear and a snowman. He's been making lots of pictures, paper-and-tape guns, and Santa lists, on which he copies the names of his newest interest, some kind of battling top that's another bakugan craze for little boys.

Jackson downloaded a song onto his IPod called Fireflies, which I had never heard but later found out was one of the biggest downloads on ITunes. He describes it as meditative. (I can't remember his exact word; relaxing, perhaps.) He and Ry get on Club Penguin on the computers at home, together with Nicholas and Lauren on computers at their home, and then talk to each other on speaker phones while they play at the site. They each control their own character in the various rooms, bumping into each other. Fortunately, there's no shooting involved, as with so many of the electronic games they love but which Cyndi and I try to discourage.

There are some pics and videos to come.