Hawaii is no longer something we just returned from, but something that happened a while ago. The luggage has been emptied and stored away, our tans are fading, and errands and commitments have us running around Anchorage most days. Life is moving on.


As Henry rapidly hurdles towards 5, his grasp of time is getting stronger. A few years ago there was only now, and in a little bit. These days there is tomorrow and several days after that. When grasping the past, there is when he was Piper's age, and before he was born.


He loves to ask about the mystical time before he was cruising around our lives, and we've happily resorted to tell him that back then he was merely a "twinkle in Daddy's eye." He loves this.


But what about Piper? "She was twinkling in my other eye."


Makes sense to Mom and Dad, and Henry enjoys it a great deal. We tease the question of any twinkles in his eye, and he usually replies affirmatively. There you go.








Part of ice skating is Henry wearing his full masked hockey helmet. Invariably, I am asked to reach through the mask and itch something for him. Usually he tells me which side of his nose needs a scratch. Sometimes it's a challenge to direct my finger correctly.


"Scratch my face, Daddy."


"Where? Here by your nose?"


"No, over here."


"Your cheek?"


"No."


Frustration builds on both sides. "I'm not sure where. Use your words."


"Ah... Next to my twinkle."


And the problem is now solved.

All Hawaii pictures here.

If there was any confusion about how much Henry is into Christmas, let's dispel that now. He's bananas for Christmas, at times almost uncontrollably.


Henry and Piper sleep in the same room, and for convenience we still have a baby monitor in that room; the main idea being that if Piper wakes up and needs some help we can respond to it before if becomes an air raid siren that rustles up Henry. And old habits die hard, so the monitor is clicked on each night.


Early morning on Christmas Day the noises started. The first occurrence at 2 am was a rustling on the monitor, a thump of feet leaving the bunk, followed by thudding feet towards the door, the door clunking open, silence as Henry peered at the dark first floor, and then a clunking of the bedroom door as he tumbled back into his room. Ditto at 6:30 am as well. Both times Mommy and Daddy whispered prayers that he wouldn't take a turn towards our door. It wouldn't surprise me if we snoozed through a few other expeditions.


How Piper slept through this thumping and clunking is a Christmas miracle. I quickly grabbed a 7 am shower and hustled downstairs to start the oven for the breakfast casserole. Around 8 am the whole house was up, buzzing, and soon filled with mountains of torn paper.




Piper seemed genuinely excited, though mostly because the house was filled with new things, papers, and excitement. She was marginally interested in tearing open packages, but heavily interested playing with her Duplos.




Full set of Christmas 2015 pictures.

The holidays are becoming more of a blur each year as these kids get a little bigger every day. This year we've seen Santa four times, largely because here in Alaska we're so close to the North Pole. We saw him on a whim at Bass Pro, and then on purpose at a work event and the Christmas Train. By the time Santa showed up after the Preschool Christmas play, Henry was ready to take a pass.

"I told him last week that I wanted a Matchbox Treasure Truck. He knows. Let's get some juice."

Good point.

Later that day he received the treasure truck as a planned reward for all the hard work that led up to his narrator part.

"Looks like Santa won't need to bring that treasure truck. I bet he knows something else you'd like."

"Yes. Santa is going to bring Legos now."

A very calm, pragmatic young man.



As you can see above, Henry has a genetic ability thanks to his father for putting his hands in his pockets and politely waiting for life to get moving again.

The Santa train was well worth it again this year. Santa jumped in our booth and said, "Hold up your finger. Thumbs up!"

Santa was being confusing. As you can see, Henry went with the first sentence.

Santa train pictures here.



All Christmas play photos here.

Christmas Nativity Play

Friday the 11th had a big, bright circle around it on our calendar. I arranged to be out of work that morning, our cameras were given fresh batteries, and Henry's nice sweater was set aside.

 

Henry's preschool Christmas concert was set for that Friday and would involve a handful of Christmas songs like last year. Given that the kids are 4 this time around, the school upped the ante and added a nativity play along with the songs.

 

About a month ago Henry's teacher approached us with the idea of Henry reading the narration while the play moves around in the foreground. It seemed like a great fit -- Henry is a good reader and dislikes singing and walking around in costume. Henry soon jumped on board when it was explained that there would be no costume for the narrator.

 

So we soon began practicing the script nightly, noticing his clarity and volume improving each day. Ms. Nancy also reported the same strong results from their school practices. Each iteration got better and better, but as parents we were nervous about what show time would bring. Speaking in front of a crowd isn't even fun for most adults.

 

Skipping to the result, Henry did great. He was not rattled by a full room of people and their glowing smart phones, nor did he neglect to aim his words into the microphone. As parents, we couldn't be prouder of our young man.

 

 

***

 

After speaking to the principal after the performance, I can report several more reasons the 4 year old Christmas performance was a smoother event than other 2015 performances at Amazing Grace.

• There was no nudity. As in, a young lady did not pull her dress over her head.
• There were no "runners" during the performance.
• There were also no accidents during the songs.

 

 The entire nativity play is below, and it is 9 minutes in length.

Henry's preschool had a snack buffet of each student's favorite foods as a sort of Thanksgiving meal. We were told that as Henry had asserted Brats as the greatest food in the world, that we'd need to bring a few to share.

 

We were also told by the teachers that Henry contributed the funniest comment to the booklet, but that we'd need to wait until the booklet came home. It's a pretty good comment. We'll let your mind wander as to the specifics of the picture he's painting.

For whatever reason the Halloween Party at Preschool is always named the Fall Festival. It's just fun. All kids and staff wear costumes, there are games everywhere, and candy is handed out.

Henry gave each game a tumble, enjoying the hockey and duck games the most. Piper won the cake walk on her first try, after which she wisely picked a very full bag of cookies from the table.

It was happily clear that Henry really loves his teacher, Mrs. Nancy. As parents it's very comforting to have had really good luck with teachers over the last few years.



You can never going wrong when the game is flinging things at big pumpkins.




Piper has been walking everywhere these past few weeks, and has consequently become a bit of a wanderer. She remains a little nervous around strangers, but when she was at the museum with me last weekend she would pick a direction and then throw it into gear, plowing ahead with zero regard for where Henry or Daddy were. I kept expecting her to eventually pause when she realized we were nowhere to be found, but that didn't happen. We're in the toddler phase where I hang back and occasionally step up to turn her in a new direction. She's on the run.