Snow Days in Carolina: A poem accompanied by way too many pictures

I hear the tinkle, tinkle
Of freshly falling snow
It's not composed of fluffy flakes
But ice pellets, you know.

Of course there'll be a snow day
(Or seven, eight, or nine)
While we wait, quite helpless,
For wintry-warm sunshine.

We rummage the entire house
For clothes to keep us hot,
Then run outside in rain boots—
The only sort we've got.

Beavers

The forecast calls for snow this weekend and so yesterday the city started panicking. It was 60°F outside and people were panicking—salting the roads and buying up bread and milk—because it's supposed to snow on Friday. Yes, people were panicking. Meanwhile, my little boy was crawling around—fully clothed—in the creek, pretending to be a beaver. 

Happy New Year!

After binge-watching some Fuller House* we tuned into the Fuller House New Year's Eve countdown (because it's midnight somewhere) so we could put the little kids to bed. They were quite shocked when DJ broke the fourth wall and said, "And you need to get to bed. Yes, we can see you, too!"

Then we gave them some glow sticks for our traditional First Walk of the Year. We went up and down the street and then came back home for some sparkling cider (or, as Miriam kept calling it, "Sparkling wine"). 

Here's Zoë giving Daddy a New Year kiss:

Reading, writing, spelling

A few weeks ago I was finishing up piano lessons with Miriam and decided that she didn't have quite enough to work on, but I also knew that no one in the house had patience for any more time spent on piano lessons so I said, "And just do page 59 as well. We won't go over it now; it's bedtime. You can figure it out on your own."

Miriam has a good ear for the piano. She recently taught herself how to play The First Noel...by ear. She likes me to go through her songs with her so that she knows how they sound and then she'll work them until she basically has them memorized for her next lesson. Not knowing how the song sounded was frustrating for her.

"I will never get it right!" she lamented during one of her practice sessions. "How am I even supposed to know how it goes if I've never heard it before?!"

"You're supposed to read the music," I said. "You know how each note is assigned a line or gap on the staff?"

"Yes," she admitted.

"Alright. And you know how the different kinds of notes receive a different number of beats? For example," I said, pointing to a quarter note, "How many beats does this note get?"

"One," she sniffed.

"That's right. So all you have to do is put that together. It's like a secret code. It's like reading."

"I can do that!" she said, placing her hands on the piano. A little apprehensive at first, her fingers haltingly managed to get through the song. She had it memorized by her next lesson. Because that's how she rolls. (note to self: put kids in actual lessons one day because I have no idea what I'm doing)

New Year's Eve's Eve

I already wrote about our excursion to Greensboro, so all that's left, I guess, is to write about Auntie Josie's last day with us and our trip to the Museum of Life and Science. We thought about going to Duke campus instead of the museum, but ultimately the idea of making the children behave appropriately in an adult-centric environment once again seemed too overwhelming so the museum won out because there they are free to act like kids.

It was rather chilly (compared to the rest of the week) so we spent most of our time inside, going outside only to make our way from the main building to the butterfly house (and, you know, stopping at the music-making station and the farm and the playground on our way).

Here's Auntie Josie and Benjamin outside of the butterfly house:

Hiking on the Eno (December 27)

Last Tuesday we took Auntie Josie for a little walk down by the Eno River. 

Boxing Day

Almost half of Auntie Josie's suitcase was filled with presents for our family—which was a big surprise since we'd just had Christmas. Here are the kids in their new hats from Naanii and Bumpa:

 

Christmas Day: Opening Presents

The kids were pretty excited to get back to their presents after church on Sunday! I didn't put any presents under the tree this year until Christmas Eve because of this little one:

Christmas morning

Before sending the children to bed on Christmas Eve we had them pick "spots" for their stocking so that in the morning they'll know where to look for them. This year we hung our stockings from the TV armoire because when they hang on the mantle they get in the way of the piano, which has been experiencing rather heavy use this year now that both girls are taking piano lessons. Andrew took down the stockings and instructed the children to "find a place on the couch."

The girls each quickly claimed a corner while Benjamin compliantly chirped, "Okay!" before putting his stocking on the floor...

So in the morning, that's where all his Santa stuff was waiting for him.

Christmas Eve

We spent the morning cleaning the house and chilling in our pyjamas. I know this because that's what my friend Crystal did and when she sent me a photo of her kids doing just that I wrote back, "That's what we're doing, too!" 

I also know that when the Rogersons stopped by with cookies Andrew and I were still in pyjamas (but the kids had all changed at that point). 

But soon Andrew's whereabouts escapes my memory of the day. Neither of us can remember where he was. I honestly think it's possible he went to campus to work (because he's been making an index for his professor's book, which was more time-consuming than either of them thought it would be, and that was due to the publisher on Friday so I really think he spent part of Saturday at campus doing his own work...but I can't remember), but he went in on Friday (and took both their girls because accompanying Daddy to campus and sitting in a corner of his office reading quietly is their idea of a good time—party hardy). He could also have been out grocery shopping but I think he did that earlier because we dug into the veggie tray on Christmas Eve and I distinctly remember deciding to leave it on the counter overnight (minus the dip) because there was no room for it in the inn fridge.