Charlotte and Aria's Music Recital

We had our first in person recital in three years!! Due to the pandemic, it was outdoors. Aria played Witches Dance by Paganini and Charlotte played the Bach Bourrees. They've both been working hard on music during quarantine. Ariadne took a fiddle class and learned note reading. Charlotte joined a cello rock group and had her first year-long orchestra experience with California Youth Symphony.  I may post more about those later, but here's the recital! 

Aria playing Witches Dance

Charlotte playing the Bach Bourrees

Posing with their teacher afterwards. We've been meeting with her online for almost three years, and in person for five before that.

Cousins! We had several family members able to attend. Here are the girls with their cousin. 

And for posterity, this is what our outdoor recital looked like to anyone walking by, late pandemic, 2021. Most if not all of the 16 year olds to adults are vaccinated, some of the 12-15 year olds have had a chance to get their first shot. Outdoor and social distancing are still key to any get together. The governor had lifted the mask mandate the week before. 

Fall Recital 2020

 

November is fall recital time! Charlotte and Ariadne both had virtual performances. Ariadne played Waltz, by Johannes Brahms. I could tell she likes this piece, based on how willing she always was to practice it. In fact, Solomon and Nova used to play it for her as a lullaby when she was a baby. Charlotte played Tarantella by William Henry Squire--her first recital song on a full size cello.  It is a lively piece with many different sections. Tarantella translates to tarantula, so we included a tarantula coloring page in our box of recital goodies we sent to relatives. 

This is the first time we've had a virtual recital where all the performances were prerecorded. The girls enjoyed watching other the kids play and putting comments in the chat, but they weren't that crazy about watching themselves.

 

Cello Rock's rendition of Kashmir was a surprise finale. Charlotte has been a part of the group since this summer. The group had been given special permission to meet at Antonello Hall and recorded the song the last time the were there. Charlotte joined them via zoom and was represented by a computer cart. Since covid numbers are getting worse all their rehearsals are now virtual. 

The week before the recital we made apple cider salted caramels and oatmeal smile cookies, which is a recipe I originally made up for a book club.  We sent them off along with a note and some coloring pages. but were 1 for 6 on packages arriving on time. Wednesday is the cut off for Saturday delivery, it seems. 

Christmas 2015--Looking Back & Christmas on the Farm

  

We have five Christmases a year.  And no one is divorced.  Christmas with my dad's side of the family, Christmas with my mom's side of the family, Christmas morning with just the six of us, Christmas with my mom, dad and sister, and Christmas with the Midwinters--immediately followed by Grandpa Barry's birthday.  At first, this was a lot to juggle. But we said to ourselves, how long will these extended family Christmases continue? In some years it is the only time a particular side of the family gets together. As it turns out, those extended family Christmases have continued 15 years and counting--and we wouldn't have it any other way.  

Trimming the tree and Grandma and Grandpa's house

After year three or four, we hit a rhythm.  Extended family Christmases usually fall early or late in December.  Stockings and gifts appear the morning of Christmas Eve at our house. Our parents swap Christmas Eve and Christmas Day back and forth.  At least a part of the 26th is spent with the Midwinters for Grandpa's birthday.  There are usually at least one or two overnights in there--not because we live far away, but because it is more fun.

And trimming our own tree

 In many ways, my extended family is our close family.  Not until 2017 did my kids get a first cousin, so all they know about playing with cousins comes from my first cousins and their kids (my youngest cousins are only two years older than Solomon).  Both aunts have lived out of state for the vast majority of the kids' childhoods, and the extended family on the Midwinter side is spread all over North America. For a good long stretch they were in Manitoba, Oklahoma, California, British Columbia, Illinois, The Northwest Territories, and Minnesota.   We see them when we can, but it is not every Christmas.

   

In 2015, we had Christmas on the farm.  This only happens once every three years or so, so there is always excitement about going to see all the animals.  Cousin Katrina gave us a tour.



First we saw the dairy cows, classic black and white holsteins.  From there we saw the many, many birds.  It was a cold day, so they were all inside, running around together.  I believe there were geese, chickens, ducks and quail.  Katrina showed the eggs of each--all different.  There was also a huge difference between dirty and clean.



Then we walked over to see the brown jersey calves.  They were quit cute. Along the way Ariadne got to sit on a hay bale, and the older girls 'skated' on large stretch of ice.  I remember one of my first skating experiences happened on the same farm on a similar patch, but with actual ice skates.




Back inside we talked, played games and I would venture to guess we sang some carols.  My cousins who grew up at the farm are good singers and piano players.  We had our annual ornament exchange, which now has both a child and an adult category.  Though I can't remeber exactly what we ate four years removed, I do know Christmas at the farm almost always includes little heart shaped waffles with lingonberry jam and whipped cream, and lots of christmas cookies of all varieties.  The last decade or so had included a revival of traditional Scandinavian recipes such as Swedish and Norweigan meatballs, lutafisk (always served with many other dishes, as not everyone likes it), several soups, and the fish chowder my Grandma always made on New Years Eve.

Back at my parents' house, Nova taught Aunt Brynn a song on the guitar, we got in a good game of Settlers and Granne showed Ariadne her finished quilt club quilt (a group of roughly 8 quilters met once a month and took turns adding to each other's quilts).

Cooper and his dad

This was just two of our Christmas celebrations in 2015.  I wish I had recorded more details, but the whirlwind of celebration took over documentation fell by the wayside.  We had a fine time with the Midwinters as well.  It was one of Marianne and Sylvain's 'on' years for Christmas (they alternate between here with us and in France with Sylvain's family).  My parents hosted for the other side of extended family in 2015.  Ariadne enjoyed seeing her second cousins Brooks and Cooper, who are just a couple years younger than her. Now that they are out of the baby stage, they seem so much closer in age.

A gift of fine French cheeses from Sylvain's parents

On the last day of 2015 my mom and I went on a tour of the St Paul Cathedral.  It was a jubilee year, which is why the middle doors are decorated.  They are not even open in a non-jubilee year (something I never knew before).  Our tour guide was quite good, explaining how the Cathedral functioned as a storybook would, telling the important stories in the Bible.

I just have these two shots from the outside, because my camera died.  There was much more to see inside, including a life size reproduction of Michelangelo's sculpture Pieta.  

   

Thanksgiving 2015

We hosted Thanksgiving for the first time in 2015!  In the past, the shear size of our family kept us 

from hosting many cold weather events, but this year hosting just fell into place. My sister stayed in New York for the holiday, as she normally does. Charles's siblings and brother-in-law were in Chicago making a feast using the Game of Thrones cookbook.  With both sides of my extended family going elsewhere for Thanksgiving, that left the six of us, plus both sets of grandparents. Dinner for 10 we could handle.

At first I was tempted to make a 'historically accurate' Thanksgiving dinner.  Corn, geese, fish, and venison were the only verifiable dishes, so I expanded to the recipes of Sarah Josepha Hale, who pushed for a national Thanksgiving holiday back in the 1800s.  The Smithsonian has a nice article on the evolution of Thanksgiving, if you want to know more. As much as I love, history, research, and cooking, Charles finally convinced me that for the first go-around, we should just have a traditional Thanksgiving meal.  And he was right.


Our turkey was hand delivered from my  cousin's farm, which went organic last year.  We slipped herbs and butter under the skin for a moist, flavorful bird.  Baking we did in two parts.  Starting the day before,we cooked it until it was nearly done. Thanksgiving day we carved it, basted it with its own juices (or gravy) and finished the last with the last 20-30 minutes for a juicy hot turkey.

Charles and the kids made pierogies, a favorite of his from his childhood.  Growing up, Polish aunts and grandmothers made these little potato dumplings.  When the family moved from Canada, there was a pierogie lull, but Charles took on the task of making sure these ethnic delicacies make it to as many family holidays as possible.  I usually cover the mushroom sauce made to accompany them. This year he got the kids involved.  They all got to try the pierogie maker (a handy little gadget), and the older kids helped with the cooking.

Other dishes included succotash (a nod to that historic menu),  my dad's sweet potatoes, Marianne's fruit salad, green beans, stuffed squash, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, and pie for dessert.  We covered the turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffed acorn squash, pierogies and succotash.  Our parents thankfully covered the rest.

Thanksgiving morning found me not frantically cooking, but frantically sewing.  At the last minute I decided we needed a table cloth.  I'd found a remnant at the fabric store the day before and got the hemming and ironing in before most of the household was up.  This was also a great opportunity to use GG Lois's china.  We try to use it, in the words of my grandmother 'enough to let the kids know it is special,' the thinking being that if we never use it, it won't mean anything to them, and if we always use it, it won't be special either.  This usually translates to major holidays and sometimes birthdays--so 3-6 times a year. 

 

 Charlotte and Ariadne got the kids' table to themselves this year. Some holidays we can fit everyone at one table, others there is an adult table (50+) a young adult table (14-36), and a kids & parents young children's table (0-36).  It varies a lot. 

After the meal it was time to clear the tables and make way for games, tea, and pie.  Settlers of Catan was enjoyed by all.  

Ariadne was determined to sit between her grandparents.  She crawled under the table and squeezed in. 

 After the big board game was finished, Charlotte and Charles got in a little chess.

What We DId Last Summer (Oops! I mean 2015);Space: An Out-Of-Gravity Experience

Living ten minutes from the Science Museum of Minnesota has been great.  In the summer of 2015, the whole family took the opportunity to spend the afternoon at their traveling exhibit on Space.  The only bad thing about it was that it wasn't permanent. On the upside, it is traveling the country.  As of this posting, the exhibit is on view in Portland, Oregon and is scheduled to open in Boston in 2018.



Solomon inside the space station simulator.  Though they couldn't get rid of gravity, they certainly tried.  The entire room rotated around you, leaving no meaning to 'up' 'down' or 'sideways.'  The whole experience was much cooler than I thought it would be.

Nova trying to pick things up with a pressurized astronaut's glove--I tried it too--very challenging.

The blue suit on the mannequin is actually a pair of space pajamas.  They made me think of my sister, who is a costume designer.  The loops are for 'hooking in' so you don't float around too much at night.  There is also special compression, to combat the effects of weightlessness on the human body.



The girls playing with a doll house version of the international space station.

One of my favorite parts of the exhibit were nine jars of peanut butter, all weighted for what they would feel like in the atmospheres of the moon, the Earth, and the other planets.

Charlotte's Sixth Birthday

Charlotte's birthday was the day after I returned from New York.  Charles took me the the ER to address my broken arm, and Grandma Roberta came and spent the day with the kids.  She was prepared!  Along with her came chocolate cupcake mix and some lovely pink frosting, and presents. As far as I can tell, Charlotte had a great birthday, despite the fact that Charles and I were tied up at the ER for what felt like most of the day.  That evening we opened some presents--games, Legos, and a 'ginormous' coloring pad. 


We celebrated with the rest of the family the following weekend, on what Charlotte affectionately called her ValenBirthday, because it was Valentine's Day (having been born within a week of Valentine's Day this may have been inevitable).  So, as we did with Ariadne's first birthday and Easter, we split the day.



Morning was Valentine's--breakfast was oatmeal with raspberries and chocolate chips.  We had tea and a big bouquet of tulips on the table as well.  I'd ordered them online along with the rest of the groceries (an adaptation for having a broken arm), and luckily they'd sent red. Getting this all together with a broken arm was a little tricky, but not too bad--I wanted to surprise everyone else.

Solomon helped me frost the cake for later on in the day, as frosting a cake one handed was beyond me.  He did quite well.  Once we got to Granne and Grandpa John's house, Charlotte did the rest of the decorating.  It was based on the Spirit Cake from the Avatar Kora cartoon series.  We found a recipe here.  Grandpa John had the meal all ready to go.  I believe Charlotte requested broccoli cheese soup and ham sandwiches.

  

Ironically, Charlotte had requested a skating birthday party back in December, long before I knew I would break my arm ice skating.  We found a rink with a party room, skate rental, and an weekend open skate not too far away.  This time around Charlotte wanted a junior mint cake.  Again, she decorated it herself.  The frosting was mint flavored and the cake chocolate, with junior mints and mint leaves on top.

Charles and most of the other parents skated with the kids.  I hung out in the penalty box and did my best to take pictures.  

Some of Charlotte's friends came from seasoned hockey families.  Others were more or less new to ice skating.

Charles was our on-ice parent, helping Aria around the rink.

 We wrapped up the party with cake, hot chocolate and gift opening. A figure skater took the ice just as the party was ending.  A number of the kids watched transfixed from the bleachers.  Then out came the Zamboni to resurface the ice, which they also considered a worthy spectacle.