We went on a bear hunt again today in the Portuma Forest Park. We didn’t find any bears. We did, however, find dinosaurs. Well, it would be more accurate to say that the dinosaurs came with us. Santa brought a family of T-rexes and their cousins to Hawkeye. A bunch of fearsome looking creatures with…
Christmas day is for staying in your pajamas, watching your kid enthusiastically open presents and stare in wonder at the empty glass of milk and remaining cookie crumbs from Santa’s offering, and relaxing with family and cozy blankets.
Whatever my own misgivings about pushing the Santa myth on my kid (and I have loads) it’s difficult to deny the excitement and anticipation now that my three year old can grasp the vague idea of Santa. I have strong feelings about the obsessive connection between Santa and presents in Ireland. It borders on crass…
Holidays are now official. We’re chilling in Nana’s house. Presents are (mostly) wrapped and under the tree. Other family members and friends are dropping by for a visit. One of the things and parenting in a culture that is different from the one in which I grew up is that I get to experience some…
I finished up work today for the year. A mad rush of last minute things and bills and trying to clear my desk (not very successfully) so that I can come back in January to a cleaner start. Tomorrow we head west to spend the holidays with family. Hawkeye has been learning how to count…
The zippers were bad enough. Watching the little clumsy fingers try to manipulate the two halves of the zip while you stand there mentally tearing your hair out was the worst, right? Wrong. Now he wants to dress himself completely from head to toe. This is fine when he’s just taking off his clothes and putting…
Dear Brain, I have another email from you this morning with tough news about your mom. I’m sorry that I didn’t write to you before. I have your previous two emails flagged for a response but somehow there was never any time. I am reminded of you often, whenever I come to bed and see…
We have an elf in our office. No, it’s not Dobby, esq, Elf Attorney-at-Law. It’s not the fae or one of the fair folk or sídhe (though I hear they’re fab at exploiting contractual loopholes!). It is, of all things, our very own in-house elf-on-the-shelf. When our department relocated one floor up over the weekend and I…
There are the days when the words won’t stop coming. And then there are all the days when they don’t appear at all. Sometimes there simply isn’t anything to say. You can fill the space with noise and distraction but the spirit is empty and the substance is hollow. Other times, you have words exploding…
I appear to be able to tap into greater reserves of patience when I’m out and about with Hawkeye than when I’m stuck at home, so with a weekend all to ourselves, I did the unthinkable and went shopping voluntarily two days in a row, just for fun, on the last weekend before the Christmas holidays.…
The first half of the day was almost an unmitigated disaster. The Mister had to leave on an overnight trip early in the morning. Hawkeye was being stubborn. It was taking me forever to get everything together to leave the house in between getting myself assembled and navigating his moods. I changed my plans about…
The Feathered Rose 