We spent Thanksgiving this year with my parents in Mill Valley. We had gone up the day before and George was joining us after he got out of a long meeting in Santa Cruz. The kitchen was full of family - my Aunt Carmen, Michelle, Uncle Bill, Jeannette, my folks, and Jamie were all there. We had all been discussing how we felt sorry for George who was fighting traffic for hours. When he arrived at the front door around 6pm Violet ran to him, jumped into his arms and kissed him. "I missed you Daddy!" He replied "I missed you too!" "You in traffic Daddy?" "Yes." "Oooh. You need a glass of wine, Daddy?" It was the funniest darn thing she could have said - perfect for George and hilarious for the rest of us! "Why yes I would like a glass of wine!" We were all dying laughing.
Here are a few precious recollections from Christmas this year. To be fair, Alice was a doll in her red "Baby's First Christmas" PJs and her generally sweet disposition. But the greatest pleasure this Christmas was watching Violet get into the season, learn about Santa, sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer umpteen times, watch my dad teach her about Baby Jesus, watch her revel at her Christmas presents Christmas morning. (Her favorites really being the simplest ones - like a light pink silk play scarf from her Auntie Genna!)
On Christmas Eve my parents and George and I took the girls to their first Children's Christmas Mass and Pageant at Mount Carmel Church in Mill Valley. We were all dressed up. Violet looked like a Christmas princess in her beautiful Gymboree red and green plaid silk duponi dress and gold leather maryjanes.
My dad, Tata, had given her a book called "The True Story of Christmas" or something like that which told the story of Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus in simple terms for a toddler reader. She's obsessed with babies, so she naturally adored the book. She decided that she needed to bring it with her to church. (My dad - intense Catholic that he is - was quite thrilled.) Violet doesn't really know a thing about Mass, but was all geared up for the singing parts, the standing parts, and especially was looking forward to the play about Baby Jesus.
Once the pageant began, Violet insisted on standing up on the pew to see. Then several small children walked down the aisle to sit at the front of the Church to see the play better. The performance took place on the church pulpit platform which was risen about five steps from the floor level. Mount Carmel is big. And at Christmas mass, it is always packed. This night was no exception - there were 900 plus in attendance. We were sitting about 19-20 rows back from the front of the Church, and Violet decided that this would simply not do; she needed a better view of Baby Jesus.
She broke away from George who was holding her and said she was going to see baby Jesus. "Does she know to stop and sit at the front with the other kids? - You better go get her." I said to George (I was holding a sleeping 2 month old baby Alice at the time). "Let's just see what she does." She walked right past the other kids sitting at the front, straight up the stairs onto the stage. A bewildered 7 or 8 year old Mary and Joseph stood there dumbfounded with only the bassinet holding baby Jesus between them and my curious daughter, standing with her back to 900 people gazing down into the cradle. George said to me "I'm not going up there." I shot him a look, handed him Alice and ran in heels all the way up to the front of the church onto the stage to grab my toddler, amidst hundreds of people chuckling at us. Tata had tears in his eyes because "She totally gets it!"
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