Flat Kira:chillin' at Grandmommy's

Dear Kira Rose, 

I was hoping to have some big stories to tell you, but Nonny says even the small things in life are worth writing about . . .  So here are a few small things from our last two days together.

Yesterday we did a lot of shopping together--on the computer!  She won't tell me what she's getting for you for Christmas, but I did get to see what she ordered for Kelsey :-)  No, I'm not telling!  I also saw what she ordered for some of the grown-ups.  Why would somebody want a l---?. . . oops, better not say because she'll probably read this letter when she posts it on her blog!

We also put up another Christmas tree, a little one by the breakfast table.  You couldn't even tell it was a table of any kind yesterday!  It was piled up high with catalogs and newspapers and mail!  But today Grandmommy hooked up a machine she calls a shredder.  When she showed me what a shredder does to flat pieces of paper, you can bet I kept myself as far away from it as possible!!!  Anyway, she fed it lots of paper from the piles, and now the table looks like a table again.

After that we hung a wreath in the kitchen window.  I'm sitting here now.  It's the perfect spot for seeing what's going on in the kitchen and even down the hall to the living room! 


Hope I don't fall into that shredder!!!







She did text me a picture
though so that I could
 share it with you.



Grandmommy went for a walk on the Lake Murray dam yesterday and today.  She didn't take me--said it was brrr cold and so windy that I might get blown into the lake and eaten by a fish or one of those turtles that hang out on the rocks there.  That didn't sound like fun to me either, so I just hung out here, listening to music, reading, napping: chillin', I guess. 

Is it winter yet????

Love you bunches!

Flat Kira

P.S. Please tell Grandma that Grandmommy really appreciates the box of fruit from her, sent just in time for Christmas!!!

Flat Kira and the wrestler

Dear Kira Rose,

When I get home to Oakdale, I'll tell you the true story of how I escaped going to middle school yesterday.  It was kind of nice having Grandmommy's house--messy enough to make exploring loads of fun--all to myself.  I played Christmas music all day on her new CD changer.  (Glad she figured out that wiring-speakers-to-a-receiver puzzle Thursday  night!)

I really had meant to sneak back into my envelope when Grandmommy came home to eat, get school stuff out of the car, and presents (to go under Michael and Cassie's tree) in the car.  She was in such a rush that she never noticed I'd fallen asleep on the couch in the study, exhausted from all the mischief I'd been into while she was at work.

I finally got to meet some of your Southern family today--Campbell (not pictured),


Aunt Michelle and Uncle Rick, and



Mason, the wrestler!!!


Anyway, I spent hours and hours today in a high school gym (I wonder if she plans to take me to a college next!)!  Mason was doing this stuff called wrestling.  It looked like fighting to me--the playing around kind of fighting--but kids were getting medals for it!  Mason just missed getting a medal this time but, from all the clapping and cheering everyone was doing, he must have fought pretty well.  He was smiling--not so much in our picture but later in the day.

Did you know that Mason and Campbell call Grandmommy Nonny?  You didn't tell me she has two different names! I heard Grandmommy, aka Nonny, telling Mason and Campbell that she'd be taking them to the movies Tuesday--something about seeing someone named Harry Potter?--and then maybe Christmas shopping.  Wonder if I'll get to go to the movies and shopping with them . . .

She's got that Christmas music going again.  I'm thinking a nap sounds like a good idea!

I'll write more later . . .

Love you bunches!

Flat Kira

Flat Kira"s "lost" day

I was all set to introduce Flat Kira to her "round" cousins, Michael and Cassie, last night when I discovered, to my dismay that she was not safely tucked away in her envelope in the comfort of her handmade Christmas card and directions for handling . . .

Where could she be????

Horror of horrors!  Had I left her at SCHOOL where she would shiver in the dark and silence and winter's chill until January 3????

Kira Rose would never forgive me!!!!!

I did the next best thing . . . logged onto my Simple Pleasures blog and read all the letters and stories about Flat Kira to Michael and Cassie.  They decided that she must be a little bit like Jack, their Christmas elf, and wanted to know more about how she got to my house and especially how she moved around now that she was here.  I told them they'd have to ask Kira Rose when she came to visit after Christmas.  Unlike Jack (and Pixie and Ryder, the elves at Kira Rose's house), I suspect Flat Kira will not disappear when Santa arrives . . . unless I lose her again.

I still don't know the whole story but she was napping with the dolls on the loveseat in the study again when I got home late last night.  I'm really going to have to keep a closer eye on that young lady!!!!

Flat Kira will  be meeting Michael and Cassie soon--on Christmas morning, if not before.  Hope she doesn't climb to the top of their tree!!!!

Flat Kira: Days 3 and 4

Dear Kira Rose,

Grandmommy says we only have one more day of this middle school stuff before we can be truly home (at her home anyway) for the holidays.  YEAH!!!

After watching all those big kids take their exams yesterday (reading and writing and reading and writing and they still had to read and write some more today!), I was exhausted!  Last night, Grandmommy put on a movie that she was planning to show to one of her classes today and tomorrow.  It was about this really stingy old guy named Scrooge who is scared by a bunch of ghosts into changing his ways.  He was still pretty old at the end of the story . . . older than Grandmommy even (and that's old!) . . . but he wasn't a grouch any more.  So I guess those ghosts were good ghosts?

Anyway, I must have fallen asleep on the couch the second the movie was over.  I don't even remember Grandmommy carrying me upstairs and tucking me into bed.  And I didn't get to write to you like I'd hoped  . . .  Did you miss me?

Today was more of that reading and writing exam stuff , though we did get to see the beginning of A Christmas Carol in her last class.  We were just to the good part--the part where Scrooge sees the ghost who's all tied up in clunky chains--when the bell rang for school to be over!  Some of her second block class students brought Grandmommy Christmas presents.  She wouldn't unwrap them but they look like chocolate to me!!!!   YUM!!!

I also got to sit on Grandmommy's lap(top) while she worked on school stuff during lunch (we had granola bars and bananas), something she was writing for the school newsletter about the history of the Christmas card.  Did you know that stamps and Christmas cards were invented at about the same time . . . and actually just a few years after A Christmas Carol (the book, not the movie) was published?  I feel almost  like I've been teleported back to the 1840's the last 24 hours!!!

I think that, after dinner, we may be doing something in the living room with this box she received from FEDEX last night . . . I'll let you know how that goes!

Love you bunches and miss you even more!

Flat Kira

P. S. Do you know what a "receiver" is?

P. P. S.  It's a little bit warmer outside, but now it's raining!  Yuck!!!  Did you get snow today???

Flat Kira-Day 2: middle school immersion . . .

Dear Kira,

     You forgot to mention that your grandmommy would make me go to school during my stay at her house!  Not even elementary school, like good old McKee (miss you guys already!). Middle school!

     Her students are BIG . . . and a little crazy too this week before Christmas break.  A couple of them are hoping I'll be able to help them take her language arts exam tomorrow . . . as if I understand all that stuff about "extended metaphors" and "annotated bibliographies", whatever they are!

     It was pretty fun getting to explore her classroom though.  As you can see, I found



another tree to climb

 


and many, many more books (not many with pictures) to read.

 

    I spent most of my day safely perched beside this bird (she said it was an origami crane and to ask your mom why I make so many of these) on top of her SMARTboard.  Not so sure about SMART.  That board didn't have a thing to say to me all day, and your grandmommy and her students spent most of the day answering all its questions . . .

     She FORGOT to take me to lunch with her!  I understand I missed some awesome meatballs in the teacher's lounge, but the chocolate chip cookies she brought back were pretty good (and you know how I love chocolate chip cookies). 



      After school she did take me to a meeting where I got to sit with a couple of her friends.  They had never heard of Flat Stanley and his travels until I filled them in on his story and why I was in town for a couple of weeks.

     Hope you guys aren't having too much fun without me!

                                                           

                                                            Love you bunches,

                                                            Flat Kira

P. S. Please send me some warmer clothes.  It's brrr cold here!

(away from) Home for the Holidays?

Flat Kira arrived on my (mailbox) doorstep this afternoon, bringing all of that blustery western Pennsylvania chill (minus the white stuff) right along with her.  Brrrr!  But she certainly made herself at home, like she'd always lived here (Kira Rose must have been telling her clone lots of stories about grandmommy's home down south :-)!   




 First she climbed the Christmas tree to check out that ornament Kelsey made for me several years back and to touch (at least one of) the stars (Believe from Heidi of SCRI fame).

  

Then she scoped out one of the stacks of gifts . . .

nothing with her name on it there . . . yet! 

 

Next, time for her first "long winter's nap" and she knew where a doll friend, grateful for the company in that too lonely guest bedroom,  wouldn't mind sharing the use of a comfy bed by a shelf full of books.



 Stay tuned for more of Flat Kira's saga!

epiphany

World English Dictionary, definition 2: epiphany-any moment of great or sudden revelation.

My baby boy--who could not carry a tune until second grade--sang the second solo of his life today . . . and what an epiphany that was for me.  Jamie, a singer--and an accomplished one at that!  Yes!

His first solo was as a second grade.  I was not there . . . but at another school that evening, greeting other parents of children not my own.  Creating a void in my lifetime memory collection.  A void filled to its brim and beyond today!

Collins English Dictionary definition: Epiphany-a Christian festival held on Jan 6, commemorating, in the Western Church, the manifestation of Christ to the Magi and, in the Eastern Church, the baptism of Christ.

How fitting that Jamie's solo today was in the words and the voice of those three wise men . . .

In my lifetime memory collection are images--in color but blurred with time--of the Christmas pageants I religiously recruited (or compelled, if need be) my three younger siblings to present each year for our parents.  We were costumed, of course.  I remember especially the colorful (silk or rayon?) robes my grandmother across the wide Atlantic sent one year, colorful like Joseph's coat, worthy of kings from the Orient.  I remember the songs we sang.  Always opening with "O Little Town of Bethlehem." Did we dare sing Martin Luther's "Away in a Manger"?  "Silent Night," I'm sure . . . and maybe "The First Noel," in honor of our mother because we thought it was French (the minister this morning had a very British explanation of the origin of "Noel"). 

For my mother, I always ended our pageant by singing her favorite" "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."  My solo in the days when I could sing. How fitting that this morning's cantata ended with choir and congregation singing the third verse of that hymn, words still engraved on my heart.

And for me, most especially for me, we always sang "We Three Kings"--every verse!

For me, most years since, those wise men had to come to Bethlehem, had to once again experience their epiphany, before the dismantling of Christmas could begin . . . 

NOTE TO SELF: the tree stays up, the Nativity scenes in their places of honor, until January 7, 2011!

a cotton tale . . .

When I go to my mother's for Thanksgiving--or any other time, for that matter--I love taking the back roads from busy I-95 to my home (?) town.  I'm not so much from there, I guess . . . but there's something about picking cotton time that strikes a chord with me. Not sure why . . .

. . . but this year's cotton bales, not to be confused with cotton bolls,  certainly got my attention the day before "turkey" day this year.  So much so that I promised myself that I would stop on the trip back to what is now home to take a few pictures to capture this modern version of a back-in-time sort of memory.

For what it's worth, here they are :-)

putting up the tree . . .

I could have written about so many things tonight but, in the spirit of simple pleasures, putting up the Christmas tree bubbled up to the top of the list.

This is no small feat, having the tree up and decorated the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  After two consecutive years of two-week-long, if that, wonders (AKA having the tree up and decorated), it's almost a minor miracle!  Of course there were reasons for both years' late arrivals and early departures, difficult reasons that demanded that Christmas this year be easier somehow. Putting up the tree is a beginning . . .

As I struggled with where did I pack the stand and the rug and the angel topper?--sensible packing decisions once I retraced my mental steps--I had an idea!  Why not photograph this solitary ritual of mine, tell through pictures the story of how this tree came to be?

The first solitary ritual tree--a Norfolk Island pine that long-ago Christmas of 1994--had nine foil paper cranes (one lost her way four Christmases ago . . .), a rocking horse, a ceramic snowflake studded with flowers, a pair of miniature bears (Hallmark's "Friends need a Hug") . . .  Only one of this year's ornaments predates that most difficult and loneliest of Christmases . . .  The silver ball with the pink rose first hung on a family Christmas tree when I was two . . . 

Each ornament has a story, a meaning.  The collection has evolved over time, mostly through gifts from others . . . 

May Christmas this year be a time of joy and wonder, a maker of treasured memories . . .

remembering a king and an earl . . .

1976
"The Treasures of Tutankhamun" exhibition opens in Washington, D.C., to a record-breaking crowd of five million, before moving to Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York.
http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/timeline.html
National Endowment for the Humanities

It was January, one of those Virginia wintry days when the trees from the Parker Mountain farmhouse to Washington’s Smithsonian were treacherous:wondrous ice-clad marvels, the stuff of which fairy-tale illustrations are made. For me, that day was to be a fairy-tale dream come true.

My fascination with mythology paralleled my fascination with outer space in my adolescent and teen years. The names of those other-world gods and of those other-world planets and moon and stars and months and days that bore their names . . . I knew them all. I discovered the pyramids of Egypt—and the tomb of its boy-pharaoh—at about the time that I discovered academic writing. My first ever research “paper” was about King Tut. And now, on that coldest day of a new year, I would place myself in the presence of Tutankhamen’s earthly treasures, those which believers in other gods had once set aside for their boy-king's journey into the afterlife.

How strange then that—among the throughtheyears ghostly memories of my baby boy in his stroller as we waited in the long-lines cold, of ice skaters twirling on a frozen outdoor rink, of either the remnants or the preparation for someone’s inauguration, of Tutankhamen’s awe-inspiring treasures—the one memory from that day that is yet crystal clear is that of a cup of tea!

I think it was in the cafeteria of the National Gallery of Art, though I have no memory of art that day other than the contents of that cup of tea. I could not tell you of bergamot other than its magic . . . that day, and so, so, so  many wintry (and not so wintry) days since.

Earl Grey tea and King Tutankhamen’s treasures . . . what a day full of simple pleasures that was . . . at a time in my life when simple pleasures meant the world . . .

Almost time to brew a second mug of tea. I was “out”—not of tea (I have become quite the collector over the years) but of Earl Grey—until this afternoon . . . This afternoon, I also placed an Amazon.com order for White Chocolate Kisses, Cherry Vanilla, Vanilla Caramel, and something with eggnog in its name? Yes, tea. Six-pack boxes of tea bags—some for Christmas bags and stockings but, yes, many for me.

But none, much as I enjoy each of them and will enjoy those yet to be discovered, will ever displace the memory of that magical moment, that first sip, Earl Grey . . .