Why did Santa have a fake beard on?

This was the question Lucy asked us while we walked her home from her school Christmas celebration and art show. The better question in my mind was, "Why did Santa have a thick Australian accent?"

She seemed to be satisfied with an explanation that the REAL Santa is too busy getting ready for Christmas that he had to send a representative the the Apple School.

We are busy packing up for an early departure tomorrow morning. Off to New Zealand.  We will check in again from the southern hemisphere.

I couldn't believe it when I read what Lucy was reporting to school in the Weekly News.  Seriously, how did she notice that I was slowly munching away at her Gingerbread House?

Guilty as charged!

A vistor at work.

This morning Lucy was eating her breakfast by herself, which happens when she sleeps in longer than we do. Amie and I were getting ready for work and at one point I walked out of our room and into the kitchen. Lucy was sitting at the table with her head somewhat turned down and a decidedly glum look on her face. I asked her what was wrong.
"Olum is teasing me,"she said in a sad voice.
We have referenced Olum before on this blog - he is Lucy's imaginary friend. The thing about Olum is that Amie and I NEVER know when or where he will pop up and also in what form. You might remember when Lucy excitedly shouted at the TV screen, "There's Olum!" and identified him as an elite African marathon runner. At other times, Olum is small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. He has died, more than once. He often accompanies us on our travels, though mostly flies under the plane "with the suitcases". However, Olum has NEVER teased Lucy, so this was a new one.
I promply scolded Olum for his behavior and asked him to come back into our room with me while I packed my bag for work, so that Lucy could enjoy the rest of her breakfast in peace. This seemed to satisfy Lucy.
About 5 minutes later I reemerged from our room and Lucy, who was still slowly making progress on her cereal, burst into giggles. She pointed at the bag on my shoulder and exclaimed, "You packed Olum in your bag and now he is stuck!". I immediately opened my bag, apologized to Olum and let him out. I left the room again to say goodbye to Amie and Scout and when I returned, Lucy was looking sad again. "Olum is teasing me again and he is climbing on the walls."
"Ok Olum, I have had enough! Lucy, is it ok if I bring Olum to work with me today so he will stop bothering you?" I asked her.
She smiled and nodded her head. I gave her a kiss, and Olum and I promptly left.
So, I am now at work, preparing for our last week before we head to New Zealand. And Olum is here with me...I think.

Baby tooth

As per usual, the kids come to the health office for a little tooth box when a baby tooth falls out. Today, I felt compelled to ask what he would do with it. Of course I expected the same old story of putting it under the pillow for the illusive Tooth Fairy to come collect in exchange for some monetary reward.  Nope...way better! He said, "I will throw it in the garden and wish for stronger teeth to come in." I think I have to adopt this tradition.

Last night I attended a talk about being a conscious parent. One of the useful things I gained from this was that instead of enforcing what feels like a million arbitrary rules, let the child suffer the consequences and learn on her own.

So this morning, it became apparent that Lucy wasn't going to get dressed for school, no matter how many times I asked and offered help.  She was too busy doing a project.  Well, I decided that it wasn't worth arguing about.  Besides, what were my options? 1. Revisit a "low-parenting moment" where I virtually sat on her through kicking and screaming to get her clothes on.? No thank you! 2. Threaten her by telling her that she was not going to be able to go to school until she got dressed? Nope, I would end up late for work or she would outwit me and decide she didn't want to go anyway.  3. Take her in her pajamas?  So, thats what we did.

Truthfully, though, I don't think there is much of a lesson learned on her part.  Even if her friends made fun of her I would encourage her to stand strong, right?  The real lesson here was the one that I learned.  A lesson of letting go.  Live by fewer rules.  Let them learn by experiencing instead of preaching.

She brings an unexpected smile to my face every day! 

Turkey Day

We had a great Thanksgiving. We were surrounded by family from both sides (literally - all immediate family members from BOTH our families, except my sister Meg and her family, were with us) for a day of outside work, sports competitions, a walk on the beach, cooking, eating and finally, watching the Patriots embarrass the Jets. We could not have asked for a better day and we are so thankful for our trip home and our wonderful families. 

Seaglass hunting

Marmie and Lucy looking for Seaglass and finding quite a few good ones. 

Janie - Reese - Lucy - Scout - Ellie
The five Lawson granddaughters

Wreath-making is Amie's favorite crafty part of Thanksgiving.  Here, Scout plays with the wreath-rings.

Amie tried to teach Lucy how to jump-rope.

As part of tradition, Amie always makes Apple Pie. This one was particularly impressive - note the intricate weave.

Tennisball golf! Three generations participated

A brief look at one of the competitions - a shooting biathlon involving BB-gun shooting and archery.

Lawson tradition of the youngest (walking) child to navigate the length of the table. 

We missed having our oldest sibling, Meg, and her family with us on Thanksgiving!

A cold, hilly marathon

One of our highlights during our trip was the marathon we ran. Here is the lasagna that Barb cooked the night before for our carbo-load dinner. 

Here we are at the start. It was 35 degrees out. Amie and I had been training in weather 70 degrees warmer! We were freezing.

I ran the whole, while Amie ran in a relay team with Jenny, Cassie and Barb. The relay team didn't really follow the rules, and in the end their mileage equaled almost two complete marathons.
Cassie and Amie ran the first 13 before passing the baton off to Jenny. (Cassie then added on a few miles to complete her 15 mile training-run for a marathon in January).

Jenny ran her designated 8 miles and handed the baton off to Barb.  With that, Jenny decided to keep running.   Having not trained at all, she decided to check off her list her goal of running a Half Marathon.  Runners ARE notoriously crazy.

Chilly Lucy was a spectator with Far-far, Marmie and Di-daddy and Scout.

The course was incredibly hilly (as in NO flat sections), and my training on the flat Delhi roads didn't quite provide the strength my legs needed. They started to give out at mile 15, despite my feeling great during 20 mile training runs in Delhi!  After running the first half, Amie was waiting for me at mile 21, and upon seeing the pain in my face, she joined me for the last 5 miles (finishing 18 miles, after pledging to do only 13). She was just the kick in the pants I needed to finish the run.  My time of 3:48 was slower than I was hoping, but given how tough the course was, I am happy I finished. It has been a goal of mine for a long time. I look forward to running more, but perhaps on flatter courses and warmer days...

Home for the holiday, a couple conferences and a marathon.

On November 10th we boarded a plane bound for Boston, colder weather, friends, and best of all, family. Despite a ridiculously long time between beds (49 hours from when we rolled out of our bed in Delhi until we laid our heads down in Duxbury), the girls were awesome travelers once again. We were picked up at Logan by my mom and two surprise vistors...Amie's dad and our great friend Cabo.

The first weekend at home included lots of time catching up with friends and family, as well as loads of outdoor work - cutting down trees, splitting wood, stacking wood and making wreaths. The things we love and can't do in Delhi. Once again our families overwhelmed us with kindness and going out of their way to visit with us.

Lucy LOVED hanging out with her cousins.

Out of room!

Back dated...
We have just returned from two wonderful weeks back home in New England. We have a few pending posts that outline our time there, however, we have run out of storage space on our blog. We are in the process of deciding what to do - buy more blogger space or switch platforms. To be determined soon...

Happy Halloween!

Cutest slice of Tiger ladybug watermelon ever!

First Halloween where she understood what candy really is.  Even still, when I asked her what she picked as her one piece to have at her school celebration she said, "I don't know it was chewy...like rubber...like a rubberband...I think it was called gummy."  I was a little proud.  Proud of the fact that she likened it to rubber, how ingenious.  

I didn't realized how small the chicken costume was until I was putting this blog post together.