The Magic of Christmas

I was shopping at Marshall's with Anna last week in between an appointment with her therapist and her dentist appointment when I saw a certain kind of cat bed I'd been looking to buy for Lola. 

The dogs were getting new collars from Santa, so I wanted Lola's bed to be from Santa. Since Anna still believed in Santa, and I didn't want to ruin it for her, I said, "Ooh! I mentioned to Santa that I wanted one of these for Lola. Maybe I'll just buy it and he can pay me back."

Anna seemed to smirk, but it was hard to tell with her mask on, so I said, "Are you laughing?"

She said, "No."

"What are you thinking?" I asked.

"Nothing," she said, but she was clearly thinking something.

I wanted to see her expression. Did she (finally) not believe in Santa anymore? So, I said, "I need to see your face." I pulled her mask down a little. She said, "You can't do that. We have to have our masks on."

"Okay, then tell me what you're thinking?" I said.

She smirked more. I could tell even without seeing her mouth.

I ventured, "Do you not believe in Santa anymore?"

She kind of rolled her eyes.

I began, "This is a very exciting moment, Anna. If you no longer believe in Santa, you get to become Santa for others! It's a lovely way to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

She rolled her eyes a little more, as I launched into my "Magic of Christmas" Spiel.

We continued shopping, and after a little while, I said, "You know... Dad and I were wondering how long it would take you to figure it out. We were surprised you hadn't.

"Well," she said, "I've known for a couple years, but you were having so much fun, I didn't want to ruin it for you."

Ally and Moe

Poor Ally had a very sad time a couple weeks ago. 

Her beloved Moe died. She has known Moe for a few years. He used to live with our cottage neighbors. She worried about him and wanted to give him a more ideal home, s

o she adopted him in July after asking for a new fish tank for her birthday. 

She would talk to Moe every night when she went to bed. 

He was a great quarantine buddy.

We've gotten buddies for Moe who have died, and she handled that just fine, 

but when Moe died she was devastated. 

She didn't want any more fish for a while.

After a while she decided she was ready.

She decided she wanted to rescue more feeder fish because Moe had originally been a feeder fish.

We picked out four beautiful, unique fish and had a fun time naming them.

 

Quinceanero

My kind, good-humored, generous Kate. She had her fifteenth birthday yesterday. At one point, Dave made a joke about her quinceanero. It got a good eye roll, so for the last month Dave and I had continued to refer to her upcoming birthday as her quinceanero. 

The morning began with homemade cinnamon rolls and a special sweatshirt with a cat pocket.

Then the twins helped me get ready to decorate her cake to perfection.

After a few more gifts, including a Taylor Swift cardigan which stole the show,

we got to my favorite part.

A super gaudy quinceanero cake.

Just look at her reaction.

It cracked me up to no end. I could not stop laughing.

She's such a good kid... I mean, she puts up with me!

Fifteen!!

Here's what a Covid birthday party looks like. 

Kate wanted nothing more for her birthday than to hang out with her friends. (She's seen a couple friends in person, usually outside, but she wanted to be able to see a bunch at once.) We made that happen.

A fellow North Shore mom runs a business where she does cooking classes. She did a private class for Kate and her friends. They made cinnamon rolls on Zoom together.

After the class, I made them sing to her (and I learned why group singing over Zoom isn't a thing), she blew out her candle, and they all enjoyed cinnamon rolls together.