Christmas in Boulder

What makes a good Christmas? The recipe this year looked like this: a foot of fresh powder; a sweet visiting grandmother who can shop, cook, and wrap presents like a caffeinated elf; a dad who has the patience for 704 piece lego sets; a santa who knows just what things matter on the Christmas list; a city whose traditions include Christmas carolers, outdoor ice skating parties and a calendar full of December holiday parties. In a year when Santa's authenticity was heavily in doubt in the minds of two growing boys, he pulled off a stunning comeback. Perhaps it is easier to suspend disbelief when the holiday atmosphere seems to jump from the pages of the most famous Christmas poem.

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night."

The Boys

I have been receiving holiday cards and thinking about how much the kids we know are changing. My boys seem noticeably older to me as well. Last week, Cole was in his first play, with lines to memorize and songs to remember. He surprised us this week with a proud confession that he likes a girl at school and has been talking about her all week. He seems to have an insatiable appetite for chatting about girls and redirects many conversations back to himself and his new love interest. It's interesting how that happens. One month ago it was Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Damon and the Yankees, this month it's the 4th grade girls' starting line-up, and Cole's daily diary of gestures, smiles and he said-she said. Carson life seems very staid by comparison, his love for vinyl toys and origami and skiing completely, and thankfully, uncontroversial. He had a class holiday party at a skating rink yesterday and we were both thrilled to be skating and drinking hot chocolate outdoors in December. Though always the last in the boy order, Quinn is probably changing the most, shedding all his baby layers like a heavy winter coat in spring and standing a staggering 47 inches tall. He fought Grant yesterday for the second half of his sandwich. While he still loves his blanket, he has a man-size appetite and size 1 1/2 shoe.

First Annual Wine and Cheese

We hosted our first annual holiday wine & cheese party Saturday night. Cheers to Phil & Kris & Michael, Paige & Michael, Genny & Andy, Brad & Emily, Kita & Toby, Jason & Kelly, Chris & Larry, David & Liz, Kristin & Digger, Pam & Jim, Jeff & Kathy, Susan & Kevin & Emerson, Kathleen & Bob, Dana & Scott, Eric & Melissa, Kristine & Tim, Kristin & Craig, Amy, Monica and Ken. Thanks for a wonderful night!

Confluence

This is a picture of me and Christine Hrenya, the host of the the Mapleton Hill Sweet Treat Exchange. We are in her living room and behind us is an image of Sesame Street's Bert by an artist named Jonathan Blum. I have known Jonathan Blum for over 15 years, a Brooklyn-based artist. He's a great artist and one of the loveliest people I know. Everyone who meets Jonathan loves him. He's just that kind of person. Jonathan's art, in Boulder, in a house seven blocks from mine. This tickles me. This warms me. This seems to happen a lot in Boulder.

By "this" I mean connections like this seem to happen a lot in Boulder. Whether it is discovering that our new Toronto friends the Sustronks know our dear Toronto friends the Bridges or new friend Kita Murdock, also freshly transplanted from Los Angeles with her family, went to the same small boarding school in Connecticut as I did, the little bubble of Boulder spawns some interesting crossing of paths. Perhaps that is one of things that makes Boulder special. There are all sorts of words for this. My favorite is confluence.

Paper chains

The boys and I have been making paper chains for the holidays. I got a great idea from a craft website (craftstylish.com) to make a chain with 25 links to count down the days before Christmas. Each day the boys will cut a link and watch Christmas draw nearer. I thought that this might be a great activity especially for Quinn, my 5-year-old who still thinks 2 + 2 is any number between 1-10. So we cut our strips, got out the glue and started linking our paper, red, green, red, green, until we reached 25. The results are hanging....everywhere.

Less than Zero

There are times when you would be better off not knowing the temperature.

Hitting the Slopes

The Besser gang went skiing yesterday. We layered ourselves with smartwool, northface, lululemon, underarmor, craft, helly hansen, hot chillys and rei; we packed lip balm, two sets of keys, snacks, water, wallets, sun block, cds for the car, an iphone for pictures, and a ski harness for Quinn; we loaded up 5 sets of skis, poles, boots, hats, helmets, goggles, mittens, neck warmers, and jackets. The older boys and I skied a handful of fabulous runs; Quinn got his first taste of skiing with Grant behind him holding the reigns. The physical effort of gearing up and skiing with kids is like nothing else. The exhilaration of flying down the mountain on skis is like nothing else!

Boulder math

13: The temperature outside right now
6.9: The number of inches of new snow in Boulder
9: The number of holiday catalogs I received today
0: The number of reported absences on Cole, Carson and Quinn's first report cards
9: The number of kids at the Thanksgiving table
3: The number of cocktails Grant poured us before Thanksgiving dinner
2: The number of December caroling parties in our Boulder neighborhood
72: The number of cookies due on the day of the Mapleton Hill Sweet Exchange