Day 44, Year 11: Big Weekend for Santa
Date: Saturday, December 5, 2015
Weather: Sunny, High 50 degrees F, Low in the 30’s
Location: At Home with the Goldpebbles in East Falmouth, MA
Our day started by greeting Santa Claus on the dock in Falmouth Harbor. Each year he comes to town by boat and spends the weekend here. We saw him again tonight when we went downtown for the lighting of the Green. And tomorrow we will see him again in the Christmas parade. It is a big weekend for Santa in Falmouth making it a big holiday weekend for little boys. Sam has outgrown the need to sit on Santa’s lap, but Ollie and Jonah are believers and they sat with Santa this morning and told him what they want for Christmas. I loved Jonah’s simple wish. He just wants surprises for Christmas.
Heather and Jed left today at 4:30 pm headed for Logan Airport. Heather flew out at 8:10 pm headed to the Climate Conference in Paris. Jed saw her off and then boarded his plane headed to England, and then later in the week to Paris, for meetings with various collaborators. It is the first time that both parents have been away from the boys and it will be the longest that Heather has ever been away from her boys. But our hope is the entire week goes as well as this first evening. The boys played outside with Molly and Joey from next door until dark while Granddad worked on getting the lights on the big evergreen in the front yard working. I then invited them all in to watch some of George Balanchine’s production of Tschaikovsky’s ballet ‘The Nutcracker.’ I wasn’t sure just how a ballet would go over with the boys, but they really seemed to enjoy it. Sam thought some of the scenes were just too long, but he stuck with it. Molly and Joey stayed for part of it and I had to promise Molly that she can watch the whole video sometime this week. She loved it. Our three boys all agreed that they loved the music more than watching the ballet, but Jonah and Ollie wanted to know when they could finish watching it. So I think it was a success. We stopped to eat dinner and everyone ate quickly and quietly. That might be a first. We had spaghetti and meatballs and things went so smoothly that Mark suggested that we eat that for dinner every night! Then we were off for the lighting of the Green at 7 pm. The boys were incredibly good about staying right with us. Even with the lighting of the ‘tree’ and other Christmas displays, the Green was very dark and crowded with wall to wall people. We made our way right up to where the brass band was playing Christmas carols and sang along for quite some time. Then we walked over to see the nativity scene (Jonah’s request) and on to the train that children can board. The boys waited patiently to get their turn to board and then Ollie insisted that we go see the Santa’s sleigh display. He is fascinated by Rudolph and just wanted to stand close to him. We left just as the brass band stopped playing carols and headed home for the night. The boys had a bedtime snack of Christmas-shaped sugar cookies that we made today along with some Jello. The Jello was something they normally do not have, but Jonah woke up with an ear infection this morning and had to go to the doctor in the middle of this busy day. He is now on an antibiotic had no complaints at bedtime. Anyway, the Jello was Heather’s concession to his want for something special for going to the doctor. Sam wanted to eat the bedtime snack on a picnic blanket in front of the fire in the living room. All three boys really enjoyed the roaring fire that Granddad had built before we left for the lighting of the Green. We then read and all three boys went to bed. I could tell that Ollie and Sam were missing mommy and daddy, but only Jonah mentioned to me that he really, really misses mommy. But as part of our reading, we sang Christmas carols from Raffi’s ‘Christmas Book’, and that, plus reading ‘The Polar Express’, seemed to distract him enough to make things just fine. Ollie requested that I lay down with him and sing ‘Baby Boy’ and the Shaker song that Mark and I always sang to Heather and Justin, ‘Tis a Gift to Be Simple.’ Jonah suggested that I sing ‘Baby Boy’ (a song Heather made-up when Jonah was a baby) and that he sing ‘Tis a Gift.’ He sang it beautifully and all three boys went right to sleep leaving me with a tear and smile. Like I said earlier, sure hope the rest of the week goes this smoothly here and that Heather and Jed get some time away from work to enjoy Paris together later in the week. As Melissa from next door said this evening, “It doesn’t get any more romantic than Paris at Christmas.”
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| 151205 Day 44 Cape Cod, USA–Santa Claus Comes to Falmouth |
