Monday, December 26, 2016

Lifestyle of Learning 2016 Edition: Volume Thirty-One

December 18 - 25

Winter is upon us ...
...and we are staying warm with hot chocolate and cookies...


...and family fellowship.

The most important thing to happen this week, besides celebrating the birth of our Savior, was the arrival of Christian - home for the holidays!!!
Together we celebrated the winter solstice...
 ...Las Posados...
..our wedding anniversary...
...Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

We have done more beyond the celebrating.
Maceo's youth performance troupe was an integral part of the theatre's A Frozen Frenzy: Our Winter Princess Event.  He was a dashing prince and I am certain he made many young girls very happy!
We spent time together, just eating and talking.  Christian has a ton of knowledge of international relations (his specialty), domestic political theories and policies, history and geopolitics, and sociology and psychology.  He adds so much to our conversations - hours of conversations.
The results of Maceo's spinal x-ray are in and have confirmed that he does have scoliosis.  We are now researching how to best help him.  We are looking into deep tissue massage and cranial sacral therapy.
All the boys went to the movie Arrival.
We went to a new Mexican restaurant, tried some new dishes and ordered some tamales.
We read story of Christ's birth from the book of Luke and the prophecies regarding Christ from
Isaiah.  We read Tomie dePaola's book The Night of Las Posadas.
We made luminarias.
 Bishop researched recipes and cooking techniques so that he could develop a menu for our wedding anniversary.  He went shopping for the needed ingredients.  He was unable to find the mussels and scallops that he was desiring so, on the spot, he revised his menu.
He made steak...
 ...and a shrimp scamp-like dish...

 ...a mushroom onion tart, crostini with compound butter and a seasoned corn on the cob...
...and a spiced poached pear with cream on the side.
The dinner was amazing and beautiful and such a wonderful gift and that boy, Bishop, never fails to amaze me.
Maceo went to a secret Santa Christmas party with his friends.
Maceo watched a movie entitled Dating Daisy.
Christian finished his term paper and went to the gym with a friend.
The neighborhood had a power outage Christmas morning so the boys worked on creating a light source that would be sufficient enough to sift through stockings and open presents with.
This is what they came up with!
Later there was fun to be had with the light saber-esque light source!


 Maceo watched Synedoche, New York four times.  It may have surpassed 2001:A Space Odyssey as his favorite movie.  He says he relates to the primary character - a guy who is a bit OCD.  I think I am going to have to see the movie.
Maceo read a chapter of one of the Stanislavsky books on acting that he received for Christmas.
Bishop has spent a significant amount of time on the computer playing a game with his friends.
On Christmas Day we all went to see Rogue One.  Afterwards we had rather vigorous conversation about character development, Star Wars lore, etc.


And we have made food and eaten food...
...and just enjoyed each others company.

We spent time together and on individual pursuits and it all made for a great week of living and learning!

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas morning arrived with a bang.
Ok, it was more of a pop than a bang.
Something to do with the power lines blew two minutes before my alarm was set to go off.  We lost power.  I got a fire going and lit some candles while the boys worked on creating a better light source; one that could allow us to sift through the stockings. 



Grow A Fox.


A hedgehog toothbrush cover.


A little bowling set.

Watch caps.
Then we moved on to package opening.  The lights came back on at some point but we left the candles and the torch going.  Maceo was the wise man and he delivered the first gift to Christian...
...who got a Grow-Your-Own-Zombie and $20.
Maceo opened the next gift ...

Pokemon Sun.
...then Bishop.
Then came a gift for me wrapped by the husband - isn't it darling?
A Lobos sweatshirt lies withing.
And then the hubby himself...
hiking sticks.
...and so on and so forth.

Molecular gastronomy.


A pocket notebook with $20.


A World Series cap.


Alcohol form Korea.

Full of spices from the McCormick's store in Baltimore.


Madame President magazine with $20.



A handblown glass olive oil dispenser and a glass blowing class.



Acting books - Meisner, Stanislavsky, Uta Hagan, etc.

PacSun pants.

What could it be?

$20.


A World Series shirt.



Seven Samurai movie and a membership to our independent theatre.


Is it cash?

NOOO...It's a Steam card!!!



Bravely Second video game.

And what could this be?

It feels awfully light....

and, surprise,...

it's $20.

Of course, there had to be some playing with the light saber-esque light source.
Then a breakfast of french toast casserole and off to a movie.
Can you guess which one?
Star Wars:  Rogue One!!!
There was much vigorous conversation about the movie and character development afterwards.
Then football and food -
ham, cranberry chutney, green beans, brussel sprouts, homemade mac-n-cheese, rolls, pumpkin pie and cream cheese pie - YUM!!!! -

- and most importantly family!!!!

Merry Christmas, everyone!!!!