Fizey: The Music Man

Just finished spending one week with ChouChou and Fizey.  Unfortunately, Fizey was quite sick most of his visit, but he did manage to pull out one of his many musical contraptions, of which there are many: piano, wooden spoons, harmonica, a couple guitars, a miniature guitar, an accordion, and now, a harp and almost a set of bagpipes Jordan considered picking up from Scotland (ChouChou, you can thank me later).

On a most recent trip to Vancouver, Fizey picked up a traveling mini guitar with which he began singing to Gabriel when he was but a month old.  In wide-eyed wonderment, Gabriel would stare up at Fizey playing the guitar, enraptured.  It is still very much the look he gives 10 months later, now in Virginia, when during bath time, Fizey won Gabriel over by playing a host of Christmas carols while Gabriel soaked in the tub, eyes skyward to the backlit Fizey and mini guitar.  The look on his face--pure unabashed amazement.

I am sure all babies come equipped with a wonderment for music. And Gabriel certainly comes with a long heritage of musical traditions from all sides.  So perhaps we'll have little music man on our hands.

No better time for walking than on a cold December day

On a cold Washington December day, I can think of no other thing I'd rather do than head downtown and walk the length of the National Mall bundled in winter mittens, scarves, toques and coats.  The wind was blowing us nearly sideways, but we're from Canada, so we are used to that.

I'm pretty sure we walked our feet off and even Fizey (who, with ChouChou, walks 45 minutes and back to work in cold Montreal temperatures) was complaining that he had done enough walking for the day--National Museum of the American Indian, Vietnam war memorial, the WWII Memorial, Reflecting Pool, Lincoln Memorial, the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Asian Art.....  They couldn't come to Washington without walking the mall and we had to stop in a few places to warm up.

Lastly, we swung by to see the stately pristine white Thomas Jefferson Memorial.  This has got to be one of my most favorite memorials--white marble dome that glows in the sun just as you cross the Potomac into DC.  It's tall pillars and dome houses the bronze statue of the late President Thomas Jefferson in open air.

Should we get Gabriel his own little teepee? I think so!

We've been taking advantage of having our family around to be tourists in our "own city."  With all of the free admission to the Smithsonians in DC, you just HAVE to go! 

We were also prompted to find out where the "Smithsonian" name came from.  And it's actually an intriguing answer, so long as you trust the internet completely to give you truthful answers.  Some wealthy British guy gave the US a vast sum of money quite a while ago to create these research/museums for Americans.  And he had never even been to the US before!  Find out more here: John Smithson

Anyway, here are just a few snapshots from our day at the beautiful National Museum of the American Indian. Gabriel stayed awake through the whole thing, but we were trying to get him to nap in his stroller which is why he didn't make it to many of the pictures.  I think there was just too much for him to see! 

This was one of my favorites!  It's a twine ball with beads that represent events in a person's life, but only you know what they are and what they represent.  Women would make them for themselves and then they would be buried with it. 

This was Jordan's favorite.  The original snow mobile!

This is what I want to get for Gabriel--a little teepee for reading and hanging out in!  How fun!

We also had heard that the food at the museum in the Mitsitam Cafe was really good, so we came back the next day for lunch.  The line-ups were huge and it was very crowded.  I thought the food was delicious, but I think next time, I'd opt for the smaller selection from the cafe instead of fighting the crowds and wandering around aimlessly with a stroller trying to figure out all the different kinds of foods and what they are.  But if you are looking for an adventure in the food department, go there!  Things I've never heard of: Rabbit Escabeche, Feijoada, Hibiscus, Chocolates Marinated Pork Shank, Guava Chili Sauce.  Beautiful!

First snowfall of the year

A day after the fullness of Christmas, with all its present-opening, food-prepping and eating and telephoning, a calm peacefulness fell over our little home and with it, snow and glorious red cardinals.  The snow didn't last long, but we enjoyed seeing a little peep of it for the year to formally signify winter.  Here are just a few photos:

A Christmas filled with the joy of a little boy

Today was a beautiful day filled with multiple family traditions--both old and new, along with many laughs and moments of excitement and much relaxation with our family here.  A few fun family traditions:

1) Christmas breakfast of maple, chocolate cinnamon buns with cream cheese icing, apple cider and "pig candy."  (Most commonly known as bacon).
2) Presents beautifully wrapped with witty hints to help the receiver guess what it might be.  Ex. "I was crawling by and took a nibble and got an icecream headache."
3) A new ornament to mark the year--usually something odd, unusual or downright funny! Ex. Bulldog with a pirate patch.
4) Funny gifts meant to make each other laugh. Ex. Tea party patriot with a bobble head for Stephen's office.
5) Updated photo frames with highlights of the year--a tradition that got lost when both my frame and Jordan's broke in a move.
6) The bi-annual attempt to have a living Christmas tree... that inevitably dies.  But this year is looking hopeful thanks to Jordan's obsessive care of our darling tree, named Northrup.
7) Listening to "The Shepherd" on Christmas Eve.
8) Listening to the Queen's address on Christmas Day.

The highlight, and I think I can speak for everyone, was watching Gabriel take in the whole day's events--reading a Christmas card for him, unwrapping and pushing around his new Tonka truck, donning his felt pirate hat and scooting around the coffee table trying to pull presents and paper off.

Let's just say, Christmas is very special to us, but is filled with joy all the more so because of Gabriel in our lives.   Hope your day was beautiful wherever you are, whomever you are with and no matter what happened today.