Maeve and Lilly

Maeve delivered this extremely insightful comment as we drove around a parking lot: “In the olden days, there were kings and queens. Now we have lawyers.”

Just in time for the deluge of Christmas photos, I got the rest of the photographic documentation for Fall up for your viewing enjoyment. Take a look.

Maeve crawled into my lap when I was watching a live DVD of Isis. After about two minutes, she asked “is this a rocking-out band? …because they have tattoos.” Then later, “I like this music, especially the squeaky parts.”

Maeve is a trip. Not only does she seem to be reading well above her grade-level, she tosses off sayings with the nonchalance of a teenager. Over the past few months, these little gems have tumbled out of her:

• That’s how I roll.
• Come on, peeps.
• Come on lady. Do the math.
• What were ya thinkin’?
• Ya think?
• WhatEVER.
• Let’s get a move on.
• Tryin’ to play a game here.

We spent a quiet Thanksgiving at home. The girls enthusiastically pitched in with the shopping and the preparation. Pies, cornbread, mashed potatoes, and cranberries all were group efforts. Though both Maeve and Lilly promised they would  try the Tofurky this year, only Lilly actually did. She liked OK, but was a bit off put by the sweetness of the orange-juice/brown-sugar marinade I had used. We spent the rest of the day lounging in a stupor in front of our first fire of the season.

Friday we headed north to pick up our Christmas tree at Smoky Hollow Farms. Part of the attraction there is always the wagon rides pulled by intimidatingly gigantic and beautiful Belgian Draft Horses. The other part is the complimentary hot cider and hot chocolate in the restored barn. Back home we dragged out all the Christmas paraphernalia from the basement and got the tree up, the stockings hung, the Christmas music playing, and the electric candles in the porch windows. We decorated the tree, Rockwellian style, in front of the fire while listening to the Nutcracker and Low.

We left costume prep until the last minute again this year. There was not quite as much wailing and gnashing of teeth as I expected. We were writing in the studio, so to speak — trying to figure what the costumes were going to be based on what we could find in the picked over racks at the Halloween Express Superstore (TM, I’m sure). We grabbed some fake blood and some fangs and swung over to JoAnne’s Fabrics for a piece of sparkly spiderweb material and called it good.

Lilly (and her friend Sonja, naturally) were vampires. Maeve described herself as “a dead ballerina trick-or-treating.” (I remember it being “a dead zombie cheerleader” but there appears to be some revisionism going on by others in the household.) Wednesday morning I applied blood to Lilly’s fangs and created an oozing scar on Maeve’s forehead for the big Halloween parade at school. Maeve’s scar was apparently so realistic that when she looked in the mirror she claimed she was feeling a little dizzy because it was “so freaky.”

We spun around the neighborhood Friday night, but the chill in the air (hovering just above freezing) exerted more influence over the length of our outing than the allure of more candy. As usual, the girls sorted through their haul and donated a shocking amount of candy to the Great Pumpkin (the legendary spirit that leaves a few dollars in exchange for extra candy to be distributed to less-fortunate children). Maeve was particularly magnanimous, ruthlessly discarding 75% of her take.

We pulled into a parking lot this morning and Maeve observed: “That car is damaged.” Not long after that she asked, “Do purple cars get damaged more?” I dismissed this theory until we all started to notice an uncanny number of purple vehicles that had sustained damage. hmmm…

We had the first Irish Dance Performance of the new season today at the Monroe Street Festival. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to see the girls dance in wigs and dresses. I hadn’t seen them perform in quite some time and was quite impressed with their fluidity and confidence.

Lilly: When I grow up and have enough money from working for National Geographic, I’m going to visit every continent.
Maeve: Like Europe?
Lilly: Europe, Antarctica…
Maeve: Antarctica?!? What would you wear?
Lilly: I don’t know. A coat…
Maeve: Come ON! Antarctica is colder than winter.

All right… Finally. Here are some brand-spankin’-new photos. You got yer Summer pictures and you got yer back-to-school pictures. Have at ‘em.