Amazing Adventures of Adagirl

Ada drew me a picture of an angel. It’s my Christmas present. She signed it Columbine, which is the name of the fairy she was pretending to be when she made the picture for me. She can sign Ada, but how ambitious to try for Columbine!

We’d never written Columbine before, and David says she didn’t ask for any help with how to spell or shape the letters. She just quietly sounded it out to herself and signed Columbine, and when I saw it, I could tell that’s what it said!

I love my angel!

We went to the zoo today with Rachel, her 4 year old Serena, and her 1 year old Aurora. Serena was feeling rich what with having received $30 for Christmas and she was sweet enough to treat Ada to a carousel ride, a flying bananas ride (!), and she had just enough left to feed the giraffe a cracker, which we were going to break in half so that they each could, but this particular giraffe was not shy and no sooner was the cracker in the defenseless little girl’s hand, then it was in the pushy giraffe’s mouth, snatched by that blue tongue just like a frog would a fly. Luckily, both children were delighted.

I think it must be a new giraffe, because it had black spots, noticeably different from all the other brown spotted giraffes and I had never seen a giraffe that color before!

I didn’t have my camera, and if I had, it would still be months before I developed the film. So, instead of a photograph I submit as evidence, this illustration from Grammy’s book to Ada (Christmas present) that portrays an occasion on which Grammy and Ada fed the giraffe long ago. Same general idea.

Santa ate our cookies (his reindeer polished off the carrot we left) and filled our stockings. We had a great time upending them on the bed together. The theme of my stocking seems to have been health–filled with herbal teas, stuffed with various chocolates, a maple candy and a tangerine, I have everything I need to live on!

David’s gift to me was an adult trike–a beautiful red three-wheeled bike–and he spent Christmas morning (after presents) building a seat onto the back for Ada. The day after Christmas we rode to a playground and had such a pleasant trip. We both loved being outside, feeling the breeze of our progress, and skipping the car ride. I love my bike!!

David got a bike too, conveniently enough, and now we can all go riding together as a family which we did on Saturday and it was SO nice. Ada’s little legs are not great for going for walks together as a family, so bikes are the answer for our family constitutionals.

Ada was very pleased to receive a sky-blue bike helmet (exactly as requested), wooden fruit for her kitchen, some entirely endearing handmade wooden animals to play with, and many another fine gift! From our friend Jesus she received a beautiful fairy dress that she immediately donned. Uncle Pete and Aunt Sue’s present arrived the day after Christmas and it turned out to be another fairy dress, in Hawaii yellow with a fringe, the suggestion of a red hibiscus on it, and a hair clip with a yellow frangipani for her hair. Which she immediately donned. When Grammy and Grandaddy gifted her a grass skirt, she pulled that on right over the yellow dress for her petal skirt, and called it even better. All the time with one thing or another tucked into her collar for wings.

When we took Grammy and Grandaddy to a surprise Christmas light display at the botanical garden, Ada was wearing the yellow dress, pink floofy “wings” and the grass skirt. I forget that this is unusual until we are in public and I hear all the “Oh, how cute!”s.

Aunt Susan and Uncle Larry sent Ada two books which she adores. Grandma and Grandpa gave her a big book of fairies and a fairy paper doll book . . . big hits! Our friends Rachel and Tim bought her a fairy pop-up book that she loves. While grammy wrote and illustrated a book just for (and about) her that must be 100 pages! Grammy and Grandaddy also gave Ada a complete Pippi Longstocking book, which we are both enjoying immensely.

Our friend Robby sent a deep purple gown and shawl that I eventually remembered wearing in the wedding our our friend Christal. Robby had costumed that wedding, and since I didn’t anticipate needing such a very purple dress again, I left it with him. Well, he must have thought it was time for Ada to have it, and she immediately and happily put it on, without any reservations about the size (which is floor length on me). Robby also made two amazingly wonderful dolls which I appreciated more than Ada, but we shall see.

Ada received a BIG beautiful Poinsettia plant from her Aunt Kake, which was perfect, seeing as I had lovingly stitched her a poinsettia fairy for Christmas and everyone knows that a flower fairy lives in her plant.

Grandma and Grandpa bought us passes to Disney World and we are hoping to go THIS SATURDAY! Ada is VERY excited, though I’m not exactly sure why. Not that shouldn’t be, but how does she know how exciting it is? As far as I know, she’s never heard of Disney World! Disney World was nowhere on my radar, and the gift was a complete surprise, but we are really excited to be going with a four year old. It’s just perfect!

We had Christmas morning together, first taking turns exchanging gifts, then out to the heat in the yard where David built the Ada seat onto the back of my new bike. In the afternoon we went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house to bring them our mostly homemade gifts which they seemed to dig. And we had a delicious taco dinner with them and our friends Lee and Delon. Followed by chocolate pie and decadent chocolate chocolates.

The next day David went to work and Ada and I got to play with our new toys, including the aforementioned bike ride. And Saturday Grammy and Grandaddy came over for another Christmas and the visit to the lit up botanical gardens wherein Ada dressed like and behaved just like a fairy–flitting so quickly I’ll have to get the film developed to find out if I even caught her.

We loved displaying our Christmas cards from loved ones, just as we enjoyed making gifts and sending cards out throughout the month. I feel very warm and happy about this Christmas, and have fantastical plans for the coming year with the people I love!

I thought it would be fun to recognize the Winter Solstice this year, so on the 21st we gathered around to express our hopes and plans for the new year, and we put out a feast for the critters: crumbs of gingerbread and toast alike, and cranberries too, that were left over from stringing popcorn and cranberries.

The critters cleaned the dish . . . all except for the cranberries, which I though were going to be the real treat!

And we read some beautiful solstice stories about the rebirth of the sun and in one of the stories, all the children were thanking the sun for various things so that it would get strong enough to come back, and I asked Ada if there was anything she would like to thank the sun for. She quickly said, gazing upwards out our living room window, “Thank you for ripe bananas,” and launched into a little speech about our own banana tree that we hope will one day bear bananas.

I don’t know about you, but I thought bananas were the perfect thing to thank the sun for!

We took sandwiches to the park on Christmas Eve Day to share with some homeless people who live there. We learned that it is not always easy to tell a Clearwater homeless person from a Clearwater person with a home. The problem is that it was 80 degrees, and so no one was bundled up in blankets. Instead, they were sprawled under shade trees in t-shirts and it isn’t easy to tell whether they’re there for the afternoon or because they have nowhere else to go.

It worked out, we overlooked a few we weren’t sure about, and those we offered the sandwiches and apples to were very sweet and appreciative. And, one of them had rescued a baby bat which she took out and let us pet–so soft and tiny, like a little brown mouse with curled up legs and it wasn’t until the woman gently pulled on the arm to extend the wing that it looked like a bat at all.

We felt really good about having shared our food, something I was reluctant to do because I wasn’t sure how it would go. As it turns out, everyone was most gracious, wished us a merry Christmas, and complimented our pretty daughter! I was glad to have done it.

A year ago for Christmas Ada got a handmade Waldorf doll from yours truly, and some kind of Hawaiian sarong from Uncle Pete and Aunt Sue. Here she is using the sarong to sling her baby on her back. Just like her mommy!

The city of Clearwater put on a miracle a couple of weeks ago. They shipped in snow for the children to play in at their downtown Christmas bazaar. There was a pile of snow for playing in, as well as a makeshift snowy hill (we don’t get hills or snow here) with a sled to slide down (on a track). Ada didn’t want to wait in the long line for the sled so she just plunged into the snowy pile to make snowballs.

Unfortunately, it was unseasonably warm (even for here) and we hadn’t had to bundle up at all. As a result, Ada kept freezing her little toes when her feet slipped out of her flip-flops into the snow! It’s an uncommon problem. And even though we had been told there would be snow, I didn’t think to bring gloves or mittens.

But it was her single snow experience of the year, so she survived and was happy to do it!

We love our Winter Wonderland that our church puts on in downtown Clearwater each December. We go to hear good live music. We go for the petting zoo which is the highlight for Ada. We go for pony rides and train rides. We go for the bouncy house, and to decorate a Christmas cookie in Mrs Claus’ house . . . and then eat it.

I thought it would be a good place to get a Christmasy picture of the three of us. Ada uncharacteristically decided she didn’t want to have her picture taken. She expressed this by keeping her tongue firmly planted between her teeth. My mother did mangage to snap one good one while Ada was distracted by pushing the hair out of her face. Go mom! We sent it out with our Christmas card.

Here’s one we didn’t use:

I didn’t realize how much we are ‘doing’ Christmas until a friend asked if we do Santa. I started telling her all about what we do for Christmas:

Firstly, yes, we do Santa. He comes to our house and fills all three stockings (mine, David’s, and Ada’s). We make him cookies and leave them with a glass of milk and a note on Christmas Eve. Santa always leaves at least one cookie with a bite in it and writes a ‘thank you’ on the note.

Ada knows that some people believe in Santa and some don’t. She does. And we sneak around filling stockings to reinforce the magic. Ada knows that some people believe in Jesus as the son of God, and that is what they are celebrating. And she loves manger scenes! Our family celebrates love, and family, and peace, and generosity to others, which is what we feel that Jesus stands for. Santa doesn’t leave us any presents under the tree. Those are all gifts we buy or make for each other and from friends and family.

We read lots of versions of the first Christmas. We read lots of other Christmas stories too. We read about St Nicholas. We read about Christmas traditions in other countries. We also read about Hannukah and play with our dreidels though we don’t observe any of the traditions ourselves. I haven’t had any luck finding any childrens books about older winter festivals like the winter solstice and the traditions that go along with it. Any suggestions would be welcomed! On Christmas Eve we will read the very copy of The Night Before Christmas that Ada’s great grandfather had as a boy.

We decorate: we hang big ornaments in our tangerine tree which is also self-decorated in December with juicy orange globes; we get a beautiful tree and spend an evening trimming it with our perfect combination of classic red spheres, family heirlooms, and homemade children’s ornaments and a star at the top that David’s sister made when she was little: a cloth star with green and red sequins that sparkle more outrageously than any electric doodad; I make a wreath out of the cast-off evergreen boughs and hang it beside the front door.

I made Ada an advent calendar this year that is shaped like a Christmas tree as tall as she is, with 25 pockets and each night I put something in the pocket for the next morning. Sometimes it is a tiny toy, or stickers, or a candy cane, and more often it is a note with a Christmas activity for us to do that day: go see Christmas lights, or string popcorn for the tree.

We make snowflakes, go to our local Winter Wonderland, and decorate the dollhouse for Christmas. We browse in the Christmas store just for fun, and don’t buy anything.

We do lots of crafts. We make gifts for those we love. My mother, sister, daughter and I make Christmas cookies for our far-away loved ones. We send out Christmas cards and hang all the ones we receive in a doorway so that tall people have to duck to get through.

We generally have a ball. Christmas morning we’ll all dump our stockings out on the king sized bed and go through the goods. Then we’ll go into the living room to open the presents under the tree. Later, we’ll go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house to exchange gifts with them and have Christmas dinner which has always been turkey but my mother decided on Christmas tacos for this year. And a couple of days later Grammy and Granddaddy will get home so we can have a third Christmas with them!

My dear friend Josie visited us a few months ago and NOW I have the photo developed. Of course Josie isn’t in it, and neither am I. It’s her son Jackson getting some love from Ada.

They were so sweet, playing together while we caught up like grown ups in the other room.