New Nisse

Marie & Magnus arrive just in time for December 1st.

The nisse help fill the Advent calendar.

Nisse Market

Nisse Self Portrait

Crafty Nisse

In which the Nisse make pumpkin soup

Too many cooks...

Christmas Nisse

What do you do when your child tells you they no longer believe?

It's a family tradition that the Danish Christmas elves, called nisse, visit our house just after Thanksgiving.  They have a tendency of moving around in the house during the night and getting into mischief. They would climb the lamps, hide under tables, or perch preciously on the bookshelves.  Bee and Cheeks would look for the "naughty nisse" first thing in the morning and scold them for their nighttime frolics.

Last week, as I was explaining the nisse tradition to Miss Cheeks, since as a two year old her long term memory doesn't stretch back all that far, Bee angrily interrupted me saying, "Mommy.  I know that the nisse don't move around on their own. You and Daddy do it."

I laughed and said that the best part of Christmastime was all the magic--nisse, putting out shoes for St. Nicholas on December 6, and cookies for Santa on Christmas eve.

This just made her angrier and she started to cry.  "It's not real!" she repeated.

Cheeks began to look concerned.

Bee is smart for her age, and while I don't believe in lying to my children unless absolutely necessary (as in, there is no more ice cream or no, I didn't see a spider in the corner of your room) I wasn't ready to just dispel the magic completely.  I  took her aside and told her what my parents always told me as a child, "You have to believe in Santa Claus so that he will come and fill your stocking on Christmas eve. "

I explained that the world is full of wonderful mysteries; things that cannot be explained; phenomena that we don't yet understand; and added that some of those things, might just be magic.  She wiped her tears and looked at me with a serious expression and said, "Tell me the Christmas story."

She had me cornered--exactly how do you explain the difference between magic and faith to a doubting thomas six year old?

But I did. I took a deep breath and I told her about Mary and Joseph and their long journey.  No room in the inn.  A tiny baby in the manger.  Jesus growing up to teach the whole world about love and how to love each other.  And that Jesus, the son of God, was so important that more than 2,000 years later we still know about him.  And celebrate his birth at Christmastime.  And when I finished I told her again, gently, that although the real focus of Christmas is the birth of Christ, that our family also loves to celebrate nisse and Santa too because it's a fun tradition.  I emphasized that very little girls, like her sister, really do still believe in magic and that not denigrating that belief is sacrosanct. 

Bee nodded gravely. I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding.  She let the matter drop, and this past Friday, I took our Christmas decorations out from their home under the stairs, including our nisse.  And they have been making mischief.  And, you know what?  Miss Bee is also in on the game, secretly moving them about in the afternoon while her sister was napping.

I am still a little sad, because my oldest daughter is growing up faster than I am ready for.  She is stretching those wings of hers and it hurts my heart. I was thinking this over today and resolved that this year, the nisse needed to make some extra magic.  They can still delight even if my oldest doesn't completely believe.

So while I haven't been much for blogging lately, I hope over the next few weeks, to catch the nisse in action:

Knitting Nisse

Still Life with Nisse

Nisse with Newspaper

Franken Sunday

So, the girls are off school tomorrow.  My husband's flight to Egypt was c-a-n-c-e-l-l-e-d.  The federal government is closed tomorrow.  All of the East Coast is bracing itself for Hurricane Sandy with the possibility of periodic blizzards and maybe frogs raining down from the heavens.  But I--I could care less.

Because although tomorrow will likely bring power outages and flooding down my street I am just happy that survived today--my own personal Franken-Sunday.

My morning this began slightly earlier than usual, somewhere around 2 am, when I heard the very ominous beep-screech-beep of the power going out.  I look outside.  No rain.  No wind.  No nothing.  I do hear sirens and trucks going by my street for the rest of the night.  It turns out that there was a car accident nearby which knocked over a telephone pole.  Dominion power, to their great credit, had the lines back up and the power back on by 3 am.

But let me back up a little. . . so after the power went out, I couldn't fall back asleep, as I was thinking about the contents of my fridge, and the milk getting warm, and trying to will the power to come back on.  Around 3:30, Miss Cheeks wakes up crying.  And vomiting.  We get her cleaned up and the laundry bundled up and put her in bed with me.  She's sick.  A fever and chills and later she'll also throw up in my bed and all over me.  (I think she might have scored bonus points for the last one.)  But that wasn't until the morning...  I spent the rest of the night fussing over her, smoothing her hair off her hot little forehead.

Right around 6 am I think I actually fell back asleep but awake to a loud and terrible gagging sound.  It's not Cheeks, it's Max.  And he promptly throws up a great big pile of something really disgusting on my bedroom floor.  My dear husband, to his everlasting credit took care of that one.

So, to recap--sick kid, sick dog, no power and oh--Miss Bee's friend birthday party was today.  Poor Cheeks.  She couldn't go to her sister's party and she was so looking forward to spending time with the "big kids."

After getting everything ready, I took Cheeks off to quarantine at my parents' house and stayed with her.  By all accounts, it was a great party. 
 

The spread:  cupcakes, cookie "acorns", grapes, strawberries, cheese & crackers and popcorn.

Pumpkin patch cupcakes.

Cinderella's pumpkin coach.

Pumpkin painting was the main activity--can you guess the theme yet?

Pin the nose on the pumpkin.

Pinata!

A most unusual party favor--loaves of bread, for when we all lose power tomorrow!

But today is coming to an end.  Cheeks is a little bit better.  Both girls are asleep.  And I don't have to go to work tomorrow.  Hurricane or no hurricane things are looking up.