The Tree
Month: December 2020
Cleaning
It’s that time of year — spring Christmas cleaning.
I’ve written before about K and the level of Christmas cleaning she requires:
The window is not dirty; it’s fogged from the gas in between the two panes doing something funky.
That required level of cleanliness now drives the Girl mad. “Why are madre’s standards so high?” (She’s been calling us madre and padre for about a year now. Why? Because.)
“Because they are.” We try to reassure her that it’s good practice for “real life.” “You might get a boss with impossibly high standards. You’ll be used to it.”
I don’t know if she buys it.
Critical Santa
During dinner tonight, the topic of Santa came up. "I don't believe in Santa Claus," the Boy said confidently, "but I believe in Saint Nicholas." I thought he might be thinking of the Polish version of Santa, Mikolaj, who comes on December sixth, or perhaps just he was just thinking of the actual Saint Nicholas of the Catholic church -- you know, the bishop from Turkey.
"I knew this time was coming," I thought. I've always felt a ting of guilt about the whole Santa thing: I knew perfectly well that Santa doesn't exist, but I kept playing along, telling our kids that Santa does exist. Eventually they figure it out, but it just left a bad taste in my mouth.
Soon, though, he kind of back-tracked: "Well, I'm not sure."
"What evidence do you have that Santa exists?" I asked him.
"What kind of evidence do you have that Santa doesn't exist," L jumped in like a typical thirteen-year-old who just wants to be contrary. (Is it only thirteen-year-olds that are like that?)
"No, sweetheart. Whenever people are making a claim, the burden of proof is on them. They have to provide evidence, not the skeptics who doubt the story," I clarified. I thought about going into what it means to beg the question, but I didn't, turning instead back to the Boy: "So what evidence do we have?"
He listed the toys, the imagery in movies, the stories.
"Can we explain those things with other methods? Is there a simpler way to explain the toys appearing under the Christmas tree?" Did I tell him we were applying Occam's Razor? Certainly not. But we were shaving away.
"Well, you and Mom could put the toys under the tree," he responded after some thought.
In the end, though, when pressed, he decided that he leaned toward a belief in Santa.
We'll see how he views it next year.
Treble Clef
Today the Boy had music for his related art class in school. They're working on the treble clef.
"I took the after-lesson quiz," he explained, "and I got 3 out of 20 right! I took it again and only got 4 out of 20 correct!" His frustration was mounting to the level I'm sure it achieved when he was struggling with the material in class.
After dinner, I printed out the old methods of memorizing the treble clef: "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge" and "FACE."
We went through his work together, and he made a perfect score. "That was easy," he decided.
He noticed, though, that there are two D notes on the treble clef: one just beside middle C, and one almost up at the top of the clef.
"Two Ds?!"
So we went to the piano and started poking around. We talked about the patterns of the black keys and used that as a way to show which keys corresponded to which note.
"This is D," I said. "See how it's between the two black keys? Now show me another D."
Advent 2020 Begins
Today is the first day for the Advent calendars K has kept under wraps in the basement. L made sure to label hers to ensure the integrity of her 24-treat treasure, only to find that the first treat had an almond in the center of it.
"I can't eat almonds," she sighed.
Don't worry -- someone took care of it.