we did christmas!

 

the christmas tree market at jean-talon was running tight this year, no branches abandoned for the picking, everything was sorted out and arranged in bundles for sale, so i had to shill 5$ for one. i made my own wreath, rough arrangement but whatever, and the ideal place to hang it was on the clothes hanger at the door - visible, protected from the cat, and with a place mat below for presents. not much ornamentation cause i wasn't sure how much it could hold, but it proved sturdy enough. the chocolates are in the process of disappearing these days. 

rada still doesn't get the concept of presents properly. on st nicholas (december 6th) when i traditionally put chocolates in her boots, first she was afraid to go and check the boots because of the cat (3 year-old scared of her own cat!!!), then she wanted to leave them there. now for christmas i must have told her a hundred times how santa comes and leaves gifts, but her first thought in the morning, when she saw no milk in the cup and no cookie in the bowl, was "Tina must have spilled Santa's milk!" - yeah, so awkward convincing a toddler that maybe it was Santa who drank the milk, and look, what are those packages, might they be presents?? wow. extremely counterintuitive, 

i swear i am not this person! except once a year. not even on Easter, though i sometimes try. but for Christmas, i will make 3 courses and a cold platter and 3 different baked goods plus the ones i bought at the Romanian store. plus a centerpiece of small ornaments that had no place to hang anywhere else. plus a traditional table runner that really is the first time i'm using, because look, now i have a table that's not just a square-shaped writing desk.

i've been thinking so much about making traditions and how it happens, and which traditions are even worth trying to carry on. somehow it became clear that none of us was going to buy an actual (real or fake) christmas tree ever again, so it's good that we have a whole bunch of mini-cedars to pick out among and decorate. last year i tried doing one that was visible through the dining-room window, this year i moved the concept to the other side of the yard, so we can see the tree from the room i've lived in for the past 9 months, and that rada is playing in most of the time. we have the same ornaments as last year, give one or two, so they are already tested against the elements. the newest addition (from bunica, of course) has been the christmas tree-shaped lantern, and its light shone brightly through two very rainy nights this season. gets decorated in 20 minutes, un-decorated in probably 10. big probability that we're going to keep doing this one.

christmas pictures again are a bit of an unknown territory - before having a family i was doing strictly foods and ornaments pics:) then for a couple of years we tried to get tina into it, then when rada was very small we dressed her up in Tamil clothes, then as a carolsinger...last year she got her first christmas sweater, but she was just running everywhere, so finally this year i decided to try a little harder, for all of us. still hesitating to post a lot of these on social networks, still worried about the potential of presenting as fake-idyllic or smug ...imperfect/unposed works best for all of us, but at the end of the day, they make very good memories. 
here's rada looking out the window at the christmas tree, morning of the 25th. 

and we didn't get to do the santa hat shoots until the 26th, almost by accident. i wanted to find Mira a hat that would cover her ears well, then i realized that i had a treasure troves of hats in different sizes left over from last year (when i bought a couple, and i got a couple, for Rada's daycare party). so finally every one of us had something to wear. i think this pic in particular also captures the girls' personalities well - Rada is playful, but a bit camera-shy still, and Mira is always smiling without a care in the world .

and not least, finally we convinced Naina to wear a hat too. it was only for a couple of minutes, and he deleted 11 of the 12 pics i took of him + Rada, but hey.