xtcian

knocked me off my axis mundi

1/14/09

I thought I'd give some of our far-flung relatives some pictures of our fam's holiday season. If you're bored to tears with this sort of thing, or you're on dialup, all I can say is - wait, why the hell are you on dialup?

First, we have the mighty huntress, who, along with her trusted fierce mountain dog, found the perfect Christmas tree and asked her sherpa to cut it with an axe:

 
  
Back home, Tessa and Lucy discuss whether or not Martha Stewart Living "still has it":

 
  
On one of the shortest days of the year, the sunset spends three seconds blazing across the birch trees before going pitch black:

 
 
Filed under "Absolutely Worth It", the Santa at Macy's on 34th Street was pretty damned convincing. Lucy asked for "hard guys in pajamas", which became a mantra for weeks - after a while, Tessa finally figured out she meant a little Playmobil set of two kids and their bedroom bunk beds. They were "hard guys" as compared to the usual fluffy dolls. You just gotta pay attention, and Santa did:

 
  
With kids and new boyfriends, we are running out of staircase real estate, which is fine by me:

 
  
Ben, Lucy, Esme and Hank. The first time with the Grinch is always a bit rough:

 
  
For Christmas, Tessa got the little itty bitty computer she's wanted for five years, and for Lucy, I had something more elaborate. One of the storage rooms in the back of our barn - with troughs where the horses once ate hay - had become derelict and moldy. So I cleaned it out and turned this:

 
  
...into this:

 
 
She can keep her art supplies in the old trough, and there's a pull-down table for kid projects, but best of all, the local guys cut me a break on basic wall mirror, and two banisters made a double-barre:

 
 
And nothing's better than to see her light up when the Trepak from the Nutcracker comes on:

 
 
Speaking of which, she'd been waiting all three-and-a-half years of her life to go, so we took her to the City Ballet's Nutcracker at Lincoln Center:

 
  
In other performance news, my sister Michelle was attending her first Carolina game with my old roommate Jon, and needless to say, I had to attend. I'm pleased to report Michelle asked very intelligent questions and by the end, knew when Tyler was being fouled:

 
  
Back in NY, an ice storm absolutely obliterated the Hudson Valley. My pictures on the Taconic don't do it justice, but the local roads looked worse than Charlotte when Hurricane Fran came through. 150-year-old trees, diamond-hard white with ice, sitting in the middle of every road. When the sun came back out, it had a certain celestial quality:

 
  
We had amazing guests this year. And Scotty introduced us to Rayman Raving Rabbids on the Wii:

 
  
And if you're ever upstate and wondering why your sinuses have turned to dry, bloody parchment, it might be because it's -0.9 degrees outside, with 19% humidity:

 
  
A few hours later, we're all back in LA - sunny and 85 degrees. *snooze*

Posted by Ian Williams at January 14, 2009 11:43 PM