Saturday, October 29, 2016

Stunt Umbrellas

Nutcracker practice continued this morning, and here Mommy got to watch a bit for more of parent observation.  The kids are doing great, but they're apparently using 'stunt' umbrellas.  The real umbrellas for the China Dolls - which are called parasols, of course - are not available yet.  Those come with the costumes, which I'm not sure when they'll be here.  But these decoy umbrellas are used to help the kids get used to the idea of dancing while holding an umbrella.  For further research, we might watch Gene Kelly's "Singin' in the Rain."  But presently, the struggle is real.  The stunt umbrellas keep coming down in such a way that they're kind of distracting.  I'm like... just use a stick!  Regardless, they'll eventually get to practice with the real parasols soon enough.  Madison did well though, and it's hard to believe that here we are again:  on the edge of the Christmas season.  This morning, we listened to some cowboy Christmas songs as part of the research for the upcoming KidPak December series.  Mommy and Daddy have had this song "Corn, Water and Wood" stuck in our heads for a while now.  Maybe there's a message there?

Mommy went grocery shopping, and Daddy went to work.  There was a bit of printing and prepping to do for the two remaining Fall Festivals at Gwinnett and Spartanburg tomorrow.  Daddy was helping set up for these.  Tomorrow, Madison will be happy to get to go to yet another Fall Festival, this one in Gwinnett.  We did this last year, and Madison had a blast.

We got home together, and got the groceries out of the car (including some of that sparkling pumpkin cider that Madison and Daddy love so much!).  And after eating... it was nap time.  Seriously, we're exhausted from all the activity lately.  We wanted to go riding to the mountains and see the leaves, but we were all pretty tired.  Madison has been commenting on the beautiful colors we've been seeing lately - the trees are looking quite nice this season, finally.  The temperature is still very hot though - not fall-like at all.  Perhaps next week we'll get to do a quick drive north. We'll see!

In the meantime, today was a day of rest inside the house.  We watched "Chicken Little," which has become an October movie, I guess based on the aliens in it.  There's a sort of "Signs" vibe in it at one point.  Any movie that features a corn field is I guess an October movie, now that I think of it.

Madison went to bed earlier tonight, mainly because we know she's staying up late tomorrow night and the night after that.  We read from the devotional, but also started a new Roald Dahl book called "George's Marvelous Medicine."  It's been entertaining thus far.  Once again, we have an innocent, healthy child beleaguered by a grumpy abusive adult.  We know how this will turn out, but the process looks like it'll be fun.

After bedtime, Mommy and Daddy have been watching vintage Halloween television specials.  Our favorite thus far is the "Paul Lynde Halloween Special" from 1976.  It even has Margaret Hamilton reprising her role as the Wicked Witch of the East from "The Wizard of Oz."  Beyond that, it features Betty White, Florence Henderson, Tim Conway, Billy Barty, KISS, and even Donnie and Marie.  It's like time traveling back to the 70's to celebrate Halloween.  We saw the Donnie and Marie Halloween special as well, but didn't like that one quite as much, although there's a really unusual bit with Billy Crystal in it, of all people.  Oh, and for kicks, we saw the very first episode of "Dark Shadows."  The internet is providing all kinds of stuff - like a Halloween performance by Liberace we watched, or an episode of "The Monkees" set in a castle.  Lots of vintage retro stuff out there!  Sure, a lot of it is goofy.  We must be getting old, because it's so much better than much of the programming on today.

So about this election.  It has been so up and down - it's difficult to describe.  Something huge happened yesterday, and that's saying a lot.  Because it's been one thing after another, one blow after another.  The nature of this blog is that you look back on things and see how it all turned out later on.  But the ride this election season has been a tough one.  There are so many scandals and so much mudslinging.  There are so many extreme moments, highs and lows.  If you follow it closely while attached to one side or another, it's quite stressful.  And you want to follow it:  at stake is the future of this nation.  Yet there is so much worry.  Madison, Daddy and Mommy pray each night for our country, and will continue to do so.  The next two weeks are going to be very interesting.  Whoever is elected will probably be the one that Madison really remembers.  Daddy remembers Ronald Reagan, but not anyone before that so much.  Of course, Jimmy Carter is still up and about.  But we're talking about the Carter Administration.  Daddy remembers Ye-Ye and Nana going to vote in 1980.  That was a big election too.  It seems as if this happens every four years though - lots of crazy stuff.  It's a weird time to be an American, that's for sure.

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