Jingle Bell Rock

 . . .  Leif and Laika and I are playing on the carpet and listening to Christmas carols.  Jingle Bell Rock comes on (Brenda Lee's version).  Leif and I start singing along and Laika does a bit of a little dance.

Then she sits down on my lap and says, "Why is this even called Jingle Bell Rock?  It's not really rockin' music."

Gingerbread Curse

The Chef at her preschool came down and made Gingerbread people with the children.  Laika worked so hard and so carefully and gave him pink and purple eyes and a white jellybean mouth.  When I picked her up her eyes were shining with excitement and she had to sort of bite her lips because she was smiling so hard.  I loved it.  We put her coat on, she picked up the gingerbread man and then he fell to the floor and smashed into fifty pieces.  She fell into my arms and cried so hard that she didn't make a sound.  We went back in to the preschool and her teacher gave me a sample gingerbread man that the chef had made.  But it wasn't the same.  It all felt so familiar.  As we left the preschool Laika reminded me that last year on Gingerbread day the exact same thing had happened.  It is a curse.  Luckily we got THREE more opportunities to make gingerbread people this Christmas.  So the ending is happy.  We've all eaten a lot of little gingerbread men with smartie buttons this year.

Now, here is a story from Laika.
It is called "The Princesses of Wonder"


Once upon a time there was a princess named Nina.  Nina was a very nice princess.  She lived in a pink beautiful golden castle.  She played and played with her bunnies and little stuffies.

Then once, there was a mean Queen.   The mean Queen had this potion that was delightful.  But if you pour it on your dress, you become a monster!  But the princess’s molecule thing makes her back into a princess.  She bought it from the toy store.

And then, once came another lady.  And she was very nice.  Then she started to marry her!  But she forgot!  She couldn’t marry her yet, she was too little!  She was just a baby!  She was only one!  So what could she do, she wanted to marry her now, but she couldn’t.

So then she was in a nice crib with her mommy.  And then there was another lady who wanted to marry her mommy!  Then another lady who wanted to marry her mommy.  Then her mommy did get married.

Then her daddy came out and said, “Wo ho ho!” and then he said, “Anita! Wouldn’t you like to go on a walk together?”

“The baby is asleep, so not right now.”

The End