December 2000
December started with Jonathan’s last soccer game. The season ended the way it started – with a lot of effort and very few goals. Ah well, it was an excellent lesson in sportsmanship. This year Jonathan turned into a decent goalie, and his fielding skills have greatly improved as well. We will see how well he does next year when he moves up a division, which means a larger field and more rules.
Next came Jonathan’s very first piano recital. He’s been taking lessons for almost a year now, and he doesn’t like practicing, (what kid does?) but we are pleased with his progress. He did admirably at the piano recital. We were very pleased and proud. His piano teacher has moved to take an internship, so for 2001, Jonathan will have a new piano teacher. His response? "That’s OK, you don’t have to find me a new teacher."
Next we had to get rid of the gophers. How did they find our new tasty lawn and flowers so fast? Did the landscapers put out a sign? (New tender shoots – 100 ft ahead.) Speaking of landscaping, no, it’s not done. The landscapers sent us a "final" bill (to which they added $1000 to the agreed price.) When we protested that they hadn’t finished, they said that they were "almost" done. To which we said, "so what?" We still haven’t resolved the matter.
December brings, of course, holiday programs and school breaks. In Jonathan’s school, each grade did a song or two and a dance. For the second grade performance, Jonathan was one of those selected to do the dance. Balboa Elementary school has two orchestras and an ensemble, which all gave performances in the holiday program. We’ve never heard an elementary school orchestra before, and it was quite the experience.
Jonathan’s class has been studying countries, focusing on the countries that the students’ ancestors came from. They had a "Heritage Luncheon" where each student’s family sent in food from the student’s country of ancestry. The student’s did a small presentation where each student stated his or her country of ancestry and some facts about the country. It was nicely done and the food was delicious.
For Benjamin’s preschool, (yes, we do have another son!) the performance was the following Friday, but much to our dismay, he woke up with a fever that morning, and we had to miss it. The preschool let out at noon that day, so several of us with kids in the preschool had planned to take our kids to the Jewish Home for the Aged to sing for the residents. However, Benjamin’s fever nixed that as well. There was a silver lining, however. Jackie’s company’s holiday luncheon was the same day. Jackie had planned to miss it. But when Benjamin couldn’t attend his events, Jackie was able to attend hers. Fortunately the fever did not last long, and before Chanuka started, Benjamin was back to normal.
Marc’s holiday party was on a Saturday night at a two-story Rave. It was crowded, loud, and as completely unlike Jackie’s company’s holiday party as possible. It taught us the meaning of the words "generation gap."
This year we discovered one distinct advantage to having Chanuka near Christmas. The boys did not have school the next day on any night of Chanuka. This meant that we could attend celebrations at other people’s houses midweek without keeping one eye on the clock. It made for a very relaxing holiday celebration. One of the things we did was to see a play called "Benjamin and Judah: A Chanuka Musical." The boys loved it, and we bought the CD. This turned out to be a mistake, as now Jackie has to listen to the CD 3-4 times a day.
Last, but not least, was a New Year’s Eve party to which we brought the boys, and even allowed them to stay up until midnight. Jonathan was thrilled to be allowed to stay up this late. The boys were fairly well behaved, but Marc and Jackie are glad that holidays involving staying up until midnight only come once a year!
‘Til next month,
Jackie, Marc, Jonathan and Benjamin