Christmas activities

The last week has been full of activities leading up to Christmas. Last Wednesday, Colin basketball class did a Christmas program, where they showed off their mad skillz to a very-impressed crowd of moms and dads. They basically ran around the court, dribbling, or at least doing a fairly good imitation of such, and attempted a few baskets, with Christmas music playing in the background. Colin is getting pretty good at dribbling, but since the basket is basically at standard height, making a basket is a pretty rare event.

The following evening was Colin's 7th birthday party. We held the party at a place called Giocolandia, which is basically an enormous play area for kids. It is every parent's worst nightmare and every kid's dream. A couple of kids from Colin's class have had their birthday parties there this year, and Colin couldn't imagine doing his birthday anywhere else. It went fairly well, although at a certain stage a couple of boys started fighting and another boy ended up in tears in an unrelated incident. Colin spent most of the time with his eye on the table of presents, asking when he could start opening them. I was a little worse for wear after a very hectic week of work and trying to get gifts for Christmas and birthday ready, and I told Colin right away that we would do a different kind of birthday party next year, maybe just a slumber party for a couple of his friends!

The kid with his arms around Colin in the photo is his best buddy, Davide. The cake in front of him is a special cake they provide as part of the birthday package. It is basically a sweet bread with Nutella spread inside in the shape of a number 7. Kids go nuts for it.

Friday night they had a special mass for the elementary and middle school kids at Colin's school. In typical Italian style, they said that it would start at 8:30, and that we should have the kids there at 8:15pm. Being American, I thought that meant that my kid should be there at 8:15, and he was, however, the mass didn't start until about 9:00pm and it was 11:00pm before we were back home again. This year went better than last, however, in the sense that Lucia at least managed to stay awake, and Colin wasn't nearly comatose with sleepiness at the end.

As an example of one of the many mysteries of children, my exhausted children fell into bed at 11:00pm, but were wide awake at 7:00am. I'm not sure how that works.

Saturday was Lucia's pre-school Christmas play and it had all the elements of a perfect pre-school Christmas play - Baby Jesus walked off stage crying for his mom, and one of the girls lost her skirt while dancing, although she wasn't at all bothered by this. Another kid, who Lucia regularly says is a trouble-maker, lived up to his reputation during the performance, much to the consternation of his teachers. Lucia's role was as a star, and it was the perfect role for my little girl, and she thoroughly enjoyed herself on stage, as you can see as she hams it up during her little dance.

Colin started attending weekly catechism classes this year, and on Sunday afternoon, all of the classes put on a nativity scene/play at the church. Colin was an angel, again a role that perfectly fits my son. Afterwards they had panettone (Italian Christmas cake) and a little party in the community center. We stayed for a while, but my kids were pretty exhausted after their busy week! But now we are definitely ready for some presents and vacation.