Andy's First Recital

Andy had his first guitar recital the week before Christmas. It was a pretty laid-back affair, and he played three versions of Ode to Joy. Here's the first version with his teacher, Shannon, accompanying.

He did very well throughout the performance, despite much nervousness the week before. I was hesitant to push him to perform given my first (and about last) recital experience in fourth grade, which involved crying and running from the stage at Mulholland Church on Metairie Road. But his teacher strongly encouraged that he do it, and without being able to explain why I wasn't pushing him (since Andy is always within ear-shot, and I didn't want to make him more nervous because of my experience EONS ago), we all agreed he would, and that was the end of the conversation.

We were proud as punch of Andy getting up in front of 30+ people and sailing through like it was no big deal; a feat Otto and I would have night sweats about if we were asked to do the same. And I think he really liked the fact that his guitar was plugged into an amp so that everyone could hear it better. Made him feel like a classical guitar ROCK STAR!!

Relaxing Sunday

I deliberately took some pictures today so I could post them here. Seems we're so into the routine that nothing seems terribly news worthy.

So, Otto had the guitar out this afternoon because he found another version of Guantanamera that he's trying to learn. Andy had coincidentally made a stringed instrument a few minutes earlier out of rubber bands and a box, so he joined in.


Then Sam decided that he wanted in on the pictures.


Later in the day the boys decided to sip on some black currant cider that I bought at the art&craft show yesterday. Most of what I bought was consumable - fruit cake, toffee, ghost-shaped sugar cookies, some other candy, the cider.... This show is a popular place to start your Christmas shopping, and many of the vendors would ask if what I was buying was a gift. Nope, all for me! (Pretty much.) I bought this cider figuring that we would need some warm drinks in the near future. Like today - very cold - high of 1 degree C. But it's supposed to be 20 degrees C again later this week. Crazy weather.


Some time after cider-sipping, and in the ongoing process of trying to stay warm, I decided make caramel apples. I had bought the ingredients earlier in the week, but hadn't made them yet. My initial plan was to make them while Andy was at school and Sam was down for a nap, since most of the time is spent stirring HOT HOT HOT sticky caramel over the stove; a process they couldn't really help with. But, it worked out fine with them around - they were good about keeping their distance.

I had never made caramel before. It was a lot like making a roux, but took longer. This recipe used honey instead of sugar, so the caramel tasted, well, honeyish. And I couldn't find popsicle sticks at the grocery store, so we got creative with bamboo skewers. The first two were picture-perfect, but as the caramel cooled they started looking not so pretty.


Eating them after dinner was... tiring. They took longer to eat than any other dessert we've ever had.


Trying to get the caramel unstuck from behind the teeth.

There was a lot of trying to get the caramel unstuck....



They were fun, and tasty; something different for sure!