And that’s a bit of our Christmas Signature Moves.
A Merry one to you and yours. Cheers.
Seriously, this is huge. Night before Christmas for a parent of 5 and 3 year old boys is a big thing. Game time. A lot riding on this. Almost as exciting as it may be for kids. Almost. It’s all About A Boy (s). Ok. Deep breath. Wine. Presents. Maybe It’s a Wonderful Life. Do you feel it? I can’t wait either. We left a parsnip for the reindeer and gingerbread cookies for Santa. Perfect packing snow. I like listening to the show choir on TPT from St. Olaf. This is festive. I am wearing a sport coat, cords and a tie and full of Beef Wellington and wine. What a night. Merry Christmas.
A list most definitely in progress. Everyone seems to love going to the movies around Christmas. Pick a good one. I still want to see Avatar 3-D, among many others like An Education, Nine, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. No. No. I will not. Doodles was begging to see more Alvin today. He couldn’t understand why we didn’t own it. Why we had only rented it. And I can’t believe I just admitted we even did that much. It was so bad, but the kids laughed so hard. Belching + farting + helium voices = surefire children’s movie hit.
Here are some of my film faves so far in 2009:
Inglourious Basterds
(500) Days of Summer
Adventureland
Zombieland
Up (3-D)
Up in the Air
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Funny People
The Hangover
District 9
I Love You, Man
Pablo sings in choir. He has since he was 3. He seems to like it enough. Enough to put up with it for the reward of root beer and pepperoni pizza. Papa John’s pizza is delivered and sold for a 1.50 a slice in the youth lounge/game room at our church.
Pablo: Dad, this pizza is better than what you make at home.
Jefe: Thanks, yeah, it’s pretty good.
Pablo: Yeah, I like it a lot better than our pizza.
Doodles doesn’t do choir. He tried. We so desperately wanted photos of him in the white robe with big red bow. Doodles would go to choir practice and then report back to me:
Doodles: I don’t like choir.
Jefe: Why not, buddy?
Doodles: It’s weird. All they do is sing all the time.
Well, he’s right. What could I say. That what choir is. So we tried to bribe him with the rewards of pizza and root beer in the youth lounge afterwards. The deliciousness was not enough to conquer the weirdness. We gave up fighting/forcing him.
Pablo sang in a Christmas service. I noticed Doodles doing this during the songs:
He was plugging his ears. Is the music that offensive to him? Were the other kids that out of tune? Perhaps there is a greater problem here. He likes a lot of music as you’ve read here. AC/DC, Queen, Raffi, Metric, The Beatles, John Williams. Lately he has been crooning along with Crosby. Not really singing with Bing, but he likes to hear it. What is it about singing or listening to children’s choir?
Another parent and I talked about the drop-out rate for many boys in choir around the Kindergarten age range. He said he thought more than a few of them come back when it’s time to go up to summer camp with the other kids. They want to renew bonds from nursery school. We’ll see.
For now, I think we’ll try indoor soccer, swim lessons and some ice skating and sledding.
I remember a marketing campaign from my youth:
Give the Gift of Music
My gift to you, faithful reader:
Mustache Robots 2009 Sampler
50 faves, over 3+ hours of tunes
A lot to download to be sure, so if you want to check whether you think it’s worth your time, here’s the list from A-Z.
Enjoy! Please share yours if you make mixtapes, too.
As always, comments are greatly appreciated.
Have a very Merry and Happy whatever you want.
XOXO,
El Jefe
TM/©2009 Sesame Workshop. All Rights Reserved.
So last time I slyly slipped in a factoid about my early advanced reading. (Go ahead slow clap again, if you must) My mother contends it was partially fostered by my intense and frequent viewing of Sesame Street. When Mama and I first had Pablo we were very adamant about controlling his TV viewing. We would turn him away from the set. When we finally loosened up a bit about it all we initially allowed only 30 minutes a day of Baby Einstein type DVDs. After that we moved up to Sesame Street.
I love Sesame Street. I rediscovered it with amazing guest stars like Amy Sedaris and current parodies of Mad Men. The show contains enough to occupy a parent watching with their kids. So, guess what? For you, loyal readers of Mustache Robots, I have prizes. I have a ticket giveaway to see Sesame Street Live. Please post a comment/remembrance/story or anything you care to share about Sesame Street here on the blog to win a family 4-pack of tickets. Here’s the show info:
Sesame Street Live “1-2-3 Imagine! with Elmo & Friends”
January 13-17
Target Center
Tickets: Box Office, Ticketmaster.com; 800-745-3000, and all Ticketmaster outlets
And if you don’t win, you can still purchase tickets at a discount -
$3 discount for Mustache Robots readers using the link: http://www.ticketmaster.com/promo/2yucxy.
We can all vote on our favorite response. Tears, laughter or obscure references welcome. Deadline is Dec 23rd, so you can use the tickets as a family present.
Please comment.
Thanks,
Jeff
Parents, do you have rules for using the Santa threat? Can you threaten to call him on the phone? Can you fake a call to him to get a child to behave? Mama has done that already. I’ve said that I’ve e-mailed him. I won’t use the phone call threat because Pablo and Doodles wanted to talk to him. It could backfire easily. I know some of you have a shelf elf reporting back to the North Pole to keep your kids in line. We’ve said the decorative Santas around our house can file reports.
It’s a fine line you walk in keeping them believing in Santa and looking forward to him, not fearing his arrival like a thief in the night. Also, do you give all the credit to a mythical Kringle? We tend to give the best toys from Santa and the needed, less interesting clothes or books from us, the parents. Why do we set undersell ourselves? I know of one parent who only puts Santa stuff in the stockings whilst the real deal toys are all from Mom.
I have a vested interest in keeping my kids Santa belief level high and long lasting because mine was ruined at such an early age. When I was in kindergarten I was reading at 4th grade level (insert slow clap here). The drawback was that I read something somewhere which made me realize the truth about Santa Claus. Then I proceeded to try to convince my classmates. There were tears.*
That night I got a stern talking to when my dad came home from work. I remember
sitting on my parent’s bed as he removed his necktie and dress shoes. He listened to what had transpired that day. Then he sat next to me on the bed.
My Dad said, “Ok, you’re right. You figured it out. But you can’t share this secret with your friends and classmates. You’ll upset them. They don’t understand yet. It’ll be our secret.”
I was 5 years old and I didn’t believe in Santa Claus. I had proof and an adult secret.
It wasn’t great. I think I would have liked to have had the option of believing longer and keeping more of the childlike spirit alive. Instead, I got to be a spy, a kid straddling an adult realm and keeping his younger brothers misinformed yet magical.
But I don’t think my parents could have lied to me that day to convince me I was mistaken. I think they played it the best way they could. And that’s what we’re trying to do now. Santa Claus is a benevolent dictator, an omniscient, omnipresent, super-hero of sorts. He’s coming. You better watch out.
*Not mine. Other kindergartners. Look, I get it, I don’t want anyone else ruining it for our boys.
We were visiting another local public elementary school when we came upon this awesome display of talent. You just can’t fake a kid’s artistic style. These are the real deal. Color me impressed.
My boys. So proud of them. Last time the first H1N1 flu shot really freaked them out. There were tears from Pablo. Today, there was laughter. I kid you not. They laughed when they were stuck with the long needle. It was really pretty awesome and amazing. It started with Doodles who wasn’t really bothered the first time around, so he had a fighting chance anyway. I was prepping them with how this will only hurt for a split second. It’s a prick and then nothing. Nothing but delicious gumball treats to pacify and placate you on the way home. Youcandoit! Doodles is up. He kinda nervously giggled while locking eyes with me as Mama held him on her lap. The laughing started when Doodles decided he wanted in his leg and dropped his camouflage pants revealed bright orange striped undies below his camouflage sweatshirt. Pablo said I can see your undies. We said perhaps he should either get camo unders or a bright orange hat or something to complete his soldier of flu-shot misfortune outfit. Anyway, prick, laughs. And then Pablo is up – he, of the previous shot freakouts – locks eyes.
He drops trou.
He gets set.
And nothing gets him down.
Shots up.
He’s got it tough.
He’s seen the toughest around.
Might as well laugh.
The nurse said she has never seen or heard a child laugh when getting a shot. Today she experienced it twice in a row from my boys.
49 gumballs later and we’re still laughing through our blue teeth.
This is all much better to read while listening to Glee’s version of Jump. I’ve had it on repeat while I pounded out this bad boy blog post. Now on to Books & Bars reminder work.
Laugh, jump, whatever it takes.
November was a fantastic month for new and old tunes. In this month’s edition we are reminded of the power of cinema. If I hear a song in glorious digital THX sound in a movie theater during a good film it can elevate the song to a new level. Music and film work together in perfect harmony, side by side on piano keyboard. Oh Lord, why can’t we? Ebony/Ivory, PB/Chocolate, Beans/Franks: MUSIC/FILM.
Who’d-a-thunk-it that my fave fire-up tune of the month would be from 1965? “Let Her Dance” by the Bobby Fuller Four (“I Fought the Law”) blasted out during the end credit dance sequence of Fantastic Mr. Fox and I was blown away, not only because the soundsystem at Showplace Icon Theater in St. Louis Park was so righteously loud.
I also believe that any movie that ends with a dance sequence can’t be all bad. Rushmore was the only other Wes Anderson film to end on such a high happy note. Great movie, go even if you don’t have kids. Ours haven’t seen it yet as I went to an advance screening. Bad Dad. We’ll go again. Wes Anderson is my current fave, hasn’t made anything I haven’t loved.
I’ve been doing the signature whoo hoo click click whistle of Mr. Fox for weeks now. Doodles and I walked into our favorite indie bookseller, Magers & Quinn, and for no reason I did that whistle. I kid you not that everyone in the store stopped and look at us. So when Doodles saw this clip he said, “Hey Dad, he does that thing you do.” Gotta love that he now thinks Mr. Fox is mimicking me. (I’m certainly going to try to continue dress like Fox at Books & Bars. I promise not to repeat a sport coat on our double winter run.)
Another example of the power of Film/Music is the older song “All My Friends” was in heavy rotation because of the Greenberg trailer. Of course all the Glee stuff I like fits, too, but that is another post about the added power of reinterpreted covers, showtunes, Broadway, etc.
Download the Fantastic November Mix and please give me feedback. I’ve listed a potential song order in the picture, but do as you will.
I’ll let you dance.
