Christmas Video from 2017

Found in the deep recesses of my files. I think I was thinking to send this out as part of our holiday greeting in 2017 but never got around to it. Originally it was just under a minute and mostly generic clips of kids hands playing with nativities. Sweet but not too special or personal. Then I started watching all the clips of the kids talking and I realized there were too many gems to ignore. And the remnants of their accents?! Too cute. I'm feeling nostalgic and wanting all the memories, so here is five minutes of time from a couple years ago. I think it will just get more precious to me the further away from that time we go. I almost cut out all of the parts with my voice asking questions. I decided to keep them after all, realizing that probably most of what my kids will someday have is this. My image shows up rarely in these kinds of things but they'll have my voice--sometimes strained, sometimes laughing. 

Jumping Rope

We've come to the time where I have to pay up to get extra footage like this. But by bribing I certainly had better cooperation and attitudes by the bigger kids. So a movie for a movie. Seems like a fair trade.

Eliza is still working on getting her jumping skills to where she'd like them so we may have another video next year. And by then Henry will be even more insistent that he be a full functioning part of it all!

Carter's-boring-Steam-Fair

20 MAY 2017

Where have two years gone?! I thought I'd lost all the pictures and video clips in the hassle of the move but I hung on to my memory of the day and the hope that they'd resurface someday. And here they are! Not quite as good as my memory images (they never are) but a solid way to remember the day.

The UK has a few steam fairs that travel the country each fair season, a remnant of years gone by. The rides are still powered by steam or by hand and just as charming as can be. I waited for the fair to come to some part of London accessible on the underground during a weekend we were in town (few and far between for those two to collide!) and finally there it was! Our weekend! My aunt Sarah was visiting and she is always up for an adventure, especially a nostalgic one. I'm sad I didn't get her in any pictures, so focused on the children per the usual. But she knows and I know she was there. ;)

The best part of the morning was when Eddy was so upset to leave the house and wouldn't be persuaded into thinking it would be a fun day out. He was incredibly grumpy the whole way, mumbling, "I don't want to go to Carter's-boring-Steam-Fair!" Then look who enjoyed it the most, particularly the candy floss (=cotton candy). I'm trying to not say "I told you so" but I'm failing.

Thank you, Carter's-boring-Steam-Fair, the fabulous day out full of utterly non-boring fun!

Hello from the Lambournes, Around the World (part one)

Oh, how I've planned for this one for years now. It turned out both not quite and yet better than I envisioned. Each place we visited we came prepared with a flag and the phrase for 'Hello' in an effort to help the kids feel a little more brave to enter the country. We took a few minutes to film in each place as well--sometimes with more cooperation than others. Ha! All the clips were set aside immediately during organization and I have loved looking back and seeing for the first time what we got on camera. I could do a whole show of bloopers and outtakes though I tried to keep the best ones in. (I did remove one where Collin and I lost our patient voices and forgot that it was supposed to be fun.) I hope in years to come the kids do remember some of our travels with fondness and begin to realize how lucky they are. I also hope this is only the first installment with more 'Hello' videos to come in future years.

Hawaii video

I was discussing with Collin and then with my mom this past week about when done is better than perfect. Sometimes it really is more important that a project be done with precision and perfection but often done is enough. I think I could fiddle forever on these video projects of mine, tweaking them ad nauseam. However, I am learning that we love them too much to let them flounder too long in the land of the unfinished. So in this case, done is absolutely good enough.

Israel Video

I don't imagine anyone besides us will ever watch the whole 15 minutes of this trip video! It was a dream trip and I'm so grateful we were able to go with our family. I thought putting a check mark next to 'go to Israel' on my live list would make it 'done' but no. I'll be anticipating returning someday.

Scandinavia Video

Beatles, Vaulting, Chalk Horse (N Wales 3)

I put on some Beatles and Davy was amazed that I knew the words to songs he'd never heard.  Well, I've been trying to rectify that since, playing oldies while cooking dinner. 

We made the quickest stop ever in Liverpool, parking the car illegally for two seconds while we ran out and saw the statue of the boys walking.  Then we drove down to the neighborhood barber shop of Penny Lane.  We were in Liverpool for 45 minutes max, but I kinda liked what I saw.  Reminded me a bit of Boston, all the brick and port town vibe.

We drove south for a while--Harry Potter all the way!--and found (legal) parking to spend some time in Gloucester Cathedral.  (I really enjoy the fact that in London I don't have to worry about where to stash a car--I just hop on and off public transit and am instantly mobile.)  I love old churches, especially ones with incredible fan vaulted ceilings in cloisters, but I'll admit the main draw of this one was the Chamber of Secrets wall.  The children particularly enjoyed the inner courtyard of the cloisters, running around and generally being quite irreverent. 

The light from these windows is so mystical, so magical.  I sure hope heaven has this ambience.

The past year has been so full of light, so full of dark, and all the ranges in between.  Places like this, that people have created to mimic the full range of human emotion and divine attributes, they just fill me with wonder and awe.

Walking to and from the cathedral, finding interesting architecture in the town.  England is layers on layers, all mushed together in a picturesque whole.  I love it.  I can never get enough of it.

Racing the sun to get to Whitehorse Hill before dusk.  We barely made it.  The kids fussed a bit about getting out of the car in the middle of a chapter on the audio book and getting their coats back on, yadda yadda, but as soon as they opened the gate and saw the wide expanse ahead they were off and running with no further encouragement.

We found horseshoe tracks and I imagined what fun it would be to gallop up these fields.

The white horse is an Iron Age creation, maintained now by the National Trust.  They regularly rechalk, but the outline has been on the hill for centuries.  Quite remarkable, all these reminders of people who have come before and made fascinating things.  Our souls are creators at their very core.

We caught the sunset from the hill, and as we walked back in the growing dark we had a lively discussion on what flavor the sunset would be if it were a lollipop.  This is what I'll remember most fondly when I'm 70 and looking back on life.

Winter Wonder (video)

London winters are not too bad, especially coming from New England (shudder).  It's still dark and still long and cold but really, not so bad.  The kids, being kids, take off their warm clothes whenever I'm not looking for two seconds and claim "I'm not cold!" if I gently suggest they put them back on.  There were a few truly cold days--frost all pretty on the ground--and even a couple snowy days.  Nothing stuck to the ground but the flurries in the air were magical.  I've put together my seasonal video.  This is my shortest yet.  Most of my footage I already used in my Christmas sum up and also I didn't take nearly as much as my usual.  It's hard to want to shoot when stuck inside in the dark.  So I'm extra grateful for the little snippets I did capture.

Eliza took this one of my wool sweater.  I kinda like it.

Even in the coldest winter there are trees blooming in London.  It's a garden of Eden.