Créches Galore!

On Sunday, the boys and I went whole hog, Christmas style. First, we went to the Postal Museum to make holiday cards.

They just took off!

We even ran into a friend there with her kids, and we sat with a Russian mom and her son while they worked. Cassius just sat there staring open-mouthed as they chattered away in Russian, trying to figure out what magic this was.

There was a two card limit for each kids, so apologies if you weren't one of the recipients! But congrats to you if you were! (Just a warning, Maceo made his two cards for his best friends Dean and Jackson.) 

From there, we went to the toy store so both boys could cash in their good behavior pompoms on, you guessed it, Pokemon cards and tins. (Insert big sigh from the parents here.) But they were happy and well behaved and the cashier quizzed Maceo on how to play. When Maceo passed the test, the man gave him a card from his personal deck! Maceo then kindly passed it to Cassius, saying, "I already have this one." It was very sweet until Cassius replied, "I don't want it, it's weak." The air went right out of that generosity balloon.

We drove home for lunch, had quiet time, and then walked up to the Franciscan Monastery to see their exhibit of créches from around the world.

I believe this one is from Mexico, but it reminded me of those Renaissance paintings.

This is a favorite: Mary and Joseph as hipsters, taking a selfie, and the wise men with their packages from Amazon.

Maceo was our cinematographer. You can see his movie that he made. He even chose the music from my iTunes collection.

 Cassius insisted on riding his bike, which was great on the way, but then he had a hard time maintaining his motivation on the ride home and had to actually be carried for a hundred feet. When we got home, Maceo worked on the computer to make his movie of the event. (You don't really have to watch it, though.)

Then, we went to a living créche up at Catholic University. Unusually for our family, Cassius rushed right up to the animals and petted them enthusiastically. More usually, Maceo hung back at my side.

A donkey!

A camel!!!

It was awfully cold, so we only stayed 15 minutes or so, but it was long enough to help ourselves to some hot chocolate and get yelled at for getting it before we were supposed to.  Cassius, however, didn't have any, and he made sure to tell us that he hadn't broken any rules.