christmas comes early

Late Friday night, just as we were going to bed, Santa stopped by asking if it was all right with us if he dropped by our house a little early this year. Because a) we didn't want to have to bring more gifts back from Texas than was necessary, b) we knew that by celebrating Christmas on Saturday, we'd be guaranteed a white one, and c) who doesn't want Christmas to come early?! we told him sure, why not! So Saturday morning, we led Garrett into a magical living room replete with gifts to unwrap and a fully constructed train set. He couldn't have been happier.


Garrett was a very good boy this year, as evidenced by Santa's gifts. Besides the train set, he got a set of shape sorting blocks, a puzzle, a bead roller coaster, and -- best of all -- a set of wooden building blocks. (Santa even gave us a few more smaller gifts to safe keep until we stuff them in his stocking for the real Christmas Day.) I think it goes without saying that Garrett has been in heaven ever since.

In the afternoon we trekked through slush, ice, snow, and, sadly, local-only trains to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the Neapolitan Baroque Creche which is displayed at the base of their annual Christmas tree. Because it's a special exhibit, I wasn't allowed to take my photos. Fortunately for you, however, some, including the one below, can be found online.


While we were there, we also walked through another special exhibit called "The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Aquisitions." Two of my favorites were Photo: This Is the Color of My Dreams by Joan Miro and Autograph Quilt by Adeline Harris Sears.

The Autograph Quilt was especially interesting. Here's the story behind it from the Met's Online Catalogue:

In 1856, seventeen-year-old Adeline Harris, the daughter of a well-to-do Rhode Island mill owner, conceived a unique quiltmaking project. She sent small diamond-shaped pieces of white silk worldwide to people she esteemed as the most important figures of her day, asking each to sign the silk and return it to her. By the time all the signatures were returned and ready to be stitched into a "tumbling-blocks" patterned quilt, Adeline had amassed an astonishing collection of autographs. Her quilt features the signatures of eight American presidents; luminaries from the worlds of science, religion, and education; heroes of the Civil War; such authors as Charles Dickens and Ralph Waldo Emerson; and an array of prominent artists. Today, the autographs displayed in this beautiful and immaculately constructed quilt provide an intriguing glimpse into the way an educated young woman of the mid-nineteenth century viewed her world.

If Adeline was making an autograph quilt today, I wonder who would sign it.

Since we were nearby, we also took a brief walk through a snowy Central Park. It was beautiful, and a welcome break from the dirty, urban aftermath of a New York City snowstorm. Watching handfuls of kids sled down Cedar Hill only cemented further into me the idea that urban kids are not deprived of a spectacular childhood. Theirs is different, perhaps, but no less fulfilling.

A little cold and exhausted from an adventurous day, we headed home, ate some dinner, and spent a relaxing evening realizing dreams of small-scale archetectural fame.


(I think Blake likes the building blocks as much as Garrett does.)