A noisy Christmas!

Christmas Day was wonderful....Peter and I spending a quiet morning, then him cooking and us getting ready for the kids, who arrived mid-afternoon....

There were lots of wonderful presents, but the ones I photographed with the new video camera were...DRUMS. We have new bongo drums for Vi and a new tomtom for Augie...which just happens to fit onto "Pa's" sparkly red drum kit. They've been drumming on everything in the house (okay, no glass or pottery or people) for a long time now, so the noise is nothing new. And they both love drumming.



Addendum: Yes, they both spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in their jammies. Augie occasionally insists on this. With all the excitement involved in the Big Holidays, I think it's great that they can feel comfortable this way!

Christmas eve

Grandma got a new video camera for Christmas, and she opened it early to use it for the holiday. The viewfinder flips forward so the kids can see themselves...a great feature since they love to watch themselves! Christmas Eve was a very casual get-together with the kids. Our plans to order Chinese food fell through (the restaurant was closed) so Abby made some wonderful chicken dumpling soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. We were so much luckier than all the folks who couldn't be with family because of the snow!

Still working on video from Christmas Day...more complicated than I expected!

A heartfelt musical greeting

I just realized what I want to give my blog friends for Christmas....

Here is a rendition of O Holy Night performed on the show Studio 60 on Sunset Strip a couple of years ago, featuring dislocated New Orleans musicians. I hope the music moves you as much as it does my husband and me. Merry Christmas.

Drum Duo

As sweet, smart, and talented as she is, ViMae hasn't cared much about performing for the camera. This debut drum duo may be the start of something big! Inspiration comes from the Blue Devil hip-hop drummers. The instrumentation is pure Augie...kitchen cans are just the latest drum kit he's devised.

Peter and the Wolf

So one day Augie stands up his guitar and bows it with a drumstick. "What are you playing?" "I'm playing the cello part to 'Peter and the Wolf.'" Not only that, he sings a pretty faithful version of Peter's theme. By the next day, he is trying also to play the bass and violin, since Peter's theme is played by all the strings. He can identify all the other parts, but he doesn't have a clarinet, oboe, or bassoon. Yet.

TBT: Augie playing Pinetop

This first appeared in September 2009.

When Augie was just over a year old, he'd come in the door and head for the den, saying "Dah-Nn." Doctor John. The DVD is "Dr. John Teaches You to Play New Orleans Piano," and Augie's immediate favorite was "Pinetop Boogie." While I struggled to learn fingering, he absorbed the music, heart and soul. Here's proof.

Grandma's favorite baseball song