Mary's Star Path

It's feeling a little flat here, now that Christmas is over and Grammy and Grandpa and Uncle Luke have all returned home.  There is so much build up to Christmas, and then suddenly, it is over.  I have been researching traditional New Year's foods, and we will have a little family and maybe neighborhood celebration New Year's Eve, and then for Epiphany, but it is a little hard to wind down from Christmas for me.  Both will involve outdoor fires, and some kind of special dessert...

I put a picture up yet again of Mary's Star Path again, because I want to reflect on it a little bit for next year.  I did not actually put it on our nature table this year, because my kids play so much with the nature table.  Elsa generally ends up putting all the little figures up in whatever greenery or trees we have on it, and things do disappear for a while.  I really do have to steal myself up to let them do that, because I like it all neat and arranged.  But it is, after all, for them.  But I really didn't want them to play with Mary's Star Path, so we put it up on the mantlepiece, which worked well.  I might make some kings for it this year, although I haven't quite figured it out yet--do they come out and then get taken down?  I suppose we could put them on the other end of the mantlepiece and then move them over as we move toward Epiphany.  Anyway, I am basically very happy with it, and am looking forward to doing it again next year, and maybe even adding some shepherds and more animals...

And I am trying to decide what to put out for our winter nature table...something simple, I am sure, but Elsa in particular does really love it.  I am curious to see how other people are celebrating New Year's with their children.

Yarn Along

Joining with Ginny at Small Things for her Yarn Along.  I am desperately trying to finish this big lacy scarf from More Last Minute Knitted Gifts for my mom before she has to go home on Friday.  I think I should be able to do it.  But last year, when I was just getting into knitting again, I bought my dad some yarn and promised him a scarf for Christmas.  Well, guess what was under the tree this year for him?  Yes, that scarf, finally.  I get a little bored with scarves, but I am hoping to avoid that this time.  And I am kind of cheating with the reading, because I actually haven't started it yet, but my new neighbor, who is a master gardener, lent me this book.  We have a new patch of land where there used to be ivy where I want to plant raspberry bushes, but there is only full sun for about half of the strip, so I am trying to figure out what I might plant where there is only patchy sunlight.  Very exciting.

I have been thinking a lot about how delightful the rhythm of our lives are right now.  I do remember feeling sort of strange this summer because we weren't making much art, and I hardly knitted at all.  But of course, I was busy growing food and taking my children to the river to swim and doing spring/summer time things.  And now that the garden is done, I definitely miss it, and have been somewhat foolishly looking through seed catalogues and circling tomato varieties that I want to grow.  (Despite promising myself that I would grow at least some hybrids this year that are blight resistant-- I don't know that I will-those heirlooms just looks so beautiful).  Anyway, now that Christmas is over, I am thinking about crafting and the other winter holidays.  I want to do some kind of New Year's craft, and find a way to celebrate Epiphany that makes up for the intense sadness of putting all the beloved Christmas items away.  And then Valentine's Day--can we make some kind of heart garland?  There is so much to do and think about...so much fun to be had.

Christmas

Christmas....

Elsa and David cutting cheese  with the Montessori style knives I got them for their stocking.   That's basically what I got them--cutting boards, knives, pizza cutters, and some crayons.  Oh, and Jesse got them these cute Obama shirts--Santa is, it turns out, a Democrat.  David is wearing his pirate hat here too, for fun.  He was not interested in being in the pageant if he couldn't be a pirate (which, in case you are wondering, he could not.  Our small Episcopal church is delightfully liberal, but perhaps not that liberal.)  I began to worry that they would think the presents were so lame, but no.  They love them, particularly David...every year I basically get them useful presents for their Santa presents--toothbrushes, hand soap...and every year they are totally thrilled.  "Santa got me some toothpaste..." with round, happy eyes..

Below is the knitted tyrannasaurus rex I made for David.  It's really cute, if I do say so, but he does not love it with the passion that Elsa loves her knitted hippo.  The picture is down below.  I can't figure out how to move it.  

Christmas was perfect, really.  It was a wonderful day with my delightful parents and brother and of course my husband and children.  It was relatively simple--my mother has really understood our desire not to go over the top with presents for my children, and I did manage to give everyone a handmade present.  (Although I am still working on my mother's scarf--typically, I lost one of the legs for Elsa's hippo and was up very late knitting another one and didn't finish her scarf.) 

And what really wowed me was that Elsa came up with a handmade present for everyone...I was sort of concerned that we weren't working together on things for everyone, but it turns out that she was working on them herself.  She needle felted me a butterfly, complete with antennae, and it made me cry. 

And we just hung out and played and were together, until it was time for our Christmas dinner.  Elsa, (in the pilgrim outfit that my mother got her--my mom definitely knows my girl) helped. make the Yorkshire pudding and chocolate sauce.  I love Christmas dinner.  I use a lot of butter and always make the same thing (standing rib roast, yorkshire pudding, and kale and pomegranite salade--to balance out the butter and meat thing...) 

And, as wonderful as it was, I need to remind myself that there was some stress and anxiety leading up to Christmas for me.  Pulling off a mostly handmade Christmas is a lot of work.  It's kind of like teaching--there is always more that you can do.  I think it was the same last year, but I forgot, and got more anxious because I am anxious.  Christmas is fun, but

Here is Mary's Star Path, all done, with Jesus in the manger.  It's sort of sad, actually...I am looking forward to the next thing.  New Year's, Epiphany...Valentine's Day...Easter...life's rhythms are sweet.

Holidays

No pictures today--my camera needs new batteries, and I have been feeling too crazed to actually take pictures.  On the 22cnd, inspired by Ginny at Small Things, we did Christmas for the animals.  We strung (okay, mostly I strung) cranberries and popcorn, and we opened up all of our leftover decoration pumpkins and gourds.  The pumpkin and gourd part was a big hit around here, as we decided to fling them down on our patio to open them, and then we placed them around the yard for the squirrels.  We did not have a fire as planned, as it was pouring down rain (and very warm--it has been hard to believe it is December), so we turned out all the lights in the house and lit all the candles in the house.  I had hurriedly made a few beeswax candles, which feels like a nice tradtion, and we had our Advent wreath.  It was quite pretty.  However, I have to confess that the day did not feel at all calm and peaceful to me.  I was feeling anxious to make it happen, and prepare for my parents arrival, and I did want to make some sort of Solstice celebration take place.  And I am glad I did it, even if I did not get a real sense of calm, meditative peace.  I am looking forward to longer days--not that we can really complain around here, as it gets dark around 5:30 at the shortest day (the sun rises a good deal later, but I can hang with that), but the quality of light is what I miss.  Next year, hopefully I will have it more together, but, quite frankly, I probably won't.  Oh well. 

The 23rd was a great day.  My parents got here late on the 22cnd, so they were here the whole day, sending my children into paroxysms of joy.  The baking got done, which was fun, and we had a caroling party at our lovely neighbor who is a pianist.  Singing Christmas carols was such a huge part of my Christmases growing up, and I really want that for my children.  I made a bunch of cookies and the neighbors all went over and we sang and drank wine and my children ate A LOT of cookies.  I hope we keep doing it.

These days...

I randomly posted these pictures as ones to highlight.   The first one is Mary's Star Path.  The children continue to like it, although next year I think I will have them do it in the morning after breakfast, because right now they are tired and squabbling over who is going to blow out the candle (which neither of them can really do--it takes forever, with me trying to move the candle to find where the heck their breath is coming from--do other kids have this problem?). But some nights it is terribly sweet, with David or Elsa holding the candle and saying a long, rambling blessing/gratitude with great solemnity before blowing the candle out.  Next time it happens, I need to make a point immediately after to write down what they say, because usually it goes into the hecticity of bedtime, and I think the slightly disorganized nature of their prayers makes them harder to remember. 

I had bigger plans for the ending scene.  I would have liked to have added more animals, and also some shepherds, but I am petering out.  And I have to remember that I have lots of years to add to it.  So, next year I can make some more sheep and maybe even attempt an ox...and shepherds.  Baby Jesus is made and waiting on the craft shelf for Christmas Eve.  We have been singing/listening to the song "Maria Wandered Through the Wood,"  while we do it, which is melancholy and appropriate and I think sets the tone well. 

Jesse took the next one of Elsa and David looking at the funny papers together, which is a nice reminder that more often than not, our children do get along.  They are so lucky to have eachother, and when they are not throwing things at eachother or shoving eachother to get the bigger portion of my lap.

Elsa and I went crazy the other day painting a bunch of glass things blue.  I mixed some water color paint with water and Modge Podge and then we painted them all different colors.  I have no idea what to do with the glass, though, as it totally will wash off.  Maybe they can be spare gifts in case anyone "attacks" with a present.  Really, it was just random craftiness, that made yet another big mess to clean up.  But we had fun.
Elsa and Jesse went to the Nutcracker last night.  It started at 7:30, which was a bit late for a five year old, but I really wanted her to see a good production--my mother always took us to the one in Boston after Christmas, which was lots of fun, and it was quite good.  But that is not an option here-Asheville is a great city, but it is certainly small.  I took her to one two years ago, which was kind of disappointing--the tree didn't grow, and there wasn't an orchestra, and I just wanted her to see a good one.  They had a really good time--they got dressed up and went out to dinner, and it was really sweet.  She got home at 10:30--I was sure that she would be asleep in the car, but she still needed stories and snuggle time with Mama.  Today we kept things very, very low key.  David and I stayed home--he went to bed at about 6:30, having missed his nap, and I made caramels.  Oh, and notice especially the twine all around the Christmas tree.  Thusfar, it has capsized twice.  Both times I was sitting on the living room sofa, and just watched it come down.  (Different from two years ago, when I was in the kitchen and David started to pull it down, and I got there before it fell.  Something about small children does make your reaction time a smidge quicker.)  The second time I cried, which was upsetting for the children.

And the last picture is of a Pileated Woodpecker.  David came running in to tell us that there was a woodpecker on the oak tree outside our kitchen.  And there it was.  We all three of us stood and watched if for a good long time.  Elsa suggested I take a picture, which, to be frank, would never have occurred to me.  I am in general not a picture taker--this blog has been good for me that way. It did seem really special to me that he noticed it and knew what it was.  These children--watching them grow and develop is a such a joy to me.

Oh, and the kids are out of school, which is such a sweet delight to me. 

This Moment

Making Wrapping Paper

This  has been an unseasonably warm December--today it is a beautiful, albeit strange, 63 degrees, which has made it a little harder to get all of our usual Christmas making done. The kids are running around outside, which is, of course, fabulous, but I find myself sort of stressed, wanting to make things happen, and feeling like the time is running out.  I have got to make cookies (no, no, not yet) and wrapping paper and gift ideas are still floating around unexecuted....

Last December we made all of our wrapping paper--we used old paper bags from the grocery that I get when I forget, as usual, to bring my canvas bags and the brown paper that comes in packages and cut out potatoes to make shapes to print on.  I wanted to do it again this year--I do love how those packages look all tied up with scrap yarn, but every time I mentioned it, the kids didn't feel like it.  So, I just decided to do it myself.  And guess what?  The kids wanted to help.  And we have a good supply.  Next year, I may try this, now that my sewing machine may be working. 

And we have new neighbors, one of whom is a three and a half year old girl, which combined with the current lack of a fence, has been great fun for Elsa and David.  Elsa is constantly bringing things over to them--we made those fun pine cones dipped in beeswax and glitter, and cookies, and the little girls seem to be running between houses.  It is very sweet, and I do mostly like to have lots of kids underfoot.

And now we are heading off to the (indoor) pool.  I would, of course, rather stay home, but Elsa has been asking and asking, and I have been putting her off, promising soon, and you know what?  Soon is here.  So off we go, on this glorious day, to the indoor pool.  Happily, Elsa, in her enthusiasm, has packed us each a bag.  I may go check, but it makes it a little easier.

Handmade Holiday

Here is Elsa felting soap for her teacher.  Basically, we just wrap the soap in roving and dip it into hot water and felt it all around.  Afterward, we needlefelt something on it for a design.  I  have to admit, I have not fully grasped wet felting, because it never looks that tight.  Because it was peppermint soap, Elsa chose to wrap it in white and then needle felted some red on it like a package.  It was so sweet. David also participated, and felted a blue soap for the other teacher.  (They are in the same Montessori multi-age classroom--Elsa goes five days and he goes three).   We made them on Friday afternoon, and David immediately wanted to go to school and give it to the teachers, even though generally he would prefer to stay home with me.  We also gave the teachers some lotion that we made this fall using the lemon balm from Elsa's garden (and essential oils).  The recipe is in Amanda Blake  and Steven Soule's Rhythm of Family.  The lotion is great, although it did not really smell like lemon balm.  And the water that we steeped it in didn't fully absorb, so there is a little bit of brown water in it.  But the lotion works great.

We felted and cut up a bunch of old sweaters to make a garland.  Elsa commandeered the pink sweater, though, after it had been significantly cut up, and is, to be honest, wearing at school right now.  It is pretty funny--the front is all cut up and ragged but she wanted to wear it, and I have decided that, with the exception of insisting upon basic hygiene and weather appropriate clothes, I will let her wear what she wants.  In this picture, Elsa is actually cutting off sleeves of sweaters to make bracelets for presents.  She has a shelf in her room where she is keeping all of the presents she is making.  To be honest, I really want to peek, but I am refraining.


I am nearing completion on various knitting projects (dinosaur for David, hippo for Elsa and some others for the few people who actually read this blog so I can't say.  Stay tuned for the husband's hilarious present--Elsa's idea, my execution--if I can pull it off.--David and I went to Goodwill this morning and purchased a blue sweater to felt....)

Oh, and I have to admit I am feeling kind of crazed.  I always want to keep the gift giving, particularly for my children, low key.  Then, all of the sudden, toward this time, when I am hearing requests for dolls and trucks (based on some books we have read) I suddenly feel the need to make this happen, even though they will have plenty, plenty.  And bless their little grateful hearts, will be happy with what they get.

Letting Go and Decking the Halls (Hall)

A few weeks ago, I signed up to bring some baked goods for a party that our church gives for the women in the correctional institute in town and their children every Christmas.  I had such big plans and ideas--I was going to make beautiful cookies with the kids, and we weren't going to eat them, we were going to share them.  It sounded perfect, right?  A fun, Christmasy activty with a wonderful moral at the end.  But, yesterday was busy with birthday and holiday parties and consequently tired children and it didn't happen.  Truth to tell, I completely forgot, and it wasn't until my darling husband looked at the calendar this morning (I have gotten better about writing things on the calendar, but am still working on the actually looking at it) and saw that I was supposed to bring cookies to church this morning for the party.  So, off I dashed to Ingles and bought way too many cookies to assuage my guilt about not baking them from scratch.  I do wish I could have actually made really good cookies for the party, but it was a good lesson for me.  I have so many ideas floating around in my head for Christmas things to do and make and I am just getting frustrated and anxious, instead of enjoying the good bits of our days these days that are devoted to preparing for Christmas.  Every moment of our day probably will not be filled with Christmas wonder from the Sunday after Thanksgiving until Epiphany, and I probably will not be able to hand make everyone a present and come up with a present for the kids to make either.  Thank goodness my husband takes care of the Christmas cards, although I sometimes snipe at him about that--for two years now I have wanted to take one of Elsa's drawings and turn it into a card, but can't seem to pull it off.

But, on a fun note, we put up our Christmas tree today.  Elsa was so excited and sweetly impatient, demanding to set it up as soon as she woke up, before breakfast, then immediately upon her return from church--I remember the agony of waiting for my father to carefully put up the lights on our Christmas tree.  It would generally take several hours, including at least one trip to the hardware store and stern commands to stay out of the living room.  I am not quite so much of a perfectionist as my father, although I do have to do it myself, otherwise I would be standing over my darling husband's shoulder, critiquing.  I would say I am working on it, but at least at Christmas time, I am not.  To be frank, I am not the laid back member of the family.  At any rate, watching both children's delight at unwrapping each ornament from the big tree box, Elsa remembering each ornament--"Oh, this is the carriage ornament Grammy gave you when I was in your tummy," while for David it was like opening up brand new items.  Last year he was just barely two, and didn't really get it, but this year, he definitely did.  "Look, Ewsa, it's a blue ball!  It's a gingerbread man!  It's a heart cookie!" he shouted, dancing around the room, every time he unwrapped an ornament.   I don't want to forget it. Then we lit the third candle on the Advent wreath, had supper and gingerbread cake for dessert in honor of tree decorating day.  Yes, I know, yet another tradition added, but I love itI feel the need to mark our special family occasions--this is it, kids, this is our family, and we are together, let's celebrate.  Happy Decking the Halls.

Dessert night

At Elsa's request, Wednesdays our dessert night around here.  Last night we made gingerbread cookies with this recipe tweaked a little--we used some spelt and white whole wheat flour and maple syrup instead of the brown sugar.  It worked surprisingly well.  Elsa had fun adding hair to all of her people, and delivering some to the neighbors.  We all do love dessert night (I especially when I can get the kids involved.)

In other funny notes, when I asked David to set out the plates for supper last night (what he does every night), David grabbed fistfuls of hair with both hands and yelled at the top of his (quite powerful) lungs, "I am tired of doing all this WORK!"  Then he did it.

Reading

As David transitions out of napping, we have a new rhythm--after lunch, we lie in my bed and read stories for about an hour, if not more.  It can be a little exhausting, but it works fairly well.  He is still a mess by suppertime on his non-napping days, but if he does nap, he doesn't go to bed until way too late.  We have been reading lots of Elsa Beskow--I have to admit, I am obsessed, and David is finally able to pay attention to longer and more complicated stories.  He particularly loves The Land of Long Ago--(I do too!) although I realized that what he really likes is the brief part where the knight cuts the evil dragon's head off.  It is really one sentence with no picture, but he really, really loves it.  It is something about his little heroic heart, I think.  (This is an almost completely screen-free child, by the way.)  Elsa cuddles on these days too, and listens to Sparkle Stories on the computer when he does.

Elsa and I got about three quarters of the way through Anne of Green Gables.  We stopped as Anne started to grow up, because at age five, Elsa is just not interested in romance and going off to college.  It was fun to read, although it did involve a lot of reading a few paragraphs and then paraphrasing them for her.  Right now we have lots of sweet drawings of girls with long red hair in fancy dresses with puffed sleeves.  The part where Anne longs for pretty dresses with puffed sleeves and Marilla refuses to make any for her, only making plain, "serviceable" dresses for her, really spoke to Elsa's girlish heart.  Not that Elsa does not have plenty of fancy clothes, (which she chooses to wear in very interesting way--the only thing I insist upon with her is that she wears weather appropriate clothes--this morning she put on her "old timey dress" with a pair of pajama bottoms, pink socks, and her big winter boots) but even the thought just touched her.  When Anne finally does get a fashionable dress, Elsa was so, so happy.

Now we are reading Strawberry Girl by Lois Lensky, for the second time.  It is so interesting--it is about backwoods Florida when it transitioned from being a free range cattle place to a farming state.  I had never really thought about Florida that way--I just think of it as what Tampa is, when I went there for swim training trips in college.  Elsa loves it, and is getting a lot from it. 

I have also been thinking a lot about telling stories.  My mother is the master of this, and can make up story after story for Elsa, and even for David.  I have trouble with this.  I have read some things about how story telling can be used as a discipline tool, and I think I try a little too hard.  "So once, there was a little bear and she wanted some honey but her mother told her she couldn't have any more, and she cried, and cried, and kicked and screamed...."  Umm, yeah, even they get this a little too much, and are totally not interested.  Hopefully, they will turn out okay anyway.

Handmade Holidays

I am working on it--I have almost finished Pea's hippo, and have started a blue (Dumpling's new favorite color--currently, he is asking, "Is this blue?"-even though he knew his colors before he was two,  and if the answer is no, he declares that he hates it, so, phew..)  You can see our Advent Wreath there--already looking a little bit faded.  As much as I love Advent, there is nothing like the lighting of that second candle to strike fear into my heart.  But, we are doing fine, doing fine.  The thing is I want so hard to make the whole thing special for my children--have every day filled with thoughtful, meaningful activity.  And actually, really, they are-they are loving Mary's star path and the Advent wreath, and excitement is building.  I have read How the Grinch stole Christmas approximately fifteen times.

The kids have also been making placemats--they draw and add glitter to big pieces of paper, and then I put contact paper over them.  You can see what a warm December we are having--Dumpling would generally prefer to be naked than clothed, and when I can indulge him, I do.  Dumpling and I worked on this while Pea was at school this morning--sometimes he gets a little lost in the shuffle of Pea's and my crafting, so it is nice to have him have some time to work on something all by himself.

We also planted some Paperwhites and Amaryllis bulbs today, which I think will be too late for Christmas, but we will enjoy them whenever--if I can keep them alive.  We made a gigantic mess--they had that planting mix that you have to soak in warm water and I had one plant for each of them, and while I was helping Pea, Dumpling cracked open his dirt, and then while I was starting his, Pea decied to water her plant withouth anything underneath.  I know some moms are able to be careful and prepared and lay out something so their children do not strew the dining room with dirt, but I am not among their number.  I read that you could put the Paperwhites in the dark and it would help them to have shorter stalks, and I was thinking about putting them in the pantry, but Pea thought it would be better to cover it with a dishtowel.  It is sitting on our coffee table now.

This girl loves her kitty-cat.  And our killer cat is so tolerant and gentle with her.  I wish he were so gentle witth the birds.

This and that

We went to the woods  the other day to play and gather pinecones--I read about a craft where you dip the pinecones in beeswax a few times then add glitter.  Cool, right?  Well, with Dumpling on the job we collected about 35 pinecones, although, many of them were somewhat rotten.  Dumpling goes for quantity over quality, as did Pea when she was his age.  (I loved collecting leaves with him--he would just grab a handful of brown, dried out leaves and shove them in his basket, while Pea and I would carefully select only the perfect red or yellow ones.) 

I made Dumpling's hat.  I really like it.  He kind of likes it.  This is a great spot--there is a little pond and a gazebo with a labyrinth in it and some small hiking trails.  Basically, the children just run circles around the pond and hide things in the leaves, and find lots and lots of pinecones.  We met up with a friend of Pea's, and they just ran and played.  It is wonderful to get them outside away from playgrounds and see what they do. They need so little to have a good time.   I love where we live--we are very close to the admittedly small town center, and not far from this, although I sometimes fantasize about living on a bigger property where we wouldn't have to drive to get to the woods.   But it is nice to be able to walk to town, and have neighbors--I probably haven't written about how fabulous our neighbors are, but, well they are. 

Today, the guy who is going to build us a fence came in with this bobcat and ripped out all (okay, most--that stuff is tenacious) of the English Ivy that was growing along our fence.  Dumpling and Pea got out the lawn chairs and watched--I can't believe I didn't get a picture of them.  Jesse was out there as well, as both he and I were a little (a lot) nervous that Dumpling was going to run over and attempt to fling himself on the Bobcat.   Have I mentioned my thrilling plans to plant raspberries and blueberries there?  I may have.  I am pretty excited.  The soil looks pretty good--it's a little heavy, but not as bad as it could have been--we never have bothered to rake there, because we didn't care to save the Ivy, so there is some good leaf mold there.   And maybe we will let the chickens that we are planning to get run around out there to help it out some...hmmm.  Big plans, big plans.

We also bought our Christmas tree today.  We are not going to put it up, as we generally like to keep it up until Epiphany, but we figured we might as well buy it now and put in water, since all the trees are out now.   Again, it is totally amusing how undiscriminating the children were about the tree.  I remember agonizing over getting the perfect one as a child--luckily, my brother and I were pretty much on the same wavelength--get the biggest one that my parents would possibly allow--but it was hard to decide which one was the biggest.  We had to look at every single one.  Maybe that will come later, but now, they basically ran around the place, crying out enthusiastically, "I love that one!" to every tree that I pulled out (I still kind of agonize), then running away  and telling the person working their that they had stockings that I made that were still sleeping but were going to be hung by the fireplace so Santa could come down the chimney.  I am not sure he understood them.

And then there was the annual Black Mountain Christmas Parade.  It is so much fun now that Pea actually remembers things from year to year, and gets excited.  It is a sweet, small town parade, with a floats from the various churches, scouting operations, wolf dog rescuers, sustainable living organization, and WWF (that is wrestling)  arena (?).  There were several people in Grinch costumes, to which Dumpling repeated to himself and to me, "those are just guys in costumes.  They are not real."   I didn't get any pictures of the actual parade because the thing is, everyone in the parade hurls candy, and the children chase it, and I felt compelled to make sure that in their sugar induced frenzy they did not rush under the wheels of a huge truck.  Pea in particular got a tremendous amount of loot, (Dumpling, although excited by candy, was a little to overwhelmed by the whole concept of candy being thrown from vehicles--I found myself stepping on pieces of candy so he could pick them up without getting them snatched--not that I wanted him to have candy, but you know, fairness...I don't know).    I did tell Pea about the Sugar Fairy, which was kind of a mistake because she totally went for it, and I have been scrounging coins to place in her basket in exchange for the candy.  But I did it--we will have to see about Dumpling tomorrow as he didn't nap and then crashed.  As must I.