7 Quick Takes, 5/27/11

1.

Wow - it's been a busy week around here (!), beginning with Ria's 18th birthday last weekend! I was recovering from Strep, so I couldn't do much of anything. Ria and friends and siblings did most of the planning and I did some quickly grocery shopping (we had hot dogs, ice cream, watermelon and misc. potluck items). We also had a lovely may procession and crowning around the yard and under the beautifully blossoming trees before having the crowning in the house.

2.

Monday morning we learned that good friends of ours in Joplin lost their home in the Tornado. Fortunately they are all well, though they had some worries at first as their older son was at the movies with friends when the Tornado hit. We are praying for all those who have died and for all those who are suffering in this terrible tragedy. Seems to hit a little closer to home as we just drove through Joplin at the end of our big road trip earlier this month.

3.

Last night was our homeschool group's high school graduation. We had a whopping SIXTEEN graduates! I was in shock that they were old enough to graduate. SO many of them are ones we've known for years and shared classes and performances with over the years. Had a nephew in the crowd who is following his older brother to Christendom in the fall. Very exciting!

4.

Yesterday morning we had big news in Milwaukee! The beloved rector of our local seminary, Fr. Don Hying, was named auxiliary bishop of Milwaukee. It seems like everyone is bouncing off the walls with joy. We have many friends who are close to him and our pastor was one of his teachers in the seminary. Happy day!

5.

In bummer news, one of our family's favorite athletes, Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants, had a season-ending injury in a dramatic home-plate collision on Wednesday night. Buster is the reigning Rookie of the Year and a significant part of the heart and soul of his team, playing a big role in their World Series win last fall. A little extra bummer because we have tickets for a Brewers-Giants game this weekend here in Milwaukee and were hoping to see him play.

6.

Now that Ria has been accepted to the college of her choice (although there is a short waiting list) it seemed a reasonable time to start getting rid of school paperwork that she didn't need to save for sentimental reasons. So often, on a day to day basis, I don't feel like we've accomplished that much in the way of education. So I was a little surprised to see how much evidence there was of education going on around here. She picked out a smallish pile of things she'd like to keep (including many delightfully funny drawings and a page with two or three paragraphs on it labeled "A Novel".

7.

I'm really behind on writing notes about movies I've watched and books I've read. Here are a few quick lists I hope to spend more time with in the near future:

Movies I've seen lately:

127 Hours (I think my expectations were too high - didn't like it very much).

Finding Fatima: An interesting documentary which uses some footage from the movie The 13th Day (which I haven't seen).

The Shroud of Turin: 3 Movie Collector's Edition - Three interesting documentaries on one DVD. Silent Witness, produced in 1978, is one that made a big impression on me as a child. It's a little spooky for the younger set, but quite interesting (though sadly faded - doesn't look like they digitally remastered this one). The second film was produced by the BBC in 2008 and focuses on beginning to address the carbon dating process that seemed to prove the Shroud a Medieval fake. The third movie is the official movie for the exposition of the Shroud in Turin in 2010 and is quite lovely.

Books I've read lately:

How to Eat a Small Country - (Slightly rough around the edges, but loved it on the whole. The story of a Food Network chef who quits her job and moves with her family to France in order to try to save her marriage)

The World is Bigger Now - (a journal/memoir about two female American journalists who were captured by the North Koreans and held hostage for 5 months back in 2009). The book is a very personal account of the ordeal written by Euna Lee, one of the two journalists. It was a quite a good read, and very moving at times - especially in recounting her relationship with her husband and young daughter. An unexpected spiritual theme runs through the book, including the journalist's decision to admit her belief in Christianity, even though she knew it was a dangerous thing to say.

The King's Speech - A rather thorough double-biography of Lionel Logue and King George VI. Fascinating and a great follow-up to the movie. We listened to this on audio during our road trip.

Schooled - I've been curious about this title for quite a while and finally picked up a copy at a rummage sale. A light young-adult novel. A homeschooled and socially isolated teenage boy (homeschooled by his hippie grandmother, with lots of hippie values, minus the drugs and free love) is sent to a public school he definitely doesn't fit in, but has some interesting and humorous adventures anyway. An interesting theme to play with, and the author uses it largely to shed some light on social problems common in today's schools.

As I Am - by Patricia Neal - A harrowing but very spiritual autobiography of the famous movie actress who converted to Catholicism on her deathbed a few years ago.

Books I've Started Reading Recently:

Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather

The Penderwicks at Point Mouet by Jeanne Birdsall

It's All Too Much by Peter Walsh

The Happiness Project by Gretchin Rubin

Archbishop Dolan will be leaving for New York

This is a post that's hard to write for me. It's written in the midst of tears because of how much he's meant to us here and how sorely he will be missed.

Let me take you back to 2002. Our archdiocese had been lacking in solid leadership for several decades which ended quite suddenly in a grave scandal that personally involved the previous archbishop. Support for this previous archbishop had been quite divided before that time, but everyone was shaken by the scandal.

Every summer in Milwaukee, a city famous for its cultural festivals, we celebrate the largest Irish festival outside of Ireland. The Lakefront Festival grounds overflow with Irish music, dancing, food and lots of other fun cultural stuff. Sunday morning there's a huge outdoor Mass attended by thousands of people. Early in 2002 (many months before the previous archbishop retired), the Festival Committee invited Dolan, then a bishop in St. Louis, to preside at the Irish Fest Mass.

By a lovely "coincidence", Dolan's announcement as new Archbishop took place just before Irish Fest. So he arrived for this special Mass and was greeted by a huge crowd (I don't remember the exact numbers, but I think they had around 15,000 people at the Mass where they would generally expect more like 9 or 10,000). It was an incredibly moving and memorable experience to be there. You'd think the pope had come to town, there was such an outpouring of joy and relief and emotion. He walked around greeting people (before Mass I think) and everyone was cheering and crying. There was such a strong sense that God is good to bring him here.

Archbishop Dolan will be leaving Milwaukee a much better place than when he came and for that I thank him and thank God! He will very much be in our prayers!

The Zoo in Winter

Last weekend we bought our first ever Milwaukee County Zoo Pass. We got the impression from previous random visits (hadn't been there in about four years) that the zoo was well-designed for winter as well as summer visits. We were not disappointed. Really the only downside aside from, yes it was rather chilly (about 20 degrees out), was that the signs in the outdoor viewing areas were caked with snow. We didn't know the details of what we were looking at.

But it was still pleasant to walk around and see animals like these...



...even if we didn't know *exactly* what they were called or where they were from. I could picture these as being from some place like Mongolia.

The swans were breathtaking and the ducks and geese seemed in limitless supply.



This guy cracked us up. Is this how all the herbivores became extinct?



The indoor viewing areas were fabulous. We visited the primate house (where, believe it or not, there was a bridal show going on!), the big cats house and the aviary. Incredible!!!

A penguin on timeout?



A thoughtful gorilla?



Checking out the cheetahs...



Everyone's favorite lion...

Homeschooling with a Four Year Old during Winter

~ a post for a dear friend who asked :) ~

I feel a little reluctant answering this question right now just because there is the definite risk of making it sound like we've figured out how to run things really smoothly with a four year old in the midst of homeschooling. That wouldn't be an accurate summary. Each day is new and requires creativity and a lot of patience and I feel like I've got a long way to go.

Nevertheless, I do have some ideas that have been helpful for us over time and I can share those here. This is somewhat ironic, because an idea-refresher will probably be helpful to me right now!

1. Some four year olds need more time than others. My current four year old (who will be five on Saturday!) is definitely one of those. The more time I take with him, especially reading picture books or general "floor time" (link courtesy of Willa, from whom I first heard the term) the better. This is probably exactly what I need more time on at the moment, but I've been working on the picture book reading time lately and it's been helping some. Anyway, when he's had this sort of time with me, he tends to be more contented at other points of the day.

2. Think Montessori. Not so much as in all the Montessori materials, but some general concepts. First is not doing everything for them, but allowing them to do as much as they can (within reason) themselves. This "Love2learn Moment" of mine includes a wonderful quote by Maria Montessori on the concept. The second is giving them work to make them happy. Here are some examples from our own Frank when he was a newer four year old. Unfortunately he doesn't always distract himself from temper tantrums so easily.

3. Stay Home a Lot. This Autumn was difficult for Frank, I think largely because we were running around too much. Winter is looking a little calmer and I'm working on not getting so over-booked in the future.

4. Parades any time at all. Here's one old, old post about it. Our favorite "parade" CDs are the Lyrical Life Science and Lyrical Earth Science CDs. I should probably also pull out some of the Wee Sing CDs that have been rather neglected of late.

5. Limiting screen time. Nothing seems to wig out our four year old (in particular) than too much time spent in front of the computer. Movies aren't as bad, but the idea does apply to a certain extent. If we've been over-doing it in these areas for awhile, there are sometimes a few slightly ugly days of withdrawal (reduction, not cold turkey) and then things are happier.

6. Frank, in particular, loves puzzles (including some computer puzzles that I don't mind him doing - like the "drag a state" game here which he's quite good at). He loves any sort of memory game (which the other kids love too as long as it's not the Spiderman one - we have a lovely world landmarks memory game called Heritage that everyone can play together) and he loves workbooks if I can keep up with him in that regard (he cruises through anything right at his level and gets frustrated with anything above).

I think there are more things somewhere in the back of my head, but this was all I could pull out at the moment. :)

Geography addendum for Margaret (because links are much easier here than in the comments):

A good U.S. map puzzle has always been the fun beginning of geography for our littles. Frank has already mastered this one. I sit down with one or more of them and hand out states, naming them as I hand them out. They each try to put them back in the right place. That's usually the beginning point, but it has all sorts of crazy manifestations. This is definitely a picture of some of our floor time.

Online geography games have been favorites around here for years. I have a pretty good collection of links at this very old (2005!) post about preparing for the Geography Bee (it's probably my most googled post ever):

National Geography Bee Prep

We also have loads of geography board games - most picked up from rummage sales and many which innocently teach some completely out-dated facts. :)

The Chesterton Conference

Barring illness or disaster *, certain members of our family are planning on attending the annual Chesterton Conference in Minnesota later this week.

We're all very much looking forward to this unique event (copies of Orthodoxy and an audio version from Librivox have been at peak use in the house - it's a good thing we have three published copies!) and I'm honored to have been asked to facilitate a small group discussion for young people at the conference - Chesterton’s Future – “Chesterteens” and other fresh faces - on Saturday.

*We're fine and dry here in this part of Wisconsin, thank you very much, though we have several friends who are suffering from flooded basements. The wreckage up in Lake Delton (pictured in the video link above) is heartbreaking. Please keep all those affected by the storms in your prayers.

The 110 Year Winter

No, not a long winter, that's the snowfall record we broke with the Good Friday Snowfall. Milwaukee has had more than 95 inches of snow this winter, making it the second snowiest Milwaukee winter on record (breaking the record of 94.2 inches set in the winter of 1897-1898 - I couldn't find snowfall records more local than that, but close enough).

More locally, we were hit with about 15 inches of very heavy, very wet snow yesterday. The picture I posted yesterday was only the beginning of the snowfall. Here's what it looks like out there this morning (after quite a bit of shoveling John did just this morning).

I have to admit that I've never in my life dreamed of having a White Easter, but we're already doing some scheming to have a little fun with Eastery snow decorations. Stay tuned. :)

Sweeeeet!!!!

IMG_2047
Originally uploaded by Chez VH

You know how there are lots of things that you dream of perhaps doing someday, but never really think you'll do? (Well, at least there are many things I dream of doing that I don't/can't do. But perhaps you do lots of sewing and baking and cool crafts with your kids and things like that.) Ha! One of those actually happened today. A few days ago, Terri (age 10) and I were talking about maple syrup. For some reason, I remembered that it was about the right time of year to tap the trees. After that Terri took over. She heard her grandparents used to tap their maple trees and gave them a phone call. Sure enough, they had some real taps around, and pretty soon we had three taps in our very large tree with milk jugs poised to collect the sap.

We collected a few little batches over the last few days and had our first finger-licking taste of maple syrup last night. So today we were amazed to find nearly a gallon of sap waiting for us when we returned from our afternoon activities. Here's the picture (complete with messy counter) to prove it. :)

It doesn't look like much in our enormous spaghetti pot, but this is now simmering on the stove and will theoretically make about a quart of maple syrup. UPDATE: Um, scratch that, it's a ratio of 40:1, not 4:1.

Now if only I can find my copy of Miracles on Maple Hill so I can read it aloud to the kids. :) If I can't make it that far, I can at least pull Little House in the Big Woods (from which my entire body of knowledge regarding maple syrupping comes from) out to read.

Beating the Winter Blues

Now this is an idea I have to plan each year on the Monday after Daylight Savings Time begins. Probably another one in the coldest most-blah part of winter would be a good idea too.

Yesterday we took a break from school and had another family over. We had a picnicky potluck (somewhat limited by all of our Lenten observances, but VERY nice all the same), watched Ben Hur (the littles watched something else and played in the another room) and enjoyed lots of laughter and each other's company.

And if you happened to be in our area and saw two moms and a bunch of kids jumping up and down on the deck outside at one point (and laughing and high-fiving each other), there really is a very sensible and refined reason for it all. You see, we went outside to enjoy a little sun (the very, ahem, moderate temperature of 32 degrees, combined with sun and shelter on the south side of the house was awfully nice, even in stocking feet) and somehow discovered that when we stomped or jumped on the deck, the icicles under the deck broke off and crashed to the ground with a very satisfying glass-breaking sort of noise.

The silliest part, really, is that I didn't plan this in relation to Daylight Savings Time at all (Daylight Savings Time didn't enter my head at all until I saw Danielle Bean's reminder on Sunday Morning), but it was really a perfect day for such a get-together.

WPA on Concerns about the Homeschool Ruling in California

WPA (The Wisconsin Parent's Association - our statewide homeschool association - website here), had this to say about the homeschool ruling in California:

Summary: This email is in response to requests for information about a recent California appeals court ruling. All the major homeschooling organizations in California, including both religious and secular ones, are working together on this. They are asking California homeschoolers to remain calm, continue homeschooling as they have been, and wait for further information. WPA recommends that homeschoolers in Wisconsin support this request and not sign a petition being circulated by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) or take other action at this time. WPA will continue to track this issue and inform you if, at any point, action by Wisconsin homeschoolers would be helpful.

Details: A lot of attention has been given to a February 28, 2008, California appeals court decision concerning a family charged in juvenile court with child abuse and neglect. The family also happened to be homeschooling. The appeals court went far beyond the charge of abuse and neglect and issued an opinion that has been interpreted by some to render any education not conducted under the authority of a certified teacher to be illegal. The opinion has been criticized by a variety of people, including Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger.

All the major statewide homeschooling organizations, both religious and secular, are asking homeschoolers to go about their business as usual, not to panic, not to contact their legislators, not to write to the California Supreme Court, and to give the organizations time.

HSLDA has gotten involved and is circulating and strongly urging people to sign a petition addressed to the California Supreme Court. WPA suggests that homeschoolers NOT sign the petition for several reasons, including the following:

- The major California homeschooling organizations, including those that are religiously based, have not called for signing the petition. In fact, there is concern about possible backlash if lots of people contact the court. WPA has consistently argued that homeschooling issues in a given state should be addressed by homeschoolers in that state and has opposed intervention by "outside experts."

- Because HSLDA is not a party to the case, it does not have the authority to submit the petition and signatures to the California Supreme Court.

- HSLDA has a history of inserting itself into highly visible court cases. When the cases have been decided in favor of homeschoolers, HSLDA has tended to take undue credit. Many more of the cases have led either to a decision that limits or undermines homeschooling freedoms or one that leads to legislation that regulates homeschooling strongly and unnecessarily.

Larry Kaseman,Executive Director
Wisconsin Parents Association

(The e-mail also went on to discuss problems with virtual charter schools, which WPA strongly opposes.) I thought there were some very worthwhile points made here and thought that some of my readers would find it helpful. I particularly support the important concept of dealing with state legal issues at a state level because each state has unique legal quirks and challenges that the state organizations have become very well acquainted with.

Laetare!

Today seems particularly rejoice-worthy as the temp has jumped to 55 degrees -such a delight for us cold-burdened Wisconsinites (I heard that Milwaukee officially has hit its 10th highest seasonal snowfall total ever)!!! Not seeing much in the way of non-snow-covered ground yet, but going to Mass without coats is pure delight.

Happy day. :)

Got Weather?

The National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory for today, forecasting freezing rain and sleet this morning with ice accumulation of one-tenth of an inch, along with 2 to 5 inches of snow.

Mitchell International Airport spokeswoman Pat Rowe said ground crews at the airport, like many Wisconsin residents, have grown weary of the constant barrage of severe weather.
"It seems like as soon as it stops it starts right up again," Rowe said. "It's not like we get large quantities of snow all at once and it's over for three weeks. Instead, it just snows and snows and snows."

One-tenth of an inch of ice is enough for pedestrians and motorists to slip and slide on, said weather service meteorologist Bill Borghoff.

"The ground temperatures are well below freezing, and untreated surfaces will especially be prone to ice by Sunday morning," Borghoff said.

By late morning, the freezing rain is expected to turn to rain. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for today that covers Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, Kenosha and Walworth counties.

It's the rain that has me most concerned as all of our gutters are clogged with ice. Sigh. Oh right, and many communities around here have literally run out of road salt. Good thing we went to Mass last night - we're not brave enough to venture out today.

Speaking of Bizarre Wisconsin Winter Phenomena...

I've been meaning to post about that Ice Quake thing.

When I woke up Friday morning at the Latin Convention in Madison, a newspaper was waiting outside my door, proclaiming something about an "Ice Quake" rattling downtown Madison the previous afternoon (before our arrival in the city). Wisconsin, seriously, doesn't have earthquakes, so I was immediately intrigued.

Ice Quake?

Yes, apparently a huge section of ice tilted and cracked right near the downtown shoreline of Lake Mendota. It rattled buildings and lots of people called 911 - one man's immediate thought was that a bus had hit the building.

Strange, huh?

Well, our Friday convention events all took place at UW Madison's Student Union - a beautiful old meandering building right on the shoreline. Once we were done with spirit and assembly as a group, the students disperesed to take their written tests. I instructed them to meet me on the first floor when they were done and proceeded to find a "home base" for them to meet me. What I found was an enormous cafeteria room with huge windows overlooking the lake and neat little one-person-sized wheeled couch units that could be gathered together in a clump.

I settled in with a few books and surveyed the view. It's a very pretty, very frozen lake, but right in front of me was a huge crack - the width of a small river - but surprisingly straight. How interesting!

Here's an article on Madison's Ice Quake

Here's some information from Alaska about Ice Quakes

Thundersnow?

This is part of this morning's forecast for our area from weather.com

THE SNOW WILL BE HEAVY WITH RAPID ACCUMULATIONS AND VISIBILITIES OF ONE QUARTER MILE OR LESS. THUNDERSNOW AND 2 TO 3 INCH PER HOUR SNOWFALL RATES ARE POSSIBLE FROM ABOUT 4 AM TO 9 AM THIS MORNING IN SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN DURING THE HEIGHT OF THE WINTER STORM.

Speaking of Thundersnow, I've been meaning to write a post about icequakes! No, seriously! :)

Fall is Finally Arriving

And I'm really ready for it. Here are some of our recent and upcoming highs and lows:

Saturday: 87 68

Sunday: 85 64

Yesterday: 85 58

I woke up this morning and discovered that it's 50 outside. Hoooo-ray! Most of the weekend I was at this massive rummage sale I go to every year. Most years I have to layer sweatshirts and coats and not forget the gloves as everything is set up in tents and barn-like buildings and it's cold and/or rainy. This year the rooms were like ovens! On Sunday at Mass, Gus blacked-out for a few moments (Holy Hill is tricky that way - Mass is on the third floor, no a/c and a long walk back downstairs to the drinking fountain - fortunately he started feeling better when we got outside to a little breeze).

Here's what the projections look like for the next few days:

Today: 66 40

Tomorrow: 50 42

Thursday: 54 40

Another Somewhat Overdue Tribute

Tommy Makem passed away last week at the age of 74. I've seen tributes from several bloggers including Chestertonian (and, by the way, welcome to the blogosphere - it's about time!) and Causa Nostrae Laetitiae.

I couldn't let this pass without a post because his music is another one of those significant little milestones that have become a real part of our family.

You see, my husband and I started dating partly because of our common interest in Irish music - an interest I had only begun to pick up a few months earlier in the TAC development office (where I worked, as I may have mentioned before, among others with Margot one of Danielle's sisters) at the instigation of a co-worker named, believe it or not, Patrick Finegan. That was during my Freshman year at TAC, a time in which the development office was squished into a tiny four-room trailer. All of the students assigned to the office had to put in their work-study hours after office hours, which wasn't much fun scheduling-wise but definitely gave us a sense of camaraderie.

Anyway, a couple of months before we started dating John was planning a beach trip that my roommate was already heading to. If I remember right John had a boombox in hand with Irish music playing (to get people in the mood?) and I figured some singing would be a fun part of the evening. I've always loved the friendliness and openness of casual, fun group singing that Irish music is so conducive to. I don't really remember anything about the beach trip itself, just the planning part. :)

Over the years we've seen Tommy Makem in concert a number of times at the great Milwaukee Irish Fest and sung his* songs at beaches, round the campfire and to many little tots - especially ones getting anxious on long car trips when we need to make it *just a little further* ... please!

*Yes, I understand that many of the songs we've learned through him weren't written by him, but were simply introduced to us by him.

Joy - I just found that Tommy Makem's website has a huge database of lyrics. You don't know how much trouble we went to in college trying to learn the lyrics to his songs!!!

Here are a few of our favorites that might be heard in our house any odd time of the day or year:

The Ballad of Saint Anne's Reel
The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Big Ship Sailing
The Castle of Dromore
Johnny McEldoo (as much as we tried, we never were able to figure out all the words to this song)
Mountain Dew
New South Wales
Rambles of Spring
Red is the Rose
The Wild Rover
Winds of Morning

There are two more I thought we first heard from a Makem and Clancy recording, but I couldn't find in the lyrics section - "All God's Creatures Got a Place in the Choir" and "Waltzing with Bears."


Tommy Makem, rest in peace.

Renowned Local Food Critic's Identity is Revealed Only in Death

I found this story touching and interesting.

Amazing that he managed to keep his secret in this day and age!

Here comes trouble...

If any of my tulips or daffodils survive this snowfall - after all of the sub-freezing temperatures - I will be astounded. Sigh.

Homeschooler helping the Homeless

A young girl from our Catholic homeschool group has been featured in the diocesan newspaper for setting up a program to help kids in the area get involved with donating food and other necessities to the homeless through an inner-city parish. Read the article here.

More Winter Fun - Virtual Snowflakes

On this very cold morning, we're enjoying this virtual snowflake-making site.

Hat-tip Ana Braga-Henebry

The Beauty of Winter: Frosted Windows

Window Frost - Frosty Palms
Originally uploaded by maritimelight.

This is a beautiful image of a frosted window that I found on flickr. There are a bunch more here. Aren't they beautiful?

I first heard about sparkling frosty windows in winter when I first read Little House in the Big Woods as a child, growing up in California's Silicon Valley. Definitely no personal experience with this icy wonder, but Laura's vivid descriptions captured my attention and my imagination.

The snow kept coming till it was drifted and banked against the house. In the mornings the window panes were covered with frost in beautiful pictures of trees and flowers and fairies.

Ma said that Jack Frost came in the night and made the pictures, while everyone was asleep. Laura thought that Jack Frost was a little man all snowy white, wearing a glittering white pointed cap and soft white knee-boots made of deer-skin. His coat was white and his mittens were white, and he did not carry a gun on his back, but in his hands he had shining sharp tools with which he carved the pictures.

Laura and Mary were allowed to take Ma's thimble and make pretty patterns of circles in the frost on the glass. But they never spoiled the pictures that Jack Frost had made in the night.

It wasn't until I was an adult with three kids (one still in utero) that I experienced these winter wonders first-hand. We moved into an un-insulated 1890s farmhouse with only one heat-vent upstairs (and single-pane windows with somewhat flimsy storm windows). The house had its share of challenges and LOTS of do-it-yourself home project, but we had the most beautiful frosted windows - particularly on the very coldest of days.


In The Mitchells: Five for Victory by Hilda Van Stockum, the children experience beautiful frosted windows for the first time on Christmas when the heat goes out:

Mother went upstairs again and almost collided with Patsy, who came tearing down the steps in all manner of excitement.

"There are pictures on our windows!" she cried. "Real Christmas pictures, all white and sparkly. Come and look, Mother!" Mother went up obediently, and was greeted by Una and Joan with "Merry Christmas" hugs and shown the windows, on which the night's frost had painted delicate ferns and flowers.

"We used to see those often when I was a girl," she said. "I used to lie awake and watch the moon shining through them. But the hot waterpipes have chased them. Our furnace isn't working today."

"Oh, isn't it lovely?" cried the girls. "Such a surprise for Christmas!"

We really enjoyed these little connections with real life. Now we live in a more modern, well-insulated (1970s) house with double-paned windows, but my older kids are rather proud that some day they'll be able to tell their children and grand-children that "When we were kids..." :)

Related (and loosely-related) Links:

CalTech's "Guide to Frost"

An Ice Crystals Photo Gallery

Ice Crystal Experiments from the Exploratorium

Snow Crystal Photography

Science Photography

By the way, if you're interested in ice crystals, check out The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty by Kenneth Libbrecht, with snow-crystal photography by Patricia Rasmussen. It's a rather hefty picture book (112 pages), filled with amazing photographs of snowflakes and a detailed (but quite readable) text that explains the science of snow.