Thank you for your concern about Rebecca's chickenpox - she's much better, growing stronger each day, and her skin is healing well. So it's time for her to rest and recover.
Despite the Xmas poX, we really did have a very nice Christmas.
Or as my big boy said yesterday morning, "Wow, mamma, I didn't remember Christmas holidays being so much fun!" He then explained: "Nothing to do except play games. And some tennis. All day long!" I think our kids were ready for a Christmas at home: after our simple Christmas in the Alps, and our rich Christmas in the US last year, they were looking forward to celebrating according to our family's traditions. Which I found amusing, because I wasn't really aware that our family had any set Christmas traditions. But their memories of past Christmas holidays were quite clear, and they were eager to repeat all the things we did when they were little boys, and to share them with their sister, who only had very vague memories.
The difference was that whereas in years past, we parents proposed and prepared and generally worked to make things merry, this Christmas the boys were actively involved: they brought out all the "traditional Christmas" board games, and Incognito, chess and Sleeping Queens ("traditional" as of this year) were played from right after breakfast through long into the night. They sharpened the knives to prepare our "traditional" Christmas fondue (which in truth is the Christmas tradition I always hoped and intended to be ours: a communal and convivial meal that requires minimum time in the kitchen with pots & pans - the usual activity of the Christmas mom - at a time where all I really want do to do is sit around with my family). They melted and poured chocolate on the panettone, and let their little sister lick the pot clean (chocolate for chickenpox?! Not what the doctor ordered, to be sure, but you've got to cure the soul as well as the body).
When we lit the candles and the sparklers on our Christmas tree, it felt like we'd (re)created a new traditional Christmas for ourselves (maybe next year without the pox).
