Presented Without Comment

A creation of Andrew's.

Headed to Knoxville for Mom's Masters Graduation, which somehow took three ceremonies.  Two aunts, two (other) brothers, and a Dad came too, and we had, of all things, high quality family time. Terrifying.

Happy Christmas

I was too slow to get Ziv's reaction, but I don't think hers was the one I needed.

Oh! And I finally got one of Simon's prints! AS A TAPESTRY!

And too much other sweet stuff to mention. Magic!

Air and Space

"The" Smithsonian is actually more than a dozen museums. Dad's pointing to the one we're in here:

We chose Air and Space, for obvious reasons. That is: you get to TOUCH THE FUCKING MOON LIKE YOU WERE A FUCKING GOD:

Plus you can see a bunch of firsts up close, and stare into the cockpit of a couple of Apollo Command Modules:

And they keep a couple of ICBMs there, in the lobby:

And if you happen to get there on space day, you get to watch a bunch of schoolchildren call the International Space Station:

Sightseeing

Why take photos of things that everybody's seen zillions of pictures of anyway? How do you make yourself care? The easy way is to stick your face in them.The slightly less easy way is to wait for them to be so ugly that no-one's taking pictures of them:
The best way is to forget about them and take pictures of other things. Like the shoe trend I hope will be sweeping the nation OR MY CLOSET:
TEDDY BEAR SHOES. CAPITAL LETTERS OF AMAZEMENT. Also: Muckrakers for evil:
And parents! And the meeting of parents. And the parents' meeting of parents. Eek.

Fine Arts

Arts Days with Dad continued Saturday. We started at the market, where we found the best balloon artist I've ever seen. If I'd had $5, I'd have asked for a set of wings for myself.

Then back to the Art Gallery, for the Lawren Harris/Walter Phillips/Emily Carr goodness that we had saved for today. No pictures allowed, except when you're having restorative coffee to prepare for the next round of beauty:

The Dad's Visit

My Dad is in town, to attend the My-Dad-Is-In-Town Conference, obviously:

He's kind of a big deal. You can tell because all of those Dr.s are, like, Doctor-Doctors. I took him to see the AGA, which we got in to for free!

The AGA is currently hosting a series of exhibits with the following theme: "Give Phil Stendahl Syndrome." - Brian Jungen, Lawren Harris, Walter J. Phillips, Emily Carr, and some seriously magnificent carved Haida art objects, along with modern works that Robert Davidson created using what he calls the traditional grammar of Haida art. I died.

Then we went out for apple-mango-tofu, which Dad avoided bodily.

Leaving and Working

Mom went home this morning, and Simon went home this afternoon, but not before Dad took us to show us his work and Simon got the chance to expertly bomb a few photos:

the sights

I headed in to downtown Portland twice today, once to visit Powell's City of Wonder (pdf):

Then we went home so Cousin Claire could tell me how badly I needed to watch Black Swan, and dad could show his sister his new presents:

Then it was back to East Portland with Andrew to try to find PDX's live music scene at the Doug Fir:

The headliners, Guantanamo Baywatch, played a single, shockingly unpolished set of a kind of crazed surf music so fun that I danced the whole time I was in line for drinks.

Winning at Christmas

Christmas may be about family, but Christmas day is about presents. That box has a hand-made robo-patterned snuggie in it, and hell yes.

It's also possible to win at Christmas. For instance, Joanna won at Christmas by making me the perfect snuggie. Baby Interrobang won by getting this home-made quilt from Lisa:

Auntie D won 'most clever' for her gift of a subtle hint for Dad:

Matthew and his family won for coming from the future:

Dad won by asking for memories for Christmas, we all won for giving them, and Toshia won for putting them together for us.

And we all won for food.

Team Mommy

Portland is also home to some once-removed and second cousins, which means Christmas parties with people I haven't seen since they were 6, but who will still hug you when you see them. Which is, frankly, outstanding.

Here's Mom, showing her cousin-in-law (or, cousin-out-law?) how we had lots of hair or no hair or something as babies, and Dad grinning with his sister, putting the lie to the whole sibling rivalry we hear so much about. Below, my second cousin and her Dad listen to Joanna explain something about babies. It's a baby-themed holiday, which is also outstanding.

... because we're getting a new one. Here's Toshia helping Interrobang model her first ever Christmas gift, a "team mommy" onesie.

Fine traditions

Obviously we went back to the beach for Christmas, to see the wildlife.
Then we came home for Claymation Christmas, 
And Toshia's bubbling-hot Blackberry Cobbler.

Zillions of Diltses

Did I ever tell you that story about my brother? Did I fail to make it clear which one of these three I was talking about?[The one in the middle is my dad.]  Oh, that's not a great picture of Simon.  Here he is with a Martini made of chocolate and Marshmallows, FTLOG: And anyway, brothers don't make up nearly half of the Diltses these days:

Andrew is the one sublimating between my mom and Joanna.

Family Conference

Last Christmas we figured that since 4 of 5 kids were in grad school and 1 of 2 parents was a prof, we could probably have our own Dilts family mini-conference. We didn't plan another one this year, but I happened to have a poster handy, so I showed it around. If Simon looks bored, it's because he happened to have something way more awesome handy: Here he is, showing us the nature film he wrote, directed, shot, edited, narrated, and starred in when he was in South Africa in October:
You should track it down. Dung beetles are amazing.

Swag!

The Christmas season is about lots of things, but I think Christmas Day for me is all about loot. Here's what we got:Mom got to say "ooh!" about 15 times.
Simon got the same thing from two people for the 3rd time in 4 years, but at least this time the second person was a video rental place. Andrew got exactly what he asked for, to his surprise. Can you see what it is?
Dad got "Dad's Life in Pictures". Also, check out the last supper in the background.
I got a little piece of Havoc, and sent it up to land on a bigger piece.We all got home-made whole-wheat cinnamon rolls. Yum.