All the chicks are home. Marc and I typically take the week off between Christmas and New Years in order to spend time with our delightful brood. When the kids were younger, this meant we’d pack them up and go places like Chuckie Cheese and even a movie or two.
Now that the kids are older, they are more interested in sleeping the day away than they are in spending time with the (old) folks.
Which is why we have to work at it a little harder these days.
The other morning, we packed up the kids (in two cars, we no longer have a car (beast) in which everyone fits) and we first went to a local breakfast place where we ate our fill of crepes, hash browns, eggs, and poutine. After we were done we headed over to a local museum – The Currier in Manchester, NH.
Where we got to see masterpieces by artists like, oh Picasso, Rembrandt, and Monet. We also got to see a gorgeous Tiffany lamp, along with pieces of hand carved furniture that are simply impossibilities (seriously how can any artist get wood to look like fur hairs?)
Can I tell you how lucky we are that we have this opportunity and it’s literally right up the street from us (about a 20 minute drive.) Our kids have grown up going to this museum. One of our sons even took art lessons there where at aged 10 he painted this masterpiece which still hangs over our mantle.
Just when you think that the museum is going to be the same old, same old, they always put something in that’s new.
During the holidays last year it was a Japanese warrior exhibit – you want to see excited kids, put a bunch of samurai swords in front of them. This year it was an Escher exhibit. I know that you all know who Escher is, he’s the guy who made those impossible pictures where stairs go up and down at the same time, fish turn into flying geese, and where spheres reflect a distorted view of the world.
To say that the kids loved it was an understatement. Three full rooms were devoted to the exhibit and we got to see not only the prints that we are all familiar with, but book plates, illustrations, paintings, and even an intact printing stone (it’s rare because back then they used to sand down the stones in preparation for the next print.) One of our sons was so enamored with the exhibit that that’s where we found him when it was time to go, reading each and every placard and examining each print for its detail and perspective. Patterns and math – that kid was in heaven.
After my daughter and I were finished with the exhibit, we walked around the rest of the museum saying hello to some of our old friends.
Sure, the kids are getting older. Sure, some of them are itching to leave the nest soon, but a day at the museum with mom and dad? It’s something they will long remember and it will become one of those family stories told at the holiday table that always begins with “remember the time when…..?”
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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at [email protected]
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