Ah Spring, Its Beginning to Smell A Lot Like Bonfires...

3.19.2008

Fire is a pretty big deal around here. We actually live in the place where it is believed that fire worship began. So it should be no surprise that the biggest holiday of the year here, the coming of Spring, would have fire elements involved.

The big holiday, March 20th, is preceded by several Tuesday evenings of bonfires...each one seemingly bringing the fire a bit closer to our house!

Last night, the last Tuesday, bonfires were everywhere...prime bonfire real estate being the middle of city streets (see below).




It turns out to be quite the social event, with most of the neighborhood coming out to join in the fun and toss in some of their rubbish. I don't think anyone here has read or even heard of An Inconvenient Truth, at least by the looks of things thrown on the fire. Another blow to the ozone...somehow seems a bit incongruent seeing as its a celebration of spring and all.

Once the blaze dies down a bit (and my heartrate returns to normal since no more sparks are flying into the trees and onto our balcony), the "fun" begins. The idea is that if you jump over the fire, it will cleanse you from any "sins" or evil spirits...a fresh start for a fresh year and all that.

And so the fire jumping begins. Oddly enough, it is mostly done by children. I would think the adults would have much more to burn off than the kids, but hey, it isn't my custom.

Boys Will Be Boys

3.10.2008

It's me again, Benjamin.

My mom and dad thought they were pretty good at this parenting gig...until I came along. They were forewarned "boys are different" and now they are finding out!

At first, things seemed little different. If anything, my mom worried that I would be too influenced by my big sisters and turn out to be a girly boy...given the toybox contents of barbies, babies, and all in 15 different shades of pink, she had reason to be concerned.

She should have saved her worrying.

The first thing I did when I saw a babydoll was to body slam it and sit on it....Much to her dismay, I tend to try to do this to real babies as well (most of which among my aquaintance also happen to be girls...oops).

Another thing I have a real passion for that neither of my sisters did (I'm told) is climbing. I love to scale the mountains of my home. The problem is, I don't quite know how to de-scale them, so to speak. Below is a prime example....

Scaling Mount Barbie Dream House

OK, I'm here, now what?!

This happened the same night that I threw several of Sophie and Annie's American Girl books into the fireplace -- while the fire was blazing! See, all that worrying for nothing, Mom! After all, boys will be boys!