“A ski sled!” yelled E. “A polar flyer, awesome,” said I. We all looked outside. Warm sunshine streamed in the sliding doors. washing out the Christmass tree lights. I squinted at the grass lawn. “Well,” I said, “we could always jump in the car and go try to find some snow.” But we didn’t. We opened gifts and hugged and ate and hugged some more. The hugging is my favorite part of Christmas. Later in the day the boys went outside with their father to learn to shoot their bow and arrows (from Santa, argh!) and then we went for a wonderful hike in a local state park.
Incidently, when we got to the top of the mountain, there was an older man (60’s?) taking digital photographs. He photographed my kids a few times as they played on the rocks and I asked how he was going to use the photos. “They’re for my personal use,” he responded gruffly. “I didn’t take any of you.”
“Yes,” I said, “but you took photos of my children.”
“Do you want me to delete them?” he asked.
“No,” I said trying to stay light and kind. “But I am an artist who often sketches others and I often ask first. You can’t be too careful these days,” I explained.
“I guess so,” he said.
Was I overly protective? Should I have had him delete them. Personal use? What is that? I suppose I just wanted to make sure he wasn’t planning on putting them on the web but he didn’t really say he wouldn’t either. Anyway, if parents ask me about my sketching, I always have a card handy, I let them see the sketches (which usually don’t look like their kids anyway) and ask them to take a look at my website. His response didn’t satisfy me.
Back to Christmas. I’m so excited about my gift to my husband. I got him seasons tickets to the Maine State Music Theater our only professional musical theater in town. He was thrilled. Now we have to wait for summer to enjoy the gift.
Creative Chaos 