Happy New Year, Happy Birthday

It’s January first, 2016! A new year has begun. And the weather is cooperating nicely: it’s sunny and warm(ish) right around freezing.

It was a bit of a lazy morning, since we were all up to midnight last night. But eventually we made our way to the kitchen to clean up and have some breakfast. Then Miranda opened cards and presents.

Her major gift this year was… an opportunity. Miranda has asked off and on for a violin. Sometimes with her it’s difficult to gauge just how interested she is in something, but she has been consistently insistent that she wanted to learn it. She had a chance to try one a while ago through school and she liked it.

So, I went to Long and McQuade fully expecting to purchase one. But I spoke to the lady there for a while, and she recommended renting one:

• There is a deal for kids to rent for the school year,
• Kids grow, and violins come in many sizes to accommodate arm length and hand size,
• The rental one was already set up and a higher-quality instrument than an intro-level violin,
• It will give us six months to see if she enjoys it, and then we can make decisions from there.

So, here is the instrument that Miranda has until the end of June:

We will sign her up for lessons next week, either through her piano school or through Long and McQuade.

Update

I’m going to post this here:

We had a chance to Skype for a short while with Baba and Grandpa in Mexico, and Miranda spoke to Nana and Grandpa and Auntie Stephanie for a minute or two before we headed out the door for sledding fun.

Here are some video clips I shot of Miranda:

and Ian:

and Tammy: