This morning we went to the frame store to help Tuck choose a frame for his Master’s degree. That’s his “big” Christmas gift; he doesn’t care that it doesn’t happen on Christmas Day as he gets the Christmas Overwelms. Trinity Framing is our favorite shop.

Claude noticed a framed print of Greek pantheon monsters above the door. She and the woman in the shop had a good discussion — knowing that Claude is studying for the National Mythology Exam and part of the test for her age group is specifically about Greek monsters. The woman also showed Claude another print by the same artist.

She liked both but preferred the monsters, so we put it on hold as a possible birthday gift. And Tuck picked a rather unusual frame for his degree. Surprise.

The kids had their music lessons and then we ran on over to something I was much excited about — the Steve Powers pop-up shop at Mural Arts. If the “Love Letters” mural tour still exists, do it. Tuck and I did almost seven years ago and we have the book. Powers is a fave of mine and Tuck has a big print of his, and Béla has two limited edition prints Powers did for David Byrne’s American Utopia album. (Those need to go to Trinity Framing too.)

For the pop-up shop Powers had painted the building where Mural Arts is located; a nice guy inside showed us the Hyperlapse he had taken of the entire process earlier this morning (he had come on the bus from Scranton for this event). There were food trucks and a pretty long line of people — you were allowed to bring something to screen-print there, and Powers was signing prints. People had their jeans jackets done, and Tucker had bought some t-shirts and I had some special paper with me.

We were having fun, but once we got inside we saw that the line on the inside was even longer than the one outside and moved a good bit slower. There was a little hot chocolate shop set up, which was on the fancy side. Béla carries his money in an oilcloth that he made with Tucker during their reading of “Treasure Island”, which I find really adorable. He got himself and his sister some hot chocolate and for once in their lives, they did not care at all, it seemed, about being in a long line to do something they were only marginally interested in at the time.

Then they REALLY lucked out because I got bored with the line too. I did not feel like having another physical possession, as much as I love Powers’ work, and we had enjoyed the experience and really didn’t want to run it into the ground. I told the kids to go ninja and snake through to get a good picture of Steve Powers and Béla the photographer did not disappoint!

And Claudia grabbed us some stickers — this one I really love — and we headed home.

Busy day! Everybody had some downtime at home and we are trying to catch up on our Christmas viewing and listening and cooking!