The Christmas Letter

Yesterday was Christmas and I still don't have the 2015 Christmas Letter done. I've been struggling this year. What should I write about? Hmm - perhaps a brief chronicle of our travels based on a few of my favorite photographs of 2015? 

Our first family trip of 2015 was over Spring Break to Puerto Rico (Alu and I went to India in January but that was sans famille, and the kids and I went to Florida in February but that was without Jo). Vivian, Evan and Jo are at their best when mixed with plenty of sunshine. They tried to turn as brown as me. Vivian is starting to get into the ocean by herself though Evan still sticks to me like a limpet.  

A couple of weeks later, for Easter we drove an hour from Austin to Slumber Falls. It wasn't really much of a trip but I include it here because this photo will remind Vivian and Evan that travels need to be neither far nor exotic to be meaningful.

And for the next trip I digress even further. This is definitely not a trip. Vivian and her friends have just stepped off the stage after performing Jai Ho - an average Bollywood number, at a talent show at Vivian's school. Vivian found the time to practice, organized the whole thing, taught her friends, found them Indian costumes, and pulled it all off. Vivian, I hope you will look at this photograph decades from now and say that y'all are still friends. 

For our next photo, Vivian and Evan are with their cousins, aunts and their friends in downtown New Braunfels, a mere 45 minutes from home. They are at a rally supporting equality. A few days latter, they and millions of others around the country were rewarded with a Supreme Court ruling that essentially legalized gay marriage in this country. It was a short trip but I hope that for Vivian and Evan it was a one way trip past bigotry.

At the start of summer we went to Nebraska and stayed at Casa Nebraska with Carol, six dogs, two aunts and six cousins. And more cousins next door. Yes - they bonded. Then on to New England. We stayed with Alu and Michelle and visited with Simran who was doing a summer at Harvard. Next, to a lake house in Massachusetts with Vivian and Evan's childhood friends who taught them the slow art of hanging out on a boat dock.

From New England to New Mexico to see Vivian and Evan's uncle's ceremony at the air force base where he handed over command. More cousin time. 

As the summer holidays wound down, the kids spent the last few days back in Austin at their "white wooden house" enjoying time with their dear neighbor (thank you for the photo, Karen - this is my favorite 2015 photo).  In the Fall, we went to London. We visited my friend who I have known since we were Evan's age. And Simran - who by now had moved to King's College. 

We ended the year with a short trip to Canyon Lake yesterday (from where I write this post). Carol, her four children, their spouses, thirteen grandchildren, and Michelle's dad, Jimmy. You can see several kids in beanies. Carol made one for each grandchild for her 70th birthday.

I set out to write about our year of travels. But, instead it is our year of family and friends. We went far and wide and close to home to visit them. And they have forever become a part of Vivian and Evan's memories and lives. 

I'm stealing a line from a card we received. Merry Everything and Happy Always. And may 2016 be filled with more friends in all our lives.

Love, hugs and kisses from the crew at the white wooded house.

December 26, 2015

Good Light

While we were hanging out under live oaks at the William Chris winery in Hye enjoying a beautiful day I managed to get a couple of photos of the kids that I like. The camera on my phone is acting up, so I am lugging around the aging Cannon but the light was perfect and the kids were slightly cooperative.

It was eighty degrees and there was a nice breeze. Hard to believe that it is the 23rd of December. Speaking of dates, belated happy birthday Bu. My dad would have turned 92 yesterday.

Cousin Time

In a couple of days it will be the reason for the season - Carol's 70th birthday. Jo's siblings and their families are converging on Central Texas. Yesterday we had lunch at the food truck lot near Zilker and then walked along Barton Creek. It was a stupendously beautiful afternoon. I took two photos of the cousins. Somewhere in the two seconds between the first and the second photo Evan briefly turned into the devil (look closely at his eyes). Scary.

Today we went to the William Chris winery in Hye and then stopped by at the Garrison Brothers distillery and the Hye Market. If at all possible, it was an even prettier day than yesterday and we sat and enjoyed wine under live oak trees while the cousins horsed around. Good times.

Winter Break

Since the start of the winter break, we have been creative. Jo and Vivian have baked up a storm. Jo calls them Pintrest Failures. I'm not going to judge whether they exactly look like they were supposed to on Pintrest or not but they taste pretty darn good. Evan, myself, and neighbor Karen aren't complaining.

Speaking of creative, last Friday school came to an end with the Winter Concert. The kids got dressed in black and white and we spent three hours listening to our and others children singing in many languages. It was, as always, a gut wrenching experience. In the photo below, Vivian as in the first row middlish, looking towards the left. Evan, apologies for not getting a photo of you. Everything is blurry because we were standing behind the last row and that was a long way off from the stage. Next year can we please bribe the kids by dangling a nice early trip somewhere far away?

And speaking again of being creative, on Saturday Vivian and Evan walked out into the back yard and made this wreath (okay - their version was slightly sloppier and I helped them execute a little better). Jo was impressed and we hung it on the front door.

Home Alone

After two different parties yesterday evening, Jo still managed to head out with the kids to Houston this morning. Brandon's birthday. I have the day to myself. I took a walk around Town Lake with plans to return home and finish my Christmas shopping and take care of about half a dozen persistent items on my to-do list.

Town Lake was beautiful and empty. The trail was covered deep with feathery cypress leaves. I took my time. Then I came home and read for the rest of the morning and napped. Jo just texted to say they are leaving Katy and heading home. I better get started on my list.

Belt Testing

During a marathon testing session on Saturday, Evan moved up to a solid orange belt (this is is "before" photo) and Vivian to a purple/yellow belt. Evan's big deal is that he got invited to wear a black uniform. His instructor picks students who she thinks are ready for a "leadership" role, whatever that means at his age. Evan is happy. He told his friends that his sister (who has worn a black uniform this school year) invited him to it. Much to the worry of his friend who said "But I don't have an older sister. Who is going to invite me?" 

Vivian as usual enjoyed the sparing portion of the test. Here she is in her green belt getting ready to kick her friend. You can't see her face but she has a huge grin on it. Not a malicious "I'm going to hurt him" evil grin, but a fun one. Her kicks are getting better. She can reach my chin.

Behavior

Sounds like the Clockwork Orange, but Evan needs periodic behavior modification. One afternoon Jo and I got an email from his teacher that he has been a bit too turdish. He needs to rein in his voice, try to mostly speak in turn, respect others, and listen to his teachers' instructions. We instituted a system of positive reinforcements and checks. At pick-up we'd ask his teacher how he did. If he continued to do well at home he'd get a smiley face. Smiley face tomorrow and you get ice cream. Four more smiley faces this week and you pick your treat.

He's been almost an angel. Yesterday was Saturday and because he hadn't been able to expend his turdiness during the week, he had some left over for his sister. But still, a huge improvement.

Vivian had a very interesting conversation with me the other day. She and her girl friends at school have read up about how girls change during puberty and she's pretty sure they are going through it. The boys are still "running around cluelessly", but the girls are beginning to "look at the boys differently". I think (or should I say, I hope) this is what she thinks should happen and so it must be happening, even if it actually isn't. But I loved her ability to put it all in to a conversation and to be able to reason through it.

Either way, behaviors are a-changing.  

Phamily Photos

Jen gave us a session with a professional photographer for Christmas. She has been beseeching us for years to get professional family shots and finally decided to take matters into her own hands. So on Sunday morning we got dressed for church and went to Rattan Park and met Bonnie who told us how to hug and hold each other and laugh (not smile) while her camera clicked away. Evan mostly kept it together but towards the end he just couldn't hide his aversion to the lens.

These two are the best of the lot.

Just kidding. Later that afternoon Carol drove down to Austin and after brunch at Maudie's we went to Town Lake for a walk. Evan isn't happy in this photo, not over the usual camera thing but because he was mad at me. He tried to run ahead of the rest of the group and hide from them so he could jump out and surprise them. But he hid in plain sight. Only his head was hidden. And because he couldn't see them he was convinced that he was fully hidden. He got mad when I tried to explain. Vivian isn't happy because the "walk was too long" and "wasn't any fun". 

What fun. 

We are picking out the best five from Bonnie's photos and they look pretty good. You'll see them here soon.

Trail of Lights

The Trail of Lights is one of Austin's tacky holiday tradition. Not as cool as the now fading but at one time amazing 37th street lights, but nevertheless a tradition. It opens with the Trail of Lights Fun Run - a mostly walking meander through about two miles of Zilker park and then the quarter mile stretch that is garishly lit up like a Indian wedding. This year's logo on our bibs said "I'll Walk. Yule Run". Tacky, right.

This year we "ran" it again with the Tenny's. We met for dinner at the food truck lot near Chuy's and while the kids played and joked ("Oh - my butt is broken" "How?" "It's got a crack")  the adults fortified ourselves with holiday spirit. Then we walked to under the giant "Christmas Tree" (no tree, but a lot of lights hung around one of Austin's famous moon towers) and waited for the run to start. There were six thousand of us. I kept getting Evan to rehearse my phone number till he got it right, in case we got separated.

Here's some of the crew. Evan isn't there with Jack and Sam and Sampson and Izzie and Vivian because his schtick is he doesn't like to be photographed. But we managed to stay together through the run.

You can see how happy Evan is with the whole thing. At the end of the trail I bought way overpriced hot chocolate ($30 for 4) and we gathered around the Yule logs to warm up. The chocolate was terrible and we had to throw it away and drink free beer instead (what a compromise). But it didn't cheer Evan up.

Books

Jo has a thing about taking on orphan projects that no one else wants to. Last year she organized a book drive at school. And it was so much fun she decided to do it again. On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, hundreds of piles and boxes of books seemingly converged towards the multi-purpose room while students and grand parents milled around in their midst.

The school had invited grand parents to come visit their grandchildren during the morning. Vivian and Evan were both expecting their Grandma. But Carol was sick and as it would be better for her not to throw up on unsuspecting kids, we agreed the evening before that she should cancel her visit. That was when Jo, myself and the kids were eating pizza at a new restaurant next to the school. The pizza had just showed up. It was really good and Vivian was stuffing her face with it. Then she overheard Jo talking to Grandma on the phone and when she figured out what was happening she started sobbing. Big huge drops of tears on the pizza.

We contemplated hiring a grand parent. But they are hard to find on short notice. So Jo called Nicolle who happily agreed to battle work traffic and drive into Austin the next morning to stand in for poor Carol. All was good and the pizza eating continued more cheerfully.

Nicolle spent time at both Vivian and Evan's classes and ate lunch with them. And then parent volunteers and students and grand parents and loving aunts helped organize the books into boxes. Later that afternoon the books were carted off to Book Springs in several cars, vans and trucks. Here we are sitting on a small section of the boxes. The school donated a few thousand books again this year. Sometimes I think this parent community isn't too bad.

Christmas Tree Shopping

I t was the Sunday morning of Thanksgiving weekend and it was misting and cold. A perfect morning to go Christmas tree shopping. Instead of going down half a mile on Lamar to where the Optimist Club sell trees from a grassy lot beside the street we drove for half an hour to the Elgin Christmas tree farm. We got there a few minutes after they open and the muddy parking lot was already almost full. While waiting in the cold drizzle for the tractor to take us to the trees, we experienced the joy of listening to Vivian and Evan whine while Jo and I tried to be reasonable.

"It's raining"
"Yes, it is, dear"
"I'm cold"
"Put your hands in your pocket, sweetheart"
"It's still raining"
"Yes, honey"
"It's still raining"
"Fucking amazing, isn't it?"

Finally the tractor with a trailer lined with hay bales showed up. The hay was too wet to sit on so we held on to each other and the tractor dropped us off in a tree lot. Much squelching around in the mud ensued while the family critically analyzed several trees. Too thin, too fat, too tall, tilts to the left. Eventually we stopped the kids from exploring further and got them to reluctantly agree on a tree. Then we took turns with the hand saw to cut it down. By then the drizzle had stopped and the kids were occupied. The tractors that were headed back were full so Jo and I carried the tree back to the farm house (functional fitness), had it bagged and then we hoisted it up on the car and drove home.

We rearranged the living room to accommodate the tree and and here it is before the kids and Jo decorated it. Once the red velvet tree skit went up around the base of the tree, Crazy happily curled up and slept the whole night under the tree. I think she thinks she's glamping. 

Loving Brother

Evan has a very fixed idea of how to pose for a photo. For this, the "loving brother" showed up. Jo took this one morning in the front yard before school because the school needed a picture of us with the kids in their uniforms. We may make an appearance in the annual report.

Happy Thankgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving lunch at Nicolle's where Greta taught the kids how to gamble. I am thankful for Mexican lotto with pennies and beans. What about you?

The turkey behaved itself much better than last year and it turned out at least as good. The rest of the meal was superbly prepared by Nicolle, Michelle, Jo and Carol (and some people at Whole Foods). Then we watched the Longhorns lose and drove back to Carol's with Cade and Grace in addition to our two. On Friday I screwed around with the fence from hell for a little while while it drizzled intermittently. Then Jo left for Austin with out kids, I drove Cade and Grace to New Braunfels and dropped them off, picked up Devyn, and went lumber shopping to Lowe's. We drove back to Carol's, unloaded the truck in a sweaty 75 degree weather and headed for Austin. Twenty five minutes later when we were on Purgatory Road I check the temperature and it was 49 degrees. A fast moving cold front!

Later that evening Devyn sat Vivian and Evan while Jo and I went to Tina's 40th birthday party. It was a nice sit down dinner at a very nice restaurant but we only knew the hosts and Tina's parents and every one else were doctors (mostly rheumatologists, apparently) so Jo and I got a little drunk and enjoyed each other's company and then stopped at the Apothecary for another drink and made it back home after everyone was asleep. Devyn had left a note by the door. "All went great. I had a couple of melt-downs w/ Evan but got it taken care of..."

Another evening at the white wooden house.

This morning we asked Vivian and Evan how things went and if Evan had been a pain. "No. Everything was great" they both said. Lying sacks of shit.

Time Travel

This morning Evan and I went to Edward's Park. It was cold and wet and muddy. Earlier in the morning as we all lay in bed Vivian decided to call for a vote between eating tacos and watching movies at home or walking in Edward's Park. Evan and I rigged it by raising two hands and two feet each and counting Crazy's tail to make it 9 to 2 in our favor. But the others were sticklers for rules so just the two of us went to Edwards - Evan in his pj's with a coat and hat and gloves.

After we got thoroughly muddy and cold we decided to head back. Evan said it was going to take us sixty hundred thousand minutes to get back home and I told him that was a very long time (about 11 years). So he suggested we use time travel and had us imagine ourselves back in bed in the morning and the vote going 10-1 in favor of staying at home (only Crazy's tail for Edward's), and as we never left for Edward's, we would find ourselves at home in bed. All was good till I asked him how he'd explain the mud on his pajamas.

"Mannnn! Time travel is hard".

Technology

I even dislike the word they use to mean "playing with or being entertained by electronics" - it shows bias and ignorance. But it's probably here to stay. Last week Magellan had a psychologist come to school to talk to parents about their children's use of technology. He listed some of the areas of concern: too much gaming, texting and driving, multi-tasking ("there is no multi-tasking, just task switching"), cyber bullying, sexting, porn, sexual predators, and too much screen time. Nice.

The American Pediatric Association recently changed it's recommendation of zero screen time for two years and under to 2 hours a day because the APA was accused of having guidelines out of line with every day experiences of Americans. OK - you can smoke two packs a day because zero sounds too harsh.

Electronics clamor for our attention. The same instincts that made us turn around in the Savanna at the sound of a twig snapping enslaves us to the buzz of a phone. We now detect phantom buzzes - we imagine the phone buzzing when it doesn't.  Electronics reward the same places in our brains that drugs to. Dopamine released when I play sudoku on my phone makes me want to go back and play more sudoku. Not just because I want to play more sudoku but because my brain wants me to do something again and again to get its hit of dopamine. We are now mice in our Skinner boxes. The psychologist who gave the talk at Magellan used an analogy - krispy kreme donuts with crack.

But that cat is out of the bag and there is probably no reasonable scenario in the foreseeable future that will reverse the process. Oculus Rift version 5 - we will forsake food, relationships, the outdoors, our jobs, families, and even real sex for the better imaginary world to the extent that we can. The same psychologist described an Apple watch as a krispy kreme donut worn on your wrist so you can take a quick nibble any time you want.

Welcome to your world, Vivian and Evan.

The Band

On Friday after school Jo let Evan play at school with his buddies while Vivian and I hightailed it to her musical dance class. On Karen's advice I got myself this lovely cup of herbal tea and settled down to read my book on the peaceful porch of Casa de Luz while Vivian learned to do whatever she does at the Adderley dance school. By the time we fought traffic after class and got back home I noticed that it was past 5:30. I had spent the last two and a half hours bring a chauffeur. I planned on asking Vivian if she was interested enough in singing and dancing to carry on with this class the next year. But no time now. 

We rushed back out the door to the Black Star co-op to meet Jen and Travis and company at the TCS happy hour. The beer was good, the conversation even better, but the food took forever. The kids had ordered a chicken tikka and it was nice but once they had inhaled it, they were still hungry. We were faced with the prospect of another long wait if we ordered more food there, so instead we decided to stop at Stinson's by the house for a quick bite before bed.

At Stinson's we sat out on the porch with our drinks and watched a three-piece band tune up.  Vivian is inordinately interested in the base and the base player noticed that and invited her over to pluck some strings. Then we sat back down and enjoyed listening to half a dozen blues and R & B songs that the band played. Evan curled up in my arms. Vivian was beginning to look tired. We decided to head home. 

And the harmonica player asked Vivian if she wanted to sing a song and before I could react Vivian had crawled under the table in front of us and was with the band. "What should I sing?" she asked melodiously into the microphone. 

"Little boat" yelled Evan from my arms. And the band shrugged and told her to start singing and that they'd find the tune. And so Vivian belted out "Fight Song" in its entirety and did a pretty good job. Jo and I didn't have the sense to video it because we stood their with our jaws hanging, enjoying the moment. The crowd gave her a huge applause. The band asked her to join them every Friday evening. And we went home.

While the kids were putting on their pajamas, Jo told Vivian that it was a very brave thing to go out in front of all those people and sing. And Evan made sure that he got to share the credit too because he was the one who told Vivian what song to sing. And I kept my thoughts of Vivian possibly discontinuing her musical dance class to myself.

After the kids went to sleep I walked back to Stinson's to listen to some more music. When the band took a break they walked over and said that they would be better prepared and learn how to accompany Vivian in that song and if I would be kind enough to teach her a couple of blues songs. And they were kind enough to let me a take a photo. That's Gabby, Mike and Chris - Vivian's friends from the band.

Are We Fucked?

The other day NPR interviewed a reporter from Le Monde. Here she is discussing how France is dealing with the social and political backlash from the discovery of the alleged Syrian refugee-terrorist: "So that is going to be a huge debate in the press and among the politicians and the intellectuals and our writers and our artists."

Now I present to thee a snapshot of the debate in America between our politicians, intellectuals, writers and artists - brought to us via Jo's Facebook friend's feed. 

Conferences

Here's a sample of Vivian's Mandarin homework. She writes those squiggles like she knows what she's doing. Her Mandarin teacher isn't the run of the mill IB and inquiry-based learning variety. "You need to memorize things to learn Mandarin. The way you love Mandarin is by practicing ten minutes everyday". And Vivian does.

Vivian got a mixed bag at her parent teacher conference. The good news is that compared to the first part of the year she's golden. I see her strategy. Set the bar really really low and then any improvement is just fucking amazing. It's been her MO for a third year in a row. I just hope that like last year, she monotonically improves for the rest of the school year.

Evan has been found out. No more sweet Evan here. He did that the first year at Grace and then again the first year at Magellan. By the second year the truth is out. So his teachers did use the word "brilliant" and they didn't use the word "asshole" but it was definitely left hanging in the air.

Happy Birthday Ava

Ava celebrated turning nine yesterday. Like Grace she can light up a room with her smile. Though she has a slightly impish smile that makes you wonder what she is up to. Her birthday theme was camo. Camo headbands, camo table cloth, camo plates and glasses, dog tags and even face paint. The grown-ups kept joking that we couldn't see anything because it/they were all camouflaged.

The girls are smiling. The boys are a different story. Kai is grinning. Evan is really serious - this is no laughing matter. And Cade is sad - he wasn't happy about Mama Cole rubbing the grease pencil all over his face.

Hye, Texas

Last Friday, as soon as the Adderley dance class was done, Vivian, Evan and I started driving towards New Braunfels. Being rush hour, we took the back roads and stopped at the DQ in Wimberley for dinner. Over dinner Vivian asked me to write out a math problem on my phone and let her solve it. It took her a couple of attempts to get her subtraction of large numbers with carry straight. Then she said "Evan - I'm going to give you some math problems" because he had expressed that he was bored while Vivian was solving her problem. "What is six plus three?"

A few seconds of silence and a look of concentration on his face. Then "Nine".
"Good", continued Vivian, in her full teacher stride now. "Seven plus five?"
"Twelve"
"Nine plus seven?"
"Sixteen"

This went on for a little while. Then she changed tack. "Evan - there are ten signs at the Dairy Queen. Three of them stop working. How many working signs are there?"
"Seven".

I had to interject. "Evan - are you learning this at school?"
"No". But then he says that a lot. Remember when he taught himself Taekwondo and phonics when he was three?
"So how do you know to add and subtract?"
"Oh - I just count forward or backwards."

We finally got to New Braunfels and I dropped the kids off at Nicolle's and drove back to Austin. Vivian was going to spend a night there with the girls while Evan was going to join Cade, Kai and Quinn at Grandma's. Then Vivian and Evan were going to spend Saturday night at Grandma's. And Jo and I would come get them on Sunday.

On Saturday morning we went to a winery tour in Hye, Texas with friends. Jo had bid on this at the Silk Road gala for AFSAA last year. William & Chris vineyards laid out the red carpet for the tour. The owner of the Hye general store across the street brought us lunch - sandwiches made with local meats and jams. And Bill, the William in William & Chris was our guide. The best part of the afternoon was that Jo liked several of their wines. Which is terrific news for Jen and me because now maybe she'll drink with us.

A Full Lake

The lake is full again. This ramp that connects the shore to the boat dock used to drop down about 50 vertical feet at the start of this year. Then you had to take a ferry from the end of the ramp out to the dock which was anchored in the sliver of water that was the original riverbed of the Colorado. Everything else was dirt. Aaah - water.

You'll see us on Travis a lot more. After seven years I have reactivated my membership on Siyagruva (thank you Jo - it was one of my birthday gifts!). I had given it up when Vivian was about a year old and I noticed that I hadn't been out sailing for a year. My dad and I sailed quite a bit together and now it's time to bring the little ones up to speed. Ahoy!

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

This is one of the many posts that have been circulating on Facebook. Jo grabbed it from one of her Facebook friend's shares last week for me. I am glad my eight year old and I had a conversation on logic. Apparently not everyone did.

Diwali

Diwali came and went mid-week last week without as much as a diya being lit at home. May be we'll pick some time this coming weekend and get the kids dressed in all the lovely clothes that Guri Uncle sent from Delhi and Sahiti bought for them in Hyderabad. This is what we looked like, sitting at the front steps of Preethi for Diwali in 2011.

Meanwhile, on Diwali, the Christmas cup flap was in full brew and our future president was haranguing us to boycott Starbucks for their flagrantly un-Christian ways. So I made a Diwali card. Happy Diwali, y'all.

Paris

This photo is my phone screen. It's also my phone cover. I see it a few hundred times every day. The City of Light shed some of its beautiful radiance on us for a few wonderful days during a trip a year and a half ago.

The loss of a human life so tragically is awful, made worse by the meaninglessness of it. In the 6000 mile stretch of land between Gaza and Lahore, there is death from war and terror every day. The Palestine-Israel conflict, the full fledged Yemen-Saudi-Houthi war, Lebanon's suicide bombs on Thursday, uncountable suicide bombs in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, and the cluster fuck that is Syria.

I do not change my profile photo on social media for people dying in any of those countries. So why did we collectively pause and gasp and weep at what happened on Friday night in Paris? Are Parisians sufficiently like us while Yemeni are not (ironically untrue for me). Is Paris a New York, London, or Delhi?

This morning at the breakfast table, while Vivian and Evan hurriedly gulped down omelettes and English muffins, Jo and I cautioned them about discussing the news from Paris with their class mates. 

Vivian has just finished a unit about Malala at school. She and Evan saw the movie (thanks to our neighbor!). She has some context. I asked her to put her thoughts about Paris into words at the breakfast table.

"Who did it?" was Vivian's first question.

"They think it was muslim terrorists" we replied.

We discussed the dangers of not being logical.

"Fact: These terrorists were muslims" I said. "Question: Are all muslims terrorists?"

"No - because there are other types of terrorists too I think" replied Vivian.

"That answers the question 'Are all terrorists muslim?'. Good. Let's get back to the other question.

"Are all muslims terrorists?"

"No - because there are muslims who are not terrorists". 

Easy enough for a eight year old to follow. Then she asked:

"Why did they do it?"

"Why do people go to the dark side?" I countered, because before this we had been discussing Darth Vader. 

And then she misquoted Yoda, but beautifully.
"Because they are sad. Sadness leads to fear. Fear leads to anger. And anger leads to the dark side."

Dare we hope that our children bring more peace to this world than we have.