Pre-Christmas December

Another month has come and is nearly gone!  December is always a great time of year and a busy one, so little surprise that it has gone by so quickly.  We keep very busy at the holidays, although we don't have to try too hard.  It just sort of happens.  We had weekends put aside for the various 'tasks' of Christmas like baking, but they quickly got filled.  Here's a quick rundown of our month.

The first weekend in December, we had pageant rehearsal and then I took the girls to Wolf Trap for the annual President's Own Marine Corps Band free Christmas concert.  We met my sister and her kids there, and somehow managed to find seats for everyone, which was a miracle.  It's a cold day out at Wolf Trap, as you can imagine, but it doesn't really feel like Christmas until we go.  The band plays a variety of instrumental pieces for the first half hour, and then there's an hour long sing-a-long.  Frosty, Rudolph, and Santa all make an appearance, and it's a lot of fun.  At the end, there is a candlelight procession to Silent Night, which is very moving.  We were very cold, but we really enjoyed ourselves!! Astrid broke out a Santa hat that day, and I don't think it's left her head since!  My sister got one picture of us on the day, and it's mostly her daughter, but if you look hard, you can see Astrid behind me there.

While my dad was here, he gave us a giant snowman for our house, and so the girls and I spent an afternoon figuring out that, plus some other decorations we've put up for years.  We had a lighted garland on the fence, and an inflatable snowman that keeps tipping over.  We call him Drunk Santa.  The snowman, being 12 feet tall (nearly 4 meters) was a challenge--we needed to add support strings and then work out electrical.  We also got a star shower machine, and had to plug that in and get it set up.  All in all, it worked out very well.  Our house looks quite festive.  Some days later, Leah asked if we could put up the tree.  We succumbed to getting an artificial tree last year, so I got that out and we put it together.  Astrid said it was the ultimate DIY, and she had never built her own tree before.  Our tree is a riot of colored lights, ornaments in every shape and size, tinsel, and a hot pink glitter star on top.  It's like nothing our Danish princess had ever seen before.  They had a lot of fun decorating it, and I think one of my favorite memories of this Christmas will be that after it was up and decorated, Leah decided we should all lie with our heads underneath it so we could feel what it would be like to be presents.  We all laid under the tree for quite a while, chatting and looking at the lights and ornaments from underneath.  It was cool.

In my last post, I showed Astrid with her hair cut short.  Here she is shipping her hair off the Pantene:

She had quite an impact on others, because just this past week, Dipthi also donated her hair!  So cool. :)

We continued to babysit The Bup on Wednesday nights and took him on a few adventures.  We enjoyed an evening at the Illumination Light Show and Santa's Village one week.  Our routine came to be strapping him in the car with a snack, putting a Christmas movie on the DVD player for him and Leah, and driving around looking at lights.  He really enjoyed the light show very much, and was so excited to go meet Santa until it came time to actually have his turn meeting Santa.  Then he was like "NO WAY!"  Through a lot of coaxing by both the photographer and Astrid, he finally agreed to sit by Astrid's feet, but he was in no way, shape, or form happy about it.  If Astrid had so much as blinked, I'm pretty sure Bup would have been long gone.

We also took him on two other Christmas joy rides, made Christmas ornaments with him, and decorated cookies with him.  It's been fun having a little, little kid around on the holidays.  Bup's parents, Jason and Nancy invited us to see the lights at Paul's Bakery, a local bakery that puts up a huge light display and has Santa come and does a little reindeer train ride around the parking lot.  Astrid stuffed herself into a reindeer despite the objections of the ride operator, and we had fun wandering around looking at the lights.  We also went back later with my friend Linda from the UU as well and enjoyed another evening, although Astrid didn't stuff herself in the reindeer again!

Bup and Leah making gingerbread men

The light show at Paul's Bakery

Meeting Santa & Mrs. Claus at Paul's

We also worked hard on Christmas cards this year. I tried to get the girls to pose for photos, but that was a hot mess.  We eventually got 5 decent ones, but by the time it was over, everyone was fighting and in tears.  LOL  So no, it's not all fun and games as it seems.  We had an evening after the pictures were printed where everyone sat around the table and signed the cards.  It was the first year Leah signed her name herself, and having Astrid on there was pretty cool too.  The pictures came out well, I enjoyed getting them and sending them!  I've been keeping track of who sends cards back and for a while would only send them to people who were sending us cards, but now I am happily sending cards to whoever I feel would enjoy one without worrying about whether or not we get one back.  It's made me much happier.

Astrid also demonstrated a big sister's love, or else Leah demonstrated a potential for a future in diplomacy, when she got herself out of bed at 8:30AM on a Saturday to attend the breakfast with Santa at Leah's elementary school. We even walked over there in the cold, and Astrid still did it.

Leah was very proud to show Astrid around and we enjoyed a pancake breakfast and Astrid and I talked with a lady about hosting a stun gun party.  Ha.  Only in America!  We had a blast. After pageant rehearsal that morning, we had been invited to my friends Paul and Kris's house for a Christmas concert and Christmas dinner.  I try to go every year since they started inviting us, and even have the second weekend in December blocked off for 2017 just in case.  There is a big concert at their church, which is really nice, and then they host everyone at their house for a lovely dinner.  There is another family that comes every year and we always have a nice time seeing them--the mom was also widowed young, so it gives me hope to see her raising her kids so well and I love seeing them every year and how they've changed and what they're up to.  I think we've been going there for about 10 years, so the girl who is now a junior in high school was at one time a kid Leah's age, which just blows my mind!

The Christmas pageant was on 12/11.  Both girls spent a lot of time rehearsing and being in on it, and Astrid had a pretty good sized part.  She was a big hit in the pageant, lots of people commented on her sass and talent afterwards.  Leah was so terrified, she forgot to say her lines.  hahaha  But Astrid shone through like a star!  Her role was Mistletoe the Elf, a kind of wisecracking elf who gives the other elves a hard time.  Leah was a little elf called Glitter who is supposed to be rounding up runaway toys.  She basically ran in circles with younger children.  It was pretty cute.

Astrid as Mistletoe the Elf

After the pageant was over, we had to go over to my friend Amber's mom's Patti's house for her annual Thieves Christmas party.  The idea is simple--you bring a gift valued at $15 or under and put it in a pile.  We all draw numbers and take turns opening a random present.  You can also steal presents from other people who have already opened something you like.  It's a fun afternoon!  Amber's nephew wanted to play badminton as it was a pretty nice day for December, so Astrid got involved in a badminton death match. I also dared her to try spray cheese, but it turned out she totally loved it, so she wound up stealing the can and eating it all the way home.  She seems to like American food that isn't really food.

As if all of this wasn't enough, AFS had an international potluck dinner and the other Danish student, Claudia, wanted to go, but her host family wasn't able to bring her, so we were asked to host Claudia for the weekend.  We were excited to have another teen in the house and to learn more Danish customs.  Friday night, I took both girls and Leah to see the movie Loving, which was about an interracial couple who lived in Virginia.  They were married, even though it was illegal at the time, and eventually their case went all the way to the Supreme Court, making interracial marriage legal in the US.  It happened only about 20 minutes from Fredericksburg, where we live, and as we have a family that came together due to interracial adoption, I wanted Leah to see some of the ways in which people bravely stood up for paving the way for us to become a family.  It was a great local history lesson for the other two girls as well, and just a wonderful movie.  Very moving indeed.  The next morning, we had the girls do some baking and then they had to prepare food for the potluck.  Claudia chose to make frikadeller, Danish meatballs.  Astrid made risalamande, a rice pudding.  At the dinner, they had to discuss Danish Christmas customs, and led the other AFS'ers in a lively dance around the Christmas tree and around the room.  The food was delicious and it was fun to hear about the customs in all sorts of countries. 

Some of the 2016 AFS'ers in Virginia

 On Sunday, we took Claudia to church with us for the Christmas holiday buffet and a really interesting jazz service.  When we got home, we had a couple of hours to kill before meeting Claudia's host dad to drop her off, so Leah asked if she could teach us to make Christmas ornaments.  She used shredded paper that she blended with water, and we molded them into Christmas shapes.  Claudia taught me how to make Danish star ornaments and she and Astrid both made woven heart basket ornaments in which would could put small goodies.  It was so much fun.  And it was nice Leah took the lead on that activity.

We had a great time with Claudia being here!

The week before Christmas was pretty quiet.  Astrid had final exams the first three days the week before, and then she was done with school and hanging around.  We made cookies together, and hung around the house.  Leah finished school on the 21st.  I have been encouraging Astrid to do stuff with her friends, but she's had something of a hard time getting anything officially scheduled yet, so she wound up going to Sky Zone Trampoline Park with Dipthi one day (she sent me the picture to the left after I dropped her off, and it just cracks me up!).  She also spent a day visiting with her mom's cousin who was visiting Virginia from Washington State, and she had a good time doing that.  He was very nice, and I enjoyed meeting him as well.

So that really brings us up to Christmas.  This entry is a kind of mishmash, but the holidays tend to be, don't they?  They sort of rush by in a blur and then all of a sudden, they're over for another year!  But don't worry, only 364 days till Christmas 2017! :-)  I'll be back with a Christmas/ New Year's round up soon.

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

Well, November has come and gone.  I had intended to update the blog every 2 weeks, but unfortunately, I have never found the time to be able to do that, so here we are in December, and I am making the time.  Astrid and Leah had a bunch of weird days off at the beginning of the month, so I got to spend time with each of them separately and together.

Astrid had off the Monday before Election Day, and I really can't remember what we did.  Leah had off on Election Day, and I took Astrid into school late so she would be able to see what voting looks like in the US.  We, like the majority of voting Americans, had every expectation that the election would turn out very differently than it did, and so we felt very happy to go and cast my vote for the first woman president.  I felt very emotional doing it with both girls there, and I truly felt I was voting for them to know that there were no barriers to what they could accomplish, but unfortunately the election went in a different direction.  Astrid and I watched the returns until midnight, but by 10pm, I knew it was over and what the result would be and it was very, very disheartening for us both.  We had hoped to go and see the inaugural parade and were making plans, but now we are considering joining protests and we are writing letters and making phone calls and becoming active locally.  The rest of the week was a total blur of emotion--I have not felt so bad about anything since my husband died 4 years ago.  Consequently, we spent time at the church talking about our feelings and just trying to shake off the disbelief we felt over the whole event.  It still, nearly a month later, feels unreal.

On Thursday, Astrid asked if she could have a day to catch up on schoolwork and sleep, which I agreed to.  We went and surprised Leah and had lunch with her at her school.  The look on her little face when we walked into the cafeteria was hilarious.  She was so happy to see us.  Then she proceeded to look grumpy in pictures.

Over that weekend, I had discovered that the Danish Club of DC was having its annual Danish Christmas bazaar, so we went up to Rockville MD to experience some Danish culture.  It was mostly food and a few handicrafts, but Astrid got to speak Danish with a few people and torture us all with her favorite candy, black licorice, which tastes like salt.  We had fun, though, and I'd say it was worth the drive.  The secretary at Leah's school is going to Copenhagen next summer and was asking Astrid about Aebleskiver, so we made sure to try those, as well as fancy open faced sandwiches.  We also got a candle for our table that will burn down the days till Christmas, and we got ornaments for our tree.  Astrid is going to teach us to make some kind of Danish heart ornaments and folded stars, which we are looking forward to as well.

Leah was a big fan of Aebelskiver

Danish fish balls in brine. Yum?

Some of the sandwich varieties

Some of the items we tried

After we finished at the bazaar, we had to jump back in the car and drive like crazy for F'burg because we had a baby shower to attend for my friend Toni.  Astrid loved it because there were lots of little babies there for her to hold, plus she won a shower game by guessing most closely the number of Hershey Kisses in a giant baby bottle.  Leah is green with envy over those kisses, the majority of which are still sitting in the bottle in Astrid's room

But wait, there's more!  We had to leave the shower early to drive down to Westmoreland State Park and visit with the Moore family and Dipthi.  They were on their last camp out of the year before the cold set in and they invited us down for a campfire and dinner.  We arrived around 4:30 and it was already getting dark, so we took a quick walk down to the beach and then we went back to their campsite for a dinner of chili before heading back home after a wonderful, full, and exhausting day!

Walking on the beach by moonlight with the Moore family

At some point, Astrid also had her fall sports awards ceremony, and received a certificate for participating in cross country.  It was very nice, and I was quite proud she had seen it through without giving serious consideration to quitting, despite how hard it was for her sometimes.    The coaches made a nice speech and then gave each kid a certificate.  Afterwards there was a team gathering in the classroom and I was able to get a picture of Astrid and her coaches.  They were very complimentary about her hard work and dedication and really enjoyed having her on the team.

The following week was International Education Week and AFS asked each student to do some outreach with their schools, so Astrid spoke during the morning announcements about "the proud nation of Danelandia" (as we call it) and her experience as an exchange student.  I understand it was very well received!

The following weekend, we enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving service at the UU.  It was Thanksgiving potluck time!  Astrid prepared our entry--salted caramel butter cake bars, a favorite of Bup's parents.

Somewhere in October, Reverend Doug, our minister, emailed me to see if Astrid would be willing to share the story of her coming to the US during the Thanksgiving service, and she was so excited to do so.  She practiced her speech only once on me, and then made some notes.  Just ahead of her, a young lady talked about how she had been adopted from China and her trip back to China to visit her birth city and orphanage, which made Astrid quite nervous.  I told her she would be fine and off she went.  If you'd like to listen to her speech, you can find it at http://uuffva.org/home/ministry/sermons-and-presentations/ (scroll down to the November 20 service).  She needn't have worried, she made a lot of people very teary eyed, and we could really not leave the building later on without lots of compliments about how she did and people congratulating me on having such a wonderful young lady in our family.  I was justifiably proud.

Astrid giving her speech

The UU congregation

My little beauties eating Thanksgiving dinner

 
Then it was Thanksgiving week!  Astrid was struggling a bit with swimming and decided to take a week off and think about if she wanted to continue on the team or not, so her objections to not going to school on Wednesday were null and void.  I kept her home, because it saved me some running around.  My father, "PopPop" arrived on Tuesday, and although he was immediately captivated by Leah, he had lots of time for Astrid and enjoyed spending time with her a great deal.  One of my dad's favorite activities is playing Yahtzee.  He sensed a fresh victim in Astrid and on the first night, we played.  Astrid swore she was a very good Yahtzee player, but she plays as we have never seen before.  My father was absolutely beside himself.  The more upset he got by Astrid's score, the more crazy she made her score become.  It was HILARIOUS to say the least.

He kept trying to suggest she couldn't take 6 for 3's or a small straight for a full house or something, and she just took that as a challenge.  By the end of his visit, we were calling him The Yahtzee Nazi, and Astrid may be the first person not to bend to his will in scoring.

On Thanksgiving Day, we had a lovely day.  My mom came over early and we all played cards for a while.  I was very happy that Astrid suggested a dish for Thanksgiving dinner--her school had a dinner and she had fallen in love with sweet potato casserole and requested it for our dinner, so I made it for her.  I had never made it in my life and don't especially like sweet potatoes, but this, I have to admit, was quite good.

Our whole family just before dinner

It was a very nice day, we had a lot of great food, played a lot of cards, we went for a post-dinner walk, just very satisfying.

Playing cards with Nana and Cioci

As best I could do for a picture of all of us feasting--only my sister and I are missing

Astrid, my sister, and I taking a post-dinner walk in the neighborhood.  Astrid says I take horrible selfies.  She's wrong.

Until 9pm.  All of a sudden, my father fell violently ill with the stomach flu.  Astrid quickly followed suit.  I was next 2 days later.  We were all miserable and disgusting.  It is the most sick I have ever been.  On the plus side, none of us gained any Thanksgiving weight.  We had plans for the weekend and managed to make it to my niece's birthday party on Saturday, but by Saturday evening, I was totally done for.  Astrid and PopPop rallied Sunday morning, but we missed church.  They took Leah on a carriage ride with Elsa, which had been arranged for by our friends Jason and Nancy in gratitude for watching Bup on Wednesday nights.  I gather they had a good time.  Bup's aunt Mary Ann was Elsa, so it was a nice occasion for the families to come together.  We were supposed to go with the Moores to cook at the respite center for the homeless in town, but unfortunately we had to cancel.  There was just no way I could get up the energy to get up for that long.  So hopefully in a couple of months we'll be able to do that again.

PopPop went home on Monday, and for some reason Astrid didn't have school, but I did have to go back to work on Monday.  I still was feeling a bit weak, but much better than the previous day.  This week has been pretty quiet.  Astrid officially decided to drop swimming and join the fitness club instead at school, which I supported, as I don't think she should do something that's going to make her unhappy.

In preparation for the holidays, and the season of giving, I always like to have Leah volunteer a night at the local soup kitchen, and Monday night was our night to do that.  Astrid and I were serving on the dinner line and Leah went to help at the dessert buffet.  It was a great evening.  Astrid did a great job slinging pizza, which was all I really asked of her, but she actually took it a step further and really engaged with everyone who was there.  It wasn't just a job for her to get through, or another one of my crazy schemes she had to go along with.  By the end of the night, she was actually sitting with some of the people who came to eat, getting to know their stories, talking with them, and was able to tell me about some of them.  I was suitably impressed.  She asked at the end of the night if we could do it again sometime, so I agreed that we could and will sign us up again after the new year.

Getting suited up and learning our jobs

A well deserved pizza break

Talking and visiting with some of the people we served

Last night Astrid asked me to chop off her hair, as she has been growing it out for a while and wanted to donate it to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths hair donation program.  We went to a concert at her school, then she came home and prepared herself.  I cut off nearly a foot of hair from the back of her head and then we fashioned her into a short, choppy cute little haircut that I don't think will take too long to grow out into a more preferred length.

Before we evened it out, it sure is shorter!

Tomorrow, we ship it out to Pantene

We are starting to try to get prepared for Christmas and the holiday season, but it seems the more I try, the further behind I get!  Last night, we went to a concert at her school and they had some nice Christmas music that the kids played and/or sang, and we went to the Holiday Concert in Lights at the mall for 10 minutes.  This weekend, we will head to Wolf Trap for the President's Own Marine Corps Band Christmas Concert.  Also in the works, we will be finishing up the UU Christmas pageant, we have a Christmas concert and dinner party with friends in NoVa, an AFS potluck (she and Claudia, another Danish girl, will be doing some kind of dance around a Christmas tree and Astrid is making rice pudding), visiting local Christmas lights displays, decorating the house, and baking cookies for the neighbors, to say nothing of the day itself and our post-Christmas travels to Rhode Island, New York, and Canada.  It's going to be a busy month, so no promises that I'll be able to update before the New Year, but I will definitely try.  Hope you enjoyed this update!!!  See you soon.