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.

Halloween and Happiness...

We've had an interesting and fun couple of weeks since my last update. 

Astrid has been super busy finishing up the cross-country season with her team.  She did really well at each of the meets and got to go all the way to the division finals last week.  The team had a really nice party one of the kids' houses in Fredericksburg city and we had a great time.  I talked to two families who are interested in hosting exchange students--as long as they are like Astrid.  That made me feel so proud!  She's as awesome as I know she is and everyone else recognizes it too!

Cross Country Team Photo

Cross Country End of Season Dinner

This week the team travels to the state finals.  Several members of the team qualified, and although Astrid didn't, she still wants to go, so plans are in the making.  Then next week she will start the swim team.  So it's always something keeping her busy and active.  But I'm kind of glad cross country is over.  It was a lot of work and strain on her.  She persevered and I'm so proud.  But I'm also ready for something different. :-)

Right after we got back from Philadelphia, we hosted a murder mystery dinner party at the house.  This was an auction item fundraiser for our church, meaning the people who came paid for the evening.  For those who aren't familiar with how it works, you can purchase murder mystery kits. You invite guests over, and then assign each of them to be a particular suspect.  You decorate your house to look like the scene, and there are menus provided or you can make up your own dinner menu.  Then you and your guests set about solving the mystery!  One of the guests is the killer, and everyone else has to figure out who that is.  The murder we chose was called Pasta, Passion, and Pistols and I prepared lasagna and carbonara for the main entrees.  The rest of the guests chipped in for appetizers, salads, breads, wine, and desserts.

At first, we didn't have a role for Astrid, so I asked her if she would mind being the victim.  We had her lie down on the floor and made an outline of her like a real crime scene.  We scoured Goodwill for costume parts, and made a coat and shirt with a gunshot and "blood", and a fake mustache sealed the deal...   She cleaned up pretty well as "Pepi Roni", a restaurateur who was shot in the back by one of his inner circle.  The other guests arrived and everyone was really dressed to the nines!

The evening was one of intrigue and fun.  The people involved were the perfect mix of individuals for various walks of UU life, and we had an absolute blast.  Only one person managed to correctly deduce the murderer and his or her motive, and we had a great meal and a wonderful time.  As an added bonus, one of the ladies called out sick, so Astrid got to step into an actual character role and be a suspect, which she was happy about!

Solving the crime...

After dinner, Astrid taught everyone to fold their napkins into flowers

We had another evening of fun with some friends at the UU when we invited a couple of families over to have a bonfire and dinner in our backyard.  I love lighting up my fire pit in the fall, and now that it is (sort of) getting cooler, we've had more of a chance to do so.  We'd been wanting to have Bup's parents over for a while and added in JP and Stefan after the fireworks spectacular last month.  The party was on.

The Bup came over the day before and so we decided to prepare a special treat for everyone.  He helped make something called Monster Munch, a concoction of peanuts, popcorn, candy corn, and Reese's Pieces, covered in Almond Bark.  Almond bark was something that totally mystified Astrid.  It is nothing more than melting chocolate--in the case of Monster Munch, we used white chocolate.  She told everyone at the party about it.  She really enjoyed making goodies with the kids and we had fun eating the treats as well.  The next night, Bup was back with his parents and JP and Stefan arrived.  I made chili, and we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, played with glow sticks, and had a great time together. 

By the end of the night, Leah had gone back inside.  She said she was cold, but when we all came in, we found her totally passed out on the floor and couldn't resist a group picture of us all piled around her.

You may have noticed in these pictures that Astrid's hair is a crazy mass of braids.  She and her friend decided to put the braids all in during class one day, and she wore them proudly for almost a week.  She finally took them out and her hair was a mass of crimping that would have set any late 80's teen girl's hair dreams on fire....  Astrid also gave me a much needed haircut this month and she did an amazing job. 

We finally began making preparations for Halloween.  Dipthi, our welcome student, sent me a message early Halloween week asking if she could spend Halloween with us.  We all thought that was a great idea!  The Friday before Halloween, we went quickly to a local farm in town and picked up our pumpkins.  Astrid had a super busy Friday planned with a trip to a local high school football game and then a lock in at school for her theater class, so we had no time to waste.  I got this lovely picture of the girls while we were there.  Leah was a bit upset that we didn't have time to go and get pumpkins out of the field, but we were just so busy, we had to settle for going into the farm stand and just buying what they had on hand.  We got some great pumpkins though!

The weekend before, the city of Fredericksburg sponsors a downtown trick or treating event for local businesses.  We had gone last year, but we went late and most of the candy was gone, so we decided to go first thing this year.  It was a blast.  There were tons of kids and families running around and each store had the chance to enter a scarecrow competition.  They were a lot of fun to look at while we were waiting on candy...

Sunday evening, we finally got our pumpkins carved.  We got a stencil kit at Walmart so we could make fancy designs if we wanted to, and Astrid said that although she had carved pumpkins before, it was her first time carving something other than a face.  She picked out a ghost design to do, Leah designed her own face, and I made a fancy face from the pumpkin designs we had. 

Afterwards, we sprinkled pumpkin pie spice in the pumpkins and lit them, and the house smelled divine.

Monday, Dipthi arrived and Leah had decided in advance that she was going trick or treating with the teenagers and I was going to stay home.  So I got out the firepit and planned to just hang around by myself, but then Dipthi's host mom Laura invited herself to stay, and I was thrilled for the company!  We had a lot of fun gabbing around the fire, and just as the girls were ready to head out, our neighbor from down the street arrived with his two boys and they were all able to go together with an adult at the helm who understood the ways of American Halloween.  Leah dressed as a witch, Astrid was a cat, and Dipthi was Eeyore.  So ADORABLE!

We didn't get many trick or treaters this year, fewer than 20, so I was glad when it got cold and they were back and we could call it a night.  I was a little bit sad we hadn't made it out to Belvedere for the fall festival before Halloween, but we decided to go the following weekend.  All in all, it was a VERY satisfying Halloween week.  We really had a lot of fun.

The girls grinding corn meal

This past weekend, we did indeed make plans to have a bit more fun for fall.  I decided first to take the girls over to the Salem Church Library, as the local  Patawomeck Indian Tribe was doing an Indian village and cultural display.  We had decided earlier in the week to go out to Standing Rock, ND to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline with the Sioux, but AFS shot that idea down, saying that they didn't want to accept liability for Astrid being there and they felt the situation was too unstable.  I thought it would have been an awesome opportunity to experience Native American culture first hand, as well as to have a civics lesson on peaceful protest.  We had been offered a slot volunteering with a medical corps away from the front lines of the protest, but AFS still felt it was better to be cautious, so we are watching and sending support from afar.  However, this deal with the Patawomecks came up and I thought it'd be great if we could at least see some Native American culture here at home, particularly with Thanksgiving coming up and that being a big part of the Thanksgiving story.  There's not much to say about it--there was a small "village" set up in front of the library with a shelter (it wasn't a teepee or a long house, but sort of a rounded tent type of structure covered in animal hide--there's a picture on the homepage of the website) where you could go see how they lived, they had some drums you could beat, a canoe to sit in, they were drying venison over a fire, and you could grind corn into corn meal using native tools. Inside they had a display of native artifacts, you could learn a few words of the Patawomeck language, and then they had a craft station where you could do coloring sheets or make arrowhead necklaces.  Leah went for a minimalist necklace--one arrowhead on a string and she was done, but Astrid made a really love necklace with beads and all kinds of things.

The corn meal the girls ground up

Afterwards, we finally had time to go get some sushi for lunch, which Astrid wanted to have for about a week before we finally found the time, and then it was time to go down to Belvedere Plantation, for the annual fall harvest festival.  I love going to Belvedere, mainly because I think the Corn Maze is so much fun.  This year, the maze was designed as Snoopy sitting on his doghouse (you can see the design here).  We headed straight for it and were lost inside in no time, which led the girls to discuss for an hour what we were going to do to survive, because we were otherwise surely going to die in there.  (insert Mom eyeroll here!)  They give you a flag when you get into the maze and if you get scared or truly can't get out, you just wave the flag in the air and they will come and rescue you.  But this really did not impress the girls very much.

Eventually we made our way out, despite their dire predictions that we would have to survive on feed corn and our wits alone.  They both especially enjoyed the small side maze with the slide and went up and down the slide quite a few times.

Entering the maze, attempting to use 1/4 of the map to find our way around

Scattered around the maze are rubbing stations where you can add pieces of the map to your rubbings.  If you find all the pieces, you get a complete map on the inside, but otherwise, you can complete it when you get out

View of the entire maze from an overlook in the back part of the maze.  I think we covered most of it

View of the maze from the ground

Enjoying the slides!

It was a pretty warm day, so when we got out and discovered we had some time before the pig races began, we decided to take a break and get drinks.  Because we hadn't made it to the state fair, I thought it would be nice for Astrid to try her first American funnel cake.  I ordered one and brought it to the table.  Astrid had never seen such a thing, although it was quickly devoured by all 3 of us.  She loved it and asked if she could see how it was made.  I told her I would take her by the tent on the way back.

Baby's first funnel cake

After funnel cake, we went and enjoyed the pig races.  Belvedere has 16 racing pigs, not quite piglets, definitely not adults, and they make quite a show of 4 races of 4 pigs each trotting around a small track.  The pigs get distracted and some just sort of wander in circles till a farmer enters the track and moves them along, but some are quite fast.  They were cute and it was a lot of fun to watch. 

The girls also went down a big slide that Belvedere has installed in a hill, and after the pig races, Leah rode around on tractor tricycles for half an hour.  Then we walked back over to the funnel cake tent.  I asked the girl at the counter if they should show Astrid how to make one, even though we hadn't bought one, and they agreed, although I don't know that she actually got to see much.  However, when it was done cooking, they realized they had an extra funnel cake with no one who actually bought it so they wound up giving it to us!  That second funnel cake didn't last any longer than the first one. :)

We headed for home and went over to Wegman's to grab firewood and supplies for a little party I was throwing that evening.  I had my friends Amber and Andy over and we fired up Ol' Sparky again and roasted marshmallows and gabbed for a couple of hours. It was an absolutely perfect day as far as I was concerned. 

Yesterday, the girls had pageant rehearsal in the morning.  I think we will all be kind of glad when the Christmas pageant is over and we can sleep in a bit on Sundays, but they have been attending very diligently and I'm sure the pageant will be a success.

Pageant rehearsal in full swing

Afterwards, we had the service and then Astrid headed off to another local farm, Sneads, for an afternoon with the youth group.  I had my class, and by the time Astrid was back, we had decided to spend the rest of the afternoon shopping.  I've been invited to a fancy dance, so we looked for make up for that, and Astrid was on the prowl for perfume-free shampoo and soap, which she found.  She had also heard of the mysterious Walgreens and the even more mysterious Rite Aid on some YouTube DIY videos and wanted to check those places out, as well as CVS and And That.  We finished the day at Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, then headed home.  Leah went to bed and Astrid and I checked out another episode of My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which my friend Lesley recommended to us.  At first I didn't think too much of it, but as we are getting further into it, I'm enjoying it more and more!

So that brings us into November.  This is a great time of year--we will soon be celebrating Thanksgiving and Astrid will get to meet my dad.  My niece has a birthday coming up, we're going to hang out at Westmoreland State Park with Dipthi and her family, we have a baby shower to attend, we might give the Breakout Room another chance, and who knows what other marvels we'll get up to!? It's a busy time of year and will probably not slow down now until after the New Year, but given how quickly time has been flying by, I can't imagine it going any quicker!  Hope you enjoyed this post. :) See ya again in a few weeks.