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.