Christmas & New Years!

It seems impossible that Christmas has come and gone, and with it the new year is upon us, we have crossed the halfway point in our exchange, and I haven't managed to update my blog once.  With February closing in on us very quickly, I figured I'd better get moving and get this blog updated!

Christmas vacation lasted three weeks between the two girls' opposing school schedules.  It was exhausting and hectic and crazy, but I loved having special time with each of them separately and together.  I was also happy to send them both back to school, although I haven't had a whole lot of peace and quiet even with both girls out of the house all day!  :-)

During the break, we had a blast doing a lot of different things and just spending time together. On the 23rd, my friend Linda from the UU invited us to go back to Paul's Bakery to see the lights and go out for a snack afterwards.  The girls got to see Santa again and he gave them each little craft kits as a present.  Santa and Mrs. Claus were adorable at Paul's.  Astrid did NOT stuff herself into the reindeer carts this time, however.

One of the things Astrid was most worked up about spending Christmas in America is that we don't open our presents and have a special meal on December 24th.  I couldn't understand why the Danes (and many Europeans) do this, because what is the point of Christmas Day then?  If everything good happens the night before Christmas, why celebrate on Christmas itself?  We had many debates about this, and finally I told Astrid that we would celebrate Danish Christmas on the 24th.  She could plan a special meal, talk with her family, and we would open the presents that were pouring in from her family around the world.  So that is what we chose to do.  We were due to have a friend over for dinner, and he declined to eat the traditional Danish Christmas duck, so we went with the traditional Danish Christmas roasted pork.  Astrid's menu also included some potatoes that were cooked in butter and sugar, red cabbage and orange salad, and rice pudding.  She worked so hard and everything was really delicious and beautiful.  She was inventive on new ways to use the oven which I had never seen before :)

I don't think anyone has ever cooked meat directly on the oven rack.  But she did and it was incredible.  The top didn't come out quite as she wanted--the fatty part of the pork is supposed to be quite crispy when it's all done, so we put it under the broiler for a few minutes and it was fine.  I have to confess that it was as delicious a Christmas Eve meal as any I have had before, and I didn't miss the traditional Kosior seafood feast that we usually have.

After dinner, we went over to the UU for a Christmas Eve service.  I was singing with the choir and leading the service as worship associate, so I had many tasks to complete that evening.  Both girls were as good as gold, and the service was one of the best I have ever attended.  The girls ran through the halls and rooms of the church snapping pictures with friend, chasing The Bup around, and generally having fun.  The music and readings were beautiful, Reverend Doug gave a wonderful sermon, and we had a very moving and sweet candlelit version of Silent Night together.  It was a wonderful evening.

Astrid recently told me that she was kind of nervous when she read in our application that we attended church every week, because in Denmark that would probably mean you were part of a cult, but that once she started coming, she found she enjoys  it.  I find that hilarious--maybe it IS a cult, but one I'm glad to be a part of.  hehe

After the service, we went home and I let the girls open some gifts.  They enjoyed that very much--for Leah it was a BIG treat.  I bought them each pajamas to wear for Christmas Eve, but unfortunately Leah's were an adult medium, and Astrid's cousin or aunt or someone sent her footie pajamas that she immediately put on and refused to take off for about 3 weeks, so I guess I need to up my pajama game! :-)  Then it was time for bed.  Leah announced that this was the year she was going to catch Santa in the act and she was going to stay up all night under the tree and wait till he came down the chimney.  Needless to say, this raised my blood pressure tremendously.  I let her do it though, and went to bed, setting my alarm for nearly 2AM.  I got up and tiptoed downstairs and found a sweet scene--Astrid and Leah curled up together, sound asleep under the Christmas tree.  I did my best to quietly put the presents under the tree and hang up their newly filled stockings, but Astrid woke up.  It was just as well, as she was able to help me bring everything downstairs and make sure Leah stayed asleep.  A friend told me about an app that would photoshop Santa into a picture of your house, which I got, but I must say, Leah was not fooled in the least by this the next morning.

Christmas morning was a riot of gift opening.  The girls were especially excited to get a new Wii U--our old Wii had died a painful death just before Astrid arrived, making it useless for anything other than pulling in Netflix on the TV.  Leah was at an age where not only did she enjoy playing the Wii, she was getting quite good at it, so she really missed it.  They also both got tons of make up, Orbeez, clothes, and promises of upcoming trips which they are both very excited about (and so am I!).

After gift opening, we got ourselves ready for breakfast and then my sister and her family arrived in the afternoon, as well as my mom and her husband.  We had another big round of opening gifts before sitting down to a traditional meal of roast beef, yorkshire pudding, and trifle.  It was a wonderful day indeed.

Just before New Year's Eve, my niece Dot came to stay.  I wanted to take everyone to the Ginter Gardens for the light show, something my dad and I started doing years ago and a tradition I have enjoyed keeping up with Leah and Ine and Dot and whoever else has been around.  We had a nice day together, as I introduced the girls to Waffle House for breakfast, and then we went over to my mom's for a while so the girls could see their Nana.  We had lunch there, which was fun and then headed down to Richmond when it started to get dark after dinner.  The Ginter Gardens partners with the electric company to put more than a half million lights up all around the gardens. There is a maze made entirely of Christmas lights, there are animals and statues made of lights, and all the trees are draped with lights.  It is truly an incredible thing to see.  We bundled up as the temperatures were quite cold, and headed off into the night.  The girls were especially delighted by the maze and the tree house you can climb into and keeping up with them was nearly impossible.  I love the greenhouses with the giant trees (the first picture on this post was taken in the Ginter greenhouse) and the animal dioramas and the beautiful flowers they tend to year-round.  It is a real spectacle, to say the least.

Let's see, what else did we do during Christmas Break?

Well, Leah started with a new mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters.  Her new "big" is named Megan.  Astrid admitted she felt a bit jealous of how happy Leah was to go off with Megan, because Megan is a special once-a-week friend and it's easy to have fun for a few hours each week.  So I suggested Astrid plan a special activity to remind Leah that she can be fun too.  She thought that was a great idea, so she decided to take Leah to SkyZone Trampoline Park.  They went for 90 minutes.  Frankly, they were done after about 45.  All that jumping is a lot of hard work.  But I think they had a good time!

Starting on December 30, we were the darlings of the New Year's party scene.  We went to a party at my friend Susan's house on the 30th, billed as a New Year's Eve Eve party.  there were a lot of UU's there and of course, it was packed and there was tons of good food and friendship.  Susan opened up her basement for Leah and Astrid to go play with the Wii and they discovered the joys of Wii Fit.  Afterwards, we headed to the UU for a kirtan, which is a sort of religious performance art with drums and singing and chanting.  My friend Cindy from Northern Virginia came down, and afterwards I dropped the girls off at home and went to a late night snack with Cindy.

The next day, it was time to bring Leah to my sister's home.   We always meet at the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico to do a kid swap.  Astrid was very interested in going into the building as we have only ever seen it in the parking lot, so we went in and checked it out.  I've been there several times, but always get lost and discover something new, so it was fun to go in there and see what was new and interesting.  They are expanding the museum, I think, so it will continue to grow and develop for years to come.  Astrid found a 'Marine' and helped raise a flag over captured WWII territory.  We touched a piece of the Pentagon and the World Trade Center from 9/11.  It was a nice little break, and fortunately quite warm, as it was FREEZING outside!





Afterwards, we headed to my friends Amy and Tom's New Years Eve game night.  It was a lot of fun. Astrid had been once, and didn't care for it, so she said she didn't think she would go.  I told her I wouldn't leave her home alone on New Year's Eve, so I would stay home with her.  Consequently she decided to go, especially after I pointed out that she had only gone right when she first arrived and everything was crazy.  Happily, she really enjoyed herself this time!  She also introduced us to the time honored Danish New Year's tradition of jumping off a chair at midnight.  I'm not sure what the significance is, but she and I jumped off a chair at the stroke of midnight and she and Tom then jumped off a chair as well.  It was dark, so I'm sorry that my picture isn't better!  We played a bunch of games, but one I really came to enjoy was called Ticket to Ride.  My friend Linda met us there as well, so that we had a nice crew of people playing games and didn't leave till nearly 1AM.

On New Year's Day we had another party to go to, this one at the home of another friend named Amy.  She had a pile of people from the UU over for the traditional southern New Year's meal of black eyed peas and cornbread and greens.  We enjoyed visiting with some of the same UU's as Susan's party, and also some other friends who came to this party.  We were quite tired after all this partying, and Astrid had to start school the next day. I called my sister's to see what was going on, and Leah asked if she could stay another day, which I agreed to as her school didn't start back till January 3rd.  Astrid and I took advantage of the night off by going to see the movie La La Land, which we both liked.  We considered Star Wars, but ultimately wound up with a singing and dancing Ryan and Emma and no regrets.

The next day, Astrid happily went back to school.  She had only managed to get together with her friends once--doing a gift swap with some of her "squad" (as she calls it) one night while Dot was visiting.  We had a lovely time together, but it was definitely time for school to start again, as she hadn't been in school since December 15th when exams finished.  I went to my sister's for our 4th New Year's party and retrieved Leah and came home.

Finally, on Saturday, January 7th, we had our final Christmas celebration by hosting a Feast of the 3 Kings feast at our home.  I had offered this as a service auction for the UU--my final item and I was glad!  We had 35 people coming to dinner to cram into the house, and I offered each of the girls $20 for their vacation fund if they did all the chores on the chore list I had setup for them to do.  Happily they each did their chores and I happily paid into their funds.  Astrid asked if she could invite a friend to come and wound up inviting Dipthi and her friend Sophia from school, but Sophia was in Colorado skiing, so she couldn't make it.  Dipthi came for the weekend and we had a great time.  The party was a smashing success--we managed as usual to have 35 people all sit down together and eat at the same time together, a feat which never ceases to impress me when I pull it off. 

There were lots of leftovers when all was said and done, and everyone was extremely complimentary about the food and the atmosphere.  It had snowed during the day so we were worried that people would want to cancel, but instead, everyone said they were coming.  UU's are hearty folk!!  I was relieved, as it would have been hard to put everything on ice and cook it the next day without my sister's help.

After the majority of people left and I got Leah to bed, my friend Andy pulled out his copy of the game The Village Crone for us to all learn.  I thought I would be way too exhausted, but it was actually a blast.  For some reason, Astrid decided she needed to learn to talk with a southern accenet--she is obsessed with not sounding Danish--so we tried to teach her.  It was hilarious.  She had the worst time with the world "you're" which when pronounced in a more southern way would sound like "yer" which rhymes with the world "fur".  Dipthi had no trouble with it, but it took me making the connection with the rhyming words to help Astrid get it.  It was a riot.

I've been so pleased that even though we were 'only' Dipthi's welcome family, she has continued to be such a big part of our lives.  She is such a sweetheart.  It was nice to have her over.

The next day, the Moores, Dipthi's host family, met up with us at the UU for services.  Then we sent Dipthi home and the Christmas season was officially over.  It was blissful, exhausting, at times stressful, and crazy, but I thoroughly enjoyed every single minute of it.

I hope you enjoyed this update and stay tuned for our January wrap up in short order! :)

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.