Best Birthday Gift Ever

I was born on Christmas Day and every year my Mom and Grandmother tell me I was 'the best Christmas gift ever.'  Aren't they sweet?  But having a birthday on the biggest holiday of the year has always presented difficulties for celebrating in the usual ways.  As a kid I often had my parties in January when the chaos of Christmas was past and all my friends were back in town.  As an adult I've found it valuable in lobbying for bigger and more expensive gifts since it's Christmas and my birthday. 

Admittedly, I turn 30 this year (fodder for another post) and having ambiguous feelings about such a monumental milestone, Matt aimed to pacify any negative emotions by offering me my choice of birthday presents.  I gave it some thought and then reported to him what my ultimate pick would be. 

In case you weren't jealous enough that I am married to such a thoughtful/considerate man, check this out:

Yep.  He took me to see Wicked in London.  It was fabulous!

We decided to make the most of a daytrip without the kids and also arranged to go on a tour of Parliament (also fabulous).

Pictured below is Westminster Hall. This was the only room we were allowed to take photographs in - it's the only original part of the building and dates to 1095.  The rest of Parliament was rebuilt after a fire in the mid 1800s.

The tour consisted of three areas.  First, the queen's entrance and dressing hall.  Second, the House of Lords, and third, the House of Commons.  We learned many interesting things about British politics and enjoyed touring this magnificent, world-famous building.

We had a couple hours before Wicked so we decided to stroll down to 10 Downing Street and see if the Prime Minister was in.

 

That's Number 10 down there, but as you can see it is heavily guarded nowadays, so this was our best view.

We enjoyed lunch at a classic English pub, grabbed a treat at a bakery, and then enjoyed the afternoon at Wicked before catching the evening train home to Peterborough.

Amy and Emily had a delightful day as well.  Cassie, a young adult from church, looked after the girls for us.  Cassie is currently doing her student teaching at university and has her own car.  She helped Amy with her homework, played with them in the snow (yes we have snow already!!!), and then took the girls downtown for an amazing afternoon at the Queensgate Shopping Centre.  They visited a friend at a milkshake shop (and got free milkshakes), had lunch at McDonalds, and then went to see Father Christmas (Santa).  When Matt and I arrived home they had made pizzas and Cassie was styling their hair while they watched "Frosty the Snowman."  Emily cried when Cassie went home...

Guess we'll have to do another daytrip to London!

Perpetual Motion

The last many weeks have been incredibly busy. No time to stop and dream of something to do, the list is already too long!

 I've been volunteering at the school 2 days a week teaching cooking to the key stage 2 students (grades 3-6).  They have been studying World War 2 so we made a few recipes from that era.  All used very little butter, sugar and flour since those items were heavily rationed during the war.  No eggs in any of the recipes since Britain was limited to one egg per person per week!

 The school just finished this purpose-built kitchen for cooking tutorials:

Each day I'd come in early and set up their work stations so they could go straight into their prep work. I love this classroom!  Lots of counter space, double ovens, refrigerator and fully stocked with donated tools.  All I had to bring were the ingredients - and that was all fully reimbursed by the school.

Some of our recipes: eggless sponge, uncooked chocolate cake, carrot cookies, oatmeal crunchies, and apple fool.  I liked all of them except the apple fool which was made with cold mashed potatoes and grated apple.  The grated apple was fine, it was the cold mashed potato that turned me off.  All the other recipes were actually very tasty.  I worried that the children would begin to the think that the war was full of good times and delicious desserts!

And of course, the number one rule of the kitchen: clean up your mess!  I think some of the kids almost had more fun washing dishes, sweeping the floor, etc. than the actual cooking...

Matt and I attended a Church sponsored black-tie event held in nearby Leicester.  We dressed up in our only formal do's - a bridesmaid dress I wore to Katy's wedding 5+ years ago and Matt's old show choir tux.  I think we managed to pull it off just fine!  We had a great night dancing to a live band, eating luxurious desserts and chatting with good friends.

The City of Peterborough Symphony Orchestra had another concert in November.  Titled "Russia and Beyond," it featured famous works by Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Khachaturian, Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov.

During the dress rehearsal we had a professional photographer come to create a portfolio for an upcoming press release.  Check out the great photos and see if there is anyone you might recognize:

http://adykerry.photoshelter.com/gallery/CPSO/G0000eHHGQIRpmCE/

Then came Thanksgiving.  Part 1: The annual gathering of fellow Caterpillar ex-pats and their families.  As usual, it was a large and delicious array of Thanksgiving fayre.  Pictured below are most of the American families that live here in the Peterborough area with Caterpillar:

 A few days later (on actual Thanksgiving Day), we ate another delicious spread.  Joining us were the missionaries from our ward (both Americans).  It was their first Thanksgiving away from home and we thought they might appreciate having a traditional dinner.  We even let them load up some tupperware containers with leftovers to enjoy over the next few days. 

Amidst some of these special occasions, we have been continuing with the usual routines as well.  Last week Emily was assigned the classroom teddy bear which accompanied us to swimming lessons, tennis, Thanksgiving, etc.  Both girls are doing extremely well at swimming lessons and have both advanced to the next level just this week.  Amy is now a Starfish and Emily graduated from Ducklings to Frogs.

I continue to sell my "Little Lady" hairbows and as my product has become more popular I am busier than ever!  This week I will have a stall at the local Preschool's Christmas Bazaar where I will be featuring over 40 different bows!  There are lots of beautiful prints and designs available, so feel free to drop by if you're in the area.  Otherwise, you can view my catalog on my Facebook page. 

If creating over 800 hairbows hasn't been enough to keep me busy, I have also been commissioned to sew a wedding dress for a friend from church.  I've never sewn a dress for anyone but myself and my daughters, so this has been an educational process.  I've had to alter the original pattern, create an organza overlay for the skirt (without a pattern), and make various adjustments to the seams after each fitting. 

Even though this dress is relatively simple (as far as bridalwear goes), it's been a slow and painstaking process making sure that everything is done with complete perfection.  I also have to say that the Haberdashery Lady at the Peterborough Market is my new best friend.  She is so knowledgeable and has the greatest selection of notions on the planet - from buttons, zips, and even lace.  

The dress is nearly done now - just one more final fitting, then hand sewing the lace appliques.  Phew!  Will post pictures from the wedding for you to see the final result...

Finally, the Christmas decorations are up.  I have to credit Matt and the girls for this one though since I've been busy... sewing, cooking, etc.  They did a great job even though some of the Nativity Sets have some more unusual arrangements... (the front entry set had the Wise Men 'babysitting' the baby Jesus whilst Mary and Joseph - on the far corner of the table - were off 'on a date.') We've also begun the annual cookie baking.  So far we've made peanut butter truffles, oreo truffles, spritz, snowballs, candy cane cookies, peanut butter blossoms, and rosettes.  We've still got a list of about 6 more that we plan to make.  Good thing I'm hosting a Christmas Cookie Party at mine this weekend as we'll need plenty of help eating up all these goodies!  (Although that's just one more thing I'm busy doing...) 

Brownies

Actually, I meant these kind of brownies:

Amy has been attending Brownies since September, but just a couple of weeks ago she made her Brownie Promise and became an official member of the group.  As family members, we were invited to come along and watch the Celebration Ceremony.

I promise that I will do my best:

To love my God,

To serve the Queen and my country,

To help other people

and

To keep the Brownie Guide Law.

The Brownie Law: A Brownie Guide thinks of others before herself and does a Good Turn every day.

Brownies spend time together in small groups called Sixes.  Each Six wears a special badge.  Amy is in the Badgers Six.  Amy has already earned her first aid badge and is currently working towards 3 other badges: advanced cooking, toymaker, and speech.  As part of her speech badge she assisted me in presenting an assembly at her school all about Thanksgiving - an American holiday that most Brits don't know much about. I have to admit that working on badges with Amy is really fun and I'm glad she enjoys it.  We hope she will be able to continue once we move back to the USA next year.

Halloween 2010

We got back from Norway just in time to drive home rather swiftly, throw on the costumes and hit the streets on the 31st. Lana took the girls out this year and I generously distributed 3 huge tubs of candy.

They are catching on here, but still not prepared for the huge candy haul that should be every child's unalienable right. Some kids held out little plastic pumpkins that couldn't possibly hold more than 5 mini-candy bars. And when I dropped more than one item in their bags, some looked at me like I can only imagine Tiny Tim did with ol' Scrooge when he changed his ways and invited the Cratchets to dinner. Their eyes welled up in tears and I'm sure I heard a couple whisper 'God bless you sir, God bless you'. It's fun to try and Americanize them at least a little bit.

Emily was 'the dinosaur'. I'm not sure a Halloween costume has gotten more play than this one. It was made by Wendy for Lana when she was young. Amy wore it three years in a row. It was very big the first year, and she barely could squeeze the head on last year. Now, Emily gave it a go.

Looks like she's got at least 2 more years in this one.

Luckily, Lana plans well ahead and had time to make this Ladybird costume before our Norway trip. It was really cute.

Also lucky for us, our Expat friends around the corner threw their annaul H-day dinner. Nice to come home from vacation and have dinner ready.

Pumpkin carving actually happened before Norway. It is great to see the girls get more self sufficient each year. We roasted seeds again...and again only ate a few before remembering they don't taste that good.

I love this picture. The lights were off, so when the flash came it obviously caught Emily a bit by surprise.

This has nothing to do with Halloween, but I was not going to do a separate post for it. Lana has wanted these mittens since the Olympics last winter in Vancouver. Her aunt (who did the cruise with us in May) found them and sent us each a pair! They are really cool.

Farewell Norway

I'd neglected to mention in the first post, but while our cottage was cozy and warm from the wood heat- wood heat must be constantly tended to. The main floor is completely separated from the stairs and bedrooms upstairs. When the owners showed us around that first night, he said 'Norwegians like to sleep cold, with blankets'. Fair enough- me too. It turns out that definitions of cold can vary somewhat. Upstairs was absolutely frigid. I mean, see your breath cold. We cranked the portable electric heaters and Lana lay with each of the girls to get them warm enough to fall asleep. After tossing in our bed for a couple hours, I got the blankets from the extra bedroom downstairs. It was a cold night. (and the bed was just barely 6' long, with a firm head and foot board- a bit cozy for me). All the other nights we ensured the bedrooms were prewarmed a bit before bedtime. Also the weather cooperated and it was never as cold as the first night. Thank goodness, or our memories perhaps would not be so rosy.

Some landscape shots on the way to the airport. As we neared Oslo, the tunnels started. Some just a few hundred metres, others were easily a mile long. The girls counted and we went under 23 within the space of about an hour of drive time. Kept us all occupied anyway.

A beautiful homestead on the shores of Randsfjorden.

A few shots of the interior of our cottage.

The girls loved this unique bed arrangement for them.

What a wonderful trip, we already miss it.

Oslo- part 1

We started our day in Oslo at a flea market and then wandered the wharf shopping district. It was drizzly and a bit miserable. It must be bra month, as the whole wharf was lined with bras strung between the light poles

Amy with Askerhus castle in the background. I'm sure it's important, but it was too yucky to try and get over to it.

Viking Ship Museum!! This was the most important stop of the day.

The actual viking ships were fantastic. Around 80 ft. long and 15 ft. wide, they looked like regular full size ships. Now, not necessarily something I'd cross the ocean in, but much larger than I'd always imagined. The 2 main ships Gokstad and Oseberg were patched up a bit and in mint condition. They were both burial ships found buried in the late 1800s with a chief in one and a high ranking woman in another. The ships had holes for 32 oarsmen and they only 2-3 boards stuck above the water line- so it must have been a pretty wet affair to ride in one of these.

I don't know how well it shows up, but they set planks across the main ship to sit on, and stored goods and weapons underneath.

This is one of the burial shelters found in the middle of the Gokstad. it had the 3 sleds and many other artifacts (see below) underneath it.

The artifacts they found inside the burial ships were fantastic. Again, it showed what fantastic craftsmen they were. Not just war-hungry barbarians living in caves. This was a very intricate and high-level civilization...which happened to find it easier to gain wealth by raiding their neighbors.

This is a horse bridle and each of those squares are silver crafted in intricate designs.

This wagon was really neat.

Three of these sleds were found in the Gokstad ship full of all sorts of goodies to help the chief on his way while dead. Again, just amazing craftsmanship.

The oldest known horse saddle, and some chain 'rattles'. They don't know if the rattles were baby toys or had some religious significance. There isn't much Viking writing that has survived, as they didn't inscribe much in stone. Again, if you're building a civilization and you want it to be well understood centuries later- use stone. (I think they're baby toys)

Here are a few photos the city centre. A bit drab with the rain. The church is the central Dom Kirke in Oslo.