Post Christmas (aka December Part III)

This week, the girls went back to school.  I was not prepared for Christmas break to end so quickly, and I had every intention of taking them to the movies, to go bowling, to go spend a day puttering around the Smithsonian museums, to go hang out with friends, and more.  But somehow, none of that happened.  And I can't really say exactly where those ten days after Christmas went, but all of a sudden they were gone and the girls were gone and I'm home alone catching up on a mountain of housework and errands that got pushed aside for two weeks. 

However, we did take 3 little day trips that I thought would be fun to write about.  As I said in my Christmas post (I think), I like to give experiences rather than 'stuff'.  This is true for my own family as well as for any exchange students who cross our paths.  So for Christmas, I gave Ine and Leah two day trips, one to the Ginter Gardens Holiday Festival of Lights in Richmond, and the other to see the ICE! display at the Gaylord National Resort in DC. 

We went to the Ginter Gardens first, the day after Christmas.  It was Boxing Day and my sister and niece came down for the day.  I made beef stew from the Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook, as I was getting really excited about the return of Downton after a whole year.  The stew was quite delicious, the main issue with it being that it called for a whole lot of cayenne pepper.  Now I have done a bit of Belgian cooking this year using Ine's mom's recipes and recommendations and I can say that the food thus far has been a bit on the quiet side.  So when I saw that this recipe called for a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, I knew there was no way I was going to add that much.  I added 1/4 teaspoon and it was still SPICY.  So when I make this again (and it was delicious, so I WILL make it again), I will omit the cayenne altogether.

After dinner, we picked up the little girls from the local play area and we all piled in the car and drove to Richmond.  Leah and Dot were excited and running in circles, and thus did Leah fall and skin her knee.  We dried her tears and calmed the girls down and set off on a lighting adventure.

I think of all the decorations Christmas brings, Christmas lights are my favorite.  Several nights, I bundled Ine and Leah into the car to go drive around and look at the lights around town.  The Ginter Garden festival is no exception.  My dad and I started going years ago, and after he bowed out, I have taken Penny, our former AFSer, and Leah for years.  The Garden puts up half a million lights and you can walk all through and see the beautiful decorations, as well as go through a maze made of lights, and enjoy the greenhouse, which has holiday plants and decorations and model trains.  It is a really fun evening.  I don't have much to say about the evening itself, so I'll just post some pictures.

Our little family

Ine navigating the light maze

It was obviously a lovely night--we had such a nice time and the weather was perfect, no precipitation at all!

That Sunday, we went on up to Oakton, VA for AFS Virginia's annual international Christmas dinner.  Each student was supposed to bring a dish from their home country to feed up to 6 people, and then each family was divided into either a salad or dessert party.  We were chosen to make salad.  I asked Ine what we should make as our main entree, and she said she didn't know.  She doesn't like to cook, as I have mentioned, so we took to Google and found a Flemish meat pie recipe from some Belgian lady who moved to Wisconsin and died in the 1960's that Ine thought sounded "okay"...  She didn't want to participate in baking it, so Sunday morning Leah and I got up early as we usually do and we started cooking.  I decided to get fancy and put the word "Belgium" in pastry atop the pie so there would be no doubt about where it came from.  We also made a broccoli salad with craisins. We dropped Leah off at my sister's to play with the kids, as they are far more diverting for her than a bunch of teenagers, and then headed up to Oakton.

It was a really lovely event.  Probably a dozen exchange students came, and quite a few families were there who were interested in hosting next year.  The event was run by AFS Virginia volunteers Paul and Nancy Thompson and Jerene Thomas, and Alexandra Klaff, our area team leader was there too.  The students each made a presentation about customs and traditions in their home country.  They were allowed to do it with the other kids from their country, but Ine is the only Belgian here in Virginia now (the other one moved a few months ago), so she was on her own.  They did it alphabetically by country and Ine got to/had to go first.  She told me she didn't know what to talk about, but she wound up talking about Sinterklaas, and I actually learned a few things she hadn't told us when we celebrated in early December.  We also learned that Iceland has 13 Santa Clauses, people in the Dominican Republic drink a lot and party in the streets, we learned about Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Hong Kong, and more.  It was really, really interesting.  I enjoyed it so much!  The kids all did a great job.Afterwards, they took a group picture, and were presented with AFS Virginia T-shirts.  Ine has started a collection of AFS goodies, so she was pleased with this latest addition.

Then it was finally time to eat.  The families each brought some really delicious food and there was quite a spread.  There were delicious pasta dishes, lamb, our meat pie, German potato salad, fried rice, all kinds of salads, and the desserts were great.  Someone made an incredible coconut cake, which is my favorite, and if I find out who I'm going to have to immediately propose to them!  We sat with Jana, the other AFSer at Ine's school, and her family, as well as one prospective host father and another boy from Germany.  It was really fun.  We were there for a few hours, not as many as I thought, but still, a good while.  As everyone was leaving, it was time to say good bye, and Ine showed how far she has come when she looked at me and said, "Well I suppose I will have to start hugging everyone."  I found this pretty hilarious, but I know that she is not really comfortable with hugging still and yet she understood it as a cultural expression and she went around and hugged everyone good bye, which made me really proud!

 

 

"I guess I have to hug people now"

Our next day trip was to go see ICE!  I was very excited--after a couple of years of displays with themes like Madagascar, this year's theme was Frosty the Snowman, which I loved when I was a kid.  I always kind of hate when these things get sold out to studios and production companies, so to see Frosty back in action was nice.  We drove up to DC with no problem at all, and got parking and all just fine.  Leah was very anxious to get in and see the ice slide in particular, she didn't especially care about the sculptures themselves.  The Gaylord is decorated beautifully this time of year, they really put on a lovely display.  Again, there isn't much to say about this other than we poked around, saw ice sculptures, rode the ice slide, and left.  Here are lots of pictures...

As we left, there was a smartly placed hot cocoa stand, and we all slurped up warm cocoa.  That was a good call, because we wound up stuck in traffic on I95 for nearly 3 hours to get home, unfortunately!  By the time we got back, I was tired and my head hurt!

That was our whole entire Monday.  Somehow I had gotten my days confused with my dates, and thought that it was not as late in the month as it was, but it was already December 29th by then, which seemed crazy to me.  I thought the 29th was on a Wednesday.  Ine had decided she was NOT going to swim practice this whole week--she wanted to enjoy her vacation as a real vacation, which I endorsed because it meant less driving around for me.

On Tuesday, we entertained my niece Dot.  We had stopped to pick her up on the way home from ICE, and the main things she and Leah decided they wanted to do was to go to Chuck E Cheese's and to go to the swimming pool.  We started out at Chuck E's for lunch.  I got a PILE of tokens, and the little girls scampered off.  Ine and I raced cars for a while--she is a killer with a VW bus, and then she discovered that there was a machine that doled out little collectible cards and she decided she wanted one of each one to create a new collection.  We spent a good bit of time working out the system and figuring out when she should jump in to have her picture taken and a new card made.  Sometimes other kids would jump in the line when we were trying to get a card made and we would have to start all over again.  Just as we thought we had it correct, some one got a card she didn't have, and we were back to square one.  We quickly figured out the system--two new cards were introduced every other time--but the little girls were out of patience and wanted to cash in their tickets for prizes, so we gave up.  Off we went to the pool and had a great time splashing around and swimming for a couple of hours.  It was good, as Ine got to be in the pool without the stress of practice, and she and Leah and Dot had fun splashing each other and going crazy.

Wednesday, we had plans to meet up with my friend Melissa to go skating at the Prince William Ice Arena.  I hadn't been skating in years, although I grew up doing taking lessons, so I figured if I could stay on my feet that would be good enough.  I had never taken Leah skating and she was very excited.  Ine was a bit leery.  She has bad knees and she was worried about falling.  Ultimately, Leah was worried about falling too and hated every minute of skating, so only Melissa and I had much fun at it--Leah quit and Ine clung to the wall.  But Ine only fell once and not on her knees, so I was proud of her and she kept trying even if it took a while to get the hang of it.  She didn't quit and didn't give up, just took her time and skated.  And she had a smile on her face the whole time. 

Afterwards, we had a nice lunch at Panera, and then headed home. 

I am not much on New Year's Eve, so I had nothing planned.  We wound up working on a jigsaw puzzle and I worked on an art project I wanted to do while Ine worked on a second jigsaw after we finished the first.  At 11:30, I put on Ryan Seacrest and we watched the ball drop in Times Square, and then I went outside and watched the fireworks from the city, but I guess Ine thought I was crazy, so she didn't come out with me. 

On New Year's Day, we found a loaf of Vasilopita on our doorstep.  My neighbor Lisa bakes many loaves of it at New Year's to give to her friends.  She is Greek and the bread is a Greek New Year's bread.  There is a dime baked into it.  We sliced it up and each ate a piece and Leah found the dime which means she will have good luck.  If you eat a piece, you are officially Greek.  So Ine is now a little bit Greek. :-D  So it's nice because we got a little taste of another culture.

Afterwards, we went over to my mom's.  Leah had gone somewhere (I can't for the life of me remember where she went but I suspect it was the local babysitting shop) and Ine and I were alone and looking for something to do. My mom, as I think I have mentioned, is getting married in February.  She asked for some help with various aspects of the wedding planning, and one was to help make floral arrangements.  I figured this was something Ine and I could do and I took Ine over there.  There wasn't much material initially to work with, so we wound up going to the craft store to buy more supplies.  I had never arranged flowers before, and neither had Ine, but I think the arrangements came out beautifully! 

Mom and her fiance were very pleased with them as well.  We had travel plans for the next couple of days, so we kind of took it easy the rest of the day.  I will write about our trip to Baltimore and Philadelphia in my next blog entry.

Looking back on it, I guess it's easy to see why the weeks passed so quickly.  We had things planned and didn't get bored much.  I had a great time with all the girls, my sister and niece included!  I suppose I feel the need to compensate for not having a teen in the house to keep Ine occupied, but it keeps my mind young and busy and I like being active!  See you all in a day or two with a travel report!