La Salette

I remember going to LaSalette when I was younger.  I don't exactly remember the age but I think I probably went with the CYO (Christian Youth Organization) through my church so I must have been around 12-13 years old.  I remembered having hot apple cider and being in awe of all the lights.  Since we don't have Christmas markets to go to here as there are in Europe I decided this was probably the closest I was going to get and it would keep some continuity in our Christmas traditions.  We brought the kids there over the weekend and I'm glad we did.  There were 300,000 lights on display.  The kids loved it!  It was cold out and fortunately it did not take that long to walk though and see all the lights.  We didn't get a trdlo but we did split a dough boy!

Christopher Pop-In-Kins

Christopher Pop-In-Kins is back!  He showed up on Thanksgiving night as usual.  Silly elf was hanging by his foot from the attic pull down.  Sofia thought I had put him there until I pointed out that I couldn't reach that high....I guess he must be magical! :)

Thanksgiving

Family traditions are important, I think, for kids as well as for adults.  It gives a familiarity and comfort of knowing certain things will be the same.  Jason and I had historically done the same things every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas until we moved to Prague.  Being in Prague and away from all of our family left us open to creating new traditions without rocking the boat.  We had to find ways to make these holidays special for our family.  We did that for Thanksgiving, Mikulas, Christmas and New Years.  Of course when we moved back last year all of our traditions got thrown up in the air.  What do we do now? We can't go to Christmas Markets like in Prague and Thanksgiving with friends was not going to happen as everyone here has family to see.  Last year I think we fell into what used to be but that just did not feel right to me.  I didn't want to go back to what life used to be before Prague as though Prague was an aberration.  It was our life and the majority of our children's lives.  It was not a time in a bubble that didn't impact our lives once we left the bubble.  It changed us and that can't be undone and I wouldn't want it to be undone.  We went to our friends' houses for Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas Eve cocktails, Christmas Day brunch and we put on our adult pants and hosted dinner at our home at times.  So, this year rather than fall back into what used to be Jason and I decided to offer to host Thanksgiving at our home.  I recognize that everyone has their own traditions so we ended up hosting my parents, Jason's parents, and Jason's brother Graham and his family.  This meant we had 8 adults and 5 kids.  The day was perfect.  The kids played and had fun.  The adults got to talk and catch up with each other.  The food came out delicious and we had a TON of leftovers.  Everyone left happy and full.  Jason and I made a good team for cooking and cleaning up and then enjoyed relaxing on the sofa.  I'm not sure what traditions we will make going forward since, as odd as it sounds, we are still figuring out our way between what used to be pre-Prague, what was is Prague and what is now.

Ankle Update

So, my ankle ....almost 2 months post race.  The doctor removed the tape and I went a week doing nothing without the tape followed by a week of three 3-mile runs.  My ankle felt good if not a little sore after the runs but not the pain that I had been having.  I went back in for my check up and he said everything looked great.  I still needed to ease back into running and not doing any super long distances for a while.  That is fine with me since for the time being I don't really feel like running more that 6 or 7 miles.  I have been slowly ramping up and have now done a couple five mile runs.  It does not hurt during the run but is still sore after my runs (although not in the same shooting pain kind of way) so I ice it after I run and try to baby it on days I'm not running.  I don't run any back to back days so that it has time off in between runs.  The thing that bugs me the most now is how much cardio I lost in not running for a month.  I know part of it is mental but I hate panting after a three mile run when I just ran a marathon at that pace without panting!  Every run gets a little better and running with my friend Margaret keeps me pushing my pace and not letting the challenge to my cardio slow me down.  She has given me a little mental push as well since she ran a 5K with her family over Thanksgiving and came in 20:49...that's a 6:42 pace!  I'm got a new target to train for and a good friend to run with so provided my ankle cooperates and keeps getting better I will continue to run and have fun while I stay fit.

Crazy Hair Day

Ali's class had crazy hair day so we went to wrk on Ali's hair.  She decided on 2 braids, 3 pony tails with curly hair and 1 pony tail with straight hair.  It was very funny and cute.  She was excited to wear her hair that way to school.  Doing her hair that way reminded me of when she was about 3 1/2 years old and would go out with 5 pony tails in her hair and think she was very stylish.  She laughs when I tell her she used to request her hair in 5 pony tails since now she sees it as very silly.

Soccer

The girls wrapped up the fall soccer season with a win for the final game.  They had a great season and both really enjoyed playing.  Ali had such fun she has signed up for indoor soccer for the winter and spring town league soccer.  It was fun to watch them play this year.  They had good days and bad days and their team won some and lost some.  They didn't seem overly bothered by the losses but they always knew if they won or lost.  It is interesting to watch them at this age because some weeks they would attack the ball with vigor and other weeks they would shy away from it.  It is funny to see how the brain works with fear.  By the last game though they were fired up and they got that there are times something will hurt but so long as you aren't in major pain you can play through it.  Ali took a ball right to the stomach and you could see her hesitate for a minute but she kept going even though it was slightly uncomfortable.  Sofia tripped over the ball which jammed up into her belly,  I could see her dealing with the pain but she got up and was going to keep going but fortunately her coach pulled her off the field.  I think these are good learning opportunities for them to see that in sports there will be times that something hurts and you can't cry off every time you get a bump.  Learning to play through the bumps shows them that there are times when things are serious and times when they just hurt a little bit.  Don't get me wrong, I do not want my children hurt.  I do not want them to play injured.  I want them to understand the difference between slight discomfort that is fleeting and actual pain threshhold that requires you to stop.  If you quit every time something is uncomfortable you will never be the best that you can be.  They are learning to not be quitters and learning what it takes to succeed weather it is in school, sports, work or crafts.  The best part is they are having a blast learning these life lessons by playing games they love.

Halloween

We kicked off our Halloween prep with the carving of pumpkins.  The girls had each chosen their own pumpkin and then they each chose their own design.  They each chose which adult they would work with and as usual Ali chose me and Sofia chose Jason.  I must say I was pretty happy when Ali chose a less complex design.  First it meant less work for me and second it meant she would be able to do more of it herself.  She chose to cut out a crow in the pumpkin so we marked the lines on the pumpkin and I started the cutting to show Ali how to do it and then she took it from there.  Sofia chose a much more complex design and I thought for sure Jason would be doing most of it but I was wrong.  Sofia sat there working on the pumpkin until she had it completed and it came out great.  It is always nice to see the kids make new steps in their development as they get older.

 
The girls had been looking forward to trick or treating since about November 1, 2012! They have periodically over the last year thought about what they wanted to be and how they could dress up.  We took them over to the party shop to look for costumes.  This was a bit tricky since Ali is so small but didn't want a princess costume.  We found an outfit for her at the second shop we went to and both girls were outfitted.  Sofia wanted torn between being a vampire and Cleopatra so she became a vampire Cleopatra.  Ali stuck with just being a vampire.  They looked so cute and once I had put their make up on it surprised me that with eyeliner on I could really begin to see them as teenagers...very frightening!  We (the girls and I) went to our friend's house right after school so the kids would have time to play and then they got all dressed up together.  More friends arrived and husbands showed up from work and the party started.  The kids played and the adults hung out until it was time to head out the door for trick or treating.  The men took the kids out while the ladies stayed in to answer the door for trick or treaters.  I like this method because even though I think it would be fun to go out with the kids to trick or treat I think it is a good time for the Dad's to spend time alone with the kids.  They all arrived back at the house to review all their loot.  I was surprised to see how many full sized candy bars were in their bags!  I don't think I ever received a full size candy bar as a kid!  The hard part is that even though the kids are over the top excited about giant candy bars there will never be a time I tell them "yes, eat a king size snickers!".  They can barely contain themselves with the sugar in a snack size snickers!  Oh well, they had so much fun and have already started talking about next Halloween.