Christmas

The last five years Christmas has been very low key and laid back for our family.  We were living abroad with no family.  The kids had three weeks off from school so there was plenty of time before Christmas to bake cookies and play together as a family.  For some of the Christmas Eves we did nothing and just hung out as a family and for some of them we went to a friends house for drinks and hor d'oeuvers.  It was a nice evening of relaxing and chatting with friends while the kids played with their friends.  On Christmas day we woke up and had a leisurely morning with no where to go for the day.  On our last year we did go to a friends house for brunch on Christmas morning but there was no rush to get there and if we decided to not go it was not a problem.  It was so nice to be able to have time to relax together as a family with no pressure to go anywhere or do anything. 

This year we are back in America and such is not the way of the American Christmas.  We do Christmas here as Americans go through life...rush, rush, rush.  I forgot how crazy Christmas can be when you have to rush around to see everybody.  The kids did not get out of school until the 23rd of December so there was no time to make cookies as a family so I made them myself.  The kids don't have much free time during the week between homework, swimming and gymnastics so the week before Christmas passed as every other week passes.  On the 23rd Jason stayed home from work but the kids had school and I went down to my parents to help my mother prepare for the Christmas Eve meal she was hosting on Saturday.  Since I'm home I will of course help my mother but this year in particular she needed the help since she wasn't feeling well.  So the kids in school, me in RI and Jason home to do a few errands and fortunately had lunch with a friend.  I drove back home at the end of the day and started to think about how different life was now that we are back in a America.  As I started to feel a bit down I was reminded that things are also good in America when a beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky.  It wasn't a part of a rainbow but a full on complete rainbow and it wasn't even raining where I was driving.

On Saturday we drove down to RI for lunch so that we could spend time with my siblings and the kids could play with their cousins and we could open gifts from each other before the rest of the family arrived for dinner.  The girls were very excited to get to RI to see their cousins, especially their cousin Johnathon since they do not get to see him that often.  He is the oldest of the cousins on my side of the family and Sofia adores him.  They were climbing all over him which may have been a bit overwhelming for Johnathon but he was a good sport about it.  After the kids played and we had lunch we decided it was time to open the presents.  This proceeded in the fashion that it has since I was a little girl...presents flying everywhere, ripping open packages and moving on to the next one all while having no idea of who else got what or really even taking the time to look at what you just opened.  While I have realized I do not like this method as an adult I remembered loving it as a child.  The kids had a blast and there were a LOT of presents to open. 

After opening the gifts and cleaning up all the wrapping paper the kids played while the adults prepared the spread for dinner.  The rest of the family (about 30 people in total) arrived and we ate dinner and proceeded to round two of present opening.  As is customary in my family once the eating is done and presents are opened it is time to go home so most of the family left.  I helped clean up as best I could but we needed to leave by 8:30pm because I had to pick up our beef tenderloin from my friends house.  Fortunately I had it delivered to her house earlier that day since I forgot to pick it up from Roche Bros. grocery store.  Roche Bros. earned their slightly pricier products in my eyes since they went out of their way to deliver my Christmas beef for me without a delivery charge on the day before Christmas.  I can't imagine a big supermarket chain providing that kind of service.

We arrived back home about 10:15pm and said good-bye to Christopher Pop-In-Kins for another year and put the kids to bed and prepared everything for the following day.  

Christmas morning came and it was nice.  We maintained our Christmas morning routine...stockings, coffee and holiday sweet bread, open presents and then a big breakfast of eggs, bacon and home fries.  We were so relaxed we didn't even have breakfast until noon! 

I gave Jason an X-box Kinect for Christmas so we played that and the kids had a blast with it.  Ali was a little hesitant at first but once Jason and I left the room she and Sofia played together and had a great time.



On Monday we drove up to Maine and got there just about 5pm.  We decided that our dinner would be much more relaxed and unrushed if we opened up gifts first.  The girls were very excited and I was excited for them to open gifts as well since I knew the gift Sofia had been waiting for was there to be opened...her American Girl doll.  Basically Christmas would be made perfect once she opened that present.  We had also brought Ali's American girl doll up to Maine to be unwrapped as well so they both got their dolls and Grammie had also given them doll clothing, accessories and a trundle bed.  They were thrilled!  It was quite a Christmas and a very different experience for the kids but I think they enjoyed every moment.

Winter Celebration

Today I went into Sofia's class for her classroom winter celebration.  Gone are the days of junk food at parties.  In fact, there was no food at all!  I was not surprised though as the school policy is to not bring sweets to school.  While I think that saying no sweets because there is an epidemic of childhood obesity is ridiculous since it is not the 13 cupcakes throughout a year that make a child obese.  However, having no food at the party makes it more of a parent/child interactive time which is definitely nice to have.  Today Sofia's teacher had us work on making a polygon snowman since the kids are just starting to work on polygons.  Sofia and I had fun making our snowman and made him quite snazzy with a vest!

Swimming Test

Yesterday the girls had their swimming tests.  They both are doing well.  It is nice to have a formal evaluation to know how they are doing. 

Sofia's evaluation shows the following:

1.  She can dive off block in streamline position although she needs to focus more on getting her head between her arms
2.  Freestyle - 50 yards with streamline off the wall, bilateral breathing with flip turns but she has to focus on not breathing from the flags to the finish. - She said she tried this but felt she was going to explode.  I'm not surprised becuase it is probably 7 strokes long so she will just have to get used to the feeling and/or swim that part faster.
3.  Backstroke - 50 yards with streamline off the wall on back to the flags then release one arm then stroke, her head is back and she has a continuous flutter kick (needs to focus on always keeping her feet up).  She also now counts her stroke from the flags to the finish so she can swim hard right to the wall.  She needs to work on her flip turn to make sure she always pushes off the wall on her back and make sure when she starts her back stroke off the wall that her head is back.
4.  Breaststroke - 25 yards with pull out/streamline, proper kick, proper pull onlyto chest with continuous motion to stream line.
5.  Butterfly - This is where Sofia needs work.  She can do 25 yards  with dolphin kick in streamline with correct timing and breaathing but needs to focus on keeping her knees and feet together and getting her elbows clear of the water.

So, she is doing great.  She will stay with another session of the prep team through March and then we will see where the coaches think she should go.  There is another girl in her class, Chloe, who she is friends with and I am friends with her mom who also needs work on her butterfly so we will get together and have Sofia and Chloe have 2-3 private lessons to get their butterfly stroke up to snuff.

Alessandra's evaluation showed the following:

1. Freestyle - This needs work.  Her instructor said that he knows she can do it but yesterday on the test she went out to fast and had to stop half way so he couldn't pass her on it.  I am not surprised that she rushed this on the test day since she was already exhausted before we even got to swimming. She has made big strides on her freestyle though and is no longer doggie paddling every third stroke.
2.  Backstroke - Complete with good body position, leaning back and relaxed.  She has a consistent flutter kick with proper arm pull, elbows straight and her pinky enters tha water first.
3. Elementary Backstroke - Complete with proper kick and arm pull in a glide position.
4. Breaststroke - This needs work.  She needs to coordinate the timing of her arm pull and kick.
5. Sidestroke Kick - This needs work.  She needs to improve her scissor kick and make sure she doesn't roll onto her stomach.
6. Butterfly - She needs to work on her breathing
7. Diving - Complete with a standing dive off the side of the pool.
8. Treading water - Completed with treading water for one minute.
9. Swim underwater - Completed streamline to flags
10. Open Turns - Completed.

So, Ali still has a lot of work to do in the next session of lessons but even though she has not completed all the items in the level four list she has made huge improvements in her swimming.  She has a different instructor on Thursday who will also be giving her a swimming test so we will see if there are any differences in the evaluations.  I'm hoping she will not be as tired on Thursday and will get the complete on the freestyle on Thursday. 

Crafts

Jason decided to do a craft with the kids over the weekend.  He found a craft that included shaving cream and glue to make a snowman.  This was a good craft for Jason to do since I would probably have skipped it due to the possible mess factor.  Adding to the fun is Jason mixed the glue and the shaving cream in red solo cups.  This adds to the fun because the girls have really been into the song "Red Colo Cup" lately and have been singing it around the house..  Here is a quick video of the kids at the start of the craft.  Sorry for the poor video quality.

Happy Birthday Pat!

Last Thursday was my brother Pat's birthday.  We headed down to his house on Friday to celebrate with him.  It was nice to have time with my brother with only our family (my parents, brothers, nephews) around.  Usually when we go to my brother's house for a party it is filled with his friends and we do not get any time to really see or talk with Pat so this was a nice change.  The kids all played together and had a great time and the adults got to sit around and talk.  At the end of my brother's road is a house that puts on a "Festival of Lights" every year.  The light display is amazing.  The man must spend hours putting up all the lights.  He even has little houses for the kids to look in to see toys making candy or Santa and Mrs. Claus's bedroom.  There is popcorn and cookies and even Santa was there.  It is definitely a lot of work for the owners of the house and they give the money they receive to charity.  So, after having some pizza we all headed across the cul de sac to see the lights.  It was a nice night and the kids left there exhausted!

Gingerbread House

The girls and I put together a ingerbread house this year.  Of course the kids just wanted to eat all the candy but they managed to contain themselves and did a nice job decorating the house.  My icing work was not of the best quality but the kids did not care.  it has been nice to see it on the counter every day.  The decorating quality is going down by the day as we continue to pick all the candy off the house to eat it!

Finally a night out!!

Jason and I have become accustomed to going out together every Friday night since living in Prague but since we have moved back to the States we have only managed to go out to dinner alone twice.  We sent the kids down to my parent's house for the weekend.  Friday night we just relaxed and Jason worked on Saturday but Saturday night we went out to dinner.  We headed into Boston's North End for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Giacomo's.  It was so wonderful to be in the city again.  While living in Hopkinton is nice and scenic there is just something about city life that is special as well.  We walked to the restaurant and enjoyed being in the city.  We had a fabulous meal of lobster ravioli for me and homemade fusilli with lobster and shrimp for Jason.  We love Giacomo's food and the hustle of the restaurant.  It is definitely not a relaxing restaurant but the hustle/bustle and small space make you feel like you are in an Italian kitchen.

We followed dinner  up with cappuccino and cannoli at Mike's Pastry.  I don't know if we have just been away from Mike's for too long but it seemed like the cannolis were much bigger than we remembered.  We could have just split one they were so big.  No matter how long it has been though since going to Mike's the cannoli was just as good as I remember them!  It was so nice to have time alone to just talk about life.  We are so busy here that life seems to fly by and we haven't had time to catch up with each other.  It was definitely a much needed break from the speed of life.  Thanks to mom and dad for taking care of the kids!