Tree Decorating

On December 1st we decorate the tree, eat junk food, watch a Christmas light display from Texas on the TV, and then watch "Elf."

This year, since we we had good electricity, we brought out our raclette. The word "raclette" comes from the French verb racler, which means to scrape (you can see one of the scrapers on the black raclette at the bottom of the photo below). Doug and I heard about this for the first time when we went to visit his brother and sister-in-law who were living in Germany at the time, and we loved it. 

It's like a mini-grill, but more. You can cook meat, veggies (or whatever) on the top grill while you are melting cheese (there is even a special cheese called raclette) in little trays on heaters UNDER the grill.

The amazing thing this year is that we invited some single ladies over for our tree decorating night, and two of them were from Holland, and they have such fond memories of using raclettes in their own homes, so it was special for them as well. As an added bonus, they brought some Dutch treats for us as well.  I just don't have a picture of them.

Wrapping our red material from Kenya around the center pole gives it just the right touch.  Kudos to Doug for all the decorating items he has bought over the years.  I do not have an eye for any of it.  

And to all a good night...

Thanksgiving and an Experiment

One evening, right before Thanksgiving, our team went to play laser tag.  Keira was sick, and I stayed home with her; however, on Caleb's birthday in January, we ALL played, and it was a lot of fun!

November 27, 2019

Thanksgiving morning, some Americans (and Dutch) played a game of football. Keira still wasn't feeling 100%, so I stayed home, but Doug and Caleb joined in the festivities.

They were put on opposite teams, and had a fun time covering each other.

Caleb's team won.

Later that day, we decided to have Thanksgiving at a restaurant again.  The chef from the restaurant we celebrated in last year moved to a new restaurant.  Last year, my teammate had helped the chef with the menu, and it was just for us, so with it being publicized for the whole city, we weren't sure what the set-up was going to be.

There was a buffet and plenty of food, but he changed some recipes and used some different spices this year, and it just didn't taste as good to me.

But it was still nice to all eat together, and Keira's fever was down, so she joined the festivities.

November 29, 2019

Right before Thanksgiving, I took a chance on getting my hair colored. 

I had never done that before.

I thought about getting some blonde highlights to make the switch to grey a little bit smoother; however, I was very nervous about getting my hair colored in a country where a majority of the salon's deal only with dark brown or black hair.

I finally found I guy I trusted and held my breath.

And it was quite a process!

Keira was not excited about me getting my hair colored.  

She wasn't sure she was going to like it.

It turns out, he did just what I wanted!

This was five months ago, so when I get to America you'll get to see my roots and grey, but it was fun while it lasted :) 

November 23, 2019

From a Hobby to a Business

We met Noor last year because she runs a non-profit for refugee women, and they were sewing costumes for the "Lion King" performance.  We also love to shop at the store where the ladies sell all of the goods they are making.  I even had a chance to take some of their hand-made make-up bags home last summer to give to people we visited.

Noor had the idea to design 9 bags and give them each a name coordinating with a fruit of the Spirit.  She asked Kylie if she would design the tags for the bags.

Kylie loves typography, and spent a lot of time designing the tags.

This is one of the final meetings where Kylie is showing Noor what the products would look like. You can tell Noor is excited.

November 12, 2019

Here is one of the close-ups after being printed.  

There is a different scripture on each one.

Then Noor told Kylie if she designed some Christmas cards, she would sell them for Kylie in her store, so Kylie went to work.

We took her 10 designs and sold them not only at the refugee center store, but also at the dance studio, to friends, and at one of the local craft fairs.

Doug found some really cool shelves to display the cards on.

We covered the table with some cloth from Kenya, and voila!

First paying customer at the craft fair!

November 30, 2019

Keira is always trying to imitate her sisters and brother, and in this, there was no exception.

Keira started designing "cards" and hanging them on her wall.

I love her cute writing mistakes:

Rejoice! Jesus is Borm.

Nöel!!!!!?             (I don't know why there was cause for a question mark)

Happy Brthday Jesus.

Joy Tow The Wrda. Hay

Sé té Nöel. it is Crassmse.  (Same sentence in French and "English")

French Cuisine

The French teacher contacted all the parents and asked if we could help her on a "cooking day" with the kids. Another lady and I responded that we could.

She told us to come at the beginning of the day and just wait for the morning lessons to be over, and then we would all walk to the cafeteria to "cook."  

I don't speak French, but the other mother does.

The teacher wrote the recipe on the board in French and all the students had to copy it down and recite it a few times.

Next she started writing something, and I saw the words "Keira" and "maman," and I got a little nervous.

The next thing I know, the kids are grinning, looking at us, and then they start working.

And then they start showing the teacher what they have drawn.

I couldn't type the words into google translate at the time because I was trying to be engaged, but later at home, I was able to use my app to translate what it said:

Keira's mom and Aryana's mom are in the class.  They are seated on small chairs. They eat a cake.  They cat is under the table.



It wasn't quite like sitting for a portrait painting, but it was a little intimidating to have 23 second graders drawing pictures of you :)

The teacher paired up the students and gave each table of four a bowl and a wooden spoon.

Everything was in French, but at one point the teacher told me in broken English, "These kids have never been in the kitchen before.  They don't know how to mix, get their hands dirty, cut, or cook.  This is a shame!"

I'd say they picked it up rather quickly.

I would go to each table to help them finish rolling out the dough or add more flour or whatever they needed.

Most of the time, I spent peeling apples for the kids, so they could cut them into small pieces. They really liked the cutting part, but there were only a couple of knives per table, so the cutting took a long time. Plus, some of these kids really had never used a knife before, so it went really slowly.

November 13, 2019

I'm really not sure what they ended up making :)

They filled the dough pan with apples, and that was it.  No topping, no sugar, no cinnamon.  They just went out to recess while I cleaned up.

Later, Keira said the teacher baked them in the school ovens, but before cooking, she added a coin to each one.  

All I know is that Keira didn't like it, so I guess we won't be recreating it at home ;)

Food, Family, Friends

In November, our language helper had to take a trip out of the country, so we had some unusually free mornings.  Doug and I took advantage of the situation and told each kid we would each take each of them out on a date for breakfast or lunch, wherever they wanted to go.  

We were almost successful.  Here we are 5 months down the road, and Karis still hasn't had her date with Doug.  Things in school kept coming up for Karis, but I know they will eventually have their date.

When I went with Kylie, she wanted a big Arab breakfast, so we ordered one that is designed for 2-4 persons :)

It was delicious and delightful!

November 11, 2019

Karis and I also went for a breakfast, albeit smaller.  And Caleb and I got hamburgers one day for lunch. Doug also had a breakfast with Kylie and a lunch with Caleb.  These extended times with the kids one-on-one were some of my favorite last fall!

Two days after my breakfast with Kylie, my friend invited me and another lady over for lunch. We always have good and fun conversations, and there are always so many things to try.

In her living room, I spied this picture on the shelf.  

It's a lovely thing to go into another person's home and find sweet pictures of your own kids being displayed in their living space.

November 13, 2019

Acceptance Letter

Kylie's college acceptance letter came in November.

The trick is that the letter was mailed to my parents' house, and so my dad scanned it and forwarded it to us by email.

What I didn't know is that he also forwarded it to Kylie.

Nevertheless, Doug and I wanted to make a big deal out of it, so we sealed it in a beautifully scripted envelope (writing creds to Karis), and we told the kids we were going out for a special lunch (Keira was at school).

We took them to a fancy steak house, and they kept asking, "What's up?"  

(Note: There is actually a "gold" menu in this restaurant where you can get your steak, coffee, dessert, etc. covered in edible gold. Don't worry, we didn't try it, but a few of us did try some of their beef.  Good, but nothing compared to Doug's steaks or those I've had in America.)

Back to Kylie.  We gave her the letter, and of course she had seen it already, but we still wanted to make the day memorable for her.

Ta-da!!💗

Since everyone was looking so cute, when we got home, we decided to have a small, silly photo shoot.

It started small.

And got sillier and sillier.

I convinced Caleb to jump in,

and then he got silly.

After the "smolder," I knew it wasn't going to get any better than that, and I love it!

Kylie calls this one: Dreamy, Smolder, and "Fashun"

November 6, 2019