Advent Calendar and other Christmas decor

Well, it's still *technically* Advent, but I was really hoping to post this closer to the beginning of Advent than now! Silly slow internet...

While we were living in Langley, BC, Canada, I noticed that my friend Kristin had strung together beautiful Advent calendars for each of her girls.  Hers were made out of fancy paper and fashioned into cones that held goodies for each day.  It reminded me of a childhood Christmas when my relatives living in Germany had sent me and my siblings each a cardboard calendar with a little chocolate behind each little door.  I know they're pretty widely available now, but at the time, it was the only one I had ever seen.  I remember going with my parents to my neighbors house... Mrs. Vogel was from Germany and translated the writing for us.  It was a wonderful little memory!

So I started dreaming about one that I could make or buy for my family.  Paper doesn't tend to travel well and I figured that over time it would look worn and crinkled.  But I found some cute ones (like the ones here and here) and started to formulate a plan... I would KNIT my Advent Calendar!  Only... I don't know how to knit.  But I was not deterred.  One of our colleagues on our team here in Mpanda is particularly crafty and I knew that knitting was one of her fortes.  So I started talking with her.  She actually came up with an initial pattern and brought out some of the supplies. 

We worked off and on for a couple months as she taught me to knit.  I already knew how to crochet, so it seemed to come pretty easily.  Then I think it was August when we started doing the mittens in earnest.  It was exciting and the mittens were turning out really cute!  We looked up how to embroider the numbers and I had to learn how to make i-cord (to hang them from).  I also experimented with how I wanted to attach the mittens and ended up doing a braid.  I tried tassles and pompoms, but wasn't happy with either.  I figured I could always add them later if I so desire!  And the finished product....

And a close up showing our special Christmas mitten...

I'm so happy with it!  I put a little chocolate inside each mitten along with a slip of paper where I'd written a special Advent activity.  Advent is my favorite holiday, and between decorating, baking, hosting (Christmas party!), making paper snowflakes, watching Christmas movies, listening to Handel's Messiah, and more, we have really been enjoying Advent this year! 

Here are a few other pictures of our Christmas decor.  This is the Fisher Price Little People (read: OK to be played with!!) Nativity Set.  We've had it since Micaiah's first Christmas and have enjoyed letting Micaiah act out the Christmas story.

 Our advent wreath.  This year I kept it simple. 

Our stockings (we wouldn't normally have a Jesus stocking, but it was sent as a craft, and Micaiah has decided that she wants to write a note to Jesus this year)...

Our oragami Christmas tree (in the background of this one-- sorry, I cut off the star!).  This came out in a care package from our family while we were still living in Musoma...

And our regular Christmas tree...

I love Advent.  Only a few more days until Christmas!!


-JLR

Thanksgiving 2012

We have a lot to be thankful for.  Despite feeling a bit more melancholy than usual lately, Thanksgiving is a welcomed reminder to think through all the blessings the Lord has given to our family.  This year we each wrote a couple things every day in November and by Thanksgiving had a very full "Thankfulness Jar."  It was refreshing to read through all the things we had named-- ranging from favorite movies and games to having electricity (Micaiah's!) and good mosquito nets to our family and friends around the world.  God has provided and we praise Him.

Last year we had Thanksgiving dinner by ourselves.  We shared a meal with our househelper and gardener at lunch, but our dinner was just us.  So this year one of the things we were especially thankful for was having friends to share our holiday with!  Granted no one who came was American, but we really enjoy sharing our customs and traditions with our expat friends!  And having just come off UK week, it was good to get re-settled in our American traditions. :)

A full table this year...

Micaiah and I decorated using some things that were left behind by other missionaries.  We also did place cards that were little turkeys-- Micaiah really enjoys crafts, so it was a lot of fun! 

Our place settings and all the food!

Some Thanksgiving decor left by the Langs that I think originally came from other missionaries in Mbeya.

Not sure what this pose was...

The meal consisted of two chickens (that despite my boiling-roasting methods were unfortunately still a bit chewy), mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, carrots, corn, and homemade applesauce (both regular and cran-apple, thanks to some craisins that Ally brought us in July!).  For dessert we had pumpkin bars, apple pie, and homemade banana ice cream.  I was definitely missing turkey this year, but all in all it was a good meal and we enjoyed our Thanksgiving holiday.

-JLR

Scorpion sighting

The starts of the rains (late October, but picking up momentum in November) brings a variety of critters out of the ground.  We had this little visitor in mid-November.  We also had kumbi-kumbi (plump termites that local people like to fry up as a snack), one snake in the yard/garden, a variety of beetles, and a ton of flies.  If it ends up being the same as last year, hopefully these guests are mostly limited to the beginning of the rainy season and shouldn't be bothering us too much longer. 

Some friends (THANK YOU!!!) sent us a small UV flashlight which makes scorpions easy-to-spot.  Their exoskeletons glow in the dark!  We were able to try it on this one and have given the flashlight to our night guard to use in the yard/garden at night.  We've also heard that chickens are expert scorpion hunters, so maybe that's why we haven't seen more.  Last year we had 3-4 (only 1 inside) and so far this is the only one we've seen (also inside).

Thankfully scorpions are pretty easy to kill-- a basic old navy flip flop took care of this one!  A word to the wise... don't ever use a hammer to kill a scorpion.  We made that mistake in Musoma and the scorpion exploded!  We were finding bits of exoskeleton for days! 

A good reminder to wear shoes in the house, though.  Especially in the evenings!

-JLR

UK Week

(side note: I have another 2-3 posts in the works as soon as the internet will cooperate and load pictures.  Keep checking back for new stuff in the next week or so!)

North America.... check.  South America... check.  As I started to plan for our unit on Europe I noticed a little problem.... they forgot the UK!  Well, not forgot completely, but it wasn't one of the 3-5 main countries we'd focus on.  Since we are on an international team and more than half of the expats in our little town hold British passports, we decided it was worth a bit extra planning.  Not to mention that we spent more than three weeks in the UK (London, Oxford and a little village in between!) in 2009 and have such fond memories of our time there.

My friend Cat helped me brainstorm some additional activities and we came up with some good stuff.  We had extra activities in geography, maths (yes, they use an [s], art, music, vocabulary, literature, and cooking.  Some of my favorites were the 34 terms we collected and made a matching game.  Things like the boot (trunk) or bonnet (hood) of the car.  Or plaiting (braiding) your hair. 

We picked a book by E. Nesbit as our read-aloud for the week.  The Railway Children.  Have you read it?  There's also a film (movie) to go with it.  So we planned a UK dinner-and-a-movie night.  Cat came over and helped Micaiah make Toad in the Hole (sausages cooked in a batter).  We filled out the meal with some mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, and baked beans.  They also made scones, which we served with jam for pudding (dessert).  It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed discussing some of the things we learned that week with all of our guests!  

The challenge spelling word we picked was "monarchy."  This was the sentence Olly and Cat helped us come up with. :)

Cat gave Micaiah some heart-shaped UK flag earrings.  Micaiah loved them!

Using scales to measure flour.  It's not a normal thing for Americans-- usually we use cups to measure flour, not grams or pounds. But it made for a very good math(s) lesson!

She loved mixing the scones dough with her hands!

A little light kneading... nothing this girly can't handle. :)

Working with Cat to make scones and Toad in the Hole.

Our UK night party with our friends in Mpanda.

This is what Toad in the Hole looks like.  It's normally made with proper sausages, but we substituted hot dogs... gotta make do with what we can find here!

-JLR

Canada Unit

This week we started our Canada unit, and Micaiah was really excited!  We lived in Langley, BC for almost two years while Tim finished his MA in Linguistics (2009-2011).  Consequently we have a lot of friends and a great church family there!  So in honor of the first day of our Canada unit, Micaiah wore her special shirt.  We talked about hockey, maple syrup (a conversation stemming from a discussion about the flag), sang the Canadian national anthem, talked about the loonies/toonies, learned the provinces/territories, and discussed some of the special wildlife (like bears and moose) in parts of Canada.  We even talked in exaggerated Canadian accents!  The only other thing I would have done if I'd had the ingredients was make some Nanaimo Bars ... mmm...

And in case you're wondering, no, we weren't making fun... we were reminiscing about our time in Langley and it made us miss living there.  Micaiah and I both spent a good part of the morning in tears as we remembered our friends, thanked God for the time He gave us there, and prayed that we will have the opportunity to go back, visit, and catch up with them all again soon, Lord-willing.  We have been blessed to have developed such close friendships in such a short time, and we know that was a gift from God.  So this is a shout-out to any of our Langley friends if you happen to be reading this... we miss you!


-JLR
ps... if you're Canadian, what else am I missing that is essential either to your region or to Canada as a whole?  We have one more week of study and I'd love to include your ideas into our lesson plans somehow if possible!