I wrote this last Monday and didn’t get it posted!!
We had a great weekend with the kids. Saturday was the ConocoPhillips Kid’s Christmas Party. It was fun. There was an inflatable water slide, kiddie pool and jumping castle outside the local rocking climbing facility. Inside, they had adults belaying the kids on the rock climbing walls and a large kid’s jungle gym. Add good food and Santa Claus to hand out gifts and you have a kid’s Christmas party. We even met some nice kids. It was HOT, though. We drank lots of water and after the party we had a nice dip in the pool at home.
Sunday was relaxing. Paul took the kids out to the pool while I got some work done. Early afternoon we went for a drive so the kids would nap. Sunday evening we went to a park with some new friends to see the annual Carols by Candlelight. We sat on a blanket on the grass, listening to choirs, soloists, and groups playing various musical instruments, all making beautiful Christmas songs. There were lots of people in a huge amphitheater. Of course Santa showed up on stage toward the end so sign along. Then we watched a fireworks show. It was probably the longest show I have ever seen. Pretty impressive. The kids really took to our new friend, Mr. Lincoln, who was born and raised in Africa and told the kids lots about it. Sounds like the property they grew up on had a massive grass yard, where he had a pet monkey and gazelles. Pretty cool.
It is difficult to get in the Christmas spirit with all the heat. This past weekend’s festivities definitely helped. In our air shipment, which should arrive today, we have a few Christmas decorations and a little artificial tree. Decorating with the kids will also help. We have been trying to figure out what new traditions we will have here and what old ones we want to keep. Most everyone does cold seafood for Christmas dinner here. We’ve thought about it, but it will be tough to go without the turkey! Maybe for New Year’s Day we will do a prawn dish.
There is a local competition for the best Christmas light display (winner gets $1000). On line you can look up who has entered the competition and where they live so you can go see them. That should be fun.
The kids are doing well. We’ve all had little bouts of stomach upset. Our systems are getting used to the local supply of bugs. The older kids have also had a few nightmares, probably a combination of the big changes, heat, newness of everything. They are getting more settled now – the past few nights they have all slept well.
We have been researching options for schooling next year (new school year starts the end of January). There is a private Waldorf school (aka Steiner school) here that we are excited about. It seems to be very nurturing and well established, with teachers very experienced in the Steiner curriculum. Ryland has a slot there if we choose to take it. We are also continuing to research the private international school here. We will see!
In the meantime we have been doing some school at home. It’s interesting how kids are different. Kaelyn loves to spend time coloring. Ryland wouldn’t necessarily seek that out, but if he deems something useful work he is all over it. He has written a letter to Aine (our dog) who is still in quarantine in Sydney. Last week we had to do a big grocery store run. While I worked in the kitchen he spent about 40 minutes making our list. I helped him spell the words and he wrote them down. When we got to the store he found the items on the list and crossed them off as we put them in the cart. He was way into it. It was wonderful!
The kids all miss our dog and cat. Paul and I debated whether or not it was a good idea to import them to Australia. The process was difficult and costly for us, not to mention difficult for the pets. Given how much we all miss the animals we are happy we are doing it. It will be another month before we see them and we can’t wait. The kids and I have done up a little care package to send them which seemed to help. We also have a person hired to take Aine out to the exercise yard within the quarantine twice a week and to give Harmony (our cat) some extra love. She emails video and photos of both animals to us. It’s good to see they are alright. Harmony is still a little grumpy and probably will be until she is settled back with us.
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