Holiday Series: Advent

Now, you might be expecting the next blog post to be about Christmas, but Advent is a big deal in our family.  (How could it be otherwise, growing up Lutheran?)  I admit, I *may* have a slight addiction to Advent calendars, nativity sets, Christmas decorations, and so on.  We left most everything of ours behind, figuring that Pinterest would help us fill the gap.  And, boy, did it ever.  Here are my board links in case you want to peruse some awesome ideas.  Christmas Ideas and Winter Ideas  We didn't get to all of them this year.

I mentioned in my post on Thanksgiving that the lack of fall weather made it hard for me to get into the holiday spirit.  I am happy to say that was NOT the case for Christmas.  I didn't realize until living through it here that so much of the Christmas preparation is tied up in activities outside of the weather that it wasn't actually a big deal to be existing without snow.  (Sorry for all of you stuck in the deep freeze of the north; I'm hoping that by missing two winters we're able to come back to something milder.  Way to take one for the team.)

Here are some of the Advent traditions in our home:

Advent Calendar(s):  Back home, we have 3-4 Advent calendars.  This sweet little magnetic scene, a felt pocket calendar that I put activity cards in, a little 24 piece nativity scene I was given by my in-laws identical to one from my childhood, and sometimes a chocolate calendar.  All of these remained in Minnesota.  Down here I created an Advent calendar out of toilet paper tubes, inspired by a picture on Pinterest but made uniquely my own.

By mid-Dec I had added a little printable to the green space.

One of our activities- Christmas cupcakes downtown

I used it to replicate the activity advent calendar we do at home.  I highly recommend an activity advent calendar as it is completely customizable and a good way to build in family together time and memories.  I take time in November to plan out daily activities based on our schedule.  A previously scheduled activity becomes the activity for that calendar day and many of them are simple, like "listen to Christmas music" or "color a Christmas picture."  I plug in things we do every year like Christmas parties and concerts, family gatherings, and cookie baking.  And I have reminders to water the tree, because I'm an expert at forgetting that one.  Feel free to modify the document I created for your own purposes.  MN version ~  Peru version It's created to work with Avery labels (5160 or 30 per page).  I stick the labels on old business cards so I can reuse them year after year and it's worked out great the past several years.  I have more cards than days so I can choose what I want to do and not be boxed into a corner. I write down what I have planned on my calendar and feel no shame about changing things if something in our lives changes.  Having it on my calendar makes it a lot easier to know what is coming up or what days to trade around than poking around in the calendar to figure out what's coming up.  I made the TP calendar go from Dec 1 through Jan 6 and we'll do that again next year but I won't continue that when we go back home.  That calendar only goes through Dec 25 and I found that my desire to keep doing daily activities through the 12 days of Christmas plummeted off a cliff.  I still like listening to Christmas music and eating leftover Christmas goodies, but I don't want to have to do an activity daily after Christmas day.  New this year, we did an electronic Advent calendar from Jacquie Lawson.  What fun!  This one was a gift from some dear friends and we'll definitely be doing it again next year.  Let me know if you want to be part of a buying group next year (there are significant discounts for buying 10 or more, just $2 per calendar this year).  This was one of Miss M's favorite daily activities.  The countdown aspect of Advent calendars is great for the kids and I have enjoyed the togetherness that the activities portion can bring to the family.  It's been fun to pause and take in some of the wonder of the season.

BTW, I recommend an Advent calendar for everyone.  I've done it every year, regardless of my family status and I enjoyed it every year.

Cookie decorating.

One of the activities we do every year.

Advent wreath and devotions: Taken from my youth, the Advent wreath is a standard part of the decor. Thankfully, I'm married to a handyman.  He took some wood pieces I got from a garage sale and fashioned a sturdy cross-shaped Advent wreath.  Perfectly serviceable for our two year stint.

Advent wreath!  3 of 4 candles still had their gold strips by the end.

I bought the candles at a candle shop downtown that came complete with large dog.  I mean, really large.

The candle shop dog.

I selected the taper candles with the fancy spiral sides and gold metallic strip for Fancy Miss M.  I did not, however, realize that it was just sort of glued on at both ends and by the end of the season, one candle had completely lost its gold strip and another was hanging by a thread.  Live and learn.  We have a variety of Advent devotion options.  My goal with kids is to give them a taste of the Biblical background of the story (starting with Adam and Eve- why in the world do we need a Savior anyway) and going through the actual Nativity story (including dedication in the temple and the visit of the Magi, which probably occurred sometime 1-2 years after Jesus was born.)  This year we looked to Pinterest and found a nice Advent reading plan based on the Jesus Storybook Bible.

Bonus review: I really like the Jesus Storybook Bible, the main theme is that Jesus is the thread that ties the whole Bible together and "every story whispers his name."  The book is very fun to read and I find myself regularly becoming emotional when I read the stories to the girls.  The illustrations are beautiful as well.  The downside is that not everything is exactly on when it comes to Biblical accuracy (some things are embellishments which don't really bother me, like saying Jesus winked at the little boy who had his lunch expanded to feed the 5000 but others are more facts that are off, like saying that Jacob worked another 7 years for Rachel and married her after 14 years when it was actually one week after Leah's wedding and then he worked the 7 years).  I just modify what I am reading based on what I know and I still really like the book.

Decorating: We decorate the day after Thanksgiving in our house.  Our decoration amount was down this year, but still quite serviceable.  We put up a little Christmas tree (just a little taller than little A) with a few ornaments.  Then we used craft days from the Activity Advent Calendar to make some more ornaments.  I made a felt garland out of red and white felt that was very easy to make and looked festive.  We put a garland on the stairs and hung stockings for the girls there since we don't have a fireplace here.

Our little tree.

The girls rearranged the tree constantly!

I also found some fun printables on Pinterest and used them to decorate, including some ornaments with memory verses.  We didn't get around to memorizing them this year...but maybe next year.  They looked festive!

And, I found some felt decorations on sale for 90% off after Christmas which I plan to bring home to use for our master bedroom (maybe when we get home Dave and I will actually be able to agree on a mantle to buy for our fireplace).

Stockings:  We do stockings on St. Nicholas Day (Dec. 6) and family gifts on Epiphany (Jan. 6).  So, stockings happen at the start of Advent.

A chocolate nativity!  Nothing says Advent like eating the holy family. :)

Dressing up in big sis' headband and looking at the nativity scene that came in the stockings.

So, that was Advent!  Our month or so of preparing for Christmas through reading Bible stories, spending family time together, and making the time special with activities and food.


See other posts in the holiday series:

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Advent (that's this post)

Christmas

New Years

Easter

Mother's Day 

Holiday Series: Thanksgiving

I thought I should probably do a little holiday series and write about how we celebrated the holidays in Peru (and perhaps, more interestingly, what Peruvians do to celebrate).  Now that the big holiday push is over, I'm going back to write about Thanksgiving.  Because we lost the camera right after Thanksgiving dinner but I just found it last week!  It was in my backpack, which I thoroughly scoured multiple times and hadn't seen during the month and a half it was missing despite regularly using the pocket in which it was found.  I suspect God may have dropped it in for me, and I'm really happy to have the camera back.

Thanksgiving: As all of you American readers know, Thanksgiving is an American holiday.  Sure, the Canadians have a Thanksgiving Day, too, but the way we celebrate (last Thursday of the month) and some of our other traditions are uniquely American.  One of my favorite facts about my favorite holiday is that my favorite president (Abraham Lincoln) was the one to declare it a national holiday in 1863.  We've been celebrating annually ever since. Did you also know that Sarah Josepha Hale (editor of Godey's Lady's Book) was one of the people to petition him to do so through editorials she wrote?

At any rate, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it's about thanking God for what we have, it has a great menu (including PIE!), you get to spend time with family, and there isn't any fuss or bother about gifts.  (Now, I like gifts, too- but this celebration allows you to get together without the extra work of gifts.)  This is actually the second Thanksgiving I have celebrated abroad, the first being in Italy when I went there on a trip as a nanny with the family I worked for in college.  That trip saw us in a hotel that had a meal that catered to Americans and as I was with Americans on a really fun trip, it was not a big deal to be away for one year.  This year, I knew that I wanted to do something fun and reminiscent of a "normal" Thanksgiving.

We were invited to participate with two other expat families, both comprised of US citizens who married Peruvians.  I volunteered to make the pies (which are a big deal in my family of origin.  Our tradition for many years was one pie per person, you all put an order in.  You are guaranteed two pieces of "your" pie and the rest goes up for grabs.  We eat pie leftovers for the next days/week.  Delicious.  I am the crust-whisperer and make many of the pies as well.)  We planned out a delicious menu with all of us contributing and one of the other families hosted.

Our hostess made a beautiful Thanksgiving tree where you could write things you were thankful for on leaves and put them up on the tree.  Her girls made placemats for everyone with handprint turkeys.

Here is our meal- SO TASTY!  We had turkey, potatoes, gravy, kale/cheese salad, quinoa stuffing, sweet potato casserole, wine, and water with real lemon! (you don't understand, we can't usually get lemons here).  I filled my plate twice and little A kept saying "Yuh-mee!"  I made a Pinterest board of recipes I brought if you want to check any of them out or put them on your Thanksgiving to do list for next year.

Dave was pressed into service carving the turkey.  He didn't mind.

Pie spread.  I made a cheesecake with homemade caramel sauce, apple pie,
pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream and chocolate cupcakes.
Another person brought a pecan pie, too.

Someone was excited about her chocolate cupcake
topped with caramel sauce AND whipped cream.

It felt like a "real" Thanksgiving to me, despite the fact that we weren't with family.  We did get to Skype with them, and that was fun.  I would say that the lack of fall weather (it's spring here, we're south of the equator) made it challenging to feel like Thanksgiving was coming.  Once I started in earnest doing the pies and other food, it felt more like Thanksgiving, and biting into the delicious foods made it really feel like Thanksgiving.  We were able to gather with friends, eat familiar foods, and thank God for the blessings in our lives.

Peruvians as a whole don't celebrate Thanksgiving (called Día de Acción de Gracias) but they are aware of it.  Several Peruvuians wished us a happy day.  It was interesting seeing families who have both cultures represented- the Peruvian fathers and in-laws celebrating and eating along with us even though it's not a holiday they grew up with.  I read before we came that the expat community (foreigners living abroad) is one in which you can very quickly make friends.  Other expats get what it's like living in a culture not your own and it's nice to recreate the familiar with others who also know what you are talking about! We have a very healthy, vibrant expat community here and I'm so thankful to be in it and able to celebrate our American holiday with other families.

Stay tuned for write-ups on Christmas and the New Year!

See other posts in the holiday series:

Halloween

Thanksgiving (that's this post)

Advent

Christmas

New Years

Easter

Mother's Day 

Wet?

From Dave (written a couple of days ago):

We got our first rain a few weeks ago- and it's raining again tonight.  From the time we arrived months ago until not I think we've had only a bit more than a trace of rain.  We're told the rainy season begins in December (We had about half sunny weather and about half cloudy weather in December), and goes through February- with January and February being wet.  They say "really wet" but as to what that means, we'll find out.)  For now, we wrap up the Christmas season with palm-tree-like weather...except there aren't any palm trees in our yard.  The local park has them, though- does that count?

Kudos to you for being in the hardy party of the great Northland- the weather report said the high for today was -11 in St. Paul.  You win.  (Apparently the temp never climbed above zero for 17 consecutive days in Embarrass, MN....is that a bright side?)

Our front walk

Side note- I was able to finish up the Bible-in-a-year in chronological form.  That means everything is put in order that it happened (most of the Bible is already like that, but the second half of the Old Testament gets a lot clearer in that form).  One theme that I was intrigued to track is water.  Have you noticed how much regular ol' water plays a "role" in the Bible?  From the Creation to Noah, to Jesus being the water of life, to rivers that keep showing up over and over again.  It's fun to see threads working through time.

Looks drenched, doesn't it.  :)

Happy birthday to me!

I am the first one in the family to celebrate a birthday here.  It was a wonderful day!  Dave started the morning by making my favorite pancake recipe (Four Grain Pancakes from the Joy of Cooking).  I obviously didn’t bring my tome of a cookbook down here, but fortunately someone else put it online.  I got to sleep in while Dave was cooking the pancakes and entertaining the girls.

After breakfast, I was able to hang out by myself (introverts around the world will understand what a treat that was).  I looked over my Facebook messages, read a novel, and generally enjoyed the time to myself. 

Dave and I went out for lunch downtown and I got to stop in a few shops.  We came home where I again got time to myself.  Dinner was my pick- pasta and garlic bread (neither of which I typically get at home since the rest of the family is gluten free).  And I made myself a delicious cheesecake.  Then some Skyping with family back home and a great night of sleep. 

Chocolate chip cheesecake!  Unaffected by the altitude....

M is ready to blow out the candles.

 

We aren’t typically into gifts (we tend to spend our money on travel instead of giving things).  Dave made me a fun flower bouquet with qualities written on each stem.  Mirabel drew several pictures and made a special card.  My mom sent money to buy some jewelry and Dave picked out some fun earrings.  And I got some money from my in-laws to spend on whatever I want (it’s either going to be a spa day or in-home massage). 

 

My flower bouquet.  I've been looking at one each day.

 

A bouquet of compliments.

My earrings.  You can buy a lot of sterling silver jewelry here.

We’ve been to several kid birthday parties here, but no grown up events.  I found out after my birthday that some traditions include staying up until midnight the night before to immediately wish the birthday person a happy birthday.  Some people go out drinking and there are sometimes fireworks (which seem to be the perfect complement to just about anything, based on how frequently we hear them).

It was a great birthday.

Some cultural observations....

From Dave:

 

If you like these things, you’ll love Arequipa:

 

Dogs – it seems like every family has one – it certainly seems like the majority of families.  If the dogs decide to take over, it won’t be a contest.  I think I’ve seen one cat. 

 

 

 

Warm sunny days – we haven’t had a drop of rain in three months – and the average high has been around 75 degrees - and that’s normal here.

 

 

 

Car alarms and horns – we have found it to be safe around here, but wow do we hear a lot of car alarms (maybe less expensive car alarms go off a lot?).  For example, when I was helping load up a family into their car after a party, her own car alarm went off twice.  Also, folks (like taxis) will pull up to a house and honk a couple times (I assume to get someone's attention inside).  Doesn't matter if it's 6:00 a.m. or 11:00 at night.  They also use car horns to communicate things like 'I'm passing' 'look out' 'you're not moving fast enough on that light' and the like.  I guess they like car horns here.

 

Corner stores – we have two of them within one block of our house.  They are like the Superettes of old (if you remember that idea).  It’s a shop about the size of a family room in a typical house, that sells candy, toilet paper, bread, liquor, and the like – stacked up to the ceiling.  They are all over the place here.  Want a few eggs at 8:00 at night?  Just go four doors down to Katty’s to buy some.  Reasonable prices too. 

 

Regular garbage pickup – are you tired of once a week garbage pickup?  Come to Arequipa, where we have twice daily garbage pickup – once at about 6:00 a.m., and again at about 10:00 p.m.  No idea why.  It’s not to keep out wild animals – there are none here… except the dogs (see above).

 

Dairy-free ice cream – it’s everywhere.  I think there are 5 places I could get ‘ice cream’ within a two-block radius of our house – street vendors – little shops – in corner shops – and the ingredients always start with: water, sugar, vegetable oil… and end without a drop of dairy to be found.
 

 

Gates – no, not Bill, but wrought iron, or steel gates.  For people, for cars – in front of houses, businesses, even some neighborhoods.  If you don’t have a gate or three, you don’t belong.

 

So, if you’re big on the above, you can "vive la buena vida" in Arequipa. 

Par-tay! Or, the kindergarten graduation fiesta that was as fancy as a wedding reception

*Apologies for the poor photo/video quality; our real camera hasn't surfaced since Thanksgiving so we were stuck using the cell phone.*

So, Miss M is wrapping up kindergarten and they had a big party to celebrate.  We went to the event not knowing exactly what to expect.  We had gotten information on the appropriate clothing to wear, knew we would have a meal, paid for our tickets (including a small token fee for Little A that covered the entertainment and "surprise" prize pack but not her meal...which was just as well given that she doesn't eat wheat and couldn't eat much of the meal anyway.)

The parents had been preparing special surprise entertainment (*spoiler* Dave was a wolf in a children's storybook interpretation....short video clip will be embedded below) and we knew there would be a clown and a piñata.  However...when we got there...the sheer level of decorations was somewhat astounding for us.  It looked like an American wedding reception. 

The cakes- 5 for Ano 5

Waterfall outside

Many rose bouquets

 Getting in on the fun costumes....there isn't really a place to put these pics but I thought they were funny so here they are.

M as an "Angry Bird" (yes, I know it's a piggy)

A, as a decidedly less Angry Bird

The girls had fancy dresses and hair (I took M to a salon near our house and paid about $7 for them to do her hair up in curls, which started falling out as soon as we left.  Thanks to the power of Aqua-Net hair spray, she did still have wavy hair the morning after.  Her straight hair comes directly from both grandmothers. :)   The boys wore suits and parents were dressed in suits, skirts, dresses, and other "Sunday-best" level of clothing. 


The girls and me



The whole fam

The program was as follows:
1. Announcement/processional of the kids (each child escorted by opposite gender parent)

2. Welcome speech by principal
3. Dance of the graduates (with opposite gender parent)

4. Presentation of gifts to teachers of the past three years
5. Lunch (the kids all sat at a head table along with teachers and administrators, who appeared to spend most of the lunch running around helping the kids pour pop, cut meat, etc.)
                                                             


Our meal- chicken cordon bleu, fruit salad with whipped cream, and maybe potatoes?  Not sure.

Our table

6. Presentation of diplomas (recuerdos or remembrances).  This is a big framed picture with one pic of the graduate and a class photo, along with everyone's names.  The children also signed a class book.  During the presentation, they played a mini-slide show of each child (6 pictures) and talked about the child, what they liked about school.  That was all in Spanish, so I didn't catch all of M's, but she said she loved her dad and she had the best mom.  M is doing the traditional Peruvian picture face (no smile).

7. Parent Entertainment- one dancing show, followed by a theater production that Dave was in, followed by another dance.  Everyone was in costume.  If you didn't have at least one parent participating (some families had both parents in something), you had to pay a fine.   Dave being in the play got me out of the dance.

Moms dancing (I think this is a dance a famous group Hi 5 does).

The play.  Dave is the energetic wolf trying to steal a crown from a rock.

8. Animacion Infantil: A clown and his sidekick did games (including things like relay races which wore the kids out) and a parent participation where you could earn prizes.  M and I won for tossing your child high up in the air and catching them again.  Not bad for a girl in heels, I say.  After the games, the clown did a puppet show and magic show and then it was Hora Loca (Crazy Hour).  This is apparently normal at Peruvian parties as a wind down/finale activity.  In this case, we had a light show, tubes of confetti, shaving cream, and loud music, all done with people marching around wearing hats, headbands, ties, masks, and other accessories that were handed out, waving long balloons and making noise in addition to the music.  See video clip below.



Magic Show

Balloons at the ready for Hora Loca (Crazy Hour)

9. Distribution of party favors and cake.  (We ate cake earlier, but the kids all got a boxed piece of cake to take home, too.)

It was an incredible amount of work to pull something like this off, and we are thankful to the other parents who did it.  We went to at least 8 or 9 meetings (not counting all of the theater practices) and boy does it seem like a lot of work to plan in a collaborative culture where everyone gets to vote on things like what food is served and what color tablecloths to use.  But the end result was a really fun party.  And long, too...Dave and A left after 5.5 hours and M and I headed out at the end (8 hours after we arrived!)

Living the 1860s Dream

I've taken a little bit of a break from the blog...life had settled into a normal pace and I needed a little time to think, reflect, and get over the 3 month hump.  But, here we are....with Thanksgiving behind us (post coming whenever our camera surfaces) and Christmas and New Year's ahead.  And the first quarter of 2014 brings some travel for us and our first visitors from back home!  We're excited about the activities in the next months.

One of the things I've been doing is comparing and contrasting my life now with what life might have been like in the 1860s in frontier Minnesota.

You may or may not know that my hobby is civilian reenacting with The Living History Society of Minnesota.  I'm in a little bit of history withdrawal here, so I signed up to follow a few reenactment Facebook pages and have been planning my next dresses by pinning pictures of originals to my 1860s Pinterest board.

My sweet girls.

That's me in the middle.  None of that white stuff down here!

But...living here has been both the realization of a dream and the death of a dream.  Specifically.....*STAGE WHISPER*....I don't think I actually would have been as great of a prairie housewife as I've always imagined I would be. 

Here in Peru, I've got many more resources and comforts than I would have had on the prairie- namely, running water, a gas stove, a washing machine (cold water only until recently, but Dave got us into the big leagues with hot water), electricity, and of course, the internet.  On the work side, I've got two kids, responsibility for setting up the house, buying food and other household necessities, a "maid-of-all-work" who does most of the routine cleaning (check out the job duties from 1871), and more.  I'm also fortunate enough to have a husband who does most of the cooking and related clean up and takes a goodly share of the childcare duties.  (Thanks for all you do, DP!)

Food Prep area at our group's annual lyceum (learning event)

Cooking area.  Prep, cooking, and clean up takes ALL DAY.

I'm realizing that no matter how you cut it, running a household with two littles is just a ton of work!  And work that isn't of the nature that makes my heart sing.  The introvert in me really appreciates time alone, which is in short supply when you are in a house with other people all the time.  Our house here is great (and bigger than what we probably would have had on the prairie).  But there is always someone around, so you never really get to be alone.

And while I am really, really, ReaLLy thankful for the opportunity we have here, it's just a little bit sad to me to realize that the romanticized prairie life would have been even harder than I already realized.  And I am thankful to live in the modern era, with all the support and comforts it affords.

*Please note, this post is in no way intended to be a commentary on being at home or working outside the home.  I'm very thankful to live in an era where we have options; had I been living during the 1860s I would not have had many options at all.  My post is just a reflection on the fact that living in the past would have been even harder than I realized after all these years of reenacting.  I hope all readers are able to do as they prefer in their own lives and I am also very grateful for the support of family and friends in my own life choices.