Christmas Eve

"Christms Tree Oh Christmas Tree"

A fun afternoon with friends

We took a ride the 4 of us: Court, Jonte, Martin and I to Debrecen to enjoy the Christmas market and an afternoon of friendship and fun. It was lovely! It was also very snowy!! We wandered round the market soaked in the atmosphere, drank some warm wine to warm our hands and our bellies, then headed off to a restaurant to enjoy a good meal in a warm place. A small relax in these weeks of crazy! Well needed and much appreciated!

December 14th

Another busy day was had here as the December Madness continues:

• We unloaded a truck which had come down from Sweden full of clothes and Christmas packages amongst an assortment of building materials and other goodies - which took most of the morning.

• Then I made a teacher frustrated with me by pointing out to Cristi that when she says "if children in your class are bad the police will put them in the cellar where the rats will bite them" it's not actually the truth and that as pointed out by him (because we're working on not fibbing!) she was actually fibbing to him. Oops! But honestly can we try not to frighten them with stories of the police and the "if you're bad comments"? It irritates me slightly I must admit!!

• After that we had a fun time sledding with our friends Laz and Court. Lots of laughs and red noses.
  

• Then home where as part of Cristi's advent calendar daily treat system we put up a little tree in his bedroom. He is so happy with it and even gave it a goodnight kiss before bed. Awwwwwwwww!!

Sankta Lucia

So today was Lucia. Off we went our candles burning singing an assortment of songs in our 3 languages: English, Romanian and Swedish or in the case of Silent Night all 3.

We sang to our office workers followed by a trip up to the both special needs schools and in between a impromptu stop at the Town Hall/Mayors Office (for which we each got a bar of chocolate and were begged to come sing on stage in one of the parks on Sunday - I think there's some uncertainty as to whether we will be appearing then!) This afternoon we went to sing and deliver shoeboxes to the 'old peoples home' and then onto the state orphanage/school where children as little as 4 live :(

Apart from a leaking tyre and icy roads we had a lovely day singing our hearts out and sharing some Christmas cheer and Swedish tradition with our Romanian friends/family/neighbours/kinsmen.

Now the Christmas feeling has really hit me and I'm falling into bed counting down the days till Mum comes on over to celebrate Christmas time with us! I can't wait.

Here's a few snaps of the day.

Sledding and a snowman

We had a lovely day sledding and snowman building. Cristi was oh so happy of course!! I was there and sledding but apparently I didn't make it into any of the photos so here's a few of the day - minus me! Enjoy :)

This past week

Well the snow finally arrived here and was greeted with 3 little boys screams of delight and joy! "Ce tare" screamed one (meant in a "how cool" way) while he punched the air. "so fun" shrieked the 2nd in English and the 3rd was too busy squealing like a girl to comment! The 3rd was of course mine! I'm not sure it'll still be here in the morning seeing as it rained all day but the children are ever hopeful. Cristi is so excited to go to school tomorrow now "mama it'll be the best day ever at school because we have snow" apparently it's the small things.



Everyday this last week I have meant to write a little but instead I stare into space then fall into bed with it unaccomplished.

The end of November saw the arrival of the shoe boxes. We received 1800 so thank you to all who worked hard to fill, check and deliver them to us they will make many people very happy this Christmas. I have been in the depot this last week setting aside gifts for the projects I work in. It's been fun to work somewhere else. Somewhere a little less emotionally entangled. My body is a little tired but my head feels clearer so I'm glad for that. But, it has been work. Making sure that we set aside that box that'll make that certain person smile and feel loved is harder than you think. They're all so different the boxes and those that'll receive them. It's a process to assign them correctly!!



December started with Romania's National Day. So we after a lovely 1st of December advent calendar opening pancake breakfast with Court and Laz, the 4 of us headed up into the town center to soak in the "Proud to be Romanian" feeling!




On the 2nd Laz and I went to meet Mos


I don't think it's possible for any child to have as much love for the man in red as this wonderful boy. Not even me when I was little and I had a lot of love in him!! Ah Laz I love you, you bring the spirit of Santa to us all!

On the 3rd there was a blessing ceremony for our children (ones that had been in the orphanage and are now in foster families in the surrounding areas). It's obviously not something I would have thought of doing for Kiki but the idea behind it was sweet even if Kiki did think "this is even more boring than school". The kids had so much fun getting together and playing afterward - some had not seen each other since the orphanage closed 2 years ago. It was an evening of laughter cake and love and that's something so important for us all!!

The 4th? What did we do? Hmmmm oh I remember Court and I watched Temple Grandin an amazing story of how a woman with autism made her way in this world and has brought a wonderful voice and understanding for autism and the people who have it. This film really touched me and gave me such hope for the future of little Alex. It really warmed me seeing how much determination and perseverance can get you places! That's good to remember for all of us.



The 5th we went tree cutting or branch cutting I should say. Court's family go every year and so we decided to surprise her and take her out to our local forest to pick a tree on the same day as her family would. It was I feel slightly more ghetto than what she was used to being that we had no snow and no pine trees but we did have: Hot cocoa and cinnamon buns eaten no less than at the top of a hunters tower in the wood:


A tree climbing contest which made us giggle:


A foot stuck in the mud and an almost lost shoe - which made me laugh out loud and almost fall over!:


A family picture minus a shoe:



and a fun branch decorating moment accompanied with a living room dance to some Christmas tunes

On the 6th Mos Nicolae brought some fun into our slippers. Or actually he brought some crazy slippers for Kiki big brown fluffy claws which he thinks are great and pretends to be anything form the Gruffalo to The Wild Things to any kind of clawed animal in between.

The 7th and 8th were pretty uneventful. Depot work in the morning homework help and some giggles in the afternoons. Followed by today - snow day.

Well I've brought you up to speed now. I should go and get some sleep before tomorrow - my day to cook for the team. So love to you all. Hope you're having a lovely December so far and don't forget to open your calendars everyday!!

Is it snowing??

"I'm not sleeping you know cause I have to see when the snowing is coming" So Cristi is still awake.......the reason I hear you ask? He keeps poking his head out the door asking "is it snowing?" No I reply it's not not yet. He can't cope with the fact that he's heard its been snowing in Sweden and Scotland. Plus the last two days the temps have dropped and someone told him it might snow tomorrow. I think he might be waking up tired and disappointed! But it did make me laugh that he's now switched from Romanian to asking in English - like that might make the snow come quicker!

Tired and frustrated

So today I had a couple of fun Thanksgiving things to do with the boys in preparation for tomorrow but alas neither of them wanted to do anything but fight and whine and cry so this evening has been AWESOME!!!! (Can you feel the sarcasm oozing out of that?) Anyway I'm hoping for this tomorrow instead - we'll see. I hope so!

Little boys.....

Sitting at dinner tonight I sighed
"Oh I'm super tired!"
"Ha Mama you're not super"
"What do you mean of course I am"
"No you look nothing like Spiderman - where's your mask!!"

It made me giggle thought I should share that one with you all!

It made me smile when.......

.....Cristi read a word for the first time on his own - "mama"
.....I told Alex goodnight and he made kissing noises into the air
.....we found another kitten and Kiki got sad that I gave it to our friend because we have 2 already - then we got home and he pulled our cats into his arms and told them how much he loved them
.....Alex was talking about a girl in gradi and Kiki said "that's A-N-A say it after me I'll teach you to spell"
.....When we got to the petrol station the other day none of us had money. So out of 5 adults we paid 14 lei 70 bani (roughly £3) to get us to an 8th Birthday party
.....We visited the institution and the girl I'm closest to got so happy when she wrote my name in chalk on her own on the ground (she's 28)
.....writing numbers in April Cristi learned number 5 by saying it looked like Grandpa's big belly. Today he told me Grandpa was also number 6 and 8 because of his belly, but that he (Cristi) was number 9 because of his curly hair
.....This evening he wanted to help me in the kitchen so he put on his apron and proclaimed "I am the man of the kitchen and I can do anything you ask"
.....The joy that Kiki and Alex had when we lit the candles and turned out the lights for a candle-lit dinner.
.....Cristi bumped a pram with his bike and so apologised to it before telling it he loved it and giving it a kiss!
.....This afternoon the boys got out their babies and dressed them in warm clothes to go out into the snow. Even though Cristi was wearing a t-shirt and sandals!
.....we ate lunch today and could sit outside in the warm November sun :)
.....we talked about the old orphanage and how they were when they were babies and what songs we used to sing and Cristi's face turned into a huge smile "I love you mama" he said

Autumn Adventures

Last week was November Holiday week so we made the most of the wonderful weather to go out and have some adventures in the warm November sun.

*NOVEMBER*
Friends, Laughter, Family, Fun.
All enjoyed under November Sun.
Walks, Picnics, Forests, Joy.
All enjoyed with my baby boy.
Autumn leaves come tumbling down
Blanketing the floor in a carpet brown.
Sunshine, Clear Sky, Flying Kites.
Come to an end with star filled Nights.