Day 3 Addendum

Fifi dictated, and I helped her write.

Day 3

Today, our 'letter from Santa' said to write our letters to Santa and post them. The Royal Mail does this thing where if you write to a certain address (below) Santa will write back. So we are going to do that today. However, we have only half gotten around do it, because I'm trying to clean. And I'm feeling unmotivated. It's very snowy outside and the thought of even walking down to the post box is totally sinking me. (Am in the middle of performance week for Panto, and I'm just so tired.)

But my good friend Sarah is coming over with Cameron who is off school today, and I'm going to keep Cam for her while she does some Christmas shopping, so maybe we can all do it together. That might make me feel more motivated, doing a project with a six year old who can help Fifi, my almost-four year old, so I can focus on Lolly, an almost-two year old (two weeks 'til her birthday!) Because when I do a project, it's not just a letter to Santa - there will be stickers, pens, and possibly glitter and glue. Our letters to Santa have to be awesome.

And speaking of Panto earlier, we surprised Fifi last night with a ticket to the show. After dinner, I told her to go brush her teeth. She, of course, thought that was because it was time for bed. She asked, 'Can I watch a nice, quiet DVD first?' Scott and I said no. Then we added, 'Oh, and you can't have a bedtime story tonight either.', to which she began crying her eyes out over. Cruel, I know. Then I told her I had some good news and some bad news. The bad news is she can't watch a DVD or get a bedtime story (harder tears). The good news is she's coming to the Panto with Mummy tonight! Tears turned into hysterical laughter. She was absolutely beside herself delighted. So we got her ready, and she came with me. I took her backstage, and she got to see everyone as they were getting ready. Then Pauline, my friend who was taking her into the show, arrived and she sat with her through the show. She was a bit frightened of the bad fairy, but in her words, 'I got a bit braver.' Before long, she was booing the baddies and having a great time. I enjoyed the show so much last night, as I was performing just for her. And in the end, she told me I was the best one on stage. What a girl.

Oh yeah, and here's that Royal Mail address:
Santa/Father Christmas,
Santa’s Grotto,
Reindeerland,
SAN TA1

Christmas Cards

I will catch up on yesterday's Advent Activity of making paper chains (after all, there's not much to say, and I only want to post a nice picture Fifi took of me and Lolly making our paper chains, but that involves uploading from my camera, and I haven't done it yet), and I'll quickly post two links for you to show you today's Activity of 'Check your email to find a message from Santa', but the main thing I wanted to say is...

Writing Christmas cards each year is seriously depressing.

I go through the list of names I've had for six years. I rewrite the list each year, dropping names slowly of people I haven't really kept up with enough to keep sending letters to. People who don't send them back and who I realise at this point don't really care. But that's not the depressing part. That, I think, is just life. No, the depressing part is dropping names of people who have passed away. The depressing part is splitting up couples into two different cards, because their marriages have ended. Each year, writing this card list depresses me. Each year there is some alteration, some dropped or split name. The divorced people - do the women go back to their maiden names? What are their new addresses? The people who have lost a spouse - do the women still go by Mrs? Do each of these people see the subtle change in the post arriving to his or her house on the envelope? Do they feel that pang? Is Christmas card writing actually worse than a waste of time, but even a painful experience?

Sigh. Well, on with the ritual. And here are those videos to cheer you up. It cheers me up at least to think of the kids reactions to them this morning. It was precious.

Lolly's message from Santa
Fifi's message from Santa

DeBloAdMo

Or whatever I called it. Just realised its nearly midnight and I've yet to post my first blog entry, though I've been thinking on it all day. So here's the start and i'll write a bit later.

Love,
Lori the cheater

POST SCRIPT:
Here's what I wanted to say about Day 1. We made paper chains just from a wee kit from Tesco. The sheets were all self-adhesive... or so I thought. They actually had to be licked. Each one. And we made two. We had to lick 50 disgusting tabs. So I pulled in help from any tongues I could rope in. Thanks, Lolly.



And by the way, isn't Fifi a good photographer?

Christmas Advent Activities

Late last night, I finished my list. Found it a bit hard to fill in some spots, once looking at my calendar, and being realistic about a few very busy days planned, but here is what I've finally come up with. Hope you can get some good ideas out of it!

1. Make paper chains and use them to count down Christmas!
2. Check email for message from Santa (using this incredible website).
3. Create crafty gifts using recycled and repurposed items from around the house.
4. Fifi goes to Panto with Daddy, and Lolly goes see Granny!
5. Make paper lanterns to decorate for Christmas.
6. Cut colourful snowflakes and hang them in the window.
7. Make a family video e-card and send to family and friends.
8. Make gingerbread men for the Christmas tree.
9. Go on a treasure hunt to find a special present (I have made two Christmas black apple dolls for them to find)!
10. Have a Christmas picnic in our pajamas on the floor.
11. Make festive cookies and deliver them to our neighbours.
12. Look through old photo albums and talk about the pictures.
13. Read a story about Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus.
14. Wrap up presents in brown paper and decorate them.
15. Take a walk and pick pinecones to decorate.
16. Make a wreath using paper plates and tissue paper.
17. Pack bags for a super sleepover at Granny’s!
18. Go to Lolly’s birthday party and eat cake!
19. Perform in your nativity play at church.
20. Drink hot chocolate and watch a Christmas movie as a family.
21. Make reindeer food and put in little bags for your friends.
22. Eat dinner by candlelight only with the fancy dishes.
23. Make chocolate chip cookies.
24. Put out a carrot for Rudolph and milk and cookies for Santa.
25. Eat chocolate gravy for breakfast and open presents!! Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Blues - and No Pie to Cry On

Going back through my archives, I've written about Thanksgiving every year except last year since 2003, when I started my blog.

I have nothing to write about this year, because it is the first time in my entire life I will not have celebrated it.

This makes me want to cry.

I have all the stuff in to make the dinner, but no time to do it. I considered just making it tomorrow as a normal dinner but didn't take the turkey out in time to defrost, so I guess it'll be a vegetarian version. And we'll have turkey on Saturday, with leftovers before I dart off to work.

It's been a sad day for me. Not just Thanksgiving-wise, but a few other things too. Nothing I want to discuss too much on here at the moment, as it's still quite sad for me to get so personal online about. The gist is we've decided a few things about our family's future, which includes sending the children to private school like we've always intended... but to do so involves going back to work full-time and putting Lolly in with a childminder. It would break my heart more if it weren't for the fact that my wonderful Maria is going to be Lolly's childminder, and Maria, as far as I'm concerned, is practically family. It also means (here's where the waterworks keep trying to play up) no more children for us. And I'll say nothing more on the subject because there go the stingy eyes. We've got to do the best we can for the children we already have, and private school for three kids is just... well, it's a recession.

(But I held a baby at Mothers & Toddlers this morning, and seriously could barely keep from sobbing. That mixed in with the homesickness and Thanksgiving. I could just cry now.)

(Yet I've made it all day without crying, so I intend to persevere.)

As for Thanksgiving, since I've nothing to say on this fourth Thursday of November 2010, I'll leave you with links to all the previous posts on Thanksgivings. (My favourite is 2003.)

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

Advent Blog

I'm thinking that since I didn't manage NaBloPoMo, I might try a DeBloAdMo. Yes, that stands for December Blog Advent Month. Last year I did an Activities Advent calendar with my kids, where each day, instead of a chocolate, they pulled out a slip of paper saying one special thing we would do that day. I intend to that this year (or shall I say, next week!!), and perhaps I can turn it into a Blog Activity as well. So anyone who's up for a Blog Advent Calendar, let's give it a shot. Post every day in the month of December until Christmas one special idea you can do as a family, a couple or a group of friends. Of if you're really clever, post a wee thought each day about Christmas or something. I'll see how clever I end up being but don't count on much.

And I'll post my activity calendar in the next couple of days in case anyone wants to steal some of the ideas and use it yourself.

In the meantime, I have to get out to panto rehearsal. That, too, is next week! Aughh!!

Princess Fifi

"Once upon a time, there are a beautiful princess called Fifi, and her was looking for her family. And then her couldn't find them, so her found a new family. Amen. "

They Are Just Things

It happens to us all, but some must feel it more than others: the eventual erasure of evidence that we used to be someone else, the slow fade of memories and mementos from the lives we once lived, the perpetual passing away of the ever-growing past.

I wonder what it is like for others; does every person feel this as distinctly as I do? How could I know? For me, my life is broken into two halves - the Arkansas-dwelling Lori Arnold and the Scotland-dwelling Lori McFarlane. The two lives, separated by marriage and ex-patriation, are very clearly split in my mind. When I think of the past, I think of it in two parts. When I face a vague, distant memory, I first begin to track its origin by categorising it in one of the two parts of my past. From there I can begin to decipher the rest of details.

I am faced now and again with this distinction by small little keepsakes from that first journey of my life. When I moved here, I came with only three and a half suitcases full of belongings. Everything else was either sold, given away, or, for only a small number of things, stored at my parents' house. The things I brought with me, aside from clothes, now seem very arbitrary; they are also some of my most prized possessions. There is the framed photograph of the Bag Lady, which hangs in my living room (and Scott hates), that I bought at an art exhibit, the bumble bee and ladybug coffee mugs that I somehow procured from Joshua and Kristen Rudd, my jewelry box from Target, my red dishes from Ingrid and Amanda from my 21st birthday, and the Post-It note on which I scribbled the words,

'You're worth the trouble and you're worth the pain, you're worth the worry, I would do the same. If we all went back to another time, I would love you over.'

which was the Belle & Sebastian quote that Scott IMed me, and which constituted his first technical use of the word 'love' to me.

Over time, these things have started to chip, break and fade. The Post-It, which was once pinned to the board in my office in Fayetteville and now hangs on my fridge by a magnet, is only this:



I have always known these things are material and won't last forever, but it still saddens me. I think, superstitiously, what happens when those words on that Post-It fade for good? What will happen to us then?

Well, this week I saw another two such souvenirs come to their bitter ends. Two pint glasses, saved from Thursday Pint Nights at Common Grounds on Dickson Street in Fayetteville, have broken and been relegated to the rubbish bin. I always meant to make it more often to Common Grounds on Thursdays to pick up my free pint glass, each week featuring a different beer and accompanying glass to take home. But I only ever got three, one of which I gave David Motter, and the other two of which I wrapped in t-shirts and packed in one of those suitcases. The first to go was my clear one, which oddly, neither Scott nor I can remember what was printed on it, despite using it for over six years, as it had finally cracked through. Then today, Fifi came rushing into the living room to tell me, 'Lolly broke your glass.' And there, on the floor, was my other one, the green one, in three pieces surrounded by tiny green shards and a barefooted Lolly holding a broom and dust pan (bless her).



One by one, they go, they fade. I can't help but wonder - Will all of me eventually fade with them?

Mutliculturalism

You know what it's like with kids. If one kid gets something better than the other, it's war. And you, the parent, are the traitor.

So, we were having fish and chips the other night. The chips were alphabet shaped, so I spelled out the girls names on their plates. But Fifi has five letters and Lolly only has four, so I added Lolly's last initial to make it even.



Heh heh, we never even realised.