Noël in good ol' Lanark County

Benjamin on the guitar

I can't believe how quickly Christmas flew by! I'm sure I say this at every major event or holiday :) but it's usually true.

Liz and I rented a car and drove home on the morning of the 24th. The weather was crazy- our street was barely plowed and we got stuck a few times, and the 401 for the first couple hours was kind of scary to drive on. However, we made it home in about 8 1/2 hours instead of the usual 6- just in time to turn around and drive to Ottawa for my dad's side of the family Christmas.

The flavour of the evening has changed in the last few kids because there aren't really any young children that come each year, just some years, so it's more adult-focused I think. My sentimental side was in its element, singing German Christmas songs- I requested one I thought everyone knew but they didn't-oops- with my dad on the guitar, and the aunts singing alto and the uncles singing tenor. We just don't sing together that much anymore, at least, not in my family, so Christmas is a welcome time for that. We had the Christmas story in German and English as in every year and, for the first time ever, I found I could follow somewhat the German version.

It was great to see everyone again, especially my cousins that live in Calgary; they're the only ones out west now and I like to gab about Alberta with them.

The next day was our own family Christmas; we don't do presents till the evening because I guess that's how the Kuehns always did it. We did some more singing as well, and the Christmas story. I got to give out my stuff from Europe, which was fun. We did an exchange with the older kids for the first time, which turned out great.

I got to do a bit of shopping with Ruth and Naomi while Liz took the three boys tubing, and I really enjoyed spending time with them. We of course hit up Mrs. Tiggy Winkle's in the mall- if you've never been, it's a great toy store with all kinds of cool stuff; we don't have one around here so we only go when we're in Ottawa.

Right before leaving town, Liz and I got to visit with two friends from growing up, Chant and Nat, in Ottawa. It turns out Nat lives next to my younger brother- who knew! :) It was great to catch up with them and see Nicky too.

Andrew on the exercise ball- working off the turkey?

(I will figure out how to get these flipped)

Timothy, showing off his situps maybe?

Ruth and I

Benjamin and I

Naomi and I, sporting our French scarves

Ruth, the artiste, with her present to Mom

I got Mom a comic book in France that she used to read as a teenager

Yes, we are all a little weird and wacky. And some of us look stunned in pictures.

This is an example of me trying to take photos like Rachel's :)

Samuel and I -how pale are we!

Jonathan being a ham

This is not related to Christmas- it's the Champs Elysées in Paris- I just like the view.

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all have a grand time ushering in 2009.

Till next year! God be with you!

Ihr Kinderlein Kommet...

Can you believe Christmas is around the corner? Every year, I feel like the time flies by and the date just pounces on me. Christmas is next week already? My well-intentioned plan of going through the Advent journal have not really materialized, and it's been so easy to get caught up in the flurry of Christmas shopping, or at least the mindset. I had the day off yesterday, and Liz and I headed to the mall. It was less busy than I had thought, thankfully, and we found a few outfits- seems silly to shop for yourself at this time of year, eh? Really we had put off shopping for so long, it was a long overdue trip. We found Liz a really cute dress for a party tonight, I may have to steal it later;)

This afternoon I have a team meeting at work, and then I'm done for the day shortly after! The weather is crazy though; there's some kind of storm warning for Southwestern Ontario and all the schools in London are closed today. My friend and I had quite the adventure walking from the bus stop to work- the snow was blowing so hard we couldn't even see our building from pretty close-range.

Well, other than that, my day is not so eventful. We did get a bottle of wine each at our desk, compliments of the company. I'm pumped for indoor soccer tomorrow- we tied last week but the other team really made us run for it. We haven't actually lost yet (only tied) but tomorrow we play one of the best teams and we're down a lot of players- and with this weather, who knows what will happen!

Anyways, here's wishing you all a great weekend- drive safe:)

Smatterings and scamperings

Well, I've been putting off posting because I wanted to come up with a photo to add, but since I haven't taken any photos lately, this is a problem:) So I don't actually have a good reason not to write after all.

At work, we're having a cookie exchange and I'm making a recipe my mom used to make all the time, meringue cookies with chocolate chips and pecans- they're really good. I'm getting together with two other girls from work and we're baking all our cookies together- plus a few extra of course:)

This Sunday I'm going to a Christmas banquet my church is having for the adults, and I think it will be fun. I'm looking forward to it; we have no Christmas work party this year so it's really the only one I'm going to. It's the first year they're doing it, and right after we eat, me and two friends have to dash out since we have a soccer game right after. That should be interesting! So far, our team is doing really well and haven't lost yet, but we haven't played the top team yet. I look forward to the challenge. I am loving playing forward and can't believe I didn't try this years ago. All those years of playing defense! I'm sure my old coach would be surprised I'm still in soccer because as a child I couldn't stand it at one point.

This year, my family is finally drawing names instead of getting something for everyone- the older kids, anyway- so I'm pretty excited. I did get them all something in Europe though, so clearly that memo was a little late for me:) They're just small things anyway though, since I had to pack everything around on my back the whole time.

Well, I will try to take some photos soon so I will have some to post on here. I'll keep your idea about the story in mind, Rachel, but we'll see...I'm kind of shy about my writing:)

Have a great weekend, tout le monde,

Ciao!

Breakfast at Tiffany

This morning, Liz and I went out for breakfast at a cute place near our house called Breakfast at Tiffany. Inside, there is a piano, and china figurines throughout, with a couple photos of Audrey Hepburn gracing the red and pale yellow walls.

Liz is not a breakfast person, but I've been at her a few times to come check out this place with me, so we made plans to go this morning. It's really sweet of her to do that; she is on nights tonight so had to go home sleep after.

What a great way to start the day, I think:) Two cups of coffee later and a Canadian breakfast (I gave my meat to Liz) and I was on my way to work. If you're ever in London, you should check it out:)

I cannot believe Christmas is upon us so shortly. Up till now, I had the best of intentions to follow the Advent journal from church, and I also got an idea in a book to do something special every day of Advent (eg. baking cookies), but these have both gone by the wayside. Maybe it's not too late to start, there are still a few weeks to go. I still have some Christmas shopping to do but most of my family is done, just some friends and folks around here as well. I wanted to knit some mittens for people as I've done in other years, with mixed successes:) , but I've been having some wrist problems from typing so much at work, so thought I should give them a break.

I'm looking forward to visiting with family, although it is always a hectic time and draining as well! With that many people in the family, it's hard to avoid that though! It's usually a time of staying up late chatting, and making lots of food, and playing in the snow (if there is any at that time!), so it should be a riot. I'm sure all my siblings are nearly all taller than me by now, but at least there are a few still shorter:) I would hope I'm taller than a 9-year-old, I tell ya. (I'm sure you hear me on this, eh, Nat! :) )

On the way to work, I stopped at the mall on the corner to buy some Christmas cards at the Hallmark store. The sweetest Korean couple runs it, and the lady always slips a poem or a verse in with the cards, about hope or joy in Jesus, things like that, and it never fails to make me smile.

Every year around this time, I get the urge to write a Christmas short story. It's kind of embarassing, really, as I've never written any I'm actually proud of, and don't have any ideas presently. That's putting it mildly- I've written some pretty terrible ones actually! We'll see if it actually happens this year, it may remain an idea at this point:)

Well, I've run out of things to say for the moment- take advantage of it, this doesn't happen often, haha!

Have a lovely day, everyone!

Oh wait, I do have something else to add- yesterday I received some info from a friend about the situation in the Congo, and there is a campaign asking for donations to get the EU leaders to intervene. If you would like to check it out, it's at avaaz.org- I encourage you to take a look. It is sobering stuff but fueled by our own electronics industries as well, so we are also responsible for what's happening.

Another excellent website is womenforwomen.org, which is doing some great work with women caught up in the conflict and left destitute by it. Really, it is worth checking out.

Thanks!

...It's not that I wanted to just tack this on the end, it's that I don't feel I do the situation justice, you know? It's a pretty big deal but not much is being done about it. I guess it has shaken me up and I don't know how to verbalize it very well.

What a beautiful day!

This morning, I went for my first run since my marathon. I was pretty psyched out by the whole idea and didn't know if I'd be able to get back into running; I just don't enjoy it the same as I used to. Maybe the marathon training took a little joy out of it, I'm not sure. In any case, I finally decided to go for a short route, and as I was running up by the hospital, I realized it's exactly two months to the day since my marathon. Ha! Just found that amusing.

At one point, I was waiting at a crosswalk, and as I pushed the button for the pedestrian crossing, I noticed a small piece of paper on the post, near the torn advertisements. It read "You are beautiful."

Can you believe that? At a time when I don't feel beautiful, it's like God reached out and tapped me on the shoulder. The truth is, it doesn't matter what I feel about it, God loves me just the way I am and isn't impatiently waiting for me to get it together.

I wonder who put it there and what it is for. I hope it gets used to brighten the day of someone else.

My sister is visiting our family for the weekend, so it's just me at home. I really treasure the quiet moments in a day, to refresh and get my perspective back a little.

I hope you are all able to get some time to yourselves this weekend, and enjoy the outdoors, wherever that may be:) Here it is uncommonly sunny and I love it.

Bye for now.

Advent is nearly upon us!

The wayside aster splashes its bright blue
Along the dusty road, the Queen Anne's lace
Foams colt-high in the pasture, frosty white
Late summer strolls with slow and leisured pace
And in quiet woods where it's cool and damp
Delphinium lifts up its pale blue lamp.

The shorn wheat-fields now lie like gold-bronze rugs
In rustling taffeta, green glows the corn
The meadowlark, with silver-fluted throat
Sings sweetly still, though misty now the morn
And when the grackle gleams, then fills the sky
Brown thrasher, thrush and (---) soon say goodbye.

(most of a poem that I memorized in grade 7/8 for class, which I've always loved- from a book of Canadian poems called A Slice of Moon)

If I remember the rest, I'll put it in- I can't find it online to reference it properly. It's really not related to winter at all, but I just like it:)

Yesterday, I attended a performance of the UWOSO, the University of Western Ontario Symphony Orchestra, with my sister and some friends. I hadn't been since last year, and it was so refreshing to go back! Watching them, and hearing the unbelievable sounds produced by those instruments, was really inspiring to me, almost energizing. I wish you could have heard those many dizzying violins just barely making a sound all together, and the wooing notes of the oboe, and the haunting bassoon, and the capricious flutes.

Liz and I hope to go to Handel's Messiah in December- I haven't been in years, and it's such a great work, especially hearing it at Christmas.

So far, November is flying by and I am waiting in anticipation for the Advent season. My dad's side of the family is getting together next Sunday to celebrate the first day of Advent, and I don't think I can go, but I do enjoy this season before Christmas. It's very German to celebrate Advent, and I love this part of my heritage.

At church yesterday, they gave us journals for Advent, so that we can reflect on the verses and on Christ's birth. I'm looking forward to this, because in high school we always had to do Advent journals and I miss not doing that; I find that journalling during Advent is really beneficial to me, to prepare me for Christmas and to give me the right perspective during the madness of the season.

Do any of you celebrate Advent? Or have any Christmas traditions you're looking forward to?

Meine liebe Deutschland!

I'm not too strong in German, so I don't know if that's right, but it's my attempt:)

From Aix, I took a night train to Hamburg to visit the hometown of my father. It was with mixed feelings that I approached the city, not knowing what to expect. At first, I didn't think much of it; a grey, cold, damp city by the water, with lots of factories. But this was just the view from the train station (Hauptbanhof), on a rainy day.

I climbed the tower of St. Michaelis church (all of 300+ steps) and saw a wonderful view, even on a foggy day. It really has a certain charm that I can't explain; maybe if I were there longer I would have words for it.

St. Michael conquering the devil

In the basement of this church is a crypt, where Johann Sebastian Bach's son, Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach, is buried. For me, that was cool to have a tangible piece of music history right there in the church.

Martin Luther

Besides this expedition, I also checked out the Rathaus, the old town hall, with the Hamburg crest- very sharp.










While I was in Hamburg, I got a tip from my dad to check out the family business, knife stores, which is run by his cousins. I was pretty excited to find it, and took the train way out of the city to find this store, which turned out just to be a warehouse, and not a store at all! I never did find the store, because the guy at the desk didn't speak much English, and I didn't have time to cross the entire city to the other side, where the store actually is. That was a pity, but I did get to speak to my ...second cousin, I think? ...on the phone, very randomly, and we very nearly met up, but I had to catch my train back to Paris. Hopefully on the next trip, whenever that may be...

On the way to Ralstedt

Then, back to Paris for one last night. It was surprisingly sunny and warm when I arrived. To pass the time and browse through some more little boutiques, I headed back to Montmartre and caught the sunset view of the Eiffel Tower.

The trip was over far too soon, but I'm so glad I got to experience these places and people!

Thanks for reading:)

~La grande aventure, pt. 2~

Next up, Nice! We had a couple of days to play with and decided, although it would be a long trip, to spend some time in the south of France. It was lovely, although we definitely stood out by wearing flip flops since it was fall weather for the locals! We made a trip to a medieval village, and to Monaco which is very close, and got to see the famous Montecarlo casino, as well as an aquarium. It was a good time to relax and enjoy being in a hostel with others our age. One girl joined us for the day when we went touring about.

Fruit and flower market

A Ferrari in front of the Monte Carlo:)

From here, we headed to Lyon where I knew of some people that were letting us stay with them, some friends of friends. They were so hospitable to us and showed us around, and Lyon is quite pretty, especially the old city. We went to church there, which was pretty great for me, since it's been a while since I went to a French-speaking church. Heather and Grace were kind to put up with me since I wanted to go so badly. I thoroughly enjoyed our time there!

A fresco of a lion

Then, the long-awaited city, famous for cheese, wine and chocolat, the city of love...Paris!!! I was so excited to see Paris in the fall, and it was indeed beautiful. There weren't really any red maples but seeing the trees all yellow and orange was lovely, and the Eiffel Tower definitely surpassed our expectations! We got to see it both at night and during the day, and at night, it sparkles with lights all over it, every hour on the hour. Of course, we had to make the trip to the very top, and, needless to say, the view is spectactular. If you ever get the chance, you should definitely go.








Besides the Eiffel Tower, we checked out the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame and Sacré Coeur/ Montmartre. I got to briefly see a friend I haven't seen in three years which was wonderful.
From Paris, we split up- the girls to Britain, and me to Aix-en-Provence to visit my friend Lynn from college. I was reluctant to leave them since it was so much fun all together, but I was excited to see Lynn. It was a great visit, very chill (it rained the whole time) and we got to see the new James Bond (in English) before it came out in North America. It's known as "little Paris" ans is a very sought-after place to live, apparently, for the wealthy. It's rumoured that Angelina Jolie is buying a house nearby. I hope I can visit longer next time:) So good to reconnect with Lynn.

I'm posting too much, so I shall put Germany on the next one! Meine liebe Deutschland!

I bumped my head on the Eiffel Tower

It's true- my friends and I were going to the top platform of the Eiffel Tower, and somehow I (the shortest of the three) bumped my head on the steel of the tower. Turns out it is pretty solid stuff, actually:)

So! I'm back from my trip to Europe (sigh) ...not really ready to be back, either. Already, it doesn't seem real that I even went, and I only came back last night. I was sure I would have time to blog while I was there but I wasn't able to post any photos, so I'll have to inundate you with photos now that I've returned!

I'll try to sum it up briefly, but you probably all know I'm not that good at it :) ...

~La grande aventure, pt. 1~

I landed in Munich to begin with, and met up with my two friends who had been there already two weeks. From there, we toured about Munich before catching the night train to Rome. I love architecture, even though I don't really know the names or the styles, and it was great to see all the historical buildings in Munich, and go on a free tour as well led by a funny Australian man.

Once in Rome, we trekked to our (overpriced) hostel where we began our theme of staying on the top floor of wherever we were:) I thought it was a good deal but it turned out not to be; at least some other places were much better. Grace and I both loved the movie Roman Holiday, and the next day, when we took a tour on those double-decker buses -we were on the top level, in the rain- we got to go to several sites which are in the movie, like the Fontana di Trevi, and la Bocca della Verità (Mouth of Truth), plus the Colosseum, of course! We got some sweet pics which I am now adding.

From Rome, we headed to beautiful Firenze (Florence), where, after some escapades with no one answering the door at the hostel, we ended up getting in and the guy who runs it was extremely helpful. He and his sister made our stay really great because they were so welcoming. Personally, I loved Florence- it was so beautiful and a different feel from Rome. Of course we checked out Michaelangelo's David while we were there, and took in a panoramic view of the city. I should also mention that I taught Grace to bargain in the touristy alleys, where she then proceeded to get a better price than me for the same things:)

We took a short trip to Pisa to snap some photos of the tower, but we've decided it's pretty over-rated and actually spent more time watching the kids running around. Children sound much bossier when they're yelling in Italian at each other, I've decided :)

I didn't get to ride it but it made for a sweet pic!

Another night train later, and we were in Zurich. Although we were there for less than a day, it was beautiful by the river running through the city, and filled with posh shops I probably would be too nervous to go into:) A funny thing was, we saw two Buddhist monks taking their picture in front of a Louis Vuitton store. While we were there, we shopped a bit at a chocolate store named Sprüngli which was amazing! I tried their specialty, mini macarons called Luxemburgerli, which I will post photos of, naturally.

Mmmm...

I will save the rest for a future post:)