Chinese dumplings & tea

Last Monday, Candy, a friend of mine from the young adults at another church that we know, invited Liz and me to her apartment to make Chinese dumplings. We picked up a friend of mine on the way, who lives in the same building as her, after grabbing some Chinese veggies and such for the meal.

We had a lot of fun chopping up some different kinds of bok choy for the veggie ones, and they also made ground turkey dumplings. Afterward we tried different kinds of tea Candy had from China, and there is a certain way you drink it- always pour out the first pot of tea, and the second and third are always the best. It was delicious- we told Candy she should have tea-tastings here, she would definitely be in business!

Some chopping fun

Candy and I at New Years' Eve

These days, I'm trying to contemplate future career/education plans...it all gets a little tangled up so easily though. Where to study? When? How? ... :) All those kinds of questions. For now I'll stay in London but who knows what the next step will be? I'm kind of scared to start all over again somewhere else when I've gotten to know so many great people in London, but I'm just glad that God knows and He'll tell me when it's time ... hopefully when I'm more ready too! I feel pulled in so many directions that aren't wrong, but maybe are not the best choices, know what I mean?

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?