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.