Christmas Eve (and Eve-Eve) 2019

Well it’s here again. Five days ahead of TT’s birthday and the tree is up, presents are under it and both children are sleeping.

So we seem have some traditions forming now. The first is that we go for a nice meal on Christmas Eve-Eve (yesterday). One friend informed me I ought to call it Christmas Adam. I’m tempted. But another friend (who is Danish) informed me that in Denmark it is actually known as Little Christmas Eve.

I love both of these ideas. Tune in next Christmas to find out which I go for.

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings last year. This year we went to Bertucci’s – a lovely Italian chain.

Olive Garden is vile – we don’t go there

And I have my own tradition now:

The kids ate well and I’m off the dairy-free bandwagon. My mental health has been in the toilet this whole month and I cracked like an egg.

But I feel so much better mentally, if not physically necessarily.

And so to today.

We went to the Flaming Grill and Buffet in Malden today for lunch. It’s a Japanese-Chinese-American fusion buffet. It was a resounding success.

My plate:

The hus-creature’s:

TT’s:

#1 Son’s:

All completely different. And everyone ate and ate well.

A resounding success. We will go back there again.

Then we spent the rest of the day at home. Yes, the kids got progressively more and more excited, but not wired.

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.

Here is what we left out for Santa:

The apple is for the reindeer – the hus-creature has researched this and apparently reindeer farmers genuinely give people apples to feed to them as treats.

The kiddos went happily to bed and tomorrow will be awesome. Food is planned. Drink is planned. The hus-creature and I will be a team cooking and hopefully the kiddos will be distracted with new things.

And I think they might just have been on the Nice List:

We can confirm that Santa does indeed appreciate macarons and Japanese whiskey.

Goodnight all. See you on the other side ❤️❤️❤️❤️

The aftermath

I’m saddened. Sickened. Heartbroken.

Due to the time zone differences I watched it unfold. I couldn’t even get drunk – my system rejected the buzz, so I stopped.

This morning my social media feed is full of my friends who are feeling the full gamut of emotions:

Fear
Despair
Terror
Shame
Anger
Pain
Resignation
Confusion

There have even been a few quiet celebrations – and I don’t blame those people.

Where my fury lands is on those who are gloating in the face of pain and fear.

Because for so many of my friends that is what the next 5+ years represents. They are not upper class. They don’t have savings. They’ve had to use services that are being cut. They have mental health needs. They have children with special needs like I do.

I might live across the pond now, but my heart is still with them.

But I say this now. Great Britain is no longer “home”. It is where I was born. Where I was raised. The values I believe in, tolerance, respect, inclusivity, caring for your neighbour? No longer exist for me there.

The USA doesn’t feel like home yet either. So for now I remain rootless. I will continue to build a life for the kiddos and we will probably be fine.

I wish and hope with all my heart that those I love overseas are too.

To Scotland I say:

I’ve changed my mind. Should you manage independence in the face of almost certain opposition from Westminster I stand behind you.

To NI I say:

I’m sorry. I hope and pray that The Good Friday Agreement holds. I stand behind you.

To everyone else reading this I say (quoting from a friend who I’m not sure reads this blog, but if you do I hope you know who you are- you summed it up so much more eloquently than I ever could):

I work with people of all political backgrounds, belief, and upbringing. It IS possible to find common ground and work to represent everybody without compromising your own principles. What you do have to compromise are dogmatic absolutes. You will sit down and work with the MP you’d never vote for- and make positive change. You will advocate for the poorest, most disadvantaged in spaces they are never considered- and make positive change. You can lift up the voices whose principles harmonise with your own. You can create real, lasting, positive change.

It will not happen from behind tribal lines.

Things can change without compromising your core values.

Everyone cares about something.

The last 6 years have been an education for me. Everyone cares about something. Find that, make it your common ground. Forget tribal lines. Think human.

On that note, Christmas is just around the corner. If you can, think of your neighbours. Your town. People struggling. Donate something to a food bank. Give a gift to a child in poverty. Invite someone you know is struggling to Christmas dinner.

Do something kind.

And keep doing it. Especially as the weather bites down.

Because, there but for the grace of The Great Flying Spaghetti Monster, go us all.

I leave you with this year’s Christmas photo of the kiddos. Because right now I need their simple belief in the goodness of the world. You’ll probably see this again, as I’m attempting to catch up on everything that has happened since late August!

Christmas Day (2017)

Oh what a wonderful day we’ve had.

Santa visited:

#1 Son loves his Lego’s. Not so much his crayons and similar. Ah well.

TT was really happy with her hair bows and dinosaurs and other similar items.

We then had breakfast. TT ended up trying my scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, and she bloody loved it!!!

🙄🙄🙄🙄😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

She cleared that plate! We also watched squirrels for a bit.

After breakfast we opened presents.

As previously mentioned, we left a lot of presents behind, but as a result the kids really enjoyed what they opened.

Lunch was awesome:

Pork with cranberry sauce and stuffing – yum! (Too much turkey previously consumed)
Macaroni cheese
Sliced potatoes – with herbs and other yummies
Crab cakes

TT stole a crab cake and scoffed it before we even noticed 😂🤣 and these were tasty cakes (wasabi mayo etc). Guess she’s taking after us more than her brother.

Then came dessert:

Chocolate peanut pie
Key lime pie

So. Good.

I don’t really like British traditional puddings of Christmas time – mince pies, Christmas pud & Christmas cake etc, so this was amazing for me.

TT stuck her hand in pie 🙄

We shouted.

The dog barked and barked a lot. She was defending TT against us 😂🤣

So she got cuddles and we were forgiven by her loyal Guard of Honour!

TT also had a whale of a time just generally:

Yep, that’s a stocking on each foot 😂🤣

Aunts Domi and Uncle Gary kindly took the kids out for a brief walk with Fluffy (the dog) and they had a really lovely time. The wagon was involved.

We just had a little rest as wow it’s tiring:

I have read a few chapters of one of my presents:

Which is bloody brilliant and hilarious and everyone should read it. Certainly every parent who worries that they aren’t “doing it right”

Because we are – it’s hard and we are doing okay 😘

We are now watching Ozark for an hour or so’s downtime then bed.

MERRY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL

🎅🏻💕🎅🏻💕🎅🏻💕🎅🏻💕🎅🏻💕🎅🏻💕🎅🏻💕🎅🏻💕

It’s Christmas (Eve)

And we are safely in Connecticut.

We left without incident at around 11:30.

Stopped for lunch at Mac Donald’s at around 13:00.

When given the choice of burger or chicken, TT declared “chicken burger” so this happened:

20 McNuggets was a mere 11c more than a 10 pack 🧐

I begin to see why there might be an obesity epidemic!

However as both children decided that didn’t want burgers – #1 Son because he saw the onion in the relish when I was removing ~~Satan’s hell snack~~, the pickle, and TT because burger meant nuggets and chicken meant chips apparently! So those nuggets got demolished.

TT also decided that she wanted to sit in a high chair 🙀 she hasn’t used one in months. But she dragged it over to a booth and demanded “‘my chair” and was most happy:

#Stillmybaby

We safely arrived at around 15:30.

Got a phone call from the landlady shortly after arriving worried because she thought she could see smoke coming from our balcony.

It was her own vents! Crisis averted and I had mulled wine 😂🤣👍🏻

TT has declared every adult in the house not me or the hus-creature “cake people” because Domi gave her brioche.

She then made friends with the dog by accidentally feeding her said brioche. She was sitting on the floor with her hand out, and the last piece of brioche dangling from it, and the dog snaffled it 😂🤣

Kids are now safely in bed, with stockings hanging up in the guest house.

#1 Son didn’t really eat much for dinner – no surprise there, but TT ate risotto. It was seafood and mushroom risotto at that. We let her think it was pasta!

She ate scallops! And then went for mine!!!!!

Kept a whole one in her cheek like a little hamster for about 15 min 😂🤣😂

Relaxing now for a few hours before bed. We need to all be asleep so Santa can come

🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻

Visit with Santa

With the cold weather we decided that we probably ought to try and get the children some slightly warmer clothes.

We bought #1 Son snow pants last week but they were far too big. They do in a pinch for school. But they didn’t really have any appropriate footwear for snow, either of them.

So we decided to go to Payless kids and get them some new shoes. Well that went about as well as you could expect. #1 Son came away with a pair of Batman shoes (with velcro) and TT chose a pair of pink and black boots that seem to be sort of snow appropriate. Hurrah for Amazon is all I will say because it took so long to do that we have to cut it short so that we could undertake the main purpose of our trip to the mall.

Which was to see the man himself: SANTA

We decided to surprise #1 Son as he hates going out at the weekends unless it is his idea. TT had already demanded to wear a “pretty dress” and so we managed this:

The boots that she is currently wearing are way too big.

We also bought some odds and sods. I have a new graphic novel based upon The Dark Crystal (but it’s the third one in a series and it was on sale because it’s discontinued dammit. We can get the second one in the series reasonably easily for a mere $10 however the first one is not available for less than $100, yes one hundred dollars 😰😐). So I might just have it on the shelf looking pretty!!

#1 Son was desperate to buy something from the comic book shop (to the point of tears because TT was distracting us and we didn’t realise) so with a little negotiation he’s come away with a $14 bobble head cyber man. No he doesn’t know what Doctor Who is but it was better that than him buying the Bioshock Big Daddy one that caught his eye initially. And yes he used his allowance. Which reminds me I must deduct the $14 from his overall total.

So after this we went to see Santa.

Can anyone tell which child changed their mind about seeing Santa as soon as they got to see the man himself?

Still, fraught as it was, it was worth it. It probably didn’t help that TT had decided not to nap again…

And the cherry on top of the cake today was awaiting me when I got home.

I had a letter from The US Department of Immigration.

They have granted my work permit!!!!!

In typical bureaucracy fashion, it was not the permit itself but was a letter confirming that a letter has been sent which precedes the permit.

But a bloody nice Christmas present anyways. Now, I still have my surgery in early February which will take the best part of eight months to fully recover from, TT is not on a daycare waiting list, and #1 Son isn’t settled enough for me to feel remotely comfortable giving him to someone else to look after yet but, it’s happened.

I can get a SSN! Book my theory test. Pass a Massachusetts driving test!!!

Wahey!!!

I can also seriously think about opening an Etsy shop!

December Madness

Begins.

I’m still working on the Thanksgiving update so stay tuned for that dear audience.

So. Yesterday was December 1st. Therefore Advent Calendars are back in this household.

However this year no edible ones.

Mainly because we think TT is still a bit young for daily chocolate, and she’s old enough to be totally annoyed if her big brother has one when she doesn’t. So we went with fancy toy ones.

But, there are very few options for two year olds.

#1 Son has a Lego one. TT? Well we scoured everywhere and finally found a Paw Patrol one with no tiny pieces. TT still insists on sticking non food items in her mouth!

As for me, normally I have a Hotel Chocolat sharing one, but I didn’t think about it in time and I don’t know if they ship here.

So instead, I treated myself to a Sparkle Yarn advent box from Tinky Dye Yarns. The lovely Maria has been still shipping my clubs to me so this was a lovely addition.

The glorious box: