The kids and I survived Heidi's absence this week - but just barely. She had a good time in the US with her parents and siblings. She may have also single-handedly boosted the US economy by a couple of tenths of a percent, based on looking at our credit card statements. She was able to stock up on a few necessities and to get a jump on some Christmas shopping.
We only ordered pizza twice while Heidi was gone (including the night she came home). Although it was a busy week at work, the kids managed to keep track of each other and themselves, and everything was in decent order when Heidi returned -- yes, it helps that we have an Ayi to keep up on cleaning, laundry, etc.
Heidi returned on Thursday night right around dinner time -- we were all able to eat at least one meal together as a family -- but then Friday morning Grant and Luke were out the door at 6 AM to head to the airport for their trip to Taiwan for a swim meet. We've been able to watch their progress at the meet this weekend through a smart phone app -- the results are uploaded in real time.
Saturday we went to a Christmas bazaar at the school -- tons of vendors selling all sorts of things, most of it stuff we were not able to convince ourselves that we really need (still feeling the burden of late August / early September as we unpacked our boxes and ended up tossing so much stuff). We also did a few errands, went to a crepe place for lunch, and did some cooking & baking for today's Thanksgiving dinner (yes, we are having it early this week because Heidi and the kids will be in Taiwan from Thanksgiving Day - Saturday this next week. I get to stay home and work). The turkey is in the oven now, and we'll head over to our friends' home in about an hour to have the feast.
A few photos from the week:
We only ordered pizza twice while Heidi was gone (including the night she came home). Although it was a busy week at work, the kids managed to keep track of each other and themselves, and everything was in decent order when Heidi returned -- yes, it helps that we have an Ayi to keep up on cleaning, laundry, etc.
Heidi returned on Thursday night right around dinner time -- we were all able to eat at least one meal together as a family -- but then Friday morning Grant and Luke were out the door at 6 AM to head to the airport for their trip to Taiwan for a swim meet. We've been able to watch their progress at the meet this weekend through a smart phone app -- the results are uploaded in real time.
Saturday we went to a Christmas bazaar at the school -- tons of vendors selling all sorts of things, most of it stuff we were not able to convince ourselves that we really need (still feeling the burden of late August / early September as we unpacked our boxes and ended up tossing so much stuff). We also did a few errands, went to a crepe place for lunch, and did some cooking & baking for today's Thanksgiving dinner (yes, we are having it early this week because Heidi and the kids will be in Taiwan from Thanksgiving Day - Saturday this next week. I get to stay home and work). The turkey is in the oven now, and we'll head over to our friends' home in about an hour to have the feast.
A few photos from the week:
I've got Tomsk (the city where Nash is on his mission) on my weather app - I'm curious to know what kind of weather "smoke" is.
We are more interested in finding out how he is going to survive tomorrow's high of -8 degrees Fahrenheit, as well as Friday's high of -24 degrees. Certainly that is a mistake?
We had American-style Chinese food delivered on Friday night. Mallory really liked the fortune in her fortune cookie (and yes, fortune cookies are just an American invention): "The cookie wishes you had a splendid house." Don't we all wish we had a splendid house?
A few photos from the Christmas bazaar at the school.
Our first Thanksgiving feast (we're having one next week, too, when our boys get back from Taipei).
We like the pomelo fruit that we can get here - reminds us of the same fruit we had in Jakarta. You can buy it prepared and packaged at the grocery store, and if you do it usually includes two tiny chopsticks (they are really toothpicks, but Mallory mistook them for small chopsticks). We also bought the whole fruit this week (in that net thing) - we'll try peeling it tomorrow...
