Christmas Decorations, Hanukkah, and the First Week of Vacation

The Monday after we got back from Villa de Leyva, we asked Piedad to stay with the girls, so that the adults could go out to the French restaurant, which now seems to be my Dad's favorite place in Bogotá.  The food was, as always, delicious, but we had some extra fun admiring all the Christmas lights that are up in the neighborhood.

We even found Santa.

My parents' last night in Bogotá was the first night of Hanukkah, so we decided to do it up right.  Mom got Elena a wooden menorah, so that she could participate fire free.  Elena was very pleased with it.

Mom and Piedad had worked together on the Hanukkah food, and when it was all ready, the girls got to do the official candle "lighting" (placing in Elena's case).

Then we all sat down to yummy fried food.

After the meal, the girls opened the presents my parents had brought.

Vivi got the first illustrated Harry Potter, which we have started reading together.  Elena's favorite present was her own, personalized superhero outfit.

She's been wearing it pretty much every day since.

For the rest of the week, we mostly kept up with our Hanukkah candles.

Vivi had her last swim practice of the year.  She was the only who who showed up on the Friday before break, so her coach had some fun with her.

Elena's swim teacher is around for the break, so she's still having lessons, and he's agreed to come an extra day a week to work with Viv as well.

I'm grateful to have that activity scheduled in, because they have a month off of school, which is a whole lot of time to fill.  The first day of break, I was super ambitious.  Vivi had a friend spending the day with us, and we walked up to Parque Virrey to play and meet up with another friend.

Then our group of four kids and two adults walked to Andino for lunch where we met up another friend of Vivi's and his mom.  We also discovered the swan themed decorations in Andino.

They have all kinds of crazy play areas set up, so we're hoping they keep it until New Year, and we can go play on it next week, when the mall isn't quite so crowded.

All the kids came back to our place after lunch.  The big kids did some fun math activities, and the little kids played with toys.  Then we headed back to the mall to meet up with another mom and two kids to watch Coco.  Luckily, by that point, Elena was worn out enough to just sit in my lap for the duration of the movie.  It was cute, and everyone enjoyed it.

Tuesday was the last night of Hanukkah.

On Wednesday, Jeff worked a half day, and then he and I took Vivian to see The Last Jedi.

We all really liked it.  Jeff also thought it was interesting that in Spanish the title is Los Ultimos Jedi.  You can't be ambiguous in a language were adjectives have to agree with nouns.  

Thursday, the girls and I met up with friends at our favorite Italian restaurant for lunch, and then we did a bit more math.  Viv finished off the day with a swim lesson.

We're going to take it easy today in preparation for Christmas festivities starting tomorrow.  Jeff and Vivian are picking Christmas movies to watch now.  It should be a nice weekend.