She's also mixing her languages, so under that is the start of te amo momi.
While Vivian was excited about Thanksgiving, she was even more excited about her dental health. All her friends are getting braces, so she pressured me to take her to the dentist to see if she needed braces too. Our friends recommended a dentist who also speaks English. The dentist said it was too early for braces, but Viv would need a spacer. The dentist's office is in a building with a small mall, so after the appointment, Viv and I explored.
Our local shopping center was also getting excited about the holidays, because that night we were treated to a fireworks display. The next day was Saturday, so I headed to PriceSmart first thing in the morning to get our Thanksgiving turkey. They get Butterball turkeys in, and they're half the price of the ones at the embassy, so I figured it was worth the trip. They only had one size, huge, so Señor Pavo came home and set up residence in our fridge for a long and slow defrosting process.
Finally, the day before Thanksgiving, he was defrosted enough that I could open him up and get out the gizzards for the gravy base. Afterwards, I wrapped Señor Pavo in plastic and put him back in the fridge with the defrosted sausage (sausage balls!) and white wine (necessary for sanity during Thanksgiving cooking).
While the gravy was bubbling, the pumpkin pies were cooking.
Jeff had also managed to find the good cranberry sauce at the commissary, so the essential pieces were in place.
Since CGB is a British school, they don't have Thanksgiving off, but, since it's my favorite holiday, I felt that a personal day was justified. I also gave the girls the day off. They decided the celebration wouldn't be complete without fancy dresses.
Elena also insisted on pumpkin pie for breakfast, and Vivian wasn't going to argue with her.
We ended up with a pretty good breakfast spread for the parade, and some of our football friends stopped by to watch for a bit. Then there was the midday lull where I got the stuffing started in the crock pot and ripped out Señor Pavo's spine, so that he would fit in the oven. He fought back though, and took a LONG time to cook. Luckily, Jeff kept people entertained on the balcony while I tried to reason with Señor Pavo.
Finally, I could declare Señor Pavo done, and the two patient families we had over sat down with us to eat.
Everyone brought side dishes, so we had plenty of delicious food, and the eating took a couple hours, as it should. Unfortunately, the girls and I had to go to school the next day, so the celebrations couldn't last too late, but honestly, after the all the turkey eating, we were ready for bed.
That weekend, Elena passed another milestone, the first time she accidentally locked her bedroom door. Thank goodness she was on the outside, not the inside, because that door stumped us. It is huge and flush to the frame, and nothing we could do seemed to persuade it to open. We eventually took the doorknob off, and were confronted with this.
After 20 minutes of messing with it, we called in neighbor reinforcements. It turned out that what we really needed was a new pair of eyes, because after a few minutes, he pushed where we had all been pulling, and the door opened. Thank goodness for friends. We may never allow Elena to close her door again.
I was definitely hitting my limit on how much crazy I could take, but luckily, the school year was winding towards the holiday break. The girls had their holiday performances. On the performance day, school starts three hours later and there's a Christmas fair and special show afterwards. The late start was much needed and much appreciated.
As a bonus, Safta had gotten into town the night before, and came to join us for the performances and evening activities. Elena's class sang holiday songs.
And Vivian's drama class did a performance where she played the grandma who collapses and miraculously recovers to result in a joyful Christmas celebration.
The fair was interesting to look around, but the food options were not great. There was some sushi that Mom and I enjoyed, but I think we'll have to bring food for the girls next year. They ended up eating a lot of sugar and being pretty close to meltdown by the end. In the past, the final send off has been a fireworks display, but apparently there's a law that you can't set fireworks off within a certain distance of a school, so they were trying something new this year. It took a LONG time to set up, and the girls were laying on the grass in the dark by the time it started. The first part was light up drums on the performance stage, which was very cool. Then the second part was acrobats attached to the front of the secondary building.
Honestly, I thought it was ridiculous, but the girls loved it, so that was a plus. We cut out of there as soon as it was done, and Elena fell asleep hardcore in the car. She barely registered being transferred to bed. Vivian got to bed under her own steam, but didn't bother changing to pajamas. I am so thankful that my mom was there to help with them. She is definitely invited to come again next year :-)
That Saturday was the first of December, and so it was officially time for Christmas decorations. While the girls were excited about all the decorations, the Christmas village is always the favorite. The toys came to visit almost as soon as I got the buildings out of the box.
Jeff had two weeks worth of work trips, so Safta came to stay with us for a week, which was wonderful. She got to experience a football Sunday, which was also the first night of Hanukkah, so she and Piedad made potato pancakes for us and all our friends which was a wonderful treat. I didn't get any pictures, because we were too busy eating them. We didn't manage to celebrate all eight nights of Hanukkah, but we got a couple lightings in.
One of the best presents my mom brought, was a new puzzle for her and Elena to put together.
Mom's last day was a Thursday, which was scheduled to be the parent teacher conference day. Because of protests and the school's bad internet, the school decided to have teachers do the conferences at home over Skype. There were pros and cons to this. I didn't have to drive in traffic to get to school, and I could wear sweatpants, but I had to lock my bedroom door and run through 22 ten minute conferences in a row, which was intense. I was done by lunch though, so I could go out with Mom and the girls. We cut through Andino to admire their Christmas displays. I don't know about the slide though.
We went to the French restaurant near Andino that serves mussels. Mom, Elena, and I pigged out on those, while Vivian enjoyed a nice steak. Afterwards, I said goodbye to my beautiful girls, and mom took them to have their nails done, while I went back home in case there were any last minute conference requests.
The girls got holiday and Disney themed nails.
Their last couple weeks of school were pretty full. Vivian went to Salitre Magico, and Elena went to Multiparque, which are both amusement parks. Vivian's year group put on a holiday pantomime, and Vivian played Cruella de Ville who rounded up the other villains to take the joy out of Christmas. Elena was so excited to watch her big sister on the stage.
Then, Vivian's class went to the salt mines outside of Bogotá which also have a salt cathedral. Vivian's most exciting recent experience though was getting the spacer retainer at the dentist's.
She was so pleased, you would have thought it was early Christmas. Elena was very impressed by the dentist, especially the television she had that showed cartoons, and demanded to have her teeth cleaned too. The dentist is a lovely lady and agreed to the impromptu appointment.
She said Elena's teeth look good. Elena's class has been studying the human body, which may have had something to do with her fascination with the dentist. Last week, Elena did a presentation for her class on the skin.
She made the "poster" all by herself, and is very proud of it. It's great to see her growing academic confidence. Vivian is also enjoying school, and looking forward to being in secondary next year. She was checking out the MUN set up for my students and dreaming ahead.
I'm glad they're enjoying school, but I'm also glad that we have a break. The next challenge will be keeping them busy for the month before we go back. On the first day of break, Vivian taught Elena how to cross her eyes.
It may be a long month . . .
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