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Three Randoms

Annie wanted to make me breakfast this morning. I went back to bed and waited for her to come and get me. Blueberry yogurt, a spoon and a glass of water were laid out on the placemat.

Annie: I couldn’t reach the glasses because my arms are too little so I took one from the counter and washed it out.

Me: Resourceful!

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I have to figure out how to take a video of Annie skiing. (I’m usually skiing with her and don’t want to take our video camera on the slopes.) You won’t believe it. I don’t believe it. She is going smoothly around hairpin turns and flying over bumps with her hands in the air, laughing the whole time. And the school’s ski week isn’t until March. I thought I would have a couple of years until Annie was a better skier than me. Think again Mama.

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Another particularly funny Hillary-learning-German story to add to the list. I wanted to say to Markus’ parents that Annie is full-speed ahead from the moment her feet touch the floor. But for some reason I chose to say “when her toes are on the floor.” So what I actually said was “wenn ihre Zähne auf dem Boden sind,” which means “when her teeth are on the floor”. Kunk. Zähne, Zehen, same same.

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The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

So here is how Christmas played out in our part of the world…

Traditionally Christmas is celebrated here on the evening of the 24. Family gathers, eats usually a fairly simple meal, and then the Christmas Child (I haven’t quite got the whole story yet on who that is. Jesus? An angel?) comes and brings the children presents.

We decided to have the family dinner at the cafe, as it was easier for everyone. Markus closed at about 1:00 p.m. and then we went back a few hours later to set up and get ready.

Pretty Christmas table

Everyone arrived together: Markus father and step-mom, sister Suzi with her daughter Lili and two dogs, and Suzi’s grandmother. Markus’s dad made steak tartar, which amazingly I actually like (just have to pretend I’m not eating raw meat.) Markus also put out breads and spreads and Italian meats and everything was lovely.

Franz, Renata and Uhroma, (she is 93!)
Suzi and Lili
Uhroma and Diego

The Christmas Child brought Annie a Princess tent, a doll and beads. Perfect!

On Christmas morning Annie woke up to a present at the end of her bed that Santa left. A ballerina-pink sparkly dress was inside. That Santa sure knows Annie well!

Downstairs the wonder of gifts under the tree and stockings hung by the fire (really laying on the couch) brought hoped-for squeals of delight. I actually didn’t take too many pictures, as we were just enjoying opening gifts and being together. Also, when I was a child, present opening lasted literally hours, so there was loads of opportunity for photos. Here, with one child and few adult gifts, it was all over in 20 minutes. I did snap these two lovely shots though.

AND!! (I’m so excited) I turned on the video to catch Annie spinning in her dress. It is way too dark and grainy, BUT I unexpectedly captured that iconic childhood moment when Annie’s little brain is trying to figure out why there is more than one Santa. She is saying that she saw Santa at the Christmas Market and he had a different face from the one that came to her kindergarten, Kindervilla. (Then she says the whole thing again for Papa in German, as he clearly doesn’t speak English.)

Just check out her face as her brain tries to process the information when I say that maybe one is Santa’s helper. Hilarious!

There are 2 Santa Clauses!! from Hillary Samson on Vimeo.

Happy New Year to you all.

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This Day Brought to You By the Letter “S”

Sunday Markus, Annie and I went to Seefeld, a pretty recreational area about half and hour from Innsbruck.

The day was filled with skiing…

I'm in the white and Annie is ahead of me in the pink. (Click to enlarge.)

…sliding

…and sleeping.

Annie and I have had a run of particularly crappy days lately, so this awesome one was truly soul saving.

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The Difference a Year Can Make

Annie and Markus had their first ski day! It has been snowing here quite a bit the last two weeks and several of the mountain runs are already open. I was so disappointing I couldn’t join them, but a series of health problems have been plaguing me the last few weeks, (today it is a bad sinus infection) so I spent most of the day in bed. Annie was excited to tell me that she went with Dad down the big hill twice. Last year it took about an hour to get down the full run with Annie, so she has obviously improved.

I did rally for the Krampus parade and we all went together. Last year was a bit of a trial with not only tears but outright screaming, and I swore we wouldn’t go again until Annie was older. But Markus has been prepping her for the last few weeks and Annie said she really wanted to go. Alright then. Well, I guess all the original, non-Disneyfied Grimm Brother tales have toughened my girl up, as she barely blinked when the scary monsters came by. When they were up really close she did need me to hold her, but I think I’d be more worried if she was completely immune to those creatures.

We didn’t stay long as there was a strong wind making it unpleasant outside. But that was fine. Annie got her St. Nikolaus sac filled with oranges, nuts and chocolate (volunteers must be filling those for weeks!) and all was well.

On another note, I like these yearly events as they are a good gauge of my German skills. I understood everything that was being said by St. Nik, which certainly wasn’t the case last year. And when I came home I read 20 pages of the novel we are reading for class in less than an hour. I used to read less than 10 pages per hour not too long ago.

I guess both Annie and I are making progress in our own way.

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I Did It!

Yeah for me! NaBloPoMo is done, and I made it through posting every day of November.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Internet. Internet, without you, my life would be far less…and more. Less educational, as you are always a source of news, facts, German translations and odd tidbits of knowledge. Less of a mother, as you provide me with endless craft ideas, parenting tips and inspirational messages. Less of a community member, as the blogs I read from friends and strangers alike make me feel connected to people throughout the world. And far, far more lonely. I can’t even imaging what this crazy adventure to another country would be like without Skyping and blogging and emailing and Facebooking with the people who are most important to me. Impossible, I suspect.

So even though it is so long for now, you’ll be hearing from me soon.

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Almost There

Only one more day (after today) to post for NaBloPoMo. This is my second attempt and, at this point, I’m pretty sure I’m going to make it.

I decided to do this as I needed some structure in my life. I was coming off of a very low period over the last few months and believe the adage that sometimes you have to force yourself to act in the way you want to be, and then hopefully your emotions will catch up.

And I’m happy to report that this has pretty much worked in my case. Of course, there is no empirical proof or statistical analysis for how much writing here has lifted my spirits, but I’m pretty confident that it has helped. (Except for yesterday…but we’ll just ignore that minor blip.)

I also realize that overall I’m fairly positive on my blog. When I look back I tend to capture the good things in life and focus on moments I’m grateful for. I do of course sometimes write about the dark times, but my brain is extremely talented at remembering all of the negative things that ever happened in my life…like, since preschool…so this is a welcome balance to my internal dialogue.

I’ve loved the comments, both on the blog and in personal emails, and know that there are a few of you out there who check in every day knowing there will be a post. Nice not to disappoint! And I really love doing this with other people, both those I know and those I don’t. It helps me feel a sense of community in this (my?) increasingly fractured world.

Thanks for joining the journey everyone. December may be a little light with the posts as I take some of the pressure off of blogging and transfer it to card-making. But come next November, I pretty sure I’ll be doing this again.

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Why Should the Kids Have All the Fun?

I’ve discovered a new craft. Actually, it is just an extension of paper crafting which I have been doing for a while. Ready for it….adult colouring!

It all begins with a Digital Stamp, which is really just a digital image (clip art?) that someone has designed. You can get them for free or buy them for a few dollars. They are jpeg or png files, so after downloading you can put them in Word or Photoshop to manipulate and then print them.

Then the colouring begins! Digital stamps can be coloured digitally of course, but the fun for me is colouring with pencil crayons, markers, paints, ink, chalk, or even crayons! Cut them out, attach them to a card, and good to go.

I’m still new at this, so the best I’ve come up with is very basic and monotone. Here is an example:

(I can’t find the maker of this image at the moment, but will fill it in when I can. Crediting artists is very important.)

However, when you become really good (or are just naturally talented), the colouring can have shading and multiple hues and look like this:

(See Pattie’s blog for image credits.)

Of course you can spend absolutely oodles of money on this, especially on the special Copic markers that were originally designed for Manga comics. But I’m making due what I can find amongst children’s crafts supplies and am still really enjoying it. I actually don’t remember enjoying colouring all that much as a kid, so maybe that’s why I’m so excited about it now.

A couple of months ago I joined a network for digital stamp enthusiast called Crafter’s Digital Art Center. After a call for business-minded crafters, I’m now on their board of advisers for the next few months. It is fun and keeps my brain busy. I feel like I’m on the other side of the AbeBooks Advisory Group all over again. Hilarious! But our group is a lot less cranky.

The other great thing is that this is something Annie and I do together. We look through all my saved images and I print them full size for her to colour, while I do a smaller version for me to make cards with. Excellent bonding time for sure.

And I was shocked how big the “industry” is. Even the small number of sites that I’m aware of have over 100,000 members combined. Now I’m sure there is lots of duplication there, but still. At first I was surprised that people devote so much effort to this, but I guess in terms of your entertainment time, it is a great deal better for the mind and spirit than watching another reality TV show. And now that I’m addicted, it feels totally normal.

I’ve even done a tiny bit of colouring on my Christmas cards (as with every year, I use the term “Christmas” loosely in terms of when you will see them in you mailbox), but since there are so many I didn’t go crazy.

I wonder what is next. Rediscovering rug hooking? Let’s hope not.

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A Taste of the Other Side: Day Two

That was a great day. O.K. I’m exhausted and I have to sort of force myself to feel its greatness, but still.

The day started well, with Annie occupied in her room until 7:30. (I wish I could say she was reading books, but really I left her dvd player, a snack and water up there to tempt her to not come down the very loud and creaky stairs.)

The morning was spectacular, with the sun reflecting off the mountain snow. Bright and not too cold (about -2C), I became committed to spending a good part of the day outside. I picked up Chloe and Julian around 10, and spent a good while making sure everyone was warmly dressed. There wasn’t enough snow to bother driving somewhere farther away to slide, so I took us all to the big park near the city center. There is a small hill there, with still enough snow that the girls could use their plastic sliders! They went up and down for about half an hour while Julian ran and rolled around until pretty much all of the dusting of snow was gone. Then we played for another hour in the rest of the playground.

Next up was lunch and hot chocolate at the cafe. A round of bathroom breaks and diaper changes, and off we went to the Christmas Market. Julian fell asleep on the way in the stroller, which made things quite a bit easier. The girls went on a pony ride, two rounds on the carousel, ate a treat and then watched the puppet show. After sitting for half an hour at the Kasperltheatre, though, they were very cold and some tears ensued. We rushed to the car and all was well.

At home I guess they needed some alone time. I read to Julian, Chloe coloured, and Annie put on a dress and fairy wings and danced to some music. Dinner was uninspired but eaten, and then Margriet came to pick her two up.

I enjoyed the day and love that I was able to help out a very appreciative friend. Now I’m off to tuck a tired Annie into her bed. I’m pretty sure I won’t be far behind.

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A Taste of the Other Side

My friends Margriet and Philip were moving house today, so I offered to take their children Chloe, 4, (often discussed on this blog, as she is Annie’s best friend) and Julian, 2. I picked up the three of them from school and we made our way home.

Mostly it was quite fun. At one point I could really see the appeal of a gaggle of kids filling up the house. However, after a few hours my patience was starting to wear a wee bit thin, even though the kids were being great. But regular kid great…playing, screaming, dancing, making a mess, asking for something then not eating it. It was so calm in the car after I dropped them off. Annie was doing her usual non-stop chatting and I just listened and interjected when appropriate and relaxed.

I have all three for the whole day tomorrow again. I’m hoping that the snow we had today sticks so I can find a hill and we can go sliding. That will wear them out nicely I think. As well as keep them relatively contained. You can only run so fast in a bulky snow suit.

To all those mothers that have more kids than hands (like my own), I salute you.

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Learning All the Tricks

We were at cousin Lili’s birthday dinner tonight. She had asked for a Friendship Book so we gave her one covered with horses, which are her current passion. All of the children share around Friendship Books here in Austria, writing about likes and dislikes and favourite things. It has been a tradition for decades.

It was a very nice, relaxing time with the family.We had a casual dinner of different fishes on toast, and Lili really liked her gift.

I also learned two interesting things about Annie. One is that she likes smoked salmon. This makes me very happy as, although high in sodium, it is very good for Omega-3 oils. More salmon means less trying to remember to add the flax to Annie’s cereal in the morning.

The other concerns a story I already told on this blog about how Annie pushed me out the door the night she slept over at Oma’s and Opa’s. I was a proud Mama, thinking how independent my girl was and how much she loved and wanted to play with her grandparents. So today I got the real story. The second that she had shuffled Markus and I out the door, she looked up at Opa with her big blue eyes and said, “May I have an ice-cream?” She knows I’m somewhat restrictive about sugar (compared to Austrian’s anyway, who must have the highest consumption of sweets in the world) and wasn’t going to risk asking this while I was in the room. That girl. It is going to be a fine line I will need to teach her to walk between getting what you want out of the world, which is a great thing, and manipulating the people around you. Not so great. I think I have some work ahead on this.