Christmas Eve-Nochebuena

So tonight is Christmas Eve... Alex and I are going to bed now (last night we went to bed at around the same time). We spent the day cleaning the house, and getting ready for the 'Big Night'. Ginny, Kevin, Julia and Ana came to spend a couple of hours with us.  We shared Bunuelos y Natilla, two traditional dishes of Colombia during the Holidays.  Bunuelos are sort of like 'cheese donuts' made of 'Queso Fresco' which can be bought at Mexican stores. Natilla is Milk and Raw sugar. It's delicious.  The girls opened a few presents in the cousin exchange.  After the Brown Martins left, I tried to finish the Christmas Dinner and ran out of time, so all the food I had planned became very simple: Pork (Pernil), from our Colombian Recipe Book, Rice and Beans, no vegetables! and for desert a piece of chocolate from Hughes in Oshkosh.   Then it was off to Mass at Holy Redeemer (in Spanish) which I enjoyed very much, except that Sucena had to go to the bathroom right before communion, when I went down I saw over a 100 people in the back of the church, so I figured I had time to take her and come back, but none of those people took communion! When I came back the priest was sitting in his chair.  Communion was over.  I almost cried right there.  Almost 2 hours of mass and no communion.  I have learned my lesson, just get in the line because Latinos usually do not take communion.  How awful!

Anyway. I am tired and I think the girls will get up soon. We are 'trying' to follow Alex's tradition of opening Papa Noel's presents first (stockings) and Nino Dios after we get up. With luck I will get four hours of sleep. Then it's off to Milwaukee to see the family.

Feliz Navidad.. Merry Christmas.. Everyone! I am tired and have only added a picture I took of Sucena tonight in one of her dresses (given by abuela, gracias). I will add other pictures later..

MM

First Celebrations

This weekend marked the first celebration the girls had as a family with Alex's parents.  As usual I was not rushing with my camera to take pictures. It's not something I am not used to and so I have to make an effort to do that, so I will take pictures after the fact, with the things that they got as their gifts. (I should follow Sam's example who is never anywhere without a camera) We spent the weekend in Milwaukee. On Saturday the girls decorated the tree and got some presents from the Martins. These included, books, art supplies and a great big house with dolls.  Some of the gifts were individual but most were to be shared.  This has been a concept we have been trying to teach the girls for  a while, the concept of 'sharing'.  Since they have had little that are theirs, they tend to want to have things only for themselves, and would rather not necessarily share anything with a sister.  So I was glad to see that a couple of gifts as well as the books needed to be shared. This will give us an opportunity for teaching the girls how to do this.
Things have been hectic and the weather here has been awful, which does not help trying to get organized and do the necessary things before Christmas.  I have been doing my shopping after the girls go to sleep (Thanks for Holiday Hours).
I got to purchase chocolates and small gifts for the girls teachers.  This will be the first time they will ever take a gift to a teacher at school bought from a parent. I took the older two on Friday night and took the younger two yesterday to do this. I wanted the girls to create their presents and had some ideas, but never got around to doing this. I'm amazed at how there are moms out there who are creative and do these great things for school and for the teachers.  For us it has been an adjustment to keep up with homework, school presentations, things to bring to school etc. We are lucky we get a lot of help from the ESL teachers. We don't know what we would do without them.
Well, I have to get the girls up to get to school. I will keep up the blog throughout the Holidays. We are trying to get some traditions going into house, including some Colombian food, etc.  For a great blog about Colombian culture check out "Raising Colombian Kids".  There should be a link to this on our blog.

MM

Snow

So it's too bad that the video has never worked for us, so you only get to see an image of Mirellen with the snow shovel.  The girls had their first big snow a couple of weekends ago. It was a Saturday morning, and I heard screaming thinking that Sucena had hurt herself and then I went downstairs to realize that she was 'swimming' in the snow with Yesica.  The girls just went out to our porch to look play with it and later went to the back of the building.  We probably got about 4 inches on the first weekend in December and 13 inches on December 11th (last weekend). So the girls have seen plenty of snow, and for December it has been snowy and very cold. We have been having a heck of a time with our commute with very icy roads, and trying to take the 'driest' road possible, so we are safe.  This means the commute is even longer, especially in the afternoons.  The other day one of the girls asked me when Spring came... if they only knew the winter could last for a very long time...

Everyone always asks me "How is motherhood going", "How are the girls doing? ".  I always answer "it's going".. The girls are actually doing very well, in my opinion.  They get up in the morning and get ready for school every morning. The commute in the morning is not that bad, but by the afternoon they are tired, hungry and cranky.  Just like any kid.  For me, it has been quite an adjustment.  It's true no one tells you how to be a mother and for me the hardest part is the fact that there are many things that the girls don't know and they are asking me questions constantly.  At first they all wanted my attention at the same time, like they had not had this much attention from one person so they were craving it.   Some people say I am patient, but the truth is that I have my limits, and there are times I loose it.  It's  a little embarrassing to say because part of my day job is talking to kids, but the reality is that.  And of course there is always the  question in the back of my mind (was I too harsh? Is this something I should worry  about? What should I let go and what should I emphasize? etc... )  I know this are questions that every parent asks. The difference I find is that I have less time with the girls and feel under a little more pressure to teach many things. And when I mean teach, I don't mean academics, those will take care of themselves somehow.. but it is trying to look at the values that they come with and mold them the best we can so that the girls will have a happy and successful life. For Alex and I success is not measured by the paycheck, but by the level of caring for others and independence they will display.  I always joke that   School #2 starts after school.  Because it is in the car and at home where some very important lessons take place.  And what I mean by that is not just them learning, but also the learning that I am doing through them.  I am learning so much from them as well and this helps me at work, at school and at life.
The girls are definitely imperfect and have a lot to learn, but so do I. This,  I am not embarrassed to admit.

Long time

It's been a long time since I wrote on the blog.  Part of it has been because we have been busy with the girls, and the other part is because we have went through a tough couple of weeks with one or two of the girls,  and I just felt like I could not sit down and talk 'fluff' over blogger. Sorry.  I know there are people out there that wonder if we had decided not to write the blog anymore.
The good news is that I think this had a reason for happening.  I think that we are finally seeing the girls personalities coming through a little more.  I know the attachment will take time, but I guess like the saying says "it's always darkest before dawn" (one of my favorite sayings), it now feels more like "dawn" in our house.  And we are very glad for that. This past weekend was the true test of whether or not people could get along while inside most of the weekend (we had quite the snowstorm).  We were pleasantly surprised. The girls enjoyed playing in the snow and making hills to go sledding in. I took them to a little hill around here, but they have not gone to a big one yet.  We still have to take them to the "memorial high school hill" here in Madison or the Lake one in Milwaukee. I get the feeling we will have the chance soon.
So to those who follow our blog, I apologize.  I promise I will write more now.  I will also put pictures about Thanksgiving and what the girls have been up to lately.
There is still a lot to get ready for Christmas.  We can't wait to have a family Christmas morning. Something we had dreamed about.
One little story about Sucena. We decided to get a Christmas tree (the first real tree we have gotten since we have been married).  We went to the parking lot of Copps, a grocery store.  I park and a guy approaches, I look at him and before I said a word Sucena turns to him and says "Hola", he says "Hola" back.  Then she turns to me and said, "I knew he spoke Spanish".   He was great gave us a little bit a of a deal I gave him a small tip and he gave the girls Candy Canes.   She says she can tell when people speak Spanish. Some day she will be disappointed.
MM