Calm and merry and bright

Our first Aussie Christmas...'twas good!  All is calm, all is bright kept running through my head all day and that perfectly sums it up, with some merry thrown in. We reveled in the day, including:

family together (including second cousin Craig who's in Oz doing an internship and L home from uni, hooray!),

a great Christmas brunch (not pictured: G's aebleskivers and bacon),

thoughtful cards and gifts (this was a card Sam made for Maddy),

time to enjoy them,

good books and reading,

playing with our new toys,

an epic nerf battle (and pajamas all day),

and music,

lots of music (can you tell G loves his new acoustic bass?).

Sending all the best to you! I hope your day is joyful and hyggelig. I'm really grateful for the chance to connect with you through this simple blog, for the family and friends who check in on us here and for the new friends I've made over the years. And also for the therapeutic aspect of having an outlet to write plus the chance to document a few of the joys in our lives. Thanks for meeting me here now and then.

Well, today's Boxing Day here and we're off to see the Les Mis movie and then on a bit of a roadtrip adventure. More soon.

May your days be merry and bright!

We gathered together

When I was young, my dad periodically oversaw some international university students and we sometimes invited them to our house for dinner. One year we invited a man from Africa to join us for Thanksgiving dinner, along with our friend Aldena, an older woman (and quite a character) in our neighborhood who often joined us for holidays.  

Midway through the dinner, Aldena politely asked the man, "So what do you eat for Thanksgiving in Africa?"

The man paused for a moment and then replied, "Well, we don't have Thanksgiving there."  

"You don't?  Oh, my.  Really?  I can't imagine." Aldena was aghast and very disappointed in the continent of Africa and their apparent unthankfulness.

All of this is just to say: of course Australia doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, the holiday marking that feast when the indians graciously gathered with and welcomed the newly arrived pilgrims to the American continent. It's just a regular old work and school day here...but that didn't mean we were going to ignore one of our favorite days of the year.  So we pulled the kids out of school for the day, went to a movie matinee in the morning (Skyfall, which opened yesterday here), came home and made lemon meringue pies and stuffing, and then joined friends at their house for a gathering of expats and Australians. It was a terrific Thanksgiving feast with all of the traditional fixings. (Which was no small feat, really. It's harder to find turkey here. Or shortening. And canned pumpkin is non-existent.)

See the guy in the red ^? He is my second cousin, Craig. I'd never met him but I knew from his last name that we were probably related and sure enough, his dad Chuck is my mom's cousin so our grandmothers are sisters. He's doing an post-grad internship with Major League Baseball here in Canberra. (Maddy works for him there.) We were happy to have a family connection here. Such a small world.

Also? Kathleen, the dark-haired woman at the head of the table looking right at the camera, is a long-lost cousin on that same branch of the family tree (we just figured this out a couple of weeks ago). She is my mom's second cousin; her grandfather was my mom's grandfather's brother, both Brockbanks. So here we three are, halfway around the world in the same city, in the same ward, at the same time, from the same family tree. Lovely!

This year we're the new arrivals on a new continent. There's so much to be thankful for, especially for close and faraway family and friends. Love to you all. And Happy Thankgiving!

Ahoy, maties

Well, we're not in Kansas anymore!  That's probably just as well, since when we were driving across the country,  I lit my hair on fire in Kansas. But that's a story for another day.

We spent the month of August packing up, cleaning out, driving across the US, spending delicious time with family and friends, and saying goodbye over and over and over again. (Oh, the goodbyes! The only thing worse than saying goodbye to people you love is watching your children say goodbye to people they love. Heartbreaking.)  In early September, we offically set off on the plane bound for our new home.

We're finally emerging from the jetlag fog (and some pesky colds) to explore and enjoy our new hometown. Here's our home for the next few years. We love it. It was a really lucky find when we had a quick 3 days in an off-season market to find housing; we knew as soon as we walked in that it was the one. (The only thing that will make it better is when our belongings arrive in mid October.) Can you spot two silly teenagers who sneaked into the shot?

As you can see, it's early spring here so no leaves on the trees quite yet. But we have roses in our garden!

We really like the neighborhood (Yarralumla). There's a little row of shops a few blocks away with a post office, bakery, grocery, gift shop and a few restaurants. In the other direction just a couple of blocks aways is this beautiful scene that we can't get enough of:

So that's the quick version of the past few weeks. I'll fill in some more of the details in coming days but here's our journey by the numbers:

13 different sets of beds 
drove through 11 states in 5 days
hundreds of awesome songs on our playlist
5+ generous hosts (my parents, G's parents, my brother Matt, my grandparents, and Christie)
countless generosities from and visits with dear ones
3 visits to Cafe Rio and 4 visits to Cafe Zupas
24 hours traveling to Australia from take-off in SLC to landing in Canberra
and 3.5 filled airsick bags enroute

Some details I'll fill in more than others, I promise.

An absurd little bird

...is popping up to say cuckoo. Cuckoo! Cuckoo! This is me dipping my toe back into the blogging pond. Helloooooo! Anyone out there?

I've missed this, missed you.

The Sound of Music is in the air around here ever since Sam began his role as Friedrich, the oldest von Trapp boy, for his middle school musical not long ago. He rocked it. Plus, he was a true team player and all around good sport*.  Here are a few selected moments for the grandparents and others who asked. Please excuse the iphone video quality (and if only I had turned the camera the right way...).

Oh, and I want to give a shout out to Madi, our Maria, who was amazing.
Hard to believe that's a 13-year-old girl singing those notes. 

Listen carefully for a Friedrich solo at the end:

My mom and aunts loaned many of the dirndls shown here. Thank you!
Another Friedrich solo here:* 

*First, they gave him the high notes, which is not necessarily thrilling news for a 13-year-old boy. Sam has a pretty low speaking voice but he has a terrific ear and falsetto so they made him gave him the opportunity to use it. The director said that his favorite part of the whole play was when Sam did the octave jump for: Good night! (you can hear my chuckle and scattered applause on that last video if you listen closely).

Good sport item #2: They rented the sailor costumes from a theater and when they arrived one of the boys' outfits was too small for both of the boys. By a few years. Since the other (younger) boy was a little bigger width-wise, Sam got stuck with the small one. You'll see. There are some Winnie-the-Pooh moments.

Good sport item #3: Take a look at the play clothes made from curtains. They made floral suspenders and pinned them to their shirts. Tightly. He was, however, delighted that he escaped wearing lederhosen. You've got to draw the line somewhere.

Arthur-itis

What's that you say?

You weren't able to catch Sam in his role as King Arthur in the school play Knights of the Round Table?

Well, let me make you feel like you really were there by deluging you with photos, from opening curtain to final curtain call:

You're welcome.

Sincerely,

Stage mother in training

. . .

p.s. Go get your Danish pastries, folks. Tomorrow is St. Lucia Day--hooray! Other Lucia memories here and here.