Worrying is an Olympic sport

I don't know if you've already noticed this, but I am a worrier. I worry all the time, about everything and everyone. I worry about the little things, I worry about the big things, I worry about the known and I worry about the unknown.I worry about the kids, their health issues (Yon's eyes, Ron's teeth and now his atopic skin), their academic issues (which of course exist only in my mind), their happiness, their future, their popularity, their connection to Israel, Judaism and our traditions, etc;I worry about Hidai (even though he is fine, and I am not saying that just because he made me), his health, his job, his carrer, his happiness, etc.; I worry about my parents getting old; I worry about our future, not being able to get where we want to be, about not having money, about there being a disaster, that we will get a letter saying that we are not entitled to live here after all; I worry about me, my health, my hands, becoming boring, that no one will read my next post, that I will gain back all the weight I lost; I worry about the situation in Israel, I worry about the UK, I worry about the pound, I worry about our loans, I worry about our savings, I worry about how to fit everything into the budget, I worry about having to entertain, I worry about...
I worry. It's what I do. Actually it's a very good answer to the what do you do all day question, what do you mean? I worry. Everyone knows that, hell, even Yon's teacher knows that. If worrying was an Olympic sport I'm sure I'd be in the running for a medal.
The thing is, I live quite fine with the endless cycle of worries that goes on inside my head. Usually. I am so used to it by now, I don't think I would know what to do if I didn't have to worry anymore. I can't honestly say that my worries came along with the kids, I had them long before, but I can definitely say that they multiplied by hundreds when we just started to think about having kids, and that on top of the worries I also got that overwhelming sense of responsibility only parents have - the responsibility for that tiny tiny thing that is totally dependant on you.
I am responsible for my kids, for my life, for my choices, for the prices everyone around me pay for those choices, for our financial situation, for the career decisions Hidai and I take together, for Yon's bad genes, for the well-being of this family, for ... For everything it seems. I live quite contently with that also.
Who in the crowd said high high high internal locus of control? Yes. That's me.
But the one thing I don't live well with is uncertainty. I learned over the years to accept that not everything is in my control, that responsibility does not equal blame, and that, well - shit happens. Over the last few years I also learned to let go of the 5 years plan, to never commit to a house or a country or whatever. And in some ways that became my certainty, the fact that this will not be our last home, or city or job. But still, unexpected uncertainties take an emotional toll on me. One I was surprised to find is still very high.
Sometimes, when taken together, it is all just too much, sometimes you just want to return it all to the store and say - hey, that's not what I thought I was buying, sometimes you find yourself sitting in front of the computer reading what other people wrote about and being, well, envious. Hey, I want to be able to write about things like the weather, or the trip to wherever or the new spring fashion I just bought, sometimes I want to be able to lift the burden of worry and responsibility and uncertainty and live like there is no one else out there but me.
So I embarked on an all-me all-fun weekend, and then Yon was half sick all weekend (actually got sent home on Friday with an I-don't-know-what's-wrong-with-him from his teacher), Ron had homework to do that needed help, Yon had to had his hair cut (an ordeal that usually comprise of half an hour of screaming and crying), and as it happens you can't really shut the door and pretend to not be home for a whole weekend. There is nowhere to run.

It seemed like an apt finish for the post didn't it? everything's dark and hopeless. But it turnes out life is a strange thing, because we actually had a lovely weekend.
I read one whole book;
Ron and I baked a birthday cake for grandma, who is in Israel, and we lit candles and celebrated together. And we had chocolate cake to eat;

we are baking our traditional birthday cake - chocolate heart shaped cake

I taught Ron to play Black-Jack and he loved it;

I was the dealer

We watched The Hobbit DVD, which we enjoyed tremendously and which reinforced our decision to one day go to New Zealand on a Lord Of The Rings tour;
Hidai & Ron went to watch the Arsenal match at the stadium, and even though Arsenal lost, they still got to play, eat, meet people and enjoy the experience;

After we scored our 1 goal... He did not look like this coming home :(

Ron's homework were about finding a country that you can sell to people and make them want to visit, so we chose Italy, which I adore, and really, is an obvious choice - who doesn't want to visit Italy? the food, the art, the language, everything really. Ron and I sat together for 2 hours learning about Italy, watching all our photo albums from Italy, and discussing art, history and the Italian language;
We ate all the chocolate, ice-cream, cookies, pizza (Arsenal lost...), chips (it's Saturday traditional food) and whatnot we wanted;

Pizza as comfort food

Hidai had 7 new people join his Facebook group, so he could moan about Arsenal with new people, and I had to endure only 20 minutes of it this whole weekend!;
My new mixer arrived;
The kids slept until 9am on Sunday, and so did we;
I am now at stage 154 on Candy Crush Saga and had regained Ron's respect;
And we started this week with sunshine and also an hour of some lovely "us" time and coffee.

All this reminded me about the saying we had put up on our bedroom wall in Gib in the middle of all the mess last year, and is still true to our life, especially in days like these (yes I know I am putting up too many motivational saying here, I promise I will stop. Someday) - Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain.
I don't think we've reached dancing yet, but I thing we've passed walking...

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February Happy List

I want fun. I need fun.
The truth is that I've been feeling a little down for the past week or so. I've been in this - life is hard, there is no light at the end of the tunnel no matter what you do - kind of mood. As always there are good reasons for this feeling, and as always I know this too shall pass, but I find I am sick and tired of everything being so tough all the time. I hate this feeling that life is a battle field. Like I told Hidai this morning in a fit of desperation - it's just not fun.
And so, after staring at my computer for an hour (or two) and still being stuck at level 147 in Candy Crush Saga (very addictive), I discovered the sad sad truth - playing video games gets you nowhere in life. Also true for staring at Facebook. Just saying.
I decided that what I really need is a pick-me-up, so I designed a plan for an "all me - all fun weekend" which is divided into four parts:
Part one (this part) compile February Happy list, because I found a saying I liked that goes something like - not every day can be good, but you can always find good in every day.
Part two, comfort food, which will include actual food (a shocker I know), 2 tubes of Ben & Jerry's, a cake (the moment my new mixer will arrive today - don't get excited, the old one broke down) and all the chocolate I can eat (which is a lot. A lot).
Part three, at least three Romance novels, which is one of my two preferred literary genres - Romance and spy novels.  I know I'm shallow, but what's wrong with a little Happy-ever-After (or some blood-shed for that matter)?
Part four, The Hobbit DVD tonight because I am also a Tolkin fan (okay, a geek at heart. Don't judge me, so is Hidai). Oh, and popcorn.
Since I already dug into the Ben & Jerry's so maybe I should have added sport-doing to my list. Some people claim sport can help with the mood. I do not share this point of view though, and that is why even though we will be exercising this weekend it is not part of the pick-me-up plan
(all dependent of course on me not catching Yon's flu...)

So these are the things that made me smile this month...
On the first week of February
Ron went bird watching with his class in the park and enjoyed nature (a first) and also I caught a glimpse of them going back to school when I was going to pick up Yon, and he was so cute;
we started a weekend exercise regiem (Pilates and running), well that part did not make me smile (unless you consider my facial spasms as smiles) but the results and the being able to eat with no guilt, that made me smile;
we went to see Ron's math lesson in school, where both Hidai & I became devoted followers of his teacher;
we spent some time down memory-lane and looked at all the kids' baby pictures;
the kids enjoyed playing "babies" and demanded we (Hidai) hold them and cuddle them like babies;
Arsenal won, which made my boys smile, and kept the dinner table conversation on the weekend civil and happy;
Hidai got an email from LinkedIn saying he has one of the top 1% most viewed profiles for 2012 and was busy working hard on his new (and only) hobby - his  Facebook  football group;
Yon learnt to play Uno (Taki) and is actively playing the WII (without cheating, or bossing Ron around);
I got a blog-related question from a reader and wrote the new Kids and Moving page;
we ate pizza :)

Looking at Ron's baby photos

On the second week of February
I went to Goldern Green to fill the house with Israeli food and with Purim accessorises which Yon was very happy to test-drive;
Ron's best friend came to visit, and also Uri & Ev;
we still exercised;
Arsenal won again;
Ron had a France show-and-tell in school in which he was less nervous;
we had Shrove Tuesday - also known as an excuse to eat pancake for dinner day, and how can you not smile about that?
Ron handed in his Israel presentation and got top marks for it, which made us all very happy because he worked really hard on it, and was very excited and nervous about presenting it to the class;
we had some light snow;
we had Valentine's day with pizza, ice-cream, wine and a card;
and we found a baby snail on the way home.

Baby snail

On the third week of February,
Ron had an Ice-Cream Party at school because they had 100% attendance;
we had lovely sunshine which Yon & I enjoyed very much;
we continued with our weekend exercise regiem;
we survived the kids half-term with a time-table that worked like magic;
I played checkers with Ron and won! which was really very surprising, and so I managed to save face and keep my all-knowing facade;
we went to the dentist and got good news for Ron who was so happy to have "a grown-up tooth in a child's mouth" but a bit worried about our dentist's instruction to eat chocolate only once a week (we explained when we got home that the instruction s quite rigid and not what is going to happen in our house - we formally have once a day);
the last of my 2012 albums is ready to print, a point that makes me smile just because it was starting to be a little hell coping with all the photos mess;
Ron drew me an I love you card,
Yon got in the habit of playing "going to sleep", a game in which he and I, well, go to sleep. Usually on the floor, but he does bring his blanket and pillows and his animals of course; apart from the 5 minute power naps I get out of it, I also get a very cuddly child who just begs for hugs and kisses;

The dreaded checkers board - next up is poker and black jack :)

On the last week of February,
we celebrated Purim with all the trimmings - costumes, music, games, food, photos. It was the kids idea and they loved it, and made me so happy;
I found the perfect recipe for the Purim cookies. I loved it, the kids loved it, Hidai loved it and Hidai's team at work loved it;
Ron and Hidai went to the Arsenal match, and had some snow, hot chocolate and a win (thank god);
Hidai had 2 school governors meetings and is now very informed school-wise and has great connections with the head-teacher;
we were very good and finished the month with a budgetary plus (according to plan);
we had a full month of exercise and are now shrinking our way nicely (and also we eat so much junk apparently);
we ate Purim food, Burekas, semolina pudding, and Hidai brought me Reese's Cups and plenty of M&M's because I was feeling down and he knows me so well :)

Hidai & Ron on their way to the match

This is it, I love making these Happy lists because they make me focus on all the little things that happened this month, all the good things, and reminds me that actually even though it did not look like it this morning, I did have plenty of opportunities to smile on February.
Yes there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and now that my new mixer has arrived I can bake a cake that does not require a mixer :)

I will leave you with two things, first is my Instagram, if you like my photo obsession and want to see more - orli_hidai
and second, because I found it while making sure I am writing the phrase pick-me-up correctly, and Hidai said I should keep it somewhere for later use (and because you know the truth, I am a sucker for motivational quotes) - “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed” (Michael Jordan)

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Half-term - on survival and improvements

Why is it, I wonder, that I can't seem to be able to get one of those weeks, you know the kind, the ones that when someone asks you - how was your week? You answer - great! It was just great! the kind of weeks that only other people have. Why is it my weeks are always mixed? I can't remember one honest "great" I gave. Yes, I lie.
The past ten days where half-term vacation for the kids, and last night Hidai and I looked at each other and just sighed with relief. We've made it through half-term.
Don't judge me, I have mitigating circumstances for setting my goal at survival:

1. Kids were in a bit af a state before the half-term started. They were in one of those - fight about everything, cry because of anything, and basically behave like a little sh*&^t towards everyone - moods. It got to the point that on the last day of nursery Yon's teacher asked me what is going on... 
2. Yon and I were half to full sick for the whole ten days (and still are).
3. We had a dentist appointment for the kids, and especially Ron because we were worried about the tooth he has growing instead of the one they took out in his surgery and if the cyst has returned.
4. We had Purim so I had Purim baking to do, which wasn't bad in itself (though I did say beforehand that I will not be baking this Purim...) but unfortunately included my mixer and my favourite rolling pin breaking down in the middle of the work.
5. We spent the whole half-term inside the house because of the weather, the fact that Yon is not cold-tolerant, and the health issues.
6. Hidai had a busy week at work and needed attention (did I mention already that he is high maintenance?) 
7. It is almost the end of the month, so no more money to spend.
8. We got some bureaucracies to handle with Yon's school registration, and in Israel.
9. Arsenal lost twice. Ron took it hard. And Hidai & Ron went to watch the match on Saturday, so we were somewhat worried it won't go well.

Yes, as I saw it, survival was my only option here. The thing is, from this list here you can see all the bad or problematic things of the last ten days, but it's not really the case, since half-term went better than expected and we actually managed to handle all those negatives and to have a good time, because:

Ron made me this, and it wasn't even Mother's day yet!

I made the kids a time-table for the half-term, I worked it out together with Ron, and taped it to their bedroom door (and explained on what days we will be deviating from it in advance....), and what do you know? It worked. It was a HUGE surprise for us, because we didn't promise them anything for good behaviour or threatened any punishments, but they actually loved it and followed it to the letter. There were (almost) no fighting, no bitching and no crying. For ten days. There was reading, there was maths, there was playing together... It was like magic :). Last night we took it down and stored it until Easter (5 weeks people. 5 weeks till the next school holiday), and Ron even said he was a bit sad that the half-term is over. All around success.

Time-table

Hidai was able to help me when I was in the really sick state so I did get one full day of being in bed and watching a ton of TV shows, and most of the times Yon and I were not so bad.
The dentist X-rayed Ron's mouth and there is no sign of the cyst! So so so relieved, and also the giant tooth he has growing now is just an adult tooth in a child's mouth, and the other ones are coming along, so everything seems to be in order, and we can come back in 6 months and not 3. Great great news (Yon's teeth, if you care are also good. His attitude sucks).

Dentist fun - trying to improve Yon's attitude

The kids actually asked to celebrate Purim. It was not my idea, I didn't have to push it on them, they even remembered most of the story and the songs from last year, and the message we assigned the holiday - One person can make a difference for the whole world (it is not the conventional message you get in Israel - someone tried to kill the Jews, didn't succeed, we rule. But it is still a true message you get from the story), and they wanted to do the whole thing - dress up (Ron is a given, but we gave Yon all the other options we have in the house - Ben 10, Peter Pan, Cowboy. Can you guess what he chose? Of course, and so I had 2 Arsenal players.), hear the songs, play the games, eat the food. It was a jewish mum's heaven.

And also, even with all the things that went wrong in the baking process, and despite my absolute conviction it will be terrible, and the fact that Hidai who is usually in charge of filling and closing the dough was too busy to do it this year, it was my best Purim food ever. The kids ate 3 pieces each. Hidai ate 6. After much deliberations and weighing of costs and use (baking versus dieting) and the fact that this one survived for 3 years, I have to have a mixer because I can't do it Paul Hollywood Style (using only hands), and I will have 2 of all the accessories (which is a big plus), we decided to stay with the same semi-professional Kenwood and not upgrade it to a real pro mixer that costs around 500 pounds, and so it will be replaced next week. The rolling pin however will not get replaced, first of all because I already have 2 others in the house, and second because it was just the handle that broke, and I can still use it. Somewhat, and I really doubt I can find the same one (it's about 9 years old...).

Purim food

Staying inside for the whole week and the kids being busy with their time-table activities meant that I could indulge in my documentation obsession. I think I mentioned it already, but let me show you the inside of an obsessive mind - we have 4 working cameras (from amateur to pro) and 2 phones that we use to take photos with. I take at least a photo a day, usually more (I know, you can't really see that I am a compulsive photographer). All the photos are stored on at least one computer, go through photoshop, saved according to date, and uploaded to an album that goes to print, Facebook, or my screensaver. After that they are backed up in the cloud. The thing is, because it takes a little time to do all that, I was somewhat behind, so I used most of last week to finish all the photos related work, and like with the laundry, the next day I already had more photos...
It is the last week of February, and we managed to reach all our budgetary goals. It was hard, it was annoying, but it was worth it, and we are saving the last of our very good wine to March first to drink for our budget success, and our road to financial recovery.
We took care of all those annoying bureaucracies with much more ease than we (okay I) would have even a month ago, so I guess that's progress, right? and also we took care of it (hopefully) and Yon will be enrolled to a school next year even though we don't have a child tax credit / benefit letter for him to prove his address, because he does have a NHS number certificate thing addressed to him, so they allowed us to use that as proof he actually lives with us. And the Israel bureaucracy is never ending it seems, even after more than 3 years... Every time we think we finished everything something pops up, but also with that I think we are making progress. Somewhat at least.
Arsenal won and Hidai & Ron had fun at the match. It was just slightly snowy, and very very cold, but a hot-chocolate and a 2:1 win helped :).

Ron at the match

We finished 4 weeks of exercise and eating better (okay not really better, but we did try to control the amount of chocolate and other sweets in the house), and even though I was totally sure that it did not help, surprisingly enough it did, and I am now once again comfortable in my tiniest pair of jeans.

That's it folks, we survived half-term, we survived February, and though I can't really say it was great, after writing this post, I can definitely say it was an improvement. And that in itself is an improvement :)

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January Happy List

It might seems like my last few posts were a bit too gloomy. Or so I've been told. So I am going to try something different for this post, a Happy List. I am going to look back at January (it still has four more days, but we'll just ignore that) and write all the good and happy things that happened this month.
Unimaginable. I know.
Okay, here we go:

First week of January, my parents were still here, we welcomed the year with style - drinking good wine, watching a good movie and plenty of fireworks.

I did not drop any iPhone into the toilet, so I did not destroy the year (yet. there is still time).
We were tourist for a day and went to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham, which I always love to do (yes, we did it more than once. I think by now we've been to the Changing of the Guard ceremony about 5 or 6 times. Never gets old).
I got a gorgeous new bag, and as a gift from my parents a pair of oh so worm, comfy and lovely snow boots that I was so thankful for this past couple of weeks with the cold weather.
Ron went to his Arsenal fun day and had the best day of his life, met all the players and got autographs from some. he was in heaven, and Hidai was so jealous...

We went to the Battersea Children Zoo, where Yon had the time of his life, and met lots of animals, and we could see that he is ready for a "big" zoo.

I finished all my photo albums for 2012. I know it might seem trivial, but I am very vigilant (okay anal retentive) about our photo albums, but because of the move and everything I was a bit behind (like all my projects), so I finished the first half of 2012, I uploaded a 2 parts albums comprised of my Photo A Day project to Facebook (an album, I might add that nobody watched. Yes dear readers, you are being told off), I chose, uploaded and organised all my photos for the second half of the year album and uploaded a December album to Facebook (that people did watched. Positive reinforcement - Yeay readers!). Yes, and I did almost all of that in 2 days. Granted, it did take almost the whole 48 hours, but it was done.

I re-organised the boys room to find a place for all the Christmas presents. Had you seen their room in its pre-Christmas state you would have understood why it deserved a place in the Happy List.

second week of January, I cleaned the house (again, had you seen it...) and everyone went back to school / work.

Hidai and I had a coffee date, for what felt like the first time in AGES, but was actually just three weeks, in a small cafe on our street that was cute and quiet.
Hidai & Ron built and Earth & Moon modal, an activity that deserves a spot because a) they had fun and learned a lot, b) it had a massive box that took up a lot of space in the room.

Ron had a mock airplane in his classroom, and a whole week of "Wow Week" where he learned mainly about France, and the school is now trying to raise the funds to take them on a trip to Paris.
I finished my blog projects - Christmas Recap, Yearly Review, and Moving to London page.

Third week of January, Snow Week!!! Light snow on Monday and heavy snow on the weekend.

I got my first +1 on google for my blog.
Ron had his after-school clubs, with both of them being football, and with getting compliments about his form.
Yon had a birthday at nursery and got to eat cakey.

Fourth week of January, Hidai worked from home and we got to spend some much needed time together (until Friday, when he ran away to the office).
Yon was on the verge of being sick, but wasn't (that so deserves a place in the Happy List).
We ate French Toast, Challa and Chocolate-Chips Pancake. Not on the same day though.

 

I cut my hair. Yes, it was not a non-English speaking person mistake, I did cut my hair, and now it's a shorter length and really cool and cute. I know it sounds crazy, but I was bored and annoyed with my long hair, I still don't have a hairdresser I trust, I saved money, and I figured - it's hair. it will grow back. Oh, and I also don't really like going to get my hair cut. Hair salons makes me nervous. So after debating with myself for a while, I just... Went for it. And it's great! I am so happy with the result!

Hidai went to his first School Governors meeting. We are involved with the school. We've never been involved. We are not involved people. Except that now we are (well, let's not get carried away. Hidai is).
Arsenal won. Very important.

Last days of January - We are all ready to start february :)
Our February budget is all ready, we were very good on January and have reached our goal.
The weather has improved and we are back to double digits for this week.
We dropped all the weight we gained during the holiday period, and Hidai is back to an exercise regime (I am still not, but I am not sure if it's a good thing or not).

That's it. That's my Happy List. Not so long, Not so impressive I guess, but also Not so bad after all...

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Christmas 2012 Recap

This is the third time I've started to write this new post, and hopefully third time's a charm, because up until now every time I start something happened and changed my perspective and what I wanted to write about. The first one I tried was a re-cap of Christmas and how much fun it was celebrating Christmas in London with my parents (it was a lot of fun), then it didn't happen because I couldn't find the time and energy to write and I thought maybe it will be boring to read a long description of what we did, so I posted lots of photos on Facebook, and started writing the second post that was all about the new year, closing 2012 and opening 2013, resolutions and things like that, but then my parents left, I was sad, I was behind on all the house chores (the laundry is still smirking at me. I can feel it), Hidai went back to work and on top of all that yesterday was not the best of days family-wise. And that is how we ended up here, on the third try of a post that frankly I don't know what to write in.

Decision time - after the computer decided to delay this post even more by deleting everything I've been working on for the past couple of days, and life decided to annoy me this whole week, I've decided, after one batch of laundry and one jar of Marshmallow Fluff to split it and that this post will be a grandparents and Christmas recap, elbit a short one (I will try at least to keep it short) and the next post will be a more serious year-end-new-year thing.

Christmas with my parents was absolutely great. Way way better than we hoped. We had a few concerns going in, mainly because it was their first Christmas ever and our first one living here, and living in Israel you don't really get the whole Christmas spirit. You do get criticized about it though. A lot. That is why in spite of all our best efforts to make them understand the Christmas, they didn't, and we were worried that all this Jewish/Israeli pressure will arrive here with them and will not let them (and us) enjoy the Christmas properly. Luckily we were proven wrong, and they jumped right on the Christmas wagon. It was the first time since April 2008 that we were touring London with my parents, and it proved that we learnt a few things since then :).
What did we do? First of all we spent 2 months on Skype telling them horror stories about the weather to make sure they come prepared, and even though it wasn't really London cold, it was way below Israel temperature, so the fact that they brought each and every piece of warm clothing they have (and some new ones) helped a lot, and they were comfortable most of the time (except at home, where I keep the temperature at a lovely 25 degrees Celsius).
We gave them our bedroom and slept on the air mattress in the living room (actually, since it's open plan, and I didn't want to move anything in the room we slept in the kitchen). First of all it contained (most of) the mess in one room that has a door you can close, second of all it gave them privacy, and third - the mattress is better. Oh and they had the TV and en-suit of their own, so we got no complaints... It was the first time we've done that, and it worked beautifully.
We made lots of plans, so that each day we had a plan - even if that plan was to stay at home, it was still discussed and planned. We made every effort to go outside and enjoy London.
We had TV shows and movies at the ready, so that not every night will be an all-night-long conversation about life and family. We watched all the stand-up comedy shows we could find (I loved Michael McIntyre the most), and the Skyfall movie (really don't understand the hype)

We started our Embrace the Christmas campaign on the first day, by taking them to Oxford st. to see the Christmas lights. It was raining. It was full of people. it was magnificent! For Hidai and me it was a full circle since we first came to London for our honeymoon 9 years ago Christmas eve, and walked around Oxford st. watching the lights and the people. Not a lot has changed in the last nine years, except that we're now living our "live in London someday" dream, and that, well, we had 2 grandparents and 2 kids with us. Not as romantic as the first time around...

 

Next morning we continued with a trip to Coven Garden and its area to see the Christmas lights and feel the Christmas (and the rain).

After that we had a traditional Christmas dinner. With a turkey. I know it might not seem like a big deal, but we've never roasted a turkey before (or anything else for that matter.), and we actually ordered what we hoped would be an already made one. It was not. It was a 5 kg (11 pounds) scary beast that sat in my fridge for 4 days (vegetarian here). But after grandma (and Hidai) prepared it, everyone said it was very good (next Christmas - smaller turkey, more stuffing). We went with the Jewish tradition of having the big dinner on the eve of (it's done, I think, because according to Jewish belief the day runs from sunset to sunset, so the holiday begins on the sunset of the eve - the day before. And also that way you can enjoy a big dinner on the eve and have a big lunch made from exactly the same food on the day. That is done because Jewish people always make enough food for 3 days. Otherwise it's as if you haven't made enough. We had everything I understood you're supposed to have in a Christmas dinner - turkey, gravy (store bought. This year we invested most of our efforts in the actual turkey), mashed, sweet potatoes (maple glazed of course), rice, sweet carrots, sprouts and a cake (chocolate-orange yummy creation in the shape of a Christmas tree).

 

Grandparents also had their first visit from Santa, who (while watching Friday Night Dinner Christmas Special) had to work really hard the night before Christmas to make sure the kids got the same number of presents from the same people. I find it kind of weird that there is no one "correct" way to celebrate Christmas and every family does it differently. In Jewish holidays there is only one way to celebrate, one way to give the presents etc. So what we do is - each kid writes a list to Santa (at the moment Ron is in charge of both of them), give it to mum who as part of her duties as a Christmas elf (seriously. It took me a while to convince Ron that I am an elf...), pass it on to Santa, who then allocates gifts to different people in our family (translation - mum put everything in the excel file and then buys almost all the gifts and stick different tags on them so that the kids will feel they get presents from lots of different people in the family), as the time passes in December and always although we start the month with most gifts ready, and saying that this year it will not happen, we buy more gifts for the kids, and then on Christmas eve we allocate all gifts so the kids have the same amount of gifts and from the same people in the family (no jealousy allowed on Christmas), and of course Santa always has his gift. This year we added the new pijama and a Christmas T-shirt to the whole thing, and of course Ron wrote Santa a really long thank-you note, to which he got a lengthily response. Being a Christmas elf is a lot of work.

 

After Christmas, we promised my parents the full Boxing Day experience, so we took the bus to Oxford st (damn the Tube strike. It can be done on the bus but takes ages...). Next year I think we can switch to the much more convenient method of Internet shopping. Much less crowded. But anyway for us it was again a trip down memory lane. Unfortunately it was not as satisfying as it was nine years ago. I guess it had something to do with not having 800 Pounds to spend in a day this time :)

 



After all that, we waited at home for a rainy day or two and then headed out to visit Winter Wonderland in hyde Park - where we won (after a few tries, in a few booths, I must say) a huge teddy-bear that we had to carry home on the tube, but that Yon adores. We were there for about 3 hours and didn't even see half of it, it was so big and full of things to see and do. The kids were really disappointed to leave, but it was getting cold, we were getting hungry and so we decided it's better to leave before someone cries. Being in Hyde Park obviously led to going back to Marble Arch and some shopping for grandparents (we had a teddy bear to get home...).

 

We closed off the year with a visit to the Natural history Museum, to finally watch the dinosaure exhibition (gorgeous exhibition, and even Yon liked it). We've been putting off going to this specific museum because of me. I wasn't sure if the exhibits are not... Too gross for me (there was one with the inside of the animals, or the insect one that has... Insects). Also I always feel as if it's really hard getting to the museum areas from our home. It's not. In the end it turned out that it's very easy getting to the museum, and that the museum was very interesting and not gross. Success.

 

We embraced the New Year with a some wine (our favourite, that grandparents brought with them from Israel), a movie (New Year's Eve, which seemed an apt choice on New Year's Eve...), and the fireworks on TV (were very sorry we weren't there) and outside (some young people took initiative and set up an unauthorised fireworks display inside our communal area. Gotta love young people).

To really feel like tourists we went to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, but it was packed so we only saw part of it. The kids really enjoyed St. James Park, and we took some pictures of the horses at Horse Guard Parade. We finished the day at Trafalgar Square, with its very big tree.

 

I have 3 photos from there, from over the years - the first one from 2003, the second one with Ron (and pregnant with Yon) from 2009, and from this visit. I guess it's one way to see how life has changed...

 


Ron won a ruffle to go to the Junior Gunners Fun Day, and had his Best Day Ever :) where he had a chance to meet all the players in the first team, get his Theo Walcott book signed by Theo, play air hockey and other games with the players and a pantomime show. It was 400 kids, and we were very worried that he will be okay, have fun, actually get the autographs he wanted (he got Walcott and Wilshere but not Podolski unfortunately), etc. Of course he was fine, he managed on his own and did not really care that we abandoned him there for a full day. Also I think Hidai was just jealous and that's why he was sorry he didn't get to go with Ron...

On the last day of the visit we went to the Battersea Children Zoo, because a) it's a very bad idea to sit moping around the house on the last day, b) we were unsure if Yon is actually ready for the big zoo (he did not really like the whole real animals are big realisation), c) we wanted to see where the hell is Battersea. We took the 19, which is known around this areas as "the magic bus" (seriously, people actually say that). It's a very cute zoo, very good four young kids, and Yon had the time of his life. He refused to leave. And to call it "a small zoo", he said it was "a very big zoo". And that's that.

 

The visit ended with pizza, Ben & Jerry's (chocolate fudge brownie. Is there any other kind?), and tears. But not to worry, they are back in May. And September. And December.

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