Another busy Christmas week in Bermuda.

I say this every year - the first two weeks of December in BDA are madness. 

This year remained true to form.  Even though it is a frenzied time, I know deep down I am going to miss it one day.  Probably when I am trolling the malls of NJ and cursing the feet of snow on Rt 4.



Miss Mina enjoys some challah bread baked for her class to celebrate Hanukkah! 



Both kids had their Christmas pageants this week - on two different nights. 

As a year 6, this was Jordan's last go at it.  He was Elf #6, celebrating eco consciousness with "Santa Goes Green for Christmas."  The soundtrack this year was pretty good, actually; and I am sure we will enjoy the two different DVD recordings I ordered, each capturing a different night of performing.



Weekend baking began - I made a tray of my most requested recipe: nutella bites.  They can easily be made festive with some holiday sprinkles.  See, look how festive!



Theo had his first encounter with Jolly St. Nick.  His reaction is less than ideal.  No cute Christmas ornament out of this one.  At least he wasn't flat out screaming.  Although that might have been more amusing.



He was slightly mollified by me sitting next to him.  Unfortunately, the moment happened so quickly Mina wasn't able to get the best shot.  Oh well.



One of the highlights of the weekend was the 2015 Bermuda Boat Parade.  Held on alternate years, we were so happy we could see one more before our departure.  Even better, good friends invited us to their boat party, held in their room at the Newstead Hotel.  With two decks overlooking the harbor, there is no question we had a phenomenal angle to watch the festivities.

It's also one of those ideas that would never have occurred to an ex pat like myself.  Our friends are Bermudian, and they reserved the suite a year ahead of time with their extended families.  Everyone get together, brings food, the kids run around, and the adults can relax knowing no one is going to fall into the water off Albouy's Point (a popular viewing spot directly in town - and the last place we took the kids to see the show years ago.)  The next day was warm enough for swimming in the hotel infinity pool.



We got there early enough to catch the sun setting in the harbor.



Theo was in a good mood. 



As night fell, the illuminated boats made their way around the water promenade.  There were some showings from the teams racing the America's Cup as well.  Japan's team had a Hello Kitty boat, complete with the Japanese flag, the trophy and an amazing sound system that echoed off the water.  Of course I couldn't get a decent picture of that.



At the end, fireworks exploded from Wright's Island.  Once again, I lamented my inability to fully understand my camera features.  Many shots later, I got a couple that aren't a complete mess.



The weekend drew to a close with a farewell party at the Botanical Gardens.  Saying goodbye to our friends, the Schwartz's was very hard.  They have been on the island for eight years and were the first family to welcome us here.  I still remember their welcome basket (complete with a pineapple - the symbol of welcome!) being driven to the grocery store by them the first week since we had no car or license, being invited to their home for so many holidays and meals.  Our kids have played together, we've broken bread many times (and maybe a few glasses as well.)  And we've shared in the very unique experience of two American families abroad in Bermuda.

Seeing them leave feels like the end of an era.

Weekend wrap up.

Rainbows, pink castles on the horizon, and a fun little 8k sponsored by Bacardi. These were a few of my favorite things this weekend.

An 8k is about 5 miles. That's not too bad. It's a nice distance. I enjoyed it. I ran it in 51 minutes. If you're a serious runner, this is a pretty laughable speed. But the truth is, I've stopped caring that much about my speed. I just want to have fun with my running again. Last spring I got crazy and put way too much work into training for a half marathon. Between thirteen mile long runs, 40 miles weeks, speed work, hills and analyzing my Garmin statistics like a dork, it stopped being fun. And then I got hurt and couldn't even run the race I had trained months for. That really bit me in the behind. My only goal this season is to stay injury free and have fun. That's why I've kept with running this long.

I crossed the finish line, and my prizes awaited.

That was the best feeling of all.

Of course, they did have post race snacks. Spectators were welcome to help themselves. I know you're supposed to eat something post run, but I usually wait awhile. All those bagels and cereal and milk and muffins... Don't get me wrong... I definitely ate later.. 5 miles is roughly 500 or so calories. Oh, yeah. I made up for that.

I finally got my Garmin working again. Here's the breakdown. Mean anything to you? Yeah, me neither.

Slumping.

Don't you wear pink ear muffs when you go out to play?

I've been in a bloggy slump lately. It's inevitable, I guess. I've just been feeling tired.

But, we've been busy!

After a week of one kid or the other being sick.. they both made it back to school by Friday. Which was great; because Friday was "Open Day." This involved me coming to school and getting the grand tour by both kids, viewing their work, and of course, buying them snacks from the bake sale.



Yes, some of those snacks included things I baked as well. That's the part I love. I shop for the ingredients, bake 'em AND get to pay for them all over again!



Looking at pics of all the kids from school who ran the Telford Mile.



I loved learning about their work in the classrooms and getting a first hand glimpse into how they spend their mornings. Here, Jordan explains the point system they use in their classroom. This fascinated me to no end because we have a similar concept at work in our home. At home, we have our good and bad days. However at school. Jordan's tally sheet made me do a double-take.



Look at this kid go! (Don't you wonder what's going on with "Somers" though? I think maybe that kid might have moved. I don't recall seeing him any of the times I go in to volunteer.) I'm also proud that Jordan has more checks that "Q-bear" who is, as you might have guessed, a bear. He's some kind of a class mascot. More on him later.



Mina gets a look at "Tuck," the turtle. Here they call him a "terrapin" though.



Her class made a wall size diagram of the playground. The monkey bars were her contribution. Good for her for tackling a drawing project like that! Part of me wondered whether she drew those because of Jordan's love of swinging from them. On a side note - they all call her "Samina" in school, which of course is her proper name. I never use it though. She's always been my little Mina.. or bean.. or Mina-bo-bean. So, I always look surprised when one of her teachers refers to her as "Samina." Today a little classmate of hers corrected me when I arrived at school and called out for her.

"No, Samina's mommy. Her name is SAMINA," she said slowly, in case I had trouble understanding.

I giggled. "Samina's mommy..."



One of the many things I got to lug home Friday was "Q-bear." Yep, there he is. We got to keep him over the weekend and include him in all our adventures. Then "we" get to write up a few pages of what those adventures consisted of and attach pictures to use in the Q-bear journal. The journal came home too. As I looked through the fully illustrated tome of antics that the bear has been on, I mentally sighed. Time to get some new ink for the color printer.

I am nosey enough to actually read some of the entries in the journal. With the exception of ONE, they were all clearly done by the parent. I noted what restaurants the families visited for dinner, for Sunday brunch (that seems to be a big thing here), the different activities the kids did over the weekend. It was the kind of slice of Bermuda life you don't always see from the tour guides. I was sort of glad we had stuff planned for the weekend, so I could force Jordan to drag the bear along and so I could lug my camera along too.

First, there was some scooter riding.



Then some random bear-tossing. This was my favorite activity, hands down.



After a thorough bath in the washing machine, the bear joined us for another busy Saturday.

First, golf.



Then, an awesome Thomas the Train themed birthday party.







Afterwards, some obligatory grocery shopping.



In preparation for the first barbecue of the season on Sunday!



Where we did LOTS of this:

Flags of the World

For several months now, Jordan has been fixated on flags. As best as I can recall, it started with a child's atlas book he received as a birthday gift. I had stored it away, and when I finally pulled it out, he was instantly hooked. He spent countless hours staring at the flags, memorizing the countries they represented. When he discovered each flag's country also had its own song (national anthem) he was mesmerized. Did you know Youtube can be used to listen to national anthems? Jordan can spend a nice chunk of the morning listening to national anthems and then humming them for us later.



He can also discuss the flags in the abstract. For example, one time, while signing up for spring classes at the rec center, he started a conversation with the woman in front of him. She told him she was from Turkey. Jordan proceeded to inform her that he liked the Turkey flag, described what it looked like, and compared it to other flags in the region. I think we made her day.

Our plans for Saturday were to take the kids to the United Nations Plaza, where right outside the building, the member state flags fly proudly along 1st Avenue. Since the tours prohibited kids under 5, we thought we'd just take a walk along the avenue, let Jordan examine the flags, and see if he could recognize them, bring his flag sticker books, and play for a bit.

Saturday arrived, and the kids couldn't wait to get to the city.

The trouble was, when we arrived, the flag poles hung barren. The flags were GONE.



photo, courtesy of wallyg.

Nothing.

No brightly waiving flags. Just the poles. Empty. Except for one - the blue and white flag of the UN standing alone, mocking us.

Such is our luck. I think that when the UN is not in session, they take the flags down.

Jordan: Mommy! Where are the flags?

me: I think they might have taken them down to do clean them. They're in the laundry.

I did remember that at Rockefeller Center, they also had a lot of flags. We headed there next.




Voila! Flags of the world.



Good enough. And we could walk around the plaza to our heart's content.



Someone was pretty excited.



Careful examination.



Jordan ponders each flag as we queried him on the country it represented. He was right every time.



We know because Jeff consulted the flag book I brought along as reference.



Mina tries to share Jordan's enthusiasm. He drags her into flag conversations all the time. She's such a good sport. And in the process, I bet she knows more about flags than any almost-4 year old girl in town. Take that all you Princess-loving little preschoolers!



All that flag quizzing worked up an appetite. Time for snacks.



Then, more looking.



I love this kid. When he's into something, he is really into something. The flag hobby is of his own doing, we never pushed him into it, forced him to take a class at the rec center, or dragged him to some after school activity. It's just something that he found on his own that captured his imagination. And he ran with it.

Weekend Work

Jordan's school assigns homework over the weekends. He comes home on Friday with a backpack loaded with phonics and math workbooks. Since January, they've been giving him 1st grade workbook assignments. Much to my distress, Jordan has repeatedly mentioned his dislike of math.

I can distinctly remember the point in my life when I realized I hated math. It was sixth grade. I hated my 6th grade math teacher, hated the repetitiveness of the math drills, could not focus my attention on the overhead projector where he would insist on doing assignments. I do remember sitting behind this very nice girl, who was part of the super-cool-popular 6th grade crowd. And once she invited me to her birthday party, suddenly I started making all kinds of new friends. Of course that all changed the next year when I went into a new junior high and hit my instant ugly puberty phase. But, I digress.

My hatred of math continued through junior high, high school, college and beyond. I could never explain why I was taking advanced placement and college courses in high school, but failing math. I really hope Jordan isn't cursed with this disability, because it sucks. For one thing, whenever I go out to eat with friends, I have to duck for cover when the bill comes. It's not because I don't want to pay - it's because God forbid someone ask me to calculate how much everyone owes. And sometimes, if I go out in a large group, and we pass the check along and everyone has to chip in what they owe on good faith, I really freak out. Inevitably, I overpay because I can't figure out what the right amount of money should be based on food, beverage, tax and tip.



Par for the course, this weekend, when forced to do homework, Jordan opted for "phonics" first. Like mother like son. I've always been good with words too. It was my saving grace on the SAT's and LSAT's. But for them I'd probably never have gotten into college.



But, eventually, we had to get to the math, and I could feel little peices of my soul start to wither. I felt my brain start to shut down, even as I looked at the simple problems there on the page. Straightforward addition, plus matching the answer to a letter in a code. The letters would make an answer to a silly pun. Double the work, in other words.



We barely got through the first row of sums, when Jordan started balking. I couldn't blame him, I was barely concealing my yawns. But I really wanted Jordan to learn to sit still long enough to do tedious things like math, because hell, that's what he's going to have to do for the next gazillion years while he's in school. The day before, Jordan, Mina and I stumbled on a yard sale in our neighborhood. The kids picked up a kiddie cash register which also doubles as a calculator. I pulled it out for Jordan to do the math sums on, and it worked. For a few pages anyway.



Nothing is ever simple when you have two of them close in age. When Jordan does homework, Mina insists I give her homework too. So, at some point I picked up a kindergarten workbook from Barnes and Noble, and I make her do a few pages each weekend. Believe me, I don't think this is necessary. I'm a big fan of letting kids just play and goof around until they're older and then they can do some homework. Not a lot. Just a bit, to keep them thinking.

But, once Mina finished her homework, she decided I needed some too. Math. Again. I have no clue what the purpose of this assignment was. She wanted me to circle some numbers to signify something. It's a good thing she told me which numbers to circle.



Jeff was busy doing other things. He was fixing the steps to the deck. The steps he put in last year. Oops - turns out the ones he put in last year were indoor steps. Oh well, all have our limitations. Doesn't he look cute with the little work gloves?



After all this hard work, we ventured out later to our town's fair. The perfect opportunity to eat junk food - like blue ice.



Me and my smurfs.



I pigged out too. On Saturday, Jeff and I went into the city for a mini college reunion. Afterwords, we had a late dinner at a restaurant called, "Mad for Chicken." They are known for their Korean chicken wings. OMG. Those wings are so ridiculously good. But they're evil. And each one is worth another pound on the scale. I'm not kidding.

I passed on the wings, thinking I'd get something light - like sushi. Behold. Sushi overload. This is ONE ROLL!?!!?

Dammit!! Sometimes it seems like the universe wants to keep me pudgy.