skiing

Last week was like skiing up a hill.....too many programs, too many teacher gifts, too many schedule changes & early-out's, with the ensuing chaos that comes with the last week of school. Like me going to the wrong Church for picking up Eliza at the last-day-of-school-Christmas-Service.

That was probably my best moment, in fact - realizing I had no idea where my child was.

The American Mother who lives in my heart ;-) had coached Eliza in the morning about what to do in the unlikely event that I would be late - stay with your teacher, stay with your teacher. How comforting for me, then, when I saw her walking along the street hand-in-hand with her teacher -- coming from the Church Service where all the other children had been collected by their loving parents. ;-)

It was a Gaijin Moment, and I took full advantage of the amnesty one gets for being foreign. I was also WILDLY THANKING GOD inside my head that I remembered to tell her ahead of time about the remote possibility that I might be late. Hmmm......

^

Hey - but check out my teacher gifts!!! This was the last round, (and I had such plans to photograph inside the boxes....but that got lost in the skiing uphill -- I went with homemade marshmallows in cellophane bag, 4 oz. chocolate chips in a clear box, 2 softstick Ceylon cinnamon sticks rolled in cellophane and card explaining how to turn all that into a nice cup of hot chocolate. :-) LIFTED completely from the Martha Holiday Ideas book....all of it wrapped, I might add, with the incredibly hip and beautiful materials sent to me by Michelle-from-Texas and her Art Girls - thank you again for those!!!)

I therefore went into Saturday in an easy glide....happy, happy....skiing effortlessly downhill in fact.

Alistair's Holiday Party for work was Saturday night. We found the perfect babysitter for us, and paid him enough to hopefully make him loyal ;-) for the rest of our time here (ha ha!) ....

There was a regrettable story about the Christmas Trees that each of the six Directorates were to provide....but, that isn't NEARLY as interesting as the seating arrangements....by some kind of ironic twist, Alistair and I were placed at the General's table. No false modesty here: it was ENTIRELY because General had asked for "anonymous" dinner companions, as opposed to the heavy-hitters he sees daily. :-) Out of 450 people, Alistair and I got lucky....I got so lucky, in fact, that I was directly beside the General, who had just returned that day from SPAIN with his wife.

Pay Dirt!! I'VE BEEN TO SPAIN - and recently, too! We have this in common -- and I can move right past the polite chit-chat into something that is interesting!!

Tanya: So, what did you like about Spain? My favorite thing was the Tapas Bars and how the evening revolves around them. Did you visit many?

General: Ahhh....probably not as many as you visited.

Tanya: What I love the most about them is how people just spill out into the street outside in these social mini-parties, and then move onto the next bar.

General: ...well, we were in Barcelona.

Tanya, starting to flounder : ....and each bar is known for a particular kind of tapa, like herring or......

Mrs. General, to her spouse: Honey, she's talking about TAPAS Bars, not Topless Bars....

Tanya: :-0

Mrs. General: I knew what you were saying the whole time.....(laughs).....

The ski report: almost at the pit of the valley.

Pit of the Valley came when our tree (done hastily by A. and me Friday night, after he was unable to task/convince/cajole anyone else in his Directorate to help..) our tree lost. And was made fun of repeatedly throughout the evening by whoever had the microphone. The "prize" for losing? We have to plan and produce the Christmas Party next year.

You know, now that I look around here at the bottom of the valley, it's really not such a bad place after all...quiet, still, easy....I'm taking a break from skiing up hill. School is out -- there's wool to knit and coffee to drink here, after all.

^

There's also wine to drink.... I might even make myself some Tapas to go along with it. ;-) ;-)