Resolute

We enjoyed having the Exiles round this afternoon for a festive cup of tea. The grown ups played several games of non-competitive Round Up, while the kids trashed the house - all good.

This evening the Man and I delivered our daughter to her second-in-a-row sleepover. After only about six hours sleep the night before I dread to think what state she'll be starting the next decade in, but anyway. Hats off to the fearless parent who is celebrating New Year's eve by letting her twins invite five friends each to stay the night.

Got any resolutions you care to share? I'm planning on completing my fair trade campaign with a Fair Trade Town declaration. I'm also aiming not to have to pay any more library fines (yeah, right, good luck with that).

Happy New Year everyone - all of us here wish you peace, health and happiness for 2010.

Open endings

Our automatic garage door stopped working just before Christmas, which was inconvenient timing. We've been getting in and out ok manually, still it was good to have a bloke come and fix it this afternoon.

The Man is feeling under the weather, and the Boy wanted very much to spend the day at home, so no great adventures or exciting outings today. The Girl was happy about this, too, as it freed her up to go off on a play date/sleepover - I guess we'll see her again tomorrow sometime.

The end of the year looms ever closer - how will you be celebrating, if at all?

Left cold

It has been a bitterly cold day. We decided to spend it at MASS MoCA - the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.


I have a rather uncomfortable relationship with a lot of modern art. I want it to inspire and satisfy, but so often it leaves me unmoved at best and at worst gets me quite riled up. That was the case with most of what we encountered today - though I did enjoy the scale of Sol LeWitt's vast wall paintings, and the joyousness of the artworks made from food and wrappers in the Kidspace gallery.

But a very excellent thing about contemporary art is the spaces it is displayed in - be they outdoors, custom-built or, as today, converted from an industrial building (a nineteenth century textile printing mill). That was definitely worth the journey.

Walking, in the air

The snow we'd been promised today didn't amount to anything much at all, which was quite disappointing. Still, it meant I was able to take two walks at Five Rivers - one with my parents and one with the Man. Everything was bright and crunchy. The wild turkey we've been seeing there since before Thanksgiving is still hanging out by the visitor centre and seems to have lost all sense of being wild at all.

This evening the Man and I abandoned the grandparents to their fate with our lovely children while we went to the movies (at the excellent Spectrum 8, a proper not-in-a-mall cinema). We saw Up in the Air, starring George Clooney. Though the plot didn't bear much close scrutiny, it was well directed and absorbing to watch. After the film, my own little Clooney look-a-bit-alike took me to a Japanese restaurant for dinner, so that was lovely too.

Just desserts

It's nearly half eleven, and we've just put the kids to bed. We've all been round at our friends' house eating dessert, drinking champagne and setting the world to rights. Very enjoyable it was, but now it's past my bedtime, never mind the children's, so that's it for now.

Tomorrow we're expecting snow...

Grudge match

We've been at a party tonight. Lots of good company and food, and a quality table football game. The Man and I found ourselves on opposing sides - always a risky scenario.

I was teamed with another female guest and my dear husband with the organiser of the local farmers' market. I tell you, when peacenik pinko commie types (Buy Fair, Buy Local! Let's make the world a nice cooperative place!) play competitive sports it can get pretty bloody.

We drew one game all, and would have played a decider but some small kids came along and took over. Probably a good thing - a marriage was in the balance for a moment there.

So, that was Christmas

We had a good one. The Boy joined us in bed at about 4:50am, but went back to sleep immediately so we didn't have to start opening presents until he woke up again and fetched his stocking at 7:30.

There was a goodly haul of gifts under the tree. Plenty of books to go round, a doll and some skating gear for the Girl, and a Playmobil dolphin pool for the Boy. Also a Meccano set, which the Man spent a long time tinkering with.

Of course, Grandma and Grandpa have been here to celebrate the day with us and make it extra special. Different combinations of us went for a walk in the snow, watched "Home Alone" and ate a Vietnamese fish curry. To end the day we all joined in a cooperative (i.e. non-competitive) board game called Round Up, where players work together to corral some horses (it sounds revoltingly worthy, but is actually a lot of fun).

And suddenly the day is over. Whatever you were doing today, we hope you also had a lovely time.

Seasons greetings

We've been looking in on NORAD tracking Santa all day - he's around the South Atlantic now and will no doubt soon be heading up to these United States. A certain member of the family is quite excited about this (though despite dire warnings not to shatter his illusions, the Girl and Boy have let on to Grandpa that the Man in Red might not be, you know, real).

Gifts have been wrapped, stockings hung up (just in case), and I plan on turning in early as the night could be a short one.

To readers near and far, be you friends, family or passing strangers, this blogger wishes you a Merry Christmas - or just a nice day if you'd rather.

Sugar brush

Another day of secret, Santa-ish behaviour. The kids were part of it too - well, for some of the time, when they weren't just acting crazy. There's something about this time of year...

Snow fell for several hours, but it was light and gentle and didn't do much more than whiten the grubby stuff left over from two weeks ago. I went out to clear the drive in the afternoon, started shovelling but realised I'd do better with a brush. It was like sweeping up sugar (and I know what that is like because I have baked with children).

How is our homeland coping with the latest snow? If you are over there, is there much near you, and are you enjoying it?

Mulled whine

It's not that I haven't done anything today - in fact I've been quite busy with one thing and another. But various people read this blog, including several who share a house with me and might be in line for some Christmas presents quite soon, so a little discretion is called for.

Are any of you out there ready for Christmas yet (assuming you celebrate?). Or is 365 days' notice never really quite enough?

Home front

Today, another cold one, we've mostly been at home. The kids watched a Pokemon video which then inspired them to rearrange all the cushions in the house and speak to each other strangely in squeaky voices - I am no closer to understanding (or wanting to understand) anything about Pokemon.

Grandma and the Girl did some cooking in the afternoon - there's a Christmas cake still slowly baking in the oven.

And this evening at dinner we played guessing games and the kids reduced their Grandpa to tears (of laughter).

Giraffe excluder

It was cold and rather beautiful down at Five Rivers today. The kids, as usual, had a dreadful time there - running through the crunchy snow, spotting deer tracks, admiring the amazing ice-formations in the streams and waterfalls, skidding pinecones across the frozen pond etc etc. Just dreadful. I can't imagine why we keep going there.

Most of us spent some time at the YMCA this evening watching a figure skating show. All the performers were local kids, aged between five and eighteen. Some were beginner skaters, some were pretty advanced and impressive. I was full of admiration for them all.

Tonight at dinner we were playing a word game and someone in the family thought his grandma used the phrase in today's title. Points for anyone who knows what she really said, and also for anyone who can describe what a giraffe excluder might look like.

A turn-up for the bookies

The Girl is so eager to skate these days that she had me take her down to the rink just after seven this morning to join in a freestyle skating session. When she had her lesson later in the day the extra practice showed and she did very well. We're all really happy that she has found something she so much enjoys doing.

Though it's perishing cold here at the moment, we haven't had fresh snow lately -unlike the UK, I gather. Could it be that Linton will be having a white Christmas and not us?

Peace and choirs

We've all just got in from a New York State Theatre Institute (NYSTI) performance of King Island Christmas. It's a musical based on the true story of a remote Alaskan island community in the 1950s and is all about fearlessness and pulling together in the face of adversity. The positivity was a wee bit relentless, but it was still very enjoyable, with some great performances - and who could fail to admire a production that featured a lead singing role for a walrus-skin boat?

It wasn't our first music of the day. This morning we attended the school's annual, scrupulously secular, Peace Assembly. This year it was kind of a homage to the Beatles (the new music teacher plays in a Paul McCartney tribute band): All You Need is Love, Revolution, and Merry Christmas (War is Over) - the latter cunningly edited to remove any references to Christmas.

Downsizing

Lean times. We've opted for a slightly smaller tree this year...








Nah, not really.

















I took Mum and Dad out this morning to buy snowboots - by the sounds of it they'll be needing them for when they return to the UK.

Long haul

The Man left the house before 7 to set out on a marathon road trip to Montreal and back. All I know about his day is that he was allowed back into the USA on the return leg - he called from just over the border. As I write he's probably somewhere just south of the Adirondacks.

I made a much shorter trip this morning, up to school to watch the Girl's class giving power point presentations of Native American-style legends they'd written. I didn't catch them all, but those I saw were excellent. And the Girl herself proved to be quite the accomplished storyteller, reading her legend loudly and clearly and with lots of expression - I was impressed.

This afternoon it was my turn to do a presentation, on fair trade, to a group of teenagers at the local high school. I think it went OK. Whatever they made of my talk, I expect they will remember me fondly anyway as I brought them chocolate.

And this evening, one last cleaning offensive on the house before my parents arrived, looking in good shape after their long flight from Heathrow followed by a three hour drive from Boston. They went to bed about an hour ago and I'm sure they are sleeping soundly.

Over the edge

There's been much-tidying-in-the-house today, in honour of special visitors arriving tomorrow. (Not that it necessarily looks like we've tidied up, but everything is relative - and relatives are, we hope, not inclined to be too critical.)

I also managed a quick session at the rink and confirmed to myself that I've nailed those pesky edges. Learning to skate is so cool!

The Man's off on an international adventure tomorrow - just for the day, and he won't be flying. He's taking his French dictionary. Where can he be going, and will he get stuck in a snowdrift? Watch this space...

Bloody kids

Even without any Chanukah/Christmas celebrations in school, all the kids there seem to be winding themselves up into a state of pre-holiday giddiness. I'd meant to take a photo of my sewing class wearing the masks they finished today, but the lesson was so chaotic it slipped my mind. Most of the children in the group were already hopelessly over-excited before they'd even sat down, so the fact that any of them managed to finish at all was pretty miraculous.

Then when I got home with my own two little poppets they immediately fell into play-fighting, until there was an ominous silence followed by a mighty wail and I found my son curled up on the carpet with a tooth beside him. The Girl had kicked it out.

It was, thank goodness, one that had already been wobbly for a while. But still, there was blood everywhere and it was all quite a spectacle. At least the Girl was sincerely penitent, and happily brother and sister soon made their peace.

Gifted

I spent several chunks of this morning at the local Catholic School, which was holding a Fair Trade sale between Masses at the nearby church. As ever, I was there with my table of FT leaflets.

The sale was happening in the cafeteria, while in the main hall tables were set up and laden with Christmas gifts being donated by the congregation to various charities. It was an impressive quantity of gifts. Do you think people with religion tend to be more generous than those of us without? Discuss.

This afternoon the Girl had a skate date with a school friend, and the friend's mother and I also took to the ice. Ninety minutes hard skating takes it toll, and this evening I've been asleep on the couch.

Holding the front page

It was the Girl's turn for a lesson at the ice-rink today. Last year she was somewhat diffident about her skating class, but this season she is bursting with enthusiasm. Today she was the only one of her group of four to turn up, so she had half an hour of personal tuition and really enjoyed it. She was gliding about on one leg much of the time, looking very happy.

Later in the day the Man shifted the very last of our removal boxes into the house to make more space in the garage. They mainly contain books that are waiting for us to get them a bookcase. It was good to find some old favourites again, and particularly good to find a very special edition of (Not) the Linton News, which I've spent the last two years searching for, hidden right at the bottom of the final box. It made us laugh just as much as when it was first presented to us way back in the summer of 2007, shortly before moving out here.

Ice cold

My legs are aching this evening after an hour and a half at the rink earlier in the day. It has taken me a few weeks to really get back into the skating, but I'm hooked on it all over again now.

In today's lesson I was put to work learning "edges" - gliding one-footed in a curving line, on either the inner or outer edge of the blade. As ever with a new manoeuvre, to begin with I was convinced it was completely impossible. But towards the end of the session I had made some progress, and I think with more practice I might get the hang of it.

It has been considerably colder today, below freezing in fact - temperatures in the 20sF, and a chill wind making it feel even colder than that. Anyone who might be planning to visit from the UK in a few days time would do well to pack their warmest clothes...

Present danger

No new snow today, but, remembering what happened exactly a year ago, we're on the alert for more bad weather.

I visited the DIY store in the morning then came home and re-covered a chair seat, and mended a broken bed frame on which there will be No More Bouncing.

I also called in on Marshalls, which in the UK we would call TK Max. Of course it is jam-packed with "gift items" this time of year - motorized golf ball washers, snowball machine guns and such-like.

Have you spotted anything particularly giftworthy for your loved ones this season?

Inching higher

The local online forecast last night promised us up to one inch of snow for this morning. Here's our wheelie bin down by the road first thing, about half an hour after the garbage truck had emptied it, and about an hour before a snow plough came by and up-ended it into a snow mound.

And here's our patio table - as you can see, "one inch" turned out to be a bit of an under- estimate.



Schools closed and the kids were home for the day in one of the few weeks this term that didn't have a scheduled day off. Ah well. The Girl's friend came round and they had fun sledding, while the Boy spent about six hours listening to stories on audiobook.

Meanwhile I shovelled the drive - the ultimate winter workout.

Sally forth

While waiting for the car to be serviced today I called in on the Salvation Army Thrift Store. I like shopping in second-hand and charity shops because you never know what you'll find, and with "reduce, reuse, recycle" being the mantra of the modern age, buying other people's discarded stuff even feels a little virtuous.

This being America, where everything is bigger, the thrift store was more like a charity warehouse - a huge floorspace covered by shelves full of household goods and racks and racks of colour-coordinated second-hand clothing - everything from bras to bridal gowns. Not that I was particularly tempted by either of those items, though I did succumb to a brand new 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle for 49c.

I eventually left with a carrier bag of goodies for the princely sum of $2.22. Alas, my next purchase - a full service and two new tyres for the car - set me back a touch more than that.

Even more sew

We were making masks in sewing class today. I didn't know what the kids would make of this project, but it seemed to capture their imaginations and they all came up with original decorative designs. Maybe I'll be able to share some of them with you next week when they're all finished.

Fast tracking

The Man writes...like last year and the year before, we attended the "Great Train Extravaganza" in the huge exhibition hall deep below Empire State Plaza. It was a quicker visit than before - to allow us to get away to meet friends for ten pin bowling - but we had time to select some fiendishly difficult model kits for the Boy to assemble with the help of any unsuspecting grandparents that may be passing by this way.

Meanwhile the Girl was also downtown with her scout group at the historic Palace Theatre enjoying a concert from the Albany Symphony Orchestra called "The Magic of Christmas".

What does the magic of Christmas mean to you?

White on cue

I'm sure the weather forecast this morning suggested there might be a light dusting of snow, nothing really worth mentioning...


In the end it snowed steadily from midday until after 9pm. There are two or three inches of the stuff out in the yard - not much by local standards, maybe, but in a normal year that would be a whole UK winter's-worth.

Just a taste of things to come, I'm sure.

The Girl in particular has had a jam-packed day: morning play date followed by skating lesson followed by another play date culminating in dinner and a movie at her friend's house. The rest of us went out to the cinema and saw Planet 51 which, despite rubbish reviews and the fact that the Man doesn't generally like animations, we all enjoyed a lot.

Quick march

Well, whatever next? Tonight I've been out marching in a parade!

It was the same local Holiday parade we went to watch a couple of years ago. The Girl and I were joined by our friends, carrying our Fair Trade banner and handing out chocolates. We were behind a vast crowd of Girl Scouts and just ahead of the fife and drum band bringing up the rear of the procession. There was no hanging around - we marched apace but were still nearly overtaken by the musicians several times.

At the end of the parade, while Santa disembarked from his fire truck and lit the tree lights we beat a retreat to a nearby church hall where homemade cookies, popcorn and Fair Trade hot chocolate were being served. Yum.

Energized by these refreshments, the kids then insisted on going to the YMCA for a swim. They should sleep well tonight - I'm pretty sure I will, too.

Saratoga strollin'

Tonight we've been up in Saratoga Springs experiencing the annual Victorian Stroll. And very fine it was too.

On this night of the year the whole of the main street is closed to traffic, buildings are lit up with twinkly lights and groups of Victorian-clad glee singers carol on every corner. Stores and busineses stay open late and lay on special events - book readings, singing acts, more carollers. Cheerful crowds meander up and down.

We enjoyed the festive atmosphere and Santa playing the saxophone in the street. Only the pair of reindeer in a pen didn't look like they were having much of a party - everyone else seemed to be in holiday mood.

Nightmare on Broadway

Another place we visited in Times Square at the weekend was the flagship Toys R Us store. It has its own Ferris wheel, an animatronic dinosaur and a giant Barbie house. The whole building heaves with people. It's a vision of Hell if ever I saw one (though actually, as my friend remarked, "Hell would be a relief after this".)

People were shuffling around, shoulder-to-shoulder in a kind of zombified daze - probably, like me, they were suffering from total sensory overload and beyond being able to remember their own names or why they'd come in, let alone recognize what any of the piled-high plastic was supposed to be. However, before my brain completely seized up I did manage to pick out a mountain of Geoffrey the Giraffe mascots sporting "Reduce Reuse Recycle" t-shirts. Toys R Us doing their bit for the environment, then - that's nice.

We beat a retreat as fast as the younger members of our party would allow, pleading lack of time. The girls were then able to spend the rest of the day accurately complaining that we'd spent longer in the toilet than in the toy store.

Utterly Charmin

Lest any of you were supposing that our recent trip to the City was all quality shopping and high culture, I should mention that it did also feature the Charmin bathroom experience.

We were accosted on the sidewalk in Times Square by a man dressed as a toilet, who urged us to step inside and make use of the free facilities. He promised it would be something of a party. There was a lively video being played on a loop backing up his claim.

An escalator took us up to a floor space celebrating all things toilet. A long queue of people snaked through barriers such you find at airport security. At the end of this an enthusiastic fellow pointed you to whichever cubicle had just been vacated, while simultaneously applauding whoever had just left it.

Business done, ahem, there were then opportunities to dance with pompoms, pose on a giant 'throne', or go online and Twitter about what a fun time you'd just had. Then you could buy a pair of souvenir underpants on your way out.

It was all quite strange.

But as an advertising strategy clearly quite successful, as I'm sure I'm not the only person who has blogged about it.