I haven't written in a while, so this will be a long one. The celebration of holidays has been in full swing since November. Max was excited to have his first American Thanksgiving. Normally my parents host 20 to 30 people for dinner, but since they moved to TN just before the holiday, my sister hosted a smaller affair at her house. Max was just thrilled to be able to go to Chicago again. We stopped in central Illinois to visit my mom and step-dad. They live in a geodesic dome home and Max was fascinated by it.
He was interested to know about our traditions and I explained that Thanksgiving is mostly about family and food (oh, and being thankful for what you have). And that's exactly what he experienced at Thanksgiving. He met my step-sister and her family, my step-brother, and other extended family members for the first time. We played games and ate lots of food. I was surprised that he hadn't eaten roast turkey before. We had quite a feast of food and he liked all of it, especially the lemon jello fluff. Afterwards, he said Thanksgiving was exactly what I said it would be - relaxing with family and good food.
We went into downtown Chicago on Friday. We went early and beat the traffic. We were able to zip right through the queue at the Sears Tower ( now Willis Tower) and go up to the SkyDeck. I haven't been up there since I was a kid and we've never taken our son there, so we all enjoyed the views. Max and Dylan had a great time on The Ledge (all-glass enclosures that jut out from the building) and we took some fun pictures. We walked around the city for the rest of the day. On our way to visit the Christmas tree at Daley Plaza, we stumbled upon a German Christmas Market. Max was so excited to see it. We walked through a few aisles, but it was so crowded that our 9-year-old was getting crushed. We gave up and just observed from the outside. We went to Garrett's Popcorn shop and I think the boys thought we were nuts for waiting in line for 20 minutes for popcorn, until they tasted it. Yum! We pushed our way to the Macy's holiday window displays on State Street. At one point during our walk, Max said that Chicago feels like home since he had been there before. He seems to have fallen in love with that city, as a lot of people do. That night we ordered pizza from one of our favorite places, Nino's, and Max proclaimed it was the best pizza he's had. Well, that's what Chicago is known for, right? We hung out with my parents the next day and they suggested taking Max to Woodfield Mall and the Rainforest Cafe for lunch. He enjoyed both places.
When we arrived home from Thanksgiving, Max started peppering us about when we were going to get our Xmas tree and our holiday traditions. Later in the week, we went to get a tree. In our area, there aren't places to cut down your own tree (I miss living in WI and MI for that), so we went down to Lowes and picked out an acceptable specimen. That weekend, we hauled boxes out of the attic and the decorating commenced. Dylan and Max hung the ornaments. Max hoisted Dylan onto his shoulders so he could place the star on the tree.
Max wanted to do a little Christmas shopping, so I took him to Barnes & Noble and Target. It was fun watching him pick out thoughtful gifts for Rob and Dylan. Since their birthdays are right before Christmas, he also ordered some items from their Amazon wish lists. We enjoyed dinner with other local AFSers at a Japanese hibachi place. This was the students' first experience at such a place. Everyone enjoyed the show and the food.
Since we had read about exchange students getting homesick this time of year, we were watching Max closely. We tried to incorporate some of his traditions into ours. He told us about the tradition of candy in the shoes on Dec. 6. He was surprised that morning that we had remembered. He had his mom e-mail us his favorite holiday cookie recipes. Imagine a 16-year-old boy who doesn't cook trying to translate a recipe from German and metric measurements to English with American measurements. We had a friend who speaks German and bakes a lot come over and help with the translations. Then Max called his mom to get more instructions. We attempted one recipe that called for ground almonds. My friend and I brainstormed where to find ground almonds, but Max insisted that they be freshly ground. Finding that I had nothing to grind almonds with (I tried old-fashioned elbow grease, but couldn't get a consistent finish), I called my friend over with her Magic Bullet and we ground a pound of almonds, by the handful. Max and I followed the recipe and had quite the time rolling out and cutting the sticky dough. The cookies smelled great cooking. Max's mom said we needed to store them in a container for a few days to allow them to soften. We waited with anticipation for a few days, opened the container and tried our first cookie...which was rock hard! It was so disappointing and funny at the same time. We're not sure what we did wrong. We have another recipe using ground hazelnuts (quite an adventure to find those around here) that we may try soon.
A couple weeks ago, Rob decided he wanted to start looking for a new truck. His 10-year-old SUV runs fine, but the truck he wanted to replace it with had been discontinued last year. I found an option within driving distance, so we went to look while Max was at an away soccer tournament. We ended up buying the truck a couple days later and I think Max was more excited than my husband was. He even wanted to skip a soccer game so he could come pick it up with us. We said we didn't think that was a good idea, but it was up to him and his coach. He decided to go to the game, since he was skipping the one before it to go to a friend's birthday party. He was so excited when we brought it home, he even asked to sleep in it that evening. He has been bugging us to try driving it, but we reminded him about the AFS rule.
Since we were spending Christmas in Iowa with Rob's family, we decided to do our little family gift exchange and dinner the weekend before. Max couldn't believe that we would open gifts before Christmas. I explained that for us, we celebrate Christmas whenever the family can get together. And with our family being in different states, that often means multiple celebrations. So, we went through our traditions of a big breakfast, gift opening and a big dinner on the Sunday prior. Max's family had sent us gifts from Germany - candies, wine, some lovely figurines, and Legos for Dylan. We had fun picking out gifts for Max, even though he told us we didn't need to get him anything. My son and I wear fuzzy socks around the house in the winter. Max had wanted a pair, but I couldn't find them in men's sizes. I finally found a pair of LL Bean fleece socks. He wore them for a week straight after opening them! Dylan gave Max a T-shirt from his favorite burger joint and he was thrilled. At one point, Max commented that we had the most organized gift opening he had ever seen. He said his family rips open their packages quickly and all at the same time. Our family tradition is to take turns. He thought that it was funny that we even had scissors and a trash bag at the ready.
The next week, we dropped the dog off at the kennel and drove up to Iowa. Max met Rob's sister, brother-in-law and their three boys. We all stayed in his parent's new home. Thankfully it's a very large home, so it didn't feel like we were on top of one another. Max said it felt like his house in Germany with all of the boys (he has 3 younger brothers). We didn't find out until Christmas Eve that Germany celebrates Christmas on the 24th. Max tried to convince my in-laws to open gifts on the 24th, but they wouldn't budge. Max was very anxious to Skype with his family for their gift opening. He tried to reach them by phone, but the call wouldn't go through. And they weren't connected to Skype. He was finally able to message one of his brothers and we set up the Skype call. What wonderful technology that enabled us to have his family, his grandparents and our family in Iowa see and talk to each other on Christmas! He was relieved to be able to "participate" in their gift opening. My in-laws did a wonderful job making Max feel included in the family.
We went to Christmas Eve church services. Rob's father is a minister and they had a candlelight service that evening. His current church is very small, and it was standing room only that evening. I always enjoy his sermons because he pulls the lessons from everywhere - books, movies, music, everyday life. In the sermon, he told the story from World War I about the Christmas Truce. He told of the German soldier singing "Silent Night" on Christmas Eve, and the English soldiers joining in. When he recited the opening lines of the song in German, Max just about jumped out of his seat and whispered "Hey, that's German!" Max laughed when my father-in-law described the soldiers coming out and exchanging photos and playing soccer. He had never heard this story before. After the service, my father-in-law gave Max a hug and told him they were glad he was here.
Our Christmas morning was filled with anticipation. Since Rob's dad had another church service that morning, we didn't open gifts until after lunch. We had explained to Max that Rob's dad likes to give gag gifts and they are just for fun. The family follows our same tradition of taking turns to open gifts, and Max requested to go last in the rotation. When he got his first package, he opened it carefully, the exclaimed, "Pig poop?!!" He had opened one of the gag gifts first. He had a great sense of humor about it and it became a running joke that he brought up the rest of the weekend. He was surprised and pleased when one of the gifts was a gift card to his favorite burger joint. The gift opening was long since there were 11 people and a lot of gifts. But it was a lot of fun and Max seemed to really enjoy it. That evening, Max asked if he could take a family picture. He set up his camera and we took a couple of formal shots, then came up with silly themes for a number of the pictures. He said that was one of his favorite parts of Christmas.
We decided to go ice skating the day after Christmas. I haven't put on skates in about 15 years and my son has never been skating. Max tried to convince Rob to put on skates, but he didn't. So, it was me and the five boys. Dylan and I made it around twice holding on to the wall. Max and our oldest nephew Mason took to racing around the rink. That evening, Max started not feeling well. By the time we left the next day, he was sick. Max has been lucky not to be sick yet. He says he usually doesn't get sick, and he's very particular about not taking any medicine. He said he just rests through it. So for the next couple of days, he slept a lot. And sure enough, seemed to feel better quickly. Maybe I need to try that the next time I have a cold.
We gave the boys tickets to Memphis Tigers basketball game as a stocking stuffer. The stadium is near the famous Beale Street in downtown Memphis. The city was busy getting ready for the New Year's Eve festivities. When we explained that to Max, he begged that we go down there that night. Now we're not big New Year's Eve party people, and you couldn't pay me enough to go down to Beale Street that night. Hanging out with 40,000 drunk people crammed into four blocks is not my idea of fun. Getting out of there would be a nightmare. So, he asked if he could find some friends to go, would we let him. Not only is 40,000 drunk people in four blocks not fun, it's not safe. The police do a good job keeping things under control on Beale that night, but it's the journey leaving the area that is not safe. So, I guess we have to put on our parent hats and set the boundaries.
Max has said that he had a memorable Christmas. He's looking forward of taking the tradition of gag gifts back to his family. We still have one more holiday celebration with my family next week. He still thinks that's strange, but he's not going to argue with more gifts and food.
He was interested to know about our traditions and I explained that Thanksgiving is mostly about family and food (oh, and being thankful for what you have). And that's exactly what he experienced at Thanksgiving. He met my step-sister and her family, my step-brother, and other extended family members for the first time. We played games and ate lots of food. I was surprised that he hadn't eaten roast turkey before. We had quite a feast of food and he liked all of it, especially the lemon jello fluff. Afterwards, he said Thanksgiving was exactly what I said it would be - relaxing with family and good food.
We went into downtown Chicago on Friday. We went early and beat the traffic. We were able to zip right through the queue at the Sears Tower ( now Willis Tower) and go up to the SkyDeck. I haven't been up there since I was a kid and we've never taken our son there, so we all enjoyed the views. Max and Dylan had a great time on The Ledge (all-glass enclosures that jut out from the building) and we took some fun pictures. We walked around the city for the rest of the day. On our way to visit the Christmas tree at Daley Plaza, we stumbled upon a German Christmas Market. Max was so excited to see it. We walked through a few aisles, but it was so crowded that our 9-year-old was getting crushed. We gave up and just observed from the outside. We went to Garrett's Popcorn shop and I think the boys thought we were nuts for waiting in line for 20 minutes for popcorn, until they tasted it. Yum! We pushed our way to the Macy's holiday window displays on State Street. At one point during our walk, Max said that Chicago feels like home since he had been there before. He seems to have fallen in love with that city, as a lot of people do. That night we ordered pizza from one of our favorite places, Nino's, and Max proclaimed it was the best pizza he's had. Well, that's what Chicago is known for, right? We hung out with my parents the next day and they suggested taking Max to Woodfield Mall and the Rainforest Cafe for lunch. He enjoyed both places.
When we arrived home from Thanksgiving, Max started peppering us about when we were going to get our Xmas tree and our holiday traditions. Later in the week, we went to get a tree. In our area, there aren't places to cut down your own tree (I miss living in WI and MI for that), so we went down to Lowes and picked out an acceptable specimen. That weekend, we hauled boxes out of the attic and the decorating commenced. Dylan and Max hung the ornaments. Max hoisted Dylan onto his shoulders so he could place the star on the tree.
Max wanted to do a little Christmas shopping, so I took him to Barnes & Noble and Target. It was fun watching him pick out thoughtful gifts for Rob and Dylan. Since their birthdays are right before Christmas, he also ordered some items from their Amazon wish lists. We enjoyed dinner with other local AFSers at a Japanese hibachi place. This was the students' first experience at such a place. Everyone enjoyed the show and the food.
Since we had read about exchange students getting homesick this time of year, we were watching Max closely. We tried to incorporate some of his traditions into ours. He told us about the tradition of candy in the shoes on Dec. 6. He was surprised that morning that we had remembered. He had his mom e-mail us his favorite holiday cookie recipes. Imagine a 16-year-old boy who doesn't cook trying to translate a recipe from German and metric measurements to English with American measurements. We had a friend who speaks German and bakes a lot come over and help with the translations. Then Max called his mom to get more instructions. We attempted one recipe that called for ground almonds. My friend and I brainstormed where to find ground almonds, but Max insisted that they be freshly ground. Finding that I had nothing to grind almonds with (I tried old-fashioned elbow grease, but couldn't get a consistent finish), I called my friend over with her Magic Bullet and we ground a pound of almonds, by the handful. Max and I followed the recipe and had quite the time rolling out and cutting the sticky dough. The cookies smelled great cooking. Max's mom said we needed to store them in a container for a few days to allow them to soften. We waited with anticipation for a few days, opened the container and tried our first cookie...which was rock hard! It was so disappointing and funny at the same time. We're not sure what we did wrong. We have another recipe using ground hazelnuts (quite an adventure to find those around here) that we may try soon.
A couple weeks ago, Rob decided he wanted to start looking for a new truck. His 10-year-old SUV runs fine, but the truck he wanted to replace it with had been discontinued last year. I found an option within driving distance, so we went to look while Max was at an away soccer tournament. We ended up buying the truck a couple days later and I think Max was more excited than my husband was. He even wanted to skip a soccer game so he could come pick it up with us. We said we didn't think that was a good idea, but it was up to him and his coach. He decided to go to the game, since he was skipping the one before it to go to a friend's birthday party. He was so excited when we brought it home, he even asked to sleep in it that evening. He has been bugging us to try driving it, but we reminded him about the AFS rule.
Since we were spending Christmas in Iowa with Rob's family, we decided to do our little family gift exchange and dinner the weekend before. Max couldn't believe that we would open gifts before Christmas. I explained that for us, we celebrate Christmas whenever the family can get together. And with our family being in different states, that often means multiple celebrations. So, we went through our traditions of a big breakfast, gift opening and a big dinner on the Sunday prior. Max's family had sent us gifts from Germany - candies, wine, some lovely figurines, and Legos for Dylan. We had fun picking out gifts for Max, even though he told us we didn't need to get him anything. My son and I wear fuzzy socks around the house in the winter. Max had wanted a pair, but I couldn't find them in men's sizes. I finally found a pair of LL Bean fleece socks. He wore them for a week straight after opening them! Dylan gave Max a T-shirt from his favorite burger joint and he was thrilled. At one point, Max commented that we had the most organized gift opening he had ever seen. He said his family rips open their packages quickly and all at the same time. Our family tradition is to take turns. He thought that it was funny that we even had scissors and a trash bag at the ready.
The next week, we dropped the dog off at the kennel and drove up to Iowa. Max met Rob's sister, brother-in-law and their three boys. We all stayed in his parent's new home. Thankfully it's a very large home, so it didn't feel like we were on top of one another. Max said it felt like his house in Germany with all of the boys (he has 3 younger brothers). We didn't find out until Christmas Eve that Germany celebrates Christmas on the 24th. Max tried to convince my in-laws to open gifts on the 24th, but they wouldn't budge. Max was very anxious to Skype with his family for their gift opening. He tried to reach them by phone, but the call wouldn't go through. And they weren't connected to Skype. He was finally able to message one of his brothers and we set up the Skype call. What wonderful technology that enabled us to have his family, his grandparents and our family in Iowa see and talk to each other on Christmas! He was relieved to be able to "participate" in their gift opening. My in-laws did a wonderful job making Max feel included in the family.
We went to Christmas Eve church services. Rob's father is a minister and they had a candlelight service that evening. His current church is very small, and it was standing room only that evening. I always enjoy his sermons because he pulls the lessons from everywhere - books, movies, music, everyday life. In the sermon, he told the story from World War I about the Christmas Truce. He told of the German soldier singing "Silent Night" on Christmas Eve, and the English soldiers joining in. When he recited the opening lines of the song in German, Max just about jumped out of his seat and whispered "Hey, that's German!" Max laughed when my father-in-law described the soldiers coming out and exchanging photos and playing soccer. He had never heard this story before. After the service, my father-in-law gave Max a hug and told him they were glad he was here.
Our Christmas morning was filled with anticipation. Since Rob's dad had another church service that morning, we didn't open gifts until after lunch. We had explained to Max that Rob's dad likes to give gag gifts and they are just for fun. The family follows our same tradition of taking turns to open gifts, and Max requested to go last in the rotation. When he got his first package, he opened it carefully, the exclaimed, "Pig poop?!!" He had opened one of the gag gifts first. He had a great sense of humor about it and it became a running joke that he brought up the rest of the weekend. He was surprised and pleased when one of the gifts was a gift card to his favorite burger joint. The gift opening was long since there were 11 people and a lot of gifts. But it was a lot of fun and Max seemed to really enjoy it. That evening, Max asked if he could take a family picture. He set up his camera and we took a couple of formal shots, then came up with silly themes for a number of the pictures. He said that was one of his favorite parts of Christmas.
We decided to go ice skating the day after Christmas. I haven't put on skates in about 15 years and my son has never been skating. Max tried to convince Rob to put on skates, but he didn't. So, it was me and the five boys. Dylan and I made it around twice holding on to the wall. Max and our oldest nephew Mason took to racing around the rink. That evening, Max started not feeling well. By the time we left the next day, he was sick. Max has been lucky not to be sick yet. He says he usually doesn't get sick, and he's very particular about not taking any medicine. He said he just rests through it. So for the next couple of days, he slept a lot. And sure enough, seemed to feel better quickly. Maybe I need to try that the next time I have a cold.
We gave the boys tickets to Memphis Tigers basketball game as a stocking stuffer. The stadium is near the famous Beale Street in downtown Memphis. The city was busy getting ready for the New Year's Eve festivities. When we explained that to Max, he begged that we go down there that night. Now we're not big New Year's Eve party people, and you couldn't pay me enough to go down to Beale Street that night. Hanging out with 40,000 drunk people crammed into four blocks is not my idea of fun. Getting out of there would be a nightmare. So, he asked if he could find some friends to go, would we let him. Not only is 40,000 drunk people in four blocks not fun, it's not safe. The police do a good job keeping things under control on Beale that night, but it's the journey leaving the area that is not safe. So, I guess we have to put on our parent hats and set the boundaries.
Max has said that he had a memorable Christmas. He's looking forward of taking the tradition of gag gifts back to his family. We still have one more holiday celebration with my family next week. He still thinks that's strange, but he's not going to argue with more gifts and food.
