Warm inside

Good evening my dear family and friends. It is all a bit much: too much warmth, beauty and goodness to even begin. We have traveled hundreds of miles looping from northwestern Indiana to Western Michigan, then across Michigan to the east side and back once again to my mom's place in Indiana. It's hard to believe all the places we have been and all the love we have sopped up since I last wrote. So with egg-nog in hand, surrounded by the mom's comforting melodies on the piano I will endeavor to sum it all up without boring you to tears.
We caught up with friends in Holland, Zeeland, Lake Orion, Birmingham, Rochester Hills, Almont and Ferndale. They spoiled us, fed us, entertained us, made us happy to be there and sad to leave, and even lent us a car or drove us to our next stop. My friend Adriann drove two hours to pick us up from Indiana. On our Michigan friend tour, we saw lovely round pregnant bellies, new babies, young friends six inches taller, old students of mine a foot taller, beloved friends who were still the same size but older and wiser. We didn't sleep much, but played hard, hence the reason the girls still have colds. After the initial shock and awe of cold and snow in Illinois, in Holland Jacinta discovered icicles and hot chocolate while Genevieve slept away the afternoon. The girls played with their little friend Jillian and discovered American heaters, taking turns in front of the vent relishing the warmth and watching their hair blow.
In Zeeland we walked to the sledding hill under the light of a huge full moon with our friends. Sara dragged Emmaline and Jacinta in a sled while I pushed Genevieve in an amazing snowbound stroller. Jacinta is quite brave in the sled, insisting that she go alone. We all took turns, Genevieve riding in between my legs. At one point Emmaline was running alongside Jacinta as her sled raced down the hill and got a little too close. Jacinta's sled clipped her on the heels, knocking her flat on top of Jacinta so they rode down the hill together for a few seconds until Emmaline gracefully rolled off. Sarah and I quietly waited to see whether tears or laughter would follow, dying of silent laughter inside. Neither occurred until we reacted. So the result was laughter and a great story to tell, which Genevieve tries to retell at any dull moment. Sarah and Ben drove us across the state to our next stop. There were four kids under the age of five in the mini van. They never once admitted that it was any trouble, further convincing me that goodness and generosity are the norm.
Saying hello and goodbye so quickly was difficult. I guess the goodbyes were easier as each friend dropped us at a new friends' house, allowing them to meet and ease the sadness of parting as it was laced with a hello, at least for us. Sipping tea with my friend Adriann, watching Jacinta play with icicles outside the window while Adriann told me about the extensive local food network they support pulled at my heartstrings. Life in the snow is so familiar, such a big part of me, yet I don't know how to mother in the snow. It takes twenty minutes to round up hats, coats, mittens, boots, scarves and snowsuits and dress the girls and myself. Snow mothers know how to keep mittens on babies, maybe, and how to blow on their hands to warm them up. Not I, although I am learning. We lose a mitten here and there. Today I had to drive ten minutes back to the store because Genevieve had kicked off one boot and left it in the parking lot, but we found it! I do know how to play in the snow though and this has been fun.
On the first day of Detroit snow we drove out to our camp with some friends. Our goal was to see our friend Chris, see our camp under a white blanket, sled, make snow angels, throw snowballs, see a few deer, shop at the biggest resale shop I know, and spend some good time with Carrie, Otto, Nigel and new baby Zachariah. We got to do it all, and it was beautiful. Jacinta had practiced snow angel technique on the carpet with her godmother Suzanne that morning. Given a thick blanket of snow at camp, she was very proud of her effort, gloating later that we had made the "most beautiful snow angels EVER." Sledding was impossible as the snow was too fresh, but we tried. Snowballs were fun, but Evie couldn't keep her mittens on. Jacinta whined as we left, feeling ripped off, "Mommy, I don't want to leave, I want to stay for a month." On the way home Otto fell asleep on her lap, which she didn't find near as cute as we did. She struggled for about twenty minutes, finally wedging a coat between his heavy head and her lap.
On our last day in Detroit, there was a snow day, meaning no school, no work for many people and dangerous driving. The snow was gorgeous, but unfortunately prevented reunions with a few friends. Luckily we didn't need to drive, but had to walk a few blocks to grab some things from our home of the week. Evie was bundled up tight, strapped onto my back and then wrapped up in a blanket tucking her snuggly onto my back. She slightly resembled a mountain baby from Peru. We walked and watched cars spin out on major roads, trudged through a foot of snow, ecstatic at the beauty and peace of being on foot. Genevieve sang "It's raining it's pouring." She doesn't know any snow songs. This inspired me to teach the girls an old French snow songs.
We paid a visit to the school where I once taught French and caught up with some friends and former students. We made it outside to join the third grade class in a biodynamic preparation, adding manure and a few special things to the water which was to be spread on their spring garden plot. The girls played in the kinder room at school, one which I dream could be theirs while I caught up with a friend.
I had a chance to chat with the new French teacher, and discuss eight graders and how on earth you go about teaching them. One night my friend Maureen and her family hosted us and even had a staff potluck for us to see old friends. This was so nice to see some of the people who empowered me to bring up my children the way that I am. Jacinta and Genevieve spent much of their time sending baskets up and down a staircase with "mail" for us. My favorite part of the evening was making music, something I always wish I had the courage to suggest at a gathering. Perhaps this is why I like teaching, so that it is my duty to suggest and music can always be a part.
Music was abundant at church. We do not attend in Australia but greatly miss our old church in Michigan, where Jacinta was baptized. We heard bells, trombones, the family orchestra, the choir, and even a guitar class. Matt started the guitar class a while back. It is still going and they were teaching some kids an old song of Matt's. The girls and I joined them for a few minutes. It was funny for Jacinta to walk into a room and see a bunch of big kids she didn't know listening to a recording of Matt and I singing a song she didn't really know. I think she thought we were pretty cool that day. Little does she know the church is our only fan club. Old friends and nice church members that knew Jacinta marveled at her size and tried to hold back their giggles at her accent. Some couldn't hide it and told her "I like your accent." She didn't really know what they meant, just wanted to watch the trains in the train room, play with the large electric snowman that danced and sang and with the toys in Cindy's office. We had some time with our good friends Cindy, Diane and Sheila, spending the afternoon at Cindy's house. The girls actually slept, exhausted from the potluck the night before.
The girls held up pretty well given the tightly packed social itinerary. Our friends kindly dealt with my last minute planning and found a way to see us in spite of limited options. One day we went to camp, raced back to meet one friend for coffee at 4pm, then another for Thai food at 6pm. The next day we drove to Detroit to look around (saw the cool ice-skating rink), made it to school by 12:30 and back home by 4:30 to get Genevieve to sleep, leave Jacinta with her kind godparents. I met friends for Ethiopian food, came home to pick up the girls and take them out for a sleep over at the Hayes' house. The next day was the snow day, also Iris' birthday party, another fun filled day catching up with friends and once again, saying goodbye. The girls' bodies were longing for rest, but like me, they have an innate curiosity for new places and faces, or at least, they have learned to keep up with their crazy social mommy.
While in Detroit, our good friends Jim and Suzanne hosted us at their home in Ferndale. Not only are these folks the couple to whom Matt and I owe our coming together (camp), but they are also Jacinta's godparents and well-trained grandparents. The girls fell in love with Jim and Suzanne, and loved the comfort of their embrace, of sleeping in the same place for a week amidst the busy social calendar. It felt like my grandparents house, except they shared the cooking. Jim was up every morning with a beautifully laid table for breakfast, listening to Christmas music while Suzanne or their daughter Hannalori cooked dinner every night. Jim asked Jacinta what she wanted for breakfast every evening and came through every morning. Jacinta of course enjoyed this privilege. This was even better for me,
beautiful breakfast that I had no part in making on a tired morning. The girls spent a lot of time under the Christmas tree with Jim playing with the train. They seemed to know exactly what the girls liked to talk about, what they enjoyed and made the time to read to them, teach them little crafts and just play. This is a family that respects tradition. Their house is filled with the past, but they do not let it rot. They celebrate it, make use of it, and spend their time being creative in the present, inspired by the way of their parents. It was inspiring, comfortable, tiring week in a town I love, truly worth the travel.
We ended our trip with a true American breakfast at a groovy Ferndale cafe with our good friends Don and Linda. They used to take Matt, Jess and I out to breakfast on Saturday mornings when we lived here, incredibly entertained by our baby's table antics. So it was even funnier this time with calm Jacinta and her new cheeky, sneaky little sister. Linda used to hold Jacinta while Matt and I ate and Don took pictures and snickered to himself. Genevieve is not exactly "holdable" right now, but our old friends helped me out as much as they could. It just took a LONG time to eat this huge American breakfast while assisting my little girls, which was okay. Linda entertained with finger plays and even Genevieve was taken in, amazing.
Both girls told stories as they love to do. Genevieve talked about Koala Park, Jedda licking her face, daddy tickles and Poppy saying, "no squirmy wormy," as if it all happened yesterday. Every day, she asks to see the person she saw the day before, not able to understand that we will not see them for a long time. She decided today that she's going back to Australia to see daddy.
Linda and Don put us on the train and then returned our friend Cindy's car for us, what amazing friends hold us together. The train ride was both relaxing and exciting for us all. We saw deer, birds, frozen ponds, running streams through the snow, small towns, factory towns and rotting houses. Jacinta learned how to finger knit on a Canadian corker while Evie napped. We arrived an hour late, and then had a bit of trouble finding my mom, who couldn't find the train station. But goodness prevailed, as it always does. Some kind souls from Haiti drove us to mom and George who stopped their search in a KFC parking lot and just waited after their two hour search in the snow. It was stressful for us all, but the girls held on, as did George who was in pain, just having undergone his fourth and final surgery unclogging his arteries. We made it home safely, and are relaxing together. The girls are comfortable, they asked to come back to Grandma Shari's each time they got tired of socializing in Michigan. Now they can sleep and play inside, sheltered from the frigid air outside. We made gingerbread cookies today and sent them to our benevolent Haitian friends.
Life is good. We are resting, enjoying our loved ones, but missing Matt. We are warm and grateful. I hope you are too (: I am sure that this is not an issue if you are in Australia (:
Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah!
Love,Shana

Beautiful Snow

As I sit here listening to my mother playing the piano live and not on a recording, the warm cozy comfort I feel being sheltered from the frigid air outside make it hard to believe where I was a week ago. We were en route to Sydney with Matt, maybe stopped at Koala Park feeding kangaroos, driving on the Pacific Highway or visiting with Matt's dad and step mom at the seaside. We have come a long way, no doubt. But the few days with my family have already made the trip worthwhile, and we still have over three weeks left!

Matt took a week off work to enjoy our presence and help with preparation for our trip. He took the girls out a few times, bought gifts for me to take, even submitted to a garden tour to discover how much I wanted done while I was gone. He helped so much that I never had a stressful moment, prior to coming in contact with United Airlines at the airport, which is to be expected. He helped us through as much as he could, until we had to go through security. This will be the longest he has ever been away from the girls, but he didn't let his sadness show in the hopes that the girls would be purely excited and travel well. Amazing daddy.

These girls are great little travelers. United sure isn't known for great service, but luckily we ran into a few kind souls who tried to help us. They may have seated the girls and I 30 rows apart and could not fix it pre-boarding, but we ended up together and made it across the ocean safely. I can't ask for much more. Genevieve is a heavy lap infant, but temporary loss of circulation saved us $2000. Both girls slept well, played well, and enjoyed the plastic packaged meals. They loved seeing the boats down in the water, the clouds, the sun set, the stars, and certainly the beautiful mountains of San Francisco as we landed. Genevieve saw "Daddy! Daddy!" every time she looked out the window, sounding so convincing she made us look. This was the first time I traveled alone with two girls, and the first time I could not sleep so I sure wished it was Daddy. Our layover In SF was great thanks to my friend Sarah who picked us up and took us out to a park and to her home for lunch. Another highlight was meeting her new husband. Sarah had more energy for the girls, pumped us up on healthy food and coffee for the jet lagged mom, and got us back to the airport on time to fly to Chicago. California weather was a great way to ease into the US.

Arriving in Chicago was a familiar shock to the system, frigid air and snow, something the girls do not know. Getting across O'hare with the girls and the luggage at 10pm, took longer than it would take most humans. But we lallygagged. Genevieve was a zombie in the stroller. Jacinta floated slowly from moving walkway to moving walkway, rolling her suitcase only because I looked so pathetic trying to drag everything else. The pretty lights overhead kept her going, as the lonely sound of the busker on the saxophone playing Silent Night in the corridor did for me. I almost kissed the shuttle driver I was so grateful for a hand after an hour of O'hare. The girls both curious, had to touch the snow before we went into the Super 8. It was quite a celebration: pizza, phone calls, bath time, stories and bed, all by 2am.

The girls slept until 11:30am. We packed up and waited in the lobby for our ride. He was a little lost so we had to go out and have a little snowball fight, the girls are in awe of this powdery ice. "Uncle Ben," Genevieve's most talked about family member, eventually found us and took us away into the arms of family. Home sweet home. Home is wherever we stay for the night, but for the girls right now home is mom and sister. With a little bit of coaching, they are learning to inhabit a small space and avoid squawking at each other. What a world of difference being out of ones' comfort zone can make. They finish each other's lullabies before bed, and have learned to share a bed. They giggle quite a bit and have improved at sharing. They have been great travel companions, we laugh a lot.

Jacinta has been singing a lot of songs with recognizable melodies, but in a strange language. She seems to be at peace amidst all the moving around. She goes nuts when she sees a squirrel. Surprisingly we have only seen four, keeping up the illusion that they are a rare species. Jacinta is quite happy to go out with my parents or stay home without me, just as long as she gets to do what she most desires. After we had tried out sledding in dad's backyard with my nephew and brother in law, my dad took her out sledding on her own. She loved it and tired out Grandpa. My dad loves the sound of her calling out, "Come on Grandpa." She cried the first time she got sprayed in the face from the sled, but I guess it was a shocking sensation.

Genevieve was downright angry at the cold. After a fifteen minutes in the snow she lost it. Although it's fun to mock the little Aussie for her lack of experience in the cold, it may have been fatigue. We spent a lot of time inside catching up with my sister and her family. The girls are smitten with their cousins, especially little Paige who is eight months old. Their Uncle Jeff was home for the weekend from his group home and likes to do puzzles. Watching Jeff do puzzles is one thing that will actually bring the girls to silence, he is amazing. Genevieve, in her obsession to make sure people "look at her," followed Jeff around his meditative rounds about six times around the stairwell demanding, "Look Uncle Jeff...boots!" Jeff needs to keep moving more than communicate verbally so he ran away while she chased him. Eventually, I made her think he had actually looked.

So now we are at my mom's house in Indiana. The girls are comfortable and in Christmas heaven. We got down all the boxes today and put up the Christmas tree. We strung popcorn, put up lights, listened to Christmas music and mom's music boxes. The girls particularly love the battery operated train that runs around a Christmas tree and plays music. There are toys everywhere, but no snow outside. Today Jacinta and I bundled up and pretended we were squirrels outside while Evie slept. Following the nap and stamping with Grandma, we enjoyed two very American delicacies: shoe shopping after 5pm and a Mexican restaurant. I am home.

Perhaps the most exciting news is that I have two new nieces, born in the last week. Both my step brother and step sister have had little girls and they are beautiful. Jacinta asked, "Mommy, why do I keep getting new cousins?" Lisa and Terry had a little girl named Natalia Katzman Wister and David and Christine had a little girl named Lucienne Aleta Whittinghill. Yesterday Mom and George took the girls and I out to Lafayette to meet little Lucy, what a treat. It was a long drive, but we found an awesome little family restaurant called the Whistle Stop en route, filled with electric trains running around tracks above your head while you dine. Meeting Lucienne was wonderful, both girls felt honored to meet such a small little being. Genevieve is still talking about, "Jacinta hold Lucy." We ask her if she got to touch her and she gets this light in her eyes, pauses, smiles and says, "Yeeeeessss."

Speaking of the devil, it is 1am and little Evie is talking in bed. She has been awake and chatting to the monitor for over thirty minutes. "Cinta touch Evie's foot. Mommy? Mommmy? Mommy? Shana? Grandma?"

Enjoy the cold. I am enjoying the cold I have missed for so long, but more so the people inside.
Peace,
Shana