September Blue

December Daily : December 21st

FINALLY! Everyone is home for Christmas! Dustin & Becca arrived at around 2pm to tons of hugs and happy tears. I can't even express how good it feels to have everyone under one roof! It was no surprise that after finishing finals, moving from one apartment to another and then a long plan ride, they arrived exhausted and ready to get some rest over the next few weeks. They were also hungry, too! Apparently the airline ran out of "meat-eater" dishes by the time the food cart got to them, and they ended up with tofu, which neither one of them are a fan of. I made Dustin's favorite dinner: Pizza Bake (total yum), along with salad and garlic bread. Full bellies make for a long winter's nap-they both were sleeping by 10! We are so excited they are here and are looking forward to spending time together!

 

 

December Daily : December 20th

Today I was playing catch-up...with my baking! About a week and a half ago I got my Chocolate Crinkles, Snowballs and Santa's Thumbprints & Biscotti done, placed some in Zip-Locs and put them in the freezer. But I still had a few others to make! Buckeyes, Sugar Cookies, Oatmeal Cookies and Snickerdoodles were on the menu for today and I am happy to say I got them all done! It took me all day, but they are done! And not a moment too soon. Dustin and Becca to get here tomorrow and I wanted to have all the baking done before they get here so we can spend time showing them around Riga instead of being in the kitchen!  

December Daily : December 19th

Weather updat...we really thought we were in for some snow today! It was coming down pretty steadily for a while there, and even started to stick. But by late afternoon it melted. I really think a White Christmas is out of our reach. :( Anyways...

...Mondays are cleaning days. Sanita, our housekeeper comes and spends the entire day making sure the place is spic and span! She doesn't speak a whole lot of english, but she is very sweet and does a super job! She brought us this gingerbread cookie for Christmas. I love the way Latvians decorate their cookies. Very colorful! I can't wait eat it, but I will wait until Dustin and Becca get here on Wednesday and share.

Today I also made a few gifts for friends. Just in case they are reading the blog, I am not going to post photos of what I made as I want them to be surprised. Between December Daily and making gifts, my studio has become quite messy! It's all "creative clutter" as I lovingly like to call it. It seems as though I can't create unless I have a mess around me!

Speaking of messes...now it is time to go create one in the kitchen! I still have baking to do!

I did something a little different with the journaling on today's page-placing it at the bottom instead of the side where the patterned paper is. Gotta change things up every now and then!

December Daily : December 18th

I wish Mother Nature would make up her mind on whether she wants it to rain or snow here. If it is going to be this cold, there might as well be snow on the ground! So far we have nothing! The locals are saying that this is a very strange weather pattern and there is usually quite a bit of snow on the ground by now. We are not even sure we will have a white Christmas! That's practically unheard of this far north! Anyways, it was cold, damp and dreary outside today. The precipitation kept going back and forth between rain and snow. It was the perfect night to make homemade Macaroni & Cheese. Total YUM!

The photo on the left side of the layout is actually from the night before. The streets in Old Town are all decked out in lights this time of year and each street seems to be different. I really liked these colorful orbs hanging between the buildings. Very festive!

December Daily : December 17th

Every once in a while Dustin or Ryley will remember something from when they were much younger that would make me smile. Today Ryley asked me what the title of the book was where "the little boy climbed out of his bedroom window one night and ended up in the cake batter in the kitchen." Totally made me giggle. It was Maurice Sendak's In the Night Kitchen. When the boys were little Chris and I would spend at least a half hour each night reading to them. It was the perfect way to end a busy day and hopefully plant the seed for the love of reading in both of them. We have some really, really nice books that we have kept so that one day their kids can enjoy them as much as they did! It really makes me happy to know that they remember the little things we did together when they were younger!

Now that reading seed has flourished with Dustin, but with Ryley...not so much. He is not one to pick up a book and read for enjoyment like his brother does. However, when it comes to researching something that really piques his interest, he is all over it. He will read up on things like crazy and if you try to tell him different on the subject, he will argue with you 'til you give in and acknowledge he is right. Anyways, because he spends so much time on the internet "researching" he comes up with some "fun facts" once in a while that will lead to great conversation. We went to the restaurant "Queens" for dinner and he was just a walking/talking encyclopedia of little known facts and what-nots. Chris and I enjoyed listening to him. I noted some of them on the today's December Daily.

December Daily : December 16th

Today was filled with appointments, holiday events and trying to convince Ryley that he needs to be up and about to get over his jet lag. Unfortunately all the coaxing in the world wasn't going to get him out of the bean bag. 

So I went to the Embassy Christmas party without him. The atrium was filled with a holiday craft bazaar, great food and drink and beautiful music. All those who attended also participated in a traditional Latvian Log Pull. It is a very old pagan ritual where a log is pulled through the streets of Riga and all of the bad and evil spirits of the old year jump on the log. The log is then set on fire so the evil spirits are burnt and the new year can start fresh. We couldn't set the log on fire on Embassy grounds, but it was still fun to watch everyone walk a log around the Embassy.

Ryley did attend the party at the Marine House for a little bit. He shot a round of pool with his dad and had a chance to meet the Ambassador. He was tired, wasn't feeling very social and left early. Chris and I went to dinner with friends and then to the Blues Bar to hear one of the local bands play. 

I altered the holiday tags by Ali that I purchased through Designer Digitals. I enlarged it, erased some of the text and cover the hole that was orginally there. I love the size of it! It explains tradition behind the Log Pull (photos of the Log Pull are on the left page of the spread). There is a typo on it though! It is supposed to read "...on the shortest day of the year..."-not the longest!

 

 

December Daily : December 15th

The best remedy for getting over jet lag is to get out into the daylight and keep moving, which I what I tried to do with Ryley today. After a quick trip to the Embassy, I took him into Old Town to walk around a little bit. One of the first things he mentioned was how cold it was. Which is no surprise given that he came from 80 degree Florida sunshine! The other thing he mentioned was how Latvians love their Audi's and BMW's. Ryley is a car enthusiast-a high-speed/high-priced car enthusiast to be exact. He is always pointing out fast or expensive cars he sees or drives by. While walking through Old Town he happened to come across a very nice Porsche and snapped a picture of it and stopped to look inside. I was a little nervous as it could have very well belonged to someone from the Russian mafia and I didn't want to find out, so we quickly walked away! 

He and I walked through the streets of Old Town and stopped for lunch at an enclosed Christmas Market restaurant that I like to call the "Ski Lodge." It's basically one of the platforms for the summertime beer gardens that has had temporary glass windows put around it. I like it in there. It has a fireplace, wicker sofas with wooden tables, and blankets you can wrap around yourself in case you are chilly. We ordered some German sausages with kraut, french fries and hot balsams (similar to gluewein). We returned home and of course Ryley took a nap. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon. Later that evening, Chris, Ryley and I returned to Old Town for some pizza at Il Patio. I had the best pizza there so far since coming to Latvia. Afterwards, we took Ryley over to the Kiwi Bar-a popular hangout for all the ex-pats in Riga.

Now, now...I know what some may be thinking: "Why are they taking their 18-year-old to a bar?". But the drinking age here in Latvia is 18 and Ryley seemed pretty okay with the idea of having a beer with his dad (and what 18-year-old college freshman wouldn't?). It was a really nice time. Frank, Kiwi's owner, bought us a round and I totally enjoyed listening to Ryley discuss his political views and the 2012 elections with his dad. 

 

December Daily : December 14th

Like I mentioned yesterday, Ryley fell asleep at a fairly early hour. So it was no surprise that he was up at 2:30 in the morning-wide awake! Jet lag isn't fun to get over! Both Zoe and Baron forgot that there was an extra person in the house so as soon as they heard Ryley stirring in his room, the both went on a crazy barking binge...at 2:30 in the morning. So what does an 18-year-old do at this hour? EAT! I didn't have a chance to show him where things were in the kitchen before he feel asleep, so at 2:30 in the morning I am giving Ryley a mini tour of the kitchen, showing him where glasses are, where utensils are kept, etc. Now I know he could have figured these things out for himself, but I haven't seen him in 5 months and I want to spoil him a bit! He made himself at home in the bean bag in front of the TV and I went back to bed.

6am comes around and it is time for me to get up and Ryley is still awake. I wanted to get a workout in and Ryley decided to join me at the gym! It was nice to have someone to talk to that early in the morning! Of course he fell asleep shortly after we returned home, but I was proud of him that he wanted to work out! 

We later returned to the Embassy for lunch and then I took him to the grocery store to pick out some snacks and other food he'd like. Strolling through the aisles, he was reminded of a variety of foods he used to like when we lived in Europe before like Monster Munchies & Kindereggs. A Kinderegg made it into the basket :)

It was a pretty low-key day. Ryley just needs some time to get over his jet lag and then we'll be able to explore the city more!

On a side note...when I went to the Embassy earlier in the day I needed some lats and had to cash a check there. The lady working the desk asked if I wanted one of the newly minted 1Ls coins. "Sure," I said and she told me that they have a new Christmas coin with a heart-shaped gingerbread cookie on one side. Love it! So cute! The United States has Christmas stamps...Latvia has Christmas coins! I'm not going to spend this one. It's a little Latvian Christmas keepsake :)

December Daily : December 13th

Today was an extremely joyous one in the Sill household! Ryley came home for the holidays! We haven't seen him since we moved to Europe this past July. Oh sure we see each other via Skype, but it is not the same. Ryley just finished up his first semester of his freshman year at the University of South Florida in Tampa with flying colors (all A's). He is glad to get that first semester behind him and is ready for mom and dad to spoil him rotten for the next few weeks! Chris went to the airport to pick him up while I stayed at home to get dinner started. Lucky for us that we only live five minutes from the airport! When he walked through the door, tears started flowing and we just hugged each for a very long time. I still can't believe he is here. The dogs were super excited to see him, too! They wouldn't leave him alone. It was an awesome homecoming.

It is no surprise that after three flights (which included a 6-hour layover in Amsterdam), he walked into the house starving. One of the first things he mentioned was that the house smelled good! I baked banana bread earlier in the day and I made him one of his favorites for dinner-Beef and Broccoli Lo-mein. Shortly after he ate, Chris showed him how to use the various remotes for the TV, AFN box and local cable box (man's priorities) and then he was out cold in the bean bag. 

I still can't believe he is here...

...now all we need are Dustin and Becca to arrive! They fly in next week and we can't wait to have a houseful for Christmas!

December Daily : December 12th

After two days of standing in the garage, the branches of our Christmas tree have dropped some and today is the day it comes into the house to be decorated. It's not the most "perfect" looking tree-there are wide gaps between the branches toward the top compared to the bottom and the very top of the tree is super crooked (didn't notice that when we bought it). It's so crooked that I don't think we can put a star on top of it! If we did, it would look like a tree from Who-ville! 

I brought the tree into the living room with Little Miss Zoe protesting the entire time. She was not happy at all with this large "thing" invading her play space, but once I had it into position, she calmed down.

Bring on the lights.

We had 220v lights for our Christmas tree(s) when we lived in Europe before. They were the white miniature lights just like you would find in the states. We brought them with us and I had every intention of using them, however, I realized that the strands didn't have the plugs at each end to connect one strand to the next. Extension cords would have had to be used throughout the tree and I just wasn't going to have that. So I used our American 120v lights, with only one extension cord and plugged them into a transformer. I know most people would rather delegate the task of putting the lights on the tree to someone else, but not me. I am very particular when it comes to that. I like to weave the lights in and out of the branches, taking care to make sure the lights go deep into the tree to light it from the inside out. It takes me 2-3 hours to do it, but so worth the work in the end. 

For years I've always wanted to do a "themed" tree. I look through magazines and browse websites dedicated to Christmas decorating ideas (have you visited The Trendy Tree?) and just gush over the manicured look of them. But this isn't the year for one of those trees. This year, like in years past, it's a sentimental tree full of handmade ornaments and others we have collected over the years. The tree itself changes each year, but some of the spots where the ornaments are placed do not. There are certain "heavy" ornaments that need to go on the stronger branches near the top of the tree, while some special ornaments (those with a story) that I would like to draw attention to get a prominent place toward the front of the tree. It's a process, but it is one I look forward to each year. 

I have tried to use garland on our trees in the past, but there is something about the thick gold or silver garland that I don't like. We have strands of red wooden beads as well, but they are just too dark-there's no sparkle to them, and I need to brighten the tree up a bit (you know-because the 400 lights I put on it just wasn't sparkly enough). So while digging through our containers of decorations I found boxes of icicles and decided that was just the bling that the tree needed. It may not look like it, but placing those icicles took forever (of course Zoe didn't help the situation either-she kept trying to grab the icicles off the table)! But I like the results. The tree is kind of retro-looking. Both Chris and I think it looks like the kind of tree that we would have had when we were kids. After I was finished with it, it reminded me a little of the family Christmas tree from the movie A Christmas Story. Now to go shopping for that Red-Rider BB Gun...

For the "after" picture above, I desaturated the photo just a bit before I printed it-to continue that retro vibe I was feeling after it was decorated!