Our Thanksgiving Holiday!

Lily signs her name with a heart and an arrow!

While this week is nothing special in Belgium or Germany, it is a VERY IMPORTANT WEEK in the life of the average American!  
Thanksgiving is one of the most important holidays in the US: schools are out for the entire week and most people are off from work from Wednesday onwards (me too :-))

This is how we spent our Thanksgiving Week (Lily's homework consisted of keeping a Thanksgiving Journal which I will use as a reference!):

Monday, November 24:
I had to work and Ennio went to his preschool (this is a private school, so he had class). Marcus, being a theme park addict, took Lily to Magic Mountain for the day. What a lucky girl she is!

Tuesday, November 25: A day at home!
I picked up Ennio from school after work and he brought home some artwork. Now our holiday could start too!!!

Wednesday, November 26: I had a dentist appointment around noon (just a cleaning, no worries) and took Lily along. Ennio's been having a bit of a rough cough lately so he stayed home with daddy. Since my dentist has her office in Beverly Hills, Lily and I walked up to Rodeo Drive after my appointment and had a "lunch date" near the big Christmas tree! Lily's been excited about Christmas for a while now (she keeps on asking when we can put up the Christmas tree) so she loved it! After lunch, we headed back home and unfortunately, got stuck in L.A.'s famous Thanksgiving rush traffic... When we got home, she was happy to get out and ride her bike outside until it got dark (hence, the drawing in her journal).

Next to the nutcracker on Rodeo Drive!

Not the best picture, but you get an idea of how big this tree is!

Christmas decorations on the street and in the air in Beverly Hills!

Thursday, November 27:
The Big Turkey Day!

We were so happy to be able to spend this day with our friends Rainer and Kathryn Gombos and their kids Lucy and Karl. Lily and Karl are the best of friends which is so cute to see!

Kathryn cooked a fabulous turkey and many yummy side dishes!

Lucy entertained Ennio (although he was also quite happy just playing by himself with all of Karl's boy toys!)

The guys spent a lot of time in Rainer's home office, playing games with the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset for 3D-gaming (and now on Marcus's Christmas wish list!). Rainer works in visual effects (he was the lead visual effects supervisor for 'Game of Thrones' and for 'Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey') so he has all these goodies at home! I tried the headset on too and the effect is indeed amazing!

Kathryn presenting the turkey!

The boys at the dinner table!

Lucy, Lily and Karl!

Friday, November 28:
Ennio's cough got worse over the past few days, so we decided to have a quiet day at home. In the morning, we finally gave in to Lily and got out all our Christmas decorations! We put up the tree (an artificial one, so it is easy!) and she loved hanging up the ornaments. We are ready for December now and everything Christmas!

 

 

 

  

 

 

 
Later that afternoon, Marcus took Lily to the L.A. Live movie theater to go watch Big Hero 6 in 3D. We started this tradition to go to the movies with the whole family over the Thanksgiving holiday last year when we went to see Frozen and so we had promised the kids to do it again this year. Since Ennio did not feel well, Marcus and Lily went alone... which was probably good, because I'm not sure that Ennio would've been able to sit still for an entire movie (he wasn't able to do so last year and I don't think he is ready yet now).

Sprite: check. Popcorn: check. 3D glasses: check. Let the movie begin!

Saturday, November 29, and Sunday, November 30:
Funny, but for Lily this holiday has been long enough already and she actually misses school! She keeps on asking, "Is tomorrow a school day?", and when I say, "No", she acts all disappointed! She told me, "Thanksgiving is soooo long!" Wow, it really makes me wonder how we will get through the Winter Break!!! (which is 3 weeks! from December 22 until January 9!)
Today and tomorrow, we have no special plans. I actually enjoy just hanging out at home and not having to go anywhere. And there are plenty of things on my to-do-list that keep me busy: ordering our photo holiday cards, designing and ordering our new year's photo calendar (which is a big task, since I take soooo many pictures and my iPhoto is far from organized...) But these projects are fun too, because they throw me back into time, and I get to re-live so many happy moments and memories from the past year!

At the same time, we enjoy the present and are cracking up when Ennio is telling us (over and over and over again) one of his favorite Knock-knock jokes (he learned them from the Yo Gabba Gabba show he watches every night before bedtime):

Ennio: KNOCK KNOCK
Me: Who's there?
Ennio: BANANA
Me: Banana who?
Ennio: BANANA SPLIT, SO I SCREAMED!

or

Ennio: KNOCK KNOCK
Me: Who's there?
Ennio: KEN
Me: Ken who?
Ennio: CAN I COME IN, BECAUSE I'M FREEZING!

Don't be blown away by Ennio's sense for humor, though! He is basically repeating the joke from memory, he sometimes gets confused and then the joke sounds something like, "Can the banana ice cream split, 'cause I'm freezing!" which we of course find hilarious too, and then he just repeats it again :-)

All in all, though, I think Ennio is doing pretty well now, inside as well as outside of school. We had the psychological evaluation last week at the Regional Center and will get the report sometime in December. In January, we will have some rounds of testing by the developmental pediatric team from the Children's Hospital. We will also have a round-table meeting then with Ennio's teachers and LAUSD to evaluate the behavioral support he received in the classroom (which was granted for 90 hours, so we don't know what will happen when this ends). That's a lot on our plate for the next few months, but I will not worry about it now, and just focus on the positive Christmas vibe that is hanging in the house now!

We have a lot to be thankful for!

This is a good reminder of what we are thankful for: FAMILY (one of Ennio's recent classroom projects)

Stone Soup Day!

On Friday, Ennio made "Stone Soup" at his preschool.

"Stone Soup is what you need, when you have some friends to feed..."

This is the story behind the Stone Soup:

A kind, old stranger was walking through the land when he came upon a village.  As he entered, the villagers moved towards their homes locking doors and windows. The stranger smiled and asked, why are you all so frightened? I am a simple traveler, looking for a place to stay for the night and have a nice meal. "There's not a bite to eat in the whole province," he was told. "We are weak and our children are starving. Better keep moving on." "Oh, I have everything I need," he said. "In fact, I was thinking of making some stone soup to share with all of you." He pulled an iron pot from his cloak, filled it with water, and began to build a fire under it. Then, with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from his bag and dropped it into the water. By now, hearing the rumor of food, most of the villagers had come out of their homes or watched from their windows.  As the stranger sniffed the "broth" and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome their fear. "Ahh," the stranger said to himself rather loudly, "I do like a tasty stone soup.  Of course, stone soup with cabbage -- that's hard to beat." Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding a small cabbage he'd retrieved from its hiding place, and added it to the pot. "Wonderful!!" cried the stranger. "You know, I once had stone soup with cabbage and a bit of salt beef as well, and it was fit for a king." The village butcher managed to find some salt beef . . .  And so it went, through potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and so on, until there was indeed a delicious meal for everyone in the village to share. The villager elder offered the stranger a great deal of money for the magical stone, but he refused to sell it and traveled on the next day. As he left, the stranger came upon a group of village children standing near the road. He gave the bag containing the stone to the youngest child, whispering to a group, that it was not the stone, but the villagers that had performed the magic...

Moral:  By working together, with everyone contributing what they can, a greater good is achieved.

So, Ennio and his classmates made "Stone Soup". The principal came round all the classrooms with her "pot" and collected ingredients from all the children. Ennio had brought a bag of cut up celery (we were informed in advance and asked to have the kids bring in their favorite vegetable on Friday morning). Not that celery is Ennio's favorite, but I thought it would work well in a soup, and it was easy to prepare :-)  He happily threw in all his celery pieces!

Around lunchtime, the parents were invited to come to school and have "stone soup" with the children. We went, and I must say that it was a delicious soup! 

Eating home-baked bread with the soup

Een leuk detail: Ennio's placemat die elke dag gebruikt wordt wanneer de kinderen hun snack of lunch opeten! Wij bezorgden de foto's en vervolgens werd het blad geplastificeerd door de juf.

Familieportret met onze jongste schavuit!

After lunch, the school had another surprise for the kids. They had invited the local firemen to the school to show their firetruck to the kids. Ennio loved it, of course. He got on the truck and did not want to get off!
What a happy day for our little boy!

Ennio met klasgenootjes Adalyn, Josie, Andres, Asher en Harrison!

Open House at the Residence of the Consul General in Los Angeles

Afgelopen zaterdag en zondag was er "Open House" op de residentie van Rudi Veestraeten, de Consul-generaal van België. Er waren allerhande kunstenaars en artiesten uitgenodigd die hun werken tentoonstelden: een echte Showcase of Belgian Art and Design!

Op zondag was er in de namiddag een receptie ter afsluiting van het opendeurweekend. Ik was aanwezig - voornamelijk om te helpen - maar kon tussendoor ook de kunst bewonderen, een gesprekje slaan hier en daar en... smullen van het lekkere eten :-) :-) :-)

Mireille, de echtgenote van de consul, had buiten een heuse Belgian Food Court georganiseerd met allerlei Belgische specialiteiten: van frietjes met mayonnaise over garnalencocktails, kipspiesjes en waterzooi, vol-au-vent en brood met ambachtelijke pâté, tot verse chocomousse (met Callebaut chocolade) en pannenkoeken... Te veel om op te noemen want ik ben zeker dat ik het een en ander vergeten ben! Ze had via de FaceBook-groep Belgian Cuisine een aantal enthousiastelingen opgetrommeld die van 's morgens in de keuken stonden om al dat lekkers te bereiden! 
En tussenin kwam er regelmatig iemand langs om ons van een Belgisch pralientje te voorzien! Zo ga ik graag werken, haha!

Hieronder enkele foto's van de werken die er te zien waren... af en toe ook met een Belgisch tintje of een knipoog naar België!

De ingang

De inkomhal

Mark Leysen

 

Beetje Magritte!

 

Mireille Swinnen is ook een kunstenares. Deze bronssculpturen zijn van haar hand.

Een van haar mozaieken.

Nog een aantal beeldhouwwerkjes van Mireille.

Nora Novak

Om in de kerstsfeer te komen...

Mmmm...

Anja Van Herle

Art is making something out of nothing & selling it!

Een leuke namiddag! Met dank aan Marcus die voor de kinderen zorgde zodat ik er alleen op uit kon :-)