Parties and Pantomimes, Ice Fog and Insulin

Christmas Eve

Amazingly, it's Christmas Eve day here in England. I cannot get over the speed at which time is moving along while we are here. It has now been almost five months since we touched down at Heathrow! The past few weeks, as always, have been filled to the brim with new experiences and family adventures. Some good, some not so good. Always adventurous though! Since my last blog Delaney has officially turned nine, we've gone to too many school related Christmas events to mention, we've delved into the topsy-turvy world of having a child with type 1 diabetes, and above all, we've had lots of fun! Downstairs our tree is almost hidden with all of the trimmings and presents, and the lights on tree and garland are sparkling happily. The kids are very excited, but not too boisterous. We have alot to be thankful for.

Kate Update

For those of you who didn't get a chance to read our last blog, I very hurriedly mentioned at the end that Kate, our 5 year old sweetie, had just been diagnosed with Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes. I'm afraid I was a bit frazzled when I was blogging as we had just returned from two days in the hospital. She was diagnosed on the 5th of December, and it was a bit of a shock. Thankfully our little princess has made quite a remarkable recovery since beginning her insulin regime. She has gained back all the weight she had lost, but more importantly, her sunshine-y disposition has returned full force. You can just tell she feels soooo much better. She is currently on 4 insulin injections a day, and has accepted it like a real trooper. I won't deny that the past few weeks have been a bit draining. With all of the busy-ness of the pre-Christmas build-up, fitting blood testing, injections, diabetes community nurse visits and weekly diabetic clinic appointments in has pushed my organizational skills a bit!! I have been going to school at lunch time to do her blood tests and injections... I knew there was a reason for me not to go to work while I was here!

I'm sure there will be trials ahead, but for now we're just happy to have our girl happy and healthy. I would like to thank all of our 'military family' here in England for their wonderful help and support. I'd also like to say a special thank you to Kathy, Geoff and especially Austen for their open, honest accounts of living with juvenile diabetes. Its good to know we have someone who's 'been there' to call if we've got a question. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You can be sure we'll be at the mo-gi next year!!!!

Chrismas Plays and Parties

As I've already mentioned, we've been overwhelmed with school and activity related parties and events. In Britain they divide elementary school children into 'Key Stages' Kate is in Key Stage 1 and Shane and Delaney are in Key stage 2. Their plays and parties were divided this way, resulting in double the amount of 'mandatory attendance' events for parents!! Kate was a lovely 'Angel 4' in her school play 'The Bethlehem Bootee Company', and Delaney and Shane participated in the school choir/chorus of 'Cinders' a play on Cinderella set in Victorian times. They all did marvelously well, and the plays were funny and well produced. I'm afraid I got quite teary watching our healthy little Kate glowing in her angel costume. Shane and Delaney really enjoyed singing in the choir--they also got to participate in the ecumenical carol service held in the base chapel. Tom and I were very proud to see all of our bambinos doing so well.

They take their school Christmas parties quite seriously here. There were magicians, movies, Christmas crackers and TONS of junk food (making blood sugar management a bit interesting...) I helped out for both 'Key Stage' parties, mainly setting up for the 'Christmas tea' (junk food, junk food and more junk food!) and watching the sugar intake. To make things even more organizationally complicated, the parties lasted an extra hour after normal school time.

Then there was the 'Christmas Disco', again separated into two Key Stages on the same night. Dress for this event was 'Fancy Dress' which is Brit-speak means 'wear costumes'. If you remember from my Halloween blog, I can't take costumes lightly...but had no choice for this event as there was just no time!! Kate went as an ice skater, Shane as an elf and Delaney as an ice-princess. They all had a great time, danced like maniacs and ate lots more junk food.

The Canadian kids all worked together to present a 'Canadian Dance' at the school talent show on Friday. They worked really hard practicing and choreographing. I'll admit there wasn't much 'Canadian' about the dance as the music was a Hillary Duff Christmas tune and the dancing was...how shall we say... original? artistic in a Hollywood way? But the main thing is that they had a great time getting ready for it and spending time with their friends the Lutes kids. Although parents weren't invited to the show, I hear that the presentation went well and the applause was thunderous.

Delaney is 9!

December 16th was Delaney's birthday. Our beautiful girl is nine! Wow, do I feel old. We celebrated the day in a different sort of way this year. Our good friends, the Zioupos family, had invited us for an early dinner at their house. We had cheesecake, banoffee pie, and ice cream after the meal, and then (a surprise to the kids and a gift from the Zioupos-es) we all hopped in our cars and headed to the Wyvern theatre in Swindon to see their pantomime of 'Cinderella'. This was a true experience. Having not been to a British pantomime, I expected the usual--the audience sits and the actors act. Not so. A pantomime requires full audience participation. It was an absolute hoot. The actors were constantly asking 'Did you see him do that?', the kids would scream 'YES!', the actor would say "Oh no you didn't!", "OH YES WE DID!!", until the theatre was vibrating with noise. There were all sorts of silly jokes and gags, some so British we didn't even get the joke, but for the most part making fun of the British-ness we find funny. It was great fun. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the Zioupos family for introducing us to another aspect of British culture we might have missed.

Soccer news...

Our little guy has been playing his heart out in soccer. Yes, we're still playing soccer here! Shane persists on wearing shorts to all of the games/practices, as he's a hot guy and a true Canadian! Last week, as a real treat, he was presented with the 'Man of the Match' trophy!! He was absolutely beaming as he has been working so hard. Soccer is so much part of the culture here that most kids are kicking before they can walk, I think, so he's had to do a bit of catch up. He's been loving it though, and will likely continue to play when we return to Canada. Congratulations Shane!

Ice Fog

Yesterday we walked to church in the morning. As has been the case for several mornings lately, the world was wrapped in a beautiful misty frost. I've attached a picture. I guess this is the closest thing to snow we'll likely get here!

Later in the afternoon we decided to go for a drive to Whitehorse hill to take Zeke for a walk. As the sun was already setting (it's full dark by about 4:30pm here) the fog was already lying in some valleys. The views from the hill were stunning. The full moon was rising on one side, and the sun was setting on the other. You could see why the hill has been inhabited/visited for thousands of years. It was beautiful. Again, I'll attach some pics.

Christmas Plans

So, for the next few days we are going to take a well deserved break. The tree is trimmed, the chicken (we're not turkey people) is thawing, the presents are wrapped and school is over for a few weeks. Yay! Tom is downstairs playing Christmas tunes on his trumpet with the kids. We'll be going to a carol service and mass tonight, and then spending the day relaxing tomorrow. If all goes well we'll be off to France in a few days, to spend some time in a 'Gite' (cottage) and do some sight-seeing with the kids. I'll let you know how it goes!

Merry Christmas!!

As expected, my Christmas cards are all happily sitting in their boxes, awaiting my time and hen-scratch. I may get to them over the holidays, but to tell the truth, I think it's unlikely. In lieu of cards this year, I'd like to say Merry Christmas to you all via blog. I sincerely hope that you and your family, wherever you may be, have a happy, peaceful Christmas, and a fun-filled new year. God bless,

Brenda