christmas giveaway and winternational day

i was talking to sooj a while back and mentioned "i think you're the only person who reads my blog consistently." to that she replied, "just say that you're really lonely and people will comment." i said "no, that's too pathetic, i'm going to give something away, like a contest."

i'm not exactly sure if this is less pathetic than fishing for sympathetic comments but i did want to give something to my readers for christmas. so here it is. post a comment and on christmas day, i (mak or ethan) will randomly draw names and send this lovely pencil holder and practical personal holder to 2 lucky winners.

same as what i made for mak but cleaner - not perfect, but better :P
when closed, grey grosgrain ribbon and grey button

i found something like this when i was surfing on the web - thought it was hilarious - and actually practical - don't you agree, ladies? especially when we have to go to the restroom in public.
joe was like "do you have to post that? i don't think it's appropriate." please prove him wrong. oh, and you know what the smaller pockets are for, right?
and it has a flap for discreetness.

i wish i had more variety of fabrics - only source of fabric here that i know of is ikea.... so sad. but i guess it's good b/c if i was in the states, you know i would go crazy buying all kinds of fabric and thus face the wrath of joe. . . . this way, i use all i have and move onto the next pattern :)

enough of that, move on to kids' news. makayla's school had a christmas performance - lion, witch and the wardrobe. being in a small international school, for good or bad, they include every student to be a participant on the show (whether it's relevant to the story or not!) mak's class made girls into fairies and boys into random things.

mak has severe stage fright and she's debating whether she's going to be part of the show or not.

at this point, she decided that she's not going to be a part of it.

then she changed her mind since she was the only one in her class sitting with her mommy so she reluctantly moved backstage.

there's mak, standing in the back, not really paying attention.

that's aslan in the red cape. see how he's standing? that's how he was like the whole performance, he was the most angry, with attitude aslan i've ever seen in my life! it was an interesting interpretation. very cute production.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

christmas time in our household

We put up our Christmas tree! We bought our tree from our neighbor who owns a nursery - the trees here aren't as full as ones in the states. when i was looking through them, he was like, "people want a real tree but want it to look like a fake tree." so i guess there's a charm in the imperfections! it's kind of sad looking but still beautiful ;)

Makayla showcasing the little wood figurines we bought here.

it was an ordeal in itself to not let ethan break any of the ornaments. he was quite good i must say.

the finished product! i need to take a closer shot of the one branch that's sticking out - the star on top is touching the ceiling. i thought that it wasn't proportional at all so wanted to cut it but joe insisted that we need to keep it that way. don't ask me why.

Christmas also came a bit early in our house - we got a surprise package from our friends in the states. Ofcourse, none of us have the discipline to wait until Christmas so we just tore it open and enjoyed all the treats that night! Thank you Billy and Jin!
Makayla was crying literally two seconds before we opened the package - something about ethan hitting her with a bat - but she's all smiles now.
ta-da! her woodkins! isn't the bunching around the neck genius? if i had it my way, she would be on project runway - and me on the apprentice (actually only the first season - it's so gimmicky now - on second thought, bring back the martha apprentice and i'm there!!!) :Pethan and mak fighting over making the little figurines. why am i not pictured? ofcourse, because i'm devouring the magazines jin picked out for me!

christmas time in krakow

joe was away for 3 days again in london this week. it went pretty fast and i didn't even have a babysitter at night! i'm just getting better and better at this mom thing :P anyhow, to give me a break, joe took them out today for an extended daddy time. they went out to the city and had an eating fest.


some school children in traditional costume and singing

kids with their lollipops (snack #1)

ethan at a chocolate cafe (snack #2) - that chocolate drink is not your typical hot cocoa, it's actually melted chocolate. joe couldn't bear to drink it, so he took the kid's ice cream and whip cream and ate the chocolate with a spoon.

pretty gross, i know but they did have a whole roasted pig in middle of the square.

kid's snack #3, snack #4, snack #5 is not pictured, roasted honey cashews, kielbasa and bagel (kids told joe that they wanted to feed the pigeons but they ended up eating it all. . . . .) this is all on top of regular lunch they had. unbelievable. this is what happens when the kids spend lengthy time with daddy. . . . they love it.

video of the market square - all the stalls are there for christmas, selling all kinds of goodies!

holiday market

makayla's school has this thing called holiday market - where they get donation from the parents and kids gets to go shopping to buy something for their family. it's fun for them but basically it's a fund raising for the school - parents donate little stocking stuffers and give money for the kids to buy them. anyhow, i was determined to make something with my sewing machine. and these are stuff i came up with.

little tissue holders - perfect for this cold season with all the runny nose!

colored pencil or marker holder - this took way too much work so i only ended up making one :P

when opened. . . . .

Oh my goodness, makayla came back from school today with her purchase from the holiday market. i can not believe what she came back with! we gave her 50 zlotys which is about $20 and this is what she brought:

1. ONE dum dum lollipop

2. pack of pez refills (not even the dispenser!!!)

3. little plastic tiger thing for ethan

4. little Bratz notepad

ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? I know it's a fundraiser for the school, so i didn't mind giving the money but c'mon, REALLY? definitely, next year, i'm going to get involved!!! they can't be that desperate for money - they charge an arm and a leg for tuition!!!!

unto happier(?) topic.

i had a funny exchange with ethan. ethan wanted to fight so he grabbed himself a plastic bat and handed over an infant aspirator to mommy and said "here, sword, fight."

mommy: it's not fair, your sword is so much bigger.

ethan: (ignoring mommy's comment) fight, fight, fight!!!

we start to fight and ofcourse ethan ends up hitting my hand since my sword is the size of my hand!!

mommy: ethan, give me a bigger sword!

ethan: o....kkkkk..... (hands me over the little bigger fishing pole)

mommy: this is not that much bigger - give me the bigger one. (pointing to the bat)

ethan: here it is! (still handing over the fishing pole)

here's the recap of what happened - you can hear ethan say his most favorite phrase these days - "no way jose" - we have no clue where he picked that up but he now adds jose to everything including "go away jose" - and the typical exchange with daddy goes something like this :

ethan: "go away jose"

daddy: "i'm not jose - are you jose?"

ethan: "no, you are"

daddy: "no, you are jose."

ethan: "no way jose."

Thanksgiving

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

For us, couple of American families got together for a turkey and all that comes with it. It was nice to be able to celebrate it together with a real Butterball turkey! (one of the family is in the military so they have access to the commissary in the base in Germany) Everything was so good - though it was everyone's first time to make Thanksgiving dinner - they were used to being invited to a full meal at their parents/relatives' place- we were all like "how do you carve a turkey???" Well, there's first to everything! and it was done well!

andy scraping every bit of turkey meat he can find.

Thanks to his effort, kids were well fed!

Mak satisfied with her turkey - especially the spongebob mac and cheese!

craft time with daddies - they made bobble head turkey - it was followed by comments by dads "it's the hardest thing i've ever done" - these cheap craft kits are very complicated and the glue takes about a day to dry.

and some soccer to burn off some calories.

they really got into the foam letters

we finished the evening with ethan punishing daddy the letter head monster.

list with the mostest

Disclaimer: obviously it's not really the "most" anything - there are many interesting things here and many pathetic things i do but it's just a list i came up with on a whim. . . . .

Most pathetic thing i do weekly - check online target weekly ads.

Most overpriced item i bought - $8 for yellow radish - takuan.

Most overpriced item joe bought - $160 oil change at the honda dealership - he and his co-worker didn't even ask for the price when they went - people there were probably like "rich americans - suckers!! will give them the most expensive racing car oil we have!!!"

Most underpriced item i bought - nothing!! everything is much more expensive than in the states!

Most surprising thing about Poland - young people here are very stylish - i've seen even young moms decked out in high heeled boots with tailored coats and full make up.

Most pleasant surprise of this house - the house is so dry, it dries our wet laundry in half a day.

Most unpleasant surprise of this house - the house is so dry, it makes ethan's nose bleed.

Most surprising thing about myself living in Poland - i'm a natural born cook. i would just whip up something out of nothing - now joe is afraid to cook anything b/c he might mess it up

Most unexpected thing about me living here - i have not bought a single thing for myself since i arrived here in july - only necessities. not even one nail polish!!!! i went to the mall today determined to buy a winter hat, couldn't find one that looked nice - either too trendy or utilitarian. when i tried on this trendy one at zara, ethan goes "not so cute, mommy" thanks alot, my angel.

Most confusing thing about grocery shopping here - creams are identified by percentage - so there's 33% smietlana, 18% smietlana, 15% smietlana and 12% smietlana - can you guess which one is sour cream?

Most difficult thing to adopt to here - lack of personal space, i think this has to do with something about being a developing country, i remember feeling that way in korean as well. they are all over you when you withdraw cash from ATM or standing in line for anyting.

Most easy thing to adopt here - beautiful summers! the temperature is perfect, outdoor cafes are awesome, eating out is cheap and architecture has character!

Most interesting thing i noticed - cashiers here don't hand back your change in your hand. even when i have my hand out, they put it down in this plastic dish they have by the cashier. then it takes me 3 minutes to slide each coin back into my hand. why is that?

Most backward thing here - music on the radio. everything here seem to have moved on with the western culture - but what's up with the tina turner and michael jackson on the radio???? i'm tired of listening to "private dancer" in taxi rides. if you don't know who sang "private dancer", you didn't grow up in the 80's i suppose.

London!

My trip to London was a whirlwind! Arrived Wednesday at noon and left Thursday morning at 10! I couldn't leave the kids longer than one night with a babysitter - yeah, i'm such a good mom :)

Ofcourse, joe wouldn't just let me sip my latte in peace, we had to explore, maximize, maximize!! it was a full day - and i'm definitely coming back! London felt just like NY except the buildings are lower and more historical. i thoroughly enjoyed being in the city but at the same time came out grateful about Krakow as well! Man, London is soooo expensive, it's no joke. (especially with the falling dollar. . . .) Joe told me that his co-worker in the London office is married to this Ph.D. engineer and THEY can't even afford anything in the city. so they rent this one room in the apartment where they have to share a kitchen and a bathroom with 3 other people. oh, and the room barely fits queen size bed. can you imagine? that just won't fly with me, i'll be sure to take a picture of the lap of luxury we live in and remind myself that at least i'm not living in a matchbox though i don't understand what anyone is saying! As soon as i landed, i smiled to Joe and said "it's nice that i can read all the signs :)"

This was our itineray -
1. Arrived in London
2. Head straight to Chinatown for a meal and shopping. We brought our suitcase to the supermarket and filled it up with Asian goodies - no shame for this ajumma. We first went to this Japanese place and had sushi but it was totally not satisfying that i demanded to get some wonton noodle soup in a Chinese restaurant - which we did. that was good - but i miss Sang Kee ~ I miss your wonton roasted pork noodle soup. . .
3. Checked in to our hotel, washed up a bit.
4. Then off to the National Gallery. and this museum was FREE (donation highly recommended!) - and it really had a GREAT collection! We couldn't see most of it because some rooms were closed due to staff strike and we didn't have enough time but definitely worth a visit - it's right next to the National Portrait Gallery which had an exhibition on pop artist portraits - was tempted to veer that way but didn't have enough time and didn't want to pay $20 to just run through an exhbition!
5. We walked a bit to see some parts of the Parliament and Big Ben.
6. Then the plan was off to Harrod's for some shopping and Krispy Kremes. we followed our google map to our destination only to find that it was WRONG - damn you - google map!
7. This nice couple we asked for directions gave us a recommendation for an Italian place nearby the theatre. And it was really good! One of the best seafood pasta i've had.
8. We saw "Wicked" at 7:30pm - i'll review that show later. . . .
9. Went back to the hotel exhausted.
10. Got up at 6:45am to grab a full English breakfast - yum.
11. Me off to the airport and Joe off to his meetings.

BTW, my kids were totally fine. My babysitter laughed and said that Ethan didn't ask for us once. He didn't even answer the phone when I called. Makayla talked to me on the phone but as soon as I told her that there was ice cream in the freezer for them, she left the phone without saying good-bye. My babysitter picked up the phone chuckling and said bye. Oh, and thank you for those who's been praying for Mak and I - we're feeling much better and Makayla's been back to her old self for the past several days which is helping me feel better.

We didn't take many pictures since it's kind of boring to take them without the kids but here's a few to commemorate my first visit to London.
London underground - just like Seoul! and not stinky like NY.
Big Ben - quite beautiful at night.
My seafood pasta - yummmy. i can go for that right now!
My two cents on "Wicked" - thoroughly enjoyed it and i understand why people say this is their favorite musical on broadway. Amazing voice, clever storyline, interesting stage sets and fun songs. If you go see it, you definitely won't be disappointed.

All that said, I couldn't help feel a bit uncomfortable about the message. I think most of you know that it's about the wicked witch in wizard of Oz and how she really wasn't 'wicked' - just misunderstood or 'framed'. ofcourse, it's just a clever story and i have NOTHING against it but i feel like that's the kind of propaganda i've been exposed to heavily in the last decade. Identification of evil and good is blurred - nothing is ever good and nothing is ever evil - depending on your perspective. Everything is grey. I think that's how society interprets good and bad now. There's an explanation to everything - when someone does something evil, it's because of their upbringing (believe me, as a social worker and a person with lots of issues - i KNOW what that's about!) - however, then where's personal accountability and responsibility? Because everything is up to our interpretation, we can never have any absolutes - and THAT bothers me. Will we recognize 'good' and 'evil' when we see it? or does it all depend?

Golden Compass is coming out in the theaters soon. I didn't read the book but my literary expert, Hyelee has filled me in on what that book is about. And it sounds like the exact same propaganda - is what we consider 'good', actually 'good'? or have we been fooled and only enlightened minds will see that what we actually consider 'bad' is indeed 'good'. It wouldn't be as scary if this book wasn't targeted toward young minds - i think it's required reading in the public schools for 7th graders or so? anyhow, i don't really intend to discuss anything serious on this blog but just a thought or two triggered by the musical.