Advent Adventures

Emigration Diary: Advent Adventures

Posted December 5, 2012 by Jenny Foxe in Ramp Specials

No sooner had we thrown out the leftover turkey from Thanksgiving than we started decorating for Christmas. It’s a good two weeks earlier than I would’ve done in Ireland but we kept it simple. We merely festooned the roof in perfectly tasteful icicle lights and put a couple of glowing reindeer in the garden. Oh…and a Santa and some tin soldiers, perhaps a few candycanes. Nothing ostentatious, I swear. We vetoed the giant blow up Spongebob in a Santa hat requested by the kids. We’ve opened the first few days of our chocolate advent calendars and lit the first of four Sunday candles in our wreath. We’ll leave the tree for a couple of weeks because I don’t want to be in possession of a dried out, pineless twig by Christmas.
I was talked into starting a new Christmas tradition by a co-worker: Elf On The Shelf. Pickle is the name my children gave to the elf that came to live with us. He watches and listens to them all day long and when night comes he flies off to Santa to report what he sees and hears, whether they’ve been naughty or nice, and to convey any Christmas wishes. Every morning they have to search the house to see where he flew back to. He could be on a shelf or a table, propped behind a curtain rail or sitting on a globe, but he’s in a different place every day. Obviously, romanced by the cuteness and being such a sucker for any kind of Christmas magic, I didn’t think this through properly before I introduced it. I have woken a few times already at 3am thinking ‘Agh –the elf’ and if I can’t talk George into it, have to stumble around in the dark looking for a new thrilling place for him to land and spend the next day. The little one in particular loves it though. He’s even given him beautifully coloured pictures and love letters to take with him to Santa in an effort to get in the big man’s good books.

I finally managed to sort us all out with health insurance. Here, it is required by the school that children have a ‘well-being’ check-up at least once a year. They checked everything; blood, urine, spine, eyes, ears, height, weight – the works. I am pleased to report that my children are perfectly healthy and have been ‘cleared for contact sports’. The doctor was more than a little surprised when I answered ‘Er… at 9 months’ to when they had their last check-ups. Preventative medicine is compulsory here. The idea of only going to the doctor when you are sick is unheard of. The insurance companies want to know what they are covering. I’ve been for one too. I got a bit of a scare when she suddenly hooked me up to an EKG machine right then and there. I’d been watching American Horror Story: Asylum the night before and all the stickers and clips all over me terrified me almost as much as the nurse’s tut and frown did. It turns out my heart beats just fine though and I don’t think she actually went near my frontal lobe.
Good job, because I’ll need it. Coming up over the next week I have my New York State driving test, two parent/teacher meetings and finally an interview for a proper job in the city. Exciting times! Perhaps the goal I had of being sorted out by Christmas is a possibility after all. I think I’ll do some whispering to Pickle the Elf myself.