This time in English...
School will be over tomorrow and Emma & Saara will have holidays until the end of January. The length of the Christmas holidays here always amazes everyone - especially family & friends in Finland who are used to schools having max 2 weeks holiday at Christmas time. Christmas holiday will bring here first Mamu, Pappa and Heini and then later on Nana will come from Abu Dhabi. For Nigel and me the Christmas break won't be so long of course - surgery training courses continue and we have now also the parallel Mission Rabies and Mission Rabies truck training programs going on - which means busy times and travelling. However, we try to work out the schedules so that we get to be on the farm as well, take care of the animals there and just enjoy home. Nigel has planted again oats on a rented field in Ooty to have enough feed for all our horses, cows and donkeys during the dry season and I'm forever dreaming that one day I will have some sort of garden...
We have been enjoying Christmas preparations already for over a month. Emma, Saara & friends have baked gingerbread biscuits for sale to raise money for Mizpah-home (www.mizpahhome.com) through the Hebron school Student Council initiative. They have clearly enjoyed the idea of giving and I have enjoyed watching their joy and excitement and hard work in baking and decorating cards to go along with the biscuit packages.
For Christmas card this year, the girls made a giant Christmas card using old Christmas cards and scrap - OK, I did help them as well because it was fun to do this together! Then took photo of it and made 75+ copies and added our this year's favorite Christmas carol's (Mary's boy child) words. "Long time ago in Betlehem..."
Through Christmas carol singing, Saara has got little more interested in Finnish and she often asks me to sing some Finnish songs when we drive up and down between Ooty and Mavanalla. A surprising favorite of Saara's is "Tiernapojat" [The Star boys' singing procession has children and young people walking about with a movable star on a rod. The singing procession and the folk drama had its roots in an old medieval ecclesiastical play, centred on the Three Magi of the Christmas story in the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 2,1-28), appropriate to Epiphany. - English explanation from wikipedia]. I have always really liked Tiernapojat - it brings nice memories of my father and uncles singing it together when we were small and then later on with my sisters and brother performing it - not quite so perfectly - to parents and neighbours on Christmas Eve and then more recently singing it with my dad after Christmas dinner here in India. Saara would ask, "Sing the song you would sing with Pappa" - when she wishes to sing Tiernapojat. Seems I have found one more Finnish tradition that I can try to pass on to our girls.
The other one is this. Korvapuustit. The Finnish version of cinnamon rolls.
Another mega-project that Emma & the other girls from standard 4 have had during the past couple of months was to get prepared for the Student Council event dance contest "So you think you can dance". Without any adult help they practiced the song and dance for Katy Perry's "Firework" and amazed everyone by signing in to this dance competition where all the others were 8th std students and older. Our little Spicegirls did not even have the music with them to practice but they first had to learn the song and lyrics by heart and then practice their dance movements by just singing themselves. The words described the feeling of their stage performance so well "There is a spark in you... just own the night..." Audience cheered and clapped and whistled - and we parents were SO proud of course! And happy that our girls come up with such ideas to do fun stuff together.Just imagine what this gang is capable of when they are in middle and senior schools!
Little Saara has had her share of confidence boosts through riding Lily the pony on the weekends at home as well as riding Hercules the pony once a week at school with the Leg Up program. She now manages Lily in trot by herself and that has clearly made her think that she is capable for anything and in no time will be cantering across the fields. Emma is eagerly waiting for that so that all three of us could go riding together. I enjoy riding my Riia and I enjoy being with my fellow-Silver Shoe Pony Clubbers/ Cowgirls and their ponies and learning from the girls important horsemanship techniques like the TTouch, Parelli methods and join-up. Heartland books and episodes watched from youtube are absolutely favorites here and the children are happy to teach their mother more about horses.
Durga and Malliga visit us often on Sundays to get Durga's weekly supply of porridge powder and milk powder. The substitute big sisters are becoming increasingly shy in speaking Tamil but they like to see little Durga and play with her.
Wishing you all wonderful Christmas time!
School will be over tomorrow and Emma & Saara will have holidays until the end of January. The length of the Christmas holidays here always amazes everyone - especially family & friends in Finland who are used to schools having max 2 weeks holiday at Christmas time. Christmas holiday will bring here first Mamu, Pappa and Heini and then later on Nana will come from Abu Dhabi. For Nigel and me the Christmas break won't be so long of course - surgery training courses continue and we have now also the parallel Mission Rabies and Mission Rabies truck training programs going on - which means busy times and travelling. However, we try to work out the schedules so that we get to be on the farm as well, take care of the animals there and just enjoy home. Nigel has planted again oats on a rented field in Ooty to have enough feed for all our horses, cows and donkeys during the dry season and I'm forever dreaming that one day I will have some sort of garden...
We have been enjoying Christmas preparations already for over a month. Emma, Saara & friends have baked gingerbread biscuits for sale to raise money for Mizpah-home (www.mizpahhome.com) through the Hebron school Student Council initiative. They have clearly enjoyed the idea of giving and I have enjoyed watching their joy and excitement and hard work in baking and decorating cards to go along with the biscuit packages.
For Christmas card this year, the girls made a giant Christmas card using old Christmas cards and scrap - OK, I did help them as well because it was fun to do this together! Then took photo of it and made 75+ copies and added our this year's favorite Christmas carol's (Mary's boy child) words. "Long time ago in Betlehem..."
Through Christmas carol singing, Saara has got little more interested in Finnish and she often asks me to sing some Finnish songs when we drive up and down between Ooty and Mavanalla. A surprising favorite of Saara's is "Tiernapojat" [The Star boys' singing procession has children and young people walking about with a movable star on a rod. The singing procession and the folk drama had its roots in an old medieval ecclesiastical play, centred on the Three Magi of the Christmas story in the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 2,1-28), appropriate to Epiphany. - English explanation from wikipedia]. I have always really liked Tiernapojat - it brings nice memories of my father and uncles singing it together when we were small and then later on with my sisters and brother performing it - not quite so perfectly - to parents and neighbours on Christmas Eve and then more recently singing it with my dad after Christmas dinner here in India. Saara would ask, "Sing the song you would sing with Pappa" - when she wishes to sing Tiernapojat. Seems I have found one more Finnish tradition that I can try to pass on to our girls.
The other one is this. Korvapuustit. The Finnish version of cinnamon rolls.
Another mega-project that Emma & the other girls from standard 4 have had during the past couple of months was to get prepared for the Student Council event dance contest "So you think you can dance". Without any adult help they practiced the song and dance for Katy Perry's "Firework" and amazed everyone by signing in to this dance competition where all the others were 8th std students and older. Our little Spicegirls did not even have the music with them to practice but they first had to learn the song and lyrics by heart and then practice their dance movements by just singing themselves. The words described the feeling of their stage performance so well "There is a spark in you... just own the night..." Audience cheered and clapped and whistled - and we parents were SO proud of course! And happy that our girls come up with such ideas to do fun stuff together.Just imagine what this gang is capable of when they are in middle and senior schools!
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| Spicegirls comeback |
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| Spelling homework |
Little Saara has had her share of confidence boosts through riding Lily the pony on the weekends at home as well as riding Hercules the pony once a week at school with the Leg Up program. She now manages Lily in trot by herself and that has clearly made her think that she is capable for anything and in no time will be cantering across the fields. Emma is eagerly waiting for that so that all three of us could go riding together. I enjoy riding my Riia and I enjoy being with my fellow-Silver Shoe Pony Clubbers/ Cowgirls and their ponies and learning from the girls important horsemanship techniques like the TTouch, Parelli methods and join-up. Heartland books and episodes watched from youtube are absolutely favorites here and the children are happy to teach their mother more about horses.
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| Saara & Durga |
Durga and Malliga visit us often on Sundays to get Durga's weekly supply of porridge powder and milk powder. The substitute big sisters are becoming increasingly shy in speaking Tamil but they like to see little Durga and play with her.
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| Cool fun! |
Wishing you all wonderful Christmas time!
