Sunday, December 7, 2008

St Marton Nap

I'm so behind on keeping this blog up to date. This time of year is overwhelmingly busy. On top of everyday stuff like working, school, extra curricular activities, shopping, homework, cleaning, cooking, etc we have x-mas shopping, decorating, holiday parties, school plays, etc. Tonight is our annual tree-trimming party. Every year we invite all the Budapest managers and their spouses / partners and their children for a traditional tree-trimming afternoon / evening. This year our tree is not as big as our 4+ meter tree but it's pretty darn close. From 4pm our home will be filled with about 28 - 30 people drinking champagne and helping us decorate our Christmas tree. We started this tradition about 5 years ago and hold this even in our home the first Sunday of December. It started out that I did all the cooking (usually a turkey) but I got smart and decided only to do some finger foods and outsource the rest to a friend's catering company. Much relief. Especially as this year I've contracted what everyone has had over the last few weeks. Fortunately I have no fever, just a sore throat and lots of congestion. I'll ignore it for now as the 'show must go on'.

Just to back peddle a little. I finally managed to download my camera's photos (through the help of one of our IT guys at work) from November 11th. It was Ali's nursery school's St Marton Day celebration. They do it every year to celebrate fall. I've been to many as before Ali attended the Heidi Ovoda nursery school, Terence and Mia used to go there. It's one of my favorite productions. Here are some photos:


T had my other camera and was in charge of getting videos. He got many great ones. Mia maybe our future fashion diva but he definitely has a talent for film! You should see some of his videos that he creates. I've tried to upload them onto this blog but have had trouble. I promise to keep trying as I'd love to share some of them.

The photos below are of the start of the show. Every year the parents are asked to get there about 15 - 30 mins before the children start their show. We go to the top of the school's garden where they have a huge pavilion that looks down over the school and the playground. The show starts with the kids lining up outside of their little classrooms. They start by climbing up the hill with their homemade lanterns singing. It's so adorable (I always tear up).

Ali is about 5th in line holding Brigi's (her teacher, babysitter and 2nd mother at times). Below is a better shot of her looking at T's video camera.

Once they come into the pavilion they line up and sing more songs and even do a few dances. You can see Ali right next to Brigi (3rd kid from the right).

After the show they got to run out into the audience and hug their parents (Curt wasn't there as it started at 4pm and he had to work). She still sometimes does the underbite smile for the camera.

We have lots of fotos like this when I take it of us. It's a bit washed out but still cute.

The last 2 photos below are of the buena vista. The one on the left is looking down from the pavilion where we all waited for the kids to come up at the beginning of the event. Then, at the end of the event, looking back up at it all lit up.