Aloka's Adventures: Mimi and Baba

That's what Aloka calls her Grandparents (Josh's mom and dad). My last post had a few snippits

of Jim outside with us, but I have many more photos!
We had a great time, and Aloka was on cloud 9. They brought her a giant heap of beautiful clothes from Europe when they were there last July, which was so incredible. The clothes there are just so well made and beautiful!

Every morning she would wake up and then wake me up saying "mama , mama, mama can I go out to see Mimi and Baba? And of course we'd mumble in our sleep, "No, they're still sleeping". Then she'd tiptoe over to the door and peek out to see if she could hear them. If she did, she'd get so excited and come tell me "they're awake!!" And then go out to see them, at first feeling shy, and then as soon as they greeted her with open arms, she'd crawl into their bed (This is what she did, based on what she'd tell me later. Josh and I were always taking the blissful opportunity to sleep in!)

We didn't really do much for American Thanksgiving, but if you can call Indian food celebrating, we sure did that! We went to a nice little Indian restaurant Josh and I had never been to before (called "Baba's", ha! Aloka especially found that funny) and it was so yummy! Josh and I are definitely going back soon! We also went to a nice but freezing cold Christmas craft faire. It was held in the hockey arena so they had put a temporary floor on the ice, and it was freezing!! I felt so sorry for the vendors. Last year this same faire was in a really nice place where the ambiance and the temperature was much warmer. I looked at the paper that weekend and there were 9 craft faires!! Then 5 more the next weekend, and still more this weekend. Nelson and the surrounding areas are so rich with arts and crafts!

Then on Sunday the 26th we celebrated Josh's 32nd birthday! In the morning while we were still sleeping, Jim, Lynn and Aloka
hung streamers and balloons up all over the place. When we got up, I made a pancake breakfast and Josh opened his presents.

What fun!

On the day they left, Aloka said goodbye to them in the morning, and then went to school. She was so so sad about them leaving.

I took a couple pictures of Aloka (the one on the left) and the other children coming out of Dena's house (where the playgroup is), I just love icicles! We have some huge ones at our house too, it's been so snowy here this past week!

We have a lot of fun Waldorfy types of events coming up in the next week. We'll be doing an "advent spiral" which I'll post about afterwards, and there is also the famous (in the Waldorf ciruit) "Waldorf Winter Faire", where you can find all sorts of beautiful handmade crafts, furniture, toys, you name it. You can imagine what it's like in a town like Nelson; there's an abundance of beautiful wares!

Here is also a photo just after I picked her up from school, and she's talking to Josh on my (new) cell phone.