Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Playing the WII ~ Thai style ~

The girls got a Wii game for Xmas (they never wanted it, but we bought it anyway this year and NOW they LOVE it), and you can guess it, like watching TV and reading books, they play the WII Thai style as well... no surprise to you isn't it??

Here a view through our willow Xmas tree, I did it again like last year a very modern version of a Xmas tree...



They are so into their game that they didn't even notice me taking these pictures....





Remember that they also watch TV Thai Style? You can read that story here.



That is how we are spending our days during our Xmas break... playing in the pool, playing the Wii, reading new books we've got. Visiting friends who live a bit more outdoors and have many horses, so the girls can ride a pony, swim some more with friends, have fabulous dinners together and just relax, relax and enjoy the Holiday Season!











How do you spend your time during the holidays?
Enjoy it!
Mireille

Saturday, December 25, 2010

a White Xmas!



Merry Xmas all!! Since we don't have snow... I just create my own :-)

Are you having a WHITE Xmas?? I know all of our family is having loads of snow in Europe, but we are in the middle of summer... so a poolside BBQ is what we are having for our Xmas dinner. With Cold Cucumber soup, Coconut/Chili prawns, berry sorbet with pomegranate rubies and sparkling rose, Cedar wood plank Salmon, Beef, Lamb on the BBQ, roasted potatoes, salad with beetroot and feta, and green beans with fresh peas and mint.... YUM YUM YUM!! oh and lychee panacotta and a fresh made plum tart...

This is what we had last night for Xmas eve, we dined outside and the kids opened gifts in between each course... they were so excited! We had some friends over from St.Petersburg-Russia, Tony and Lynne and my dear friend Tehmina with her husband Nadeem, daughter Zoha and son Khizer, and the grandmom was there as well. For them a first Xmas ever (they are muslim)... so that made it extra special for all of us!!

Fresh, light, summer dishes, a dip in the pool, opening gifts, listening to Xmas carols while it is really hot outside... just a different experience...

What is your Xmas like?? What are your dishes and traditions??

Enjoy no matter where you are, if it is cold or hot, it's the time to be jolly!!

And... I want to say a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my DAD, my friend LARA, and another friend STEVE! They all celebrate their Bday today!! Lot's of love to you all!! I hope you have a wonderful and special day today!!

Love, Mireille

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Happy Holidays to you all!



A Merry Xmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year to you all!

greetings,
Mireille

Friday, December 17, 2010

I ♥ Pucca

When I was still living in Thailand and just got the girls in 2002, I found this cartoon character Pucca all over the stores and I fell in love with this cute little girl that reminded me a bit of my cute girls!

So I bought all the shirts, dresses and cute pencils cases, erasers and all the commercial stuff that you can buy in Thailand when something new comes out! But I think I liked it better than JJ and Jezz :-) They weren't that enthusiastic about Pucca as I was. Even now and a few years back when I tried to make the girls hair in those 2 little cute pop tails on top of their heads... just like Pucca... they didn't like it too much... Oh well, I still Pucca, even though the girls are totally over it!



¿Who is Pucca?

Pucca is a media franchise created by the South Korean company VOOZ. Pucca is a young eleven-year-old Chinese girl that lives with her guardians and works in a noodle shop in Sooga Village -- a small village in the mountains. She is in love with a twelve-year-old boy, the ninja Garu. Her love is unrequited and she often chases and kisses him. She will do anything to gain his affections, even though Garu doesn't return her feelings.



Pucca is also a cartoon series, a Korean "manhwa" (Korean comic), Flash series and is featured on merchandise, such as stationary, notebooks, diaries, toys, books, jewelry and many other items. Pucca has gained popularity since its creation and is quite popular in Europe and Asia. After its Disney television series was launced, Pucca has gained something of a cult following in the United States. Pucca's manhwa, cartoons, and animations have been translated in English, Chinese, Spanish and German..



Aww... Jasmine & Juliet as Pucca, at age 3 in their cute Oilily shirts... Cuteness galore!



So what do you think of Pucca? Do you Pucca as well? Or you can't be bothered?? Or do you have another cartoon that you totally adore? Tell me!

Have a Fabulous Friday!
Mireille

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Kiva ~ Phoebe Ikhiuwu ~ mission accomplished!

In May 2008 I loaned some money to Phoebe Ikhiuwu via Kiva. See the link here where I wrote about this project that is really dear to my heart!

I supported Phoebe Ikhiuwu from Benin City in Nigeria who started a small business as a wrapper, a lady who sells traditional women's clothes. And since I was just planning to move to Africa at that point and was totally in love with West African fabrics this woman was just the perfect fit for me to support her.



So now I thought let me check up on her and see what became of her loan and her business. Well, to my surprise (or not really surprise but happiness) I see that she totally paid back her loan and is in full business!! How great is that!! See this link here and you can see for yourself! You even see a picture of me as one of the 25 lenders!

So I can use my money again to support another great project and I am looking around, seeing which one comes again close to my heart. I really like this KIVA organisation, they are just doing amazing work... follow up, you can keep track even after 2 1/2 years that I checked the info is still there!!

So if you like to support somebody for the Holiday Season, isn't this the GREATEST opportunity??

Check it out and I am sure you will fall in love with one entrepreneur that is trying so hard to better her/his life, go and click here to go directly to Kiva's website and help her/him. It is for such a good cause!!



About Kiva

Kiva's mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva empowers individuals to lend to an entrepreneur across the globe. By combining microfinance with the internet, Kiva is creating a global community of people connected through lending.

Kiva was born of the following beliefs:

People are by nature generous, and will help others if given the opportunity to do so in a transparent, accountable way.
The poor are highly motivated and can be very successful when given an opportunity.
By connecting people we can create relationships beyond financial transactions, and build a global community expressing support and encouragement of one another.

Kiva promotes:

Dignity: Kiva encourages partnership relationships as opposed to benefactor relationships. Partnership relationships are characterized by mutual dignity and respect.
Accountability: Loans encourage more accountability than donations where repayment is not expected.
Transparency: The Kiva website is an open platform where communication can flow freely around the world.

As of November 2009, Kiva has facilitated over $100 million in loans.


Go to KIVA and become a lender, it will make your day!! As small as $25 you can start giving, and it comes back! That's the beauty of it all!! I will keep you updated on my next entrepreneur that can count on MY support!

Have a great day y'all!
Mireille

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Merry Christmas in different languages....

Finally the Xmas spirit is kicking in a bit here, I have put up the 'Xmas tree' (willow branches with ornaments) although the lights have broken already 2 times, so now I have to get these out again and purchase for the 3rd time new ones.... TIA ~ This is Africa!! bad quality whatever you buy!! So pictures will follow later...

We went to a wine tasting a while back and just got our new bottles delivered and we tried them with a few friends.... while listening to a Xmas CD... so the spirit is entering our house!! Slowly but surely...

Here some translations if you like to impress your friends with a few languages... haha hard to impress these days, most people speak 3 or 4 languages around here! (or more!) But anyway....

My cards are going to the post office today... another thing that brings me into the spirit! I printed 220, and it almost felt like an assembly line getting those done and stuffed into envelopes...

And I am making Xmas crafts, organizing Xmas foods for parties to come... yeah slowly we are getting there!! It is hard when it is summer time to get into the spirit, I tell you double the work!! How about you, are you getting into the spirit of the holiday season?

How "Merry Christmas" is said in .....

Afrikaans: Geseënde Kersfees
Afrikander: Een Plesierige Kerfees
African/ Eritrean/ Tigrinja: Rehus-Beal-Ledeats
Albanian:Gezur Krislinjden
Arabic: Milad Majid
Argentine: Feliz Navidad
Armenian: Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand
Azeri: Tezze Iliniz Yahsi Olsun
Bahasa Malaysia: Selamat Hari Natal
Basque: Zorionak eta Urte Berri On!
Bengali: Shuvo Naba Barsha
Bohemian: Vesele Vanoce
Bosnian: (BOSANSKI) Cestit Bozic i Sretna Nova godina
Brazilian: Feliz Natal
Breton: Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat
Bulgarian: Tchestita Koleda; Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo
Catalan: Bon Nadal i un Bon Any Nou!
Chile: Feliz Navidad
Chinese: (Cantonese) Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun
Chinese: (Mandarin) Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan
Choctaw: Yukpa, Nitak Hollo Chito
Columbia: Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo
Cornish: Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth
Corsian: Pace e salute
Crazanian: Rot Yikji Dol La Roo
Cree: Mitho Makosi Kesikansi
Croatian: Sretan Bozic
Czech: Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok
Danish: Glædelig Jul
Duri: Christmas-e- Shoma Mobarak
Dutch: Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar! or Zalig Kerstfeast
English: Merry Christmas
Eskimo: (inupik) Jutdlime pivdluarit ukiortame pivdluaritlo!
Esperanto: Gajan Kristnaskon
Estonian: Rõõmsaid Jõulupühi
Ethiopian: (Amharic) Melkin Yelidet Beaal
Faeroese: Gledhilig jol og eydnurikt nyggjar!
Farsi: Cristmas-e-shoma mobarak bashad
Finnish: Hyvaa joulua
Flemish: Zalig Kerstfeest en Gelukkig nieuw jaar
French: Joyeux Noel
Frisian: Noflike Krystdagen en in protte Lok en Seine yn it Nije Jier!
Galician: Bo Nada
Gaelic: Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ùr!
German: Fröhliche Weihnachten
Greek: Kala Christouyenna!
Haiti: (Creole) Jwaye Nowel or to Jesus Edo Bri'cho o Rish D'Shato Brichto
Hausa: Barka da Kirsimatikuma Barka da Sabuwar Shekara!
Hawaiian: Mele Kalikimaka
Hebrew: Mo'adim Lesimkha. Chena tova
Hindi: Shub Naya Baras (good New Year not Merry Christmas)
Hungarian: Kellemes Karacsonyi unnepeket
Icelandic: Gledileg Jol
Indonesian: Selamat Hari Natal
Iraqi: Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah
Irish: Nollaig Shona Dhuit, or Nodlaig mhaith chugnat
Iroquois: Ojenyunyat Sungwiyadeson honungradon nagwutut. Ojenyunyat osrasay.
Italian: Buone Feste Natalizie
Japanese: Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto
Jiberish: Mithag Crithagsigathmithags
Korean: Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Lao: souksan van Christmas
Latin: Natale hilare et Annum Faustum!
Latvian: Prieci'gus Ziemsve'tkus un Laimi'gu Jauno Gadu!
Lausitzian:Wjesole hody a strowe nowe leto
Lettish: Priecigus Ziemassvetkus
Lithuanian: Linksmu Kaledu
Low Saxon: Heughliche Winachten un 'n moi Nijaar
Luxembourgish: Schèine Chreschtdaag an e gudde Rutsch
Macedonian: Sreken Bozhik
Maltese: IL-Milied It-tajjeb
Manx: Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa
Maori: Meri Kirihimete
Marathi: Shub Naya Varsh (good New Year not Merry Christmas)
Navajo: Merry Keshmish
Norwegian: God Jul, or Gledelig Jul
Occitan: Pulit nadal e bona annado
Papiamento: Bon Pasco
Papua New Guinea: Bikpela hamamas blong dispela Krismas na Nupela yia i go long yu
Pennsylvania German: En frehlicher Grischtdaag un en hallich Nei Yaahr!
Peru: Feliz Navidad y un Venturoso Año Nuevo
Philippines: Maligayang Pasko!
Polish: Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia or Boze Narodzenie
Portuguese:Feliz Natal
Pushto: Christmas Aao Ne-way Kaal Mo Mobarak Sha
Rapa-Nui (Easter Island): Mata-Ki-Te-Rangi. Te-Pito-O-Te-Henua
Rhetian: Bellas festas da nadal e bun onn
Romanche: (sursilvan dialect): Legreivlas fiastas da Nadal e bien niev onn!
Rumanian: Sarbatori vesele or Craciun fericit
Russian: Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom
Sami: Buorrit Juovllat
Samoan: La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou
Sardinian: Bonu nadale e prosperu annu nou
Scots Gaelic: Nollaig chridheil huibh
Serbian: Hristos se rodi.
Singhalese: Subha nath thalak Vewa. Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa
Slovak: Vesele Vianoce. A stastlivy Novy Rok
Slovene: Vesele Bozicne Praznike Srecno Novo Leto or Vesel Bozic in srecno Novo leto
Spanish: Feliz Navidad
Swedish: God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt År
Tagalog: Maligayamg Pasko. Masaganang Bagong Taon
Tamil: (Tamizh) Nathar Puthu Varuda Valthukkal (good New Year not Merry Christmas)
Trukeese: (Micronesian) Neekiriisimas annim oo iyer seefe feyiyeech!
Thai: Sawadee Pee Mai or souksan wan Christmas
Turkish: Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun
Ukrainian: Srozhdestvom Kristovym or Z RIZDVOM HRYSTOVYM
Urdu: Naya Saal Mubarak Ho (good New Year not Merry Christmas)
Vietnamese: Chuc Mung Giang Sinh
Welsh: Nadolig Llawen
Yoruba: E ku odun, e ku iye'dun!





By the way; are you dressing up your cat or dog?? I like to see pictures of that!

I am a room mom at school, and today I am preparing these crafts, so the kids can assemble them on Thursday when we have the Xmas party. What kind of crafts are you making??



Enjoy all the festivities that are going on...
Mireille

Sunday, December 12, 2010

A Dutch twist to the holiday season....

You probably know that Dirk and me are from the Netherlands, but we haven't lived there since 1999. However, we still spike our lives with Dutch traditions and one of those old traditions in Holland during this Christmas season in our house was drinking 'een advokaatje' a stronger version of egg nog, it is a rich and creamy liqueur made from eggs, sugar and brandy. It has a smooth, custard-like flavor. Especially the older ladies in the household LOVED it!! They would sit by the fireplace during the holiday season and have a tiny glass and nibble with a small spoon out of their sinful treat :-)

But what they also would do is give little spoonfuls to kids as well... probably when my mother was not looking, and me and my brothers would get the opportunity to get high on this thick custard!

These sneaky old ladies were probably trying to sedate us little kids so we were not too loud, I bet that is why they did it!!



But coming back to this drink: ADVOCAAT I was thinking to try this again, but now as an adult, it is totally an old-fashioned drink in my eyes... but old times revive in fashion, so why not in drinks... so I did some research and found these yummy versions, which I am definitely going to try this holiday season!

Sunday treat: Coffee with an Advocaatje!



Above the old fashioned version, below some mixes and newer concoctions!!

Dutch Breakfast

1 measure Gin
1 tsp Galliano
1 measure Advocaat
0.5 measure sugar syrup
0.5 measure lemon juice
0.5 measure lime juice
Method:
Shake all ingredients together with ice and strain into an ice-filled glass.

Dutch Coffee

1 measure Advocaat
1 cup black coffee
Method:
Allow the coffee to cool for one minute. Stir in the Advocaat and add sugar to taste.

Dutch Courage

1 measure Gin
1 measure Advocaat
6 measures Apple juice
1 measure lemon juice
Method:
Shake all ingredients together with ice and strain into ice-filled glass.

Dutch egg custard martini

2 measures standard Vodka
0.5 measure Bourbon
0.5 measure Vanilla Vodka
1 measure Advocaat
1 measure sugar syrup
Method:
Stir all ingredients with ice, in a cocktail shaker and strain into a Martini glass.

So if you like to give this Holiday Season also a Dutch twist, go to the liquor store and buy yourself a bottle of Advocaat and go for these yummy drinks, you will LOVE it!!.... just like those sneaky old ladies in my family!!

I am going to give it a try this vacation! It will bring back loads of memories!! Tell me one of your best memories of the holidays when you were a child! I like to hear about it!

Have a good Sunday!
Mireille

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Sneak peek....

Here a sneak peek of our Xmas cards I am working on, hopefully they will get out this week!!



This is a pop-art version, so NOT the original... I just wanted you to be looking forward to the real one :-)

Are you working on your cards, are they out already or not sending any??

If you like to include me in your address list and you want to receive a card from me send me your details, and here are mine.

Dijkstra family
PO Box 5588
Halfway House 1685
RSA (Republic of South Africa)

Hope to receive many this year!! Since living here in SA I don't receive as many any more as I used to do in the USA :-(
So please send me one! I love to receive these wonderful holiday greetings!!

Have a Wonderful Wednesday!
Mireille

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

I am totally in love with....

SUZANI EMBROIDERY

You want to know what Suzani Embroidery is?
In short it is gorgeous tribal textiles hand embroidered in Central Asia. It's amazing decorative motifs are bold, vibrant and beautiful. Suzani is known for it’s amazing organic shapes and incredible vibrant colors. The color palette consists of vegetable dyed marvelous vibrant tones.

It has a long tradition in the arts of central Asia, and in Islamic art in general. Traditionally, the skill passed from mother to daughter and certain families became renowned within their communities for their patterns and symbols. So each country and region in Central Asia has its own patterns.

Traditionally, suzanis were made entirely by hand and could take around 18 months to complete. Cotton was the most common ground cloth, woven into long strips about 12” wide. Anywhere from three to six strips were tacked together to create a large piece of cloth. Using black ink, a designer would draw, often freehand, a pattern on the cloth. Once the color scheme was agreed upon, the stripes were separated so that different women could work on the embroidery simultaneously. When the embroidery was complete, the strips were sewn together again. Sometimes the embroidered motifs and colors did not align precisely when the strips were rejoined. Such inconsistencies were not flaws, but simply by-products of the process.

Original Suzani’s can get pretty pricey, but they are a definite works of art, not to mention the fact that they are very labor intensive. However many current versions of Suzani are machine made and are depicted in pillows, throws, upholstery fabric and more.

The most I am enjoying are the new color palettes—particularly the hot pink and purples or bright greens with turquoise, so the traditional art but then with a modern twist! And using new more bold colored fabrics.

See below and dazzle with me!!




























See how versatile it is? You can use it for bags, dresses, blankets, furniture... they even use the pattern on tins. How cute is that? I am just totally in LOVE with this art and patterns!!

You want to try this embroidery stitch yourself, see here how to do it!


Well... I am probably NOT going to try this myself, too much work, but what I can do is ask my good friend Tehmina who comes from Central Asia if she can buy me some nice pieces of fabric!! :-) Or maybe and even BETTER go together on a shopping spree!! What do you think Tehmina??

So what do you think of this embroidered art? You like it?? Or is it too ethnic for you?? Tell me... do you own a piece of Suzani Embroidery??

Enjoy your day!
Mireille

Monday, December 6, 2010

New trend: travel to Africa!

Tourism, like most industries, ebbs and flows, enjoying periodic new, niche markets that sometimes grow into mainstream subsections of the industry and become powerful contributors to revenue and profit.

It is so with ‘cultural tourism‘ - a relatively new trend in tourism - where people visit foreign countries specifically to imbibe the national culture, interact with the local people and intimately understand how history, landscape and time have defined nations as different from each other.



This is the ‘new’ cultural tourism - a visit to a destination not to see great works of art or to visit places of momentous historic interest or to attend the ballet, opera or theatre, but a visit to a destination to meet the people, eat their food, understand and experience their mythologies and religions, sleep in their homes (however humble, or grand) and join them in their rituals.



Although any destination may legitimately be described as a cultural destination, the cultural offerings of some destinations (like South Africa) are simply grittier, more textured and more colourful than others. This, of course, is determined by tourism source markets because destinations that are deemed ‘most cultural’ are declared so by the western European and north American tourists that visit them and who seek cultural ‘differentness’. And western Europe and north America are the largest source markets for most destinations on earth… including destinations in north America and western Europe.

South Africa is peppered with ‘cultural villages‘ where one may go to experience various cultural practices presented in digestible, theatric performances. As enchanting as these performances are, the tourist remains an observer. The real culture tourist wants to participate, and South Africa gives plenty scope for such participation.

It’s on the streets of South Africa - in the villages; towns; cities; game reserves and on the beaches, both remote and popular - that one interacts with the real culture of the most diverse and fascinating nation on earth.

South Africa is home to about 46 million people of astonishing diversity and of numerous cultures, religions, languages and outlooks. Each group has its distinct culture. Yet they all share a common South African identity and culture.

It’s this instinctive common South African identity that intrigues most visitors. South Africans instinctively know, for example, when to speak English to each other… when one of the 11 official mother tongues of the nation is not universally understood among a group of Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans and Sepedi speaking people at a football match.

This easy and frequent use of English has made it the lingua franca of South Africa, and has created an English vocabulary that is uniquely, and charmingly, South African. And it’s universally understood by all South Africans. It is also spoken with pride and patriotism and with a deeply affectionate, palpable sense of belonging. It’s a marker for a tribe with a strong sense of national identity that pervades the regional and cultural differences of Desmond Tutu’s Rainbow Nation. South Africans must be amongst the most tolerant people on earth.

They are tolerant of each other‘s religions and religious practices that are as diverse as high mass on Sundays in glittering cathedrals to tribal cleansing ceremonies and baptisms that occur in the rural hinterland and in suburban parks and gardens.



In South Africa you can attend ritual slaughters; initiation ceremonies; white western-style weddings; traditional weddings (where the bride wears a loincloth and beaded bodice and offers her husband’s family a calabash of home-brewed beer as a symbol of two families uniting); labola ceremonies (where young men pay the ‘bride price’ for the woman they are to marry) and impromptu jazz evenings in drinking houses and clubs.



You can meet boys who take care of the vast Nguni herds in the rural areas of the country, and their grandmothers who weave baskets; work in ceramics and cook over woodfires in the courtyard of the family home.



Then you can join them for dinner and eat roast chicken and boiled crushed maize and beans. You can listen to folk stories told next to a dying fire and apply a secret blend of crushed herbs to your skin to keep the mosquitoes away. You can sleep in the simple, yet comfortable and hospitable homes, that generations have raised their children in and you can wake at dawn to a chorus of wild birdsong, the smell of wood fires and a rooster crowing nearby to greet the rising sun.



(source: Indaba)

Come and visit South Africa! and while we are still here you can come and stay with us, saves you a bit on hotel bills :-)

Enjoy your week!
Mireille

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Sinterklaas Kapoentje gooi wat in mijn schoentje...

It's the last day of putting the shoe in front of the chimney, singing songs for Sinterklaas and hoping for some cute gifts. Well, the girls got some cute gifts. Besides getting some Dutch and English books, which they LOVE.... since reading is all they do!! These girls read and walk, read and watch TV, read and go to the toilet, read and eat, read and sleep... with a book in their hands. So there is NO better gift than a BOOK! Which is good and nice, but in a way I like them also to be a bit more active OUTSIDE!! It is SUMMER here, great weather to swim in our pool.... bike around the compound, go to the park to meet friends... but NO they like to READ!!

So among quite a few books in DUTCH and ENGLISH they got these cute little dolls, that they had seen on our trip to Durban last week... and they were totally surprised that they got them from SINTERKLAAS!! haha... they still haven't figured it out... how fun!!

These dolls are handmade and all unique, they each have their own name, own hobbies, favorite food and drinks... it is all registred on a tag that the doll carries around its neck.... Now I have the task to create a female/male friend for it, otherwise the doll is lonely... so that is my project for the coming week! Why did I get punished like that from Sinterklaas????

Juliet got Isha, th efemale doll with the long hair and Jasmine got black Galago. So now we are creating a boyfriend for Isha and a girlfriend for Galago.... pictures will follow :-(



This week the mother of Khetho (my maid/housekeeper) came to SA from Zimbabwe to see her daugther, since she is 5 months pregnant... Fun to meet the mother... And of course the girls had to pose with their new dolls... ahum... friends for life!! Yeah.. will see how long that lasts :-)



Anyway... it is December 5th, it's Sinterklaas Birthday and on the last day they got their last present... each a book AND a movie. Now gift time is over till December 25th, and finally we can start decorating the house for Xmas!!

While most of my American friends start decorating the house for the Holidays the day after Thanksgiving we have to wait after Sinterklaas! He is going back with his helpers, the black Petes on his steam boat to Spain. And I have to find the Xmas decorations in the garage... Wish me good luck! A touch week coming ahead.... because it is not that easy to find a REAL or FAKE tree here in SA. So I am already thinking of doing the same as last year, and go for totally something different... my WILLOW tree!! We will see if I can find that this week....

More on that later!
Ciao, Mireille

Friday, December 3, 2010

Parade of Nations at AISJ ~ part 2

Since I have so many great pictures of the Parade of Nations at our school here in Johannesburg, I wanted to show you a few more of these beautiful children, wearing proudly their national dress!

Here Juliet & Jasmine the day before the parade, I had to see if the outfits fitted well, otherwise we needed to make some adjustments, but they just looked so adorable and pretty in these gorgeous costumes!
Like little Thai princesses!



It was a hot and sunny day, so the gold in their crowns & jewelry shimmered well. Jasmine in red, Juliet in green.



My little friends Vincent and Sofie in Argentinian outfits.



Beautiful Paula from Columbia.



Adorable Judy from Egypt.



Cutie pie Rina from Japan.



Other gorgeous children in their national dress.



Fleur & Ricardo from the Netherlands! Hup Holland Hup!!



Children from India and Africa side by side!



My little friends Tosin & Tobi from Nigeria.



A gorgeous little girl from Poland, we saw her in my last post as well :-)



And from Thailand are these gorgeous faces: Jen Su with her sons Michael & Sam and my sweetie pies Jasmine & Juliet.



My little friends from Brazil; Rafael & Fernanda.



Some of the kids watching the parade, with the gorgeous grounds in the back.



Here my friends; Lidia from Nigeria, Tehmina from Pakistan, Dunke from Nigeria with Jezz & JJ. We will miss you Lidia, who is back in Nigeria now ;-(



And last but not least: JJ and Jezz with their good friend Elle from the USA.



Aren't these just gorgeous faces from all over the world!!

I just LOVE the Parade of Nations, it is such a great event for everybody.
Really proud of being part of this AISJ community here in Johannesburg!

Have a great weekend y'all!
Mireille

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