To put you in the Christmas mood...

Merry Christmas!

Love,

The Jacksons

Barcelona

Someone at the school had free airline tickets to Barcelona that they could not use, but they had to be used right away. Bobbi offered to watch the kids, so Andrea and Brian got to take an inexpensive little honeymoon to Barcelona for two days. We had the best time! Here's a brief slideshow of the sights.

Commercial

...We interrupt this blogcast to bring you an advertisement. Our friends, Eddie and Kirsten Moran have started a new web business making Birth Announcements. They're pretty cute too. (The announcements, not the Morans... Though, of course, they are quite nice-looking as well.) If you are expecting, or know someone who is, check out their website: Celebrate Life Announcements. Mention our name and you will receive...well, nothing...except an opportunity to talk about us behind our backs. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...

The Joy of Homeschooling

The beauty of homeschooling is that we can do whatever we want, and act goofy doing it. (Perhaps our next lesson should be a review of the words to "Old MacDonald!")

This video is inspired by the American Greetings e-cards that Grandma often sends to the kids. Click here to see the "professionals" do it. Be sure to leave a comment if you want to see more Chins Twins movies in the future!

Adventures in Ransom #8

Conversation held this morning between Ransom and Brian, typical of their daily talks:

R: Do you know what I want you to build me?

B: Let me guess, a treehouse?

R: No, no, no. Remember I want an outhouse, not a treehouse!

B: Oh.

R: But there's something else that I want.

B: What do you want me to build for you?

R: I want you to build me a robot that is my size and can shoot frozen out of its fingers.

B: I see. What would you do with it?

R: If there's another boy who has a robot that shoots hot out of its fingers I can have my robot shoot frozen to stop it.

B: Oh, that would be useful.

(Pause)

R: Daddy?

B: Yes?

R: Do you think that there is a boy somewhere out there asking his Dad to build him a robot that shoots hot out of his fingers right now?

B: Gosh, I don't know. Do you think so?

R: (Smiling) Yep!

B: What should I build the robot out of?

R: Hmmm...let me think what you should build it out of.

(Pause...priceless look on his thinking face...finger to cheek and eyes looking up.)

R: Oh I know, you can make it out of metal.

B: What kind of metal?

R: Titanium.

B: OK.

R: But how will we get the frozen inside?

B: Maybe we can put the freezer in it.

R: No! It's not ice cubes, it's snow!

B: Oh.

R: Maybe we can go to a place where it snows and fill up the robot with snow. And we can always get lots of buckets of snow and keep them in a room that is frozen, with snow blowers on the ceiling and when we need more snow we will go in the room and get a bucket and throw it into the hand through the arm...but...(finger lightly tapping the chin in contemplation) how will be get the snow blowers on the ceiling?

B: How do you think we should get them on the ceiling?

R: Why don't we can get a tool that can make little lines and we can do it around and we can take out some of the roof and then we can put the snowblowers in...and a fan to blow the snow around the room...and we can see how that works.

(Pause)

R: Hey! Do you think we can do it in the laundry room? I've been thinking of that.

B: That's an idea. I'm glad you've got it all figured out.

R: Yeah, so can you do it right now?

Lisbon

The capital of Portugal had some great sights and amazing architecture, which we viewed from the top of a double-decker bus. Unfortunately we did not do a very good job of taking pictures. Here's pretty much all we've got:

The 6.5 hour drive had really beautiful olive orchards, vineyards, and grassy fields, arguably making Portugal's landscapes superior to those of Spain (Uh...no pictures.)

Surprisingly, everyone's favorite part of the trip was a visit to the Oceanarium where we were able to see amazing species of sea life. Ransom, our little zoologist/marine biologist, was in his element. (Uh...again, no pictures...bad blogger! bad!)

Anyway, despite a few setbacks (getting lost, driving through the "authorized vehicles only" gate (oops), the pre-arranged accommodations falling through, and a lot of walking in search for any sign of fast-food) we had fun exploring a new town and just being with Grammie and Pa!

A Visit from Grammie and Pa

Brian's parents are just getting home from a 10-day visit to Spain. We all had a really great time. Among the highlights were:

Castles:

Public Transportation:

Dad learning how to drive in Spain:

Eating out:

Early Thanksgiving /Christmas:

Chocolate con churros:

And a trip to Lisbon, Portugal! (Images to follow in a subsequent blog post - hopefully.)

Thanks for coming Mom and Dad. We miss you already!

Acting Silly

Grammie and Pa arrived on Thursday and the kids got deleriously silly. Here's a sample.

Adventures in Ransom #7

Ransom has really been into animals of any kind. He can tell you about 20 different types of sharks, how salmon swim upstream, which wales eat what, etc. His latest fascination is the horned lizard. One type can even squirt blood from his eyes. No one believes Ransom when he tells them, but you can click here for proof.

Corrie Story #6

Corrie just finished practicing her piano lesson. She's working on "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Afterward she had the song in her head and was therefore, naturally, singing the lyrics:

"Mary had a little lamb

Little lamb,

Little lamb,

Mary had a little lamb

...its fleas were white as snow!"

Super-Teacher!

Here's Andrea and her class on "Superhero Day." With all the work she's put into this year, she's definitely earned the title.

Big/Little Sib Day

Corrie and Ransom were invited to participate in the school's "Big/Little Sib Day" in which the older kids are paired up with the younger ones for an afternoon of fun and activities. This year's theme was "Superheroes." Here's a picture of Corrie and her big sib Sheila as Super-Princesses.

Here's Ransom and Daniel as Superman (Supermen?) This pose won them a prize in the best character category, by the way.

Here are the super-sibs in the obstacle course. There was no flying allowed, so they removed their capes.

Here are all four, using their super-flying powers.

The Zoo

Sorry for the delay, but we had some difficulties putting this entry together. For Andrea's 30th birthday we went to the Madrid Zoo with our good friend Bobbi, and we had so much fun! Hope you enjoy the show...

(In case you are wondering about the end scene - we got sneezed on by a llama!)

A Treasure Hunt

The hardest part of teaching overseas for me has been... no yard sales! I never realized how much I relied on cheap junk to stock my classroom and project cabinets. It was so easy to follow a couple of signs on the way to wherever I was going on a Saturday morning, gathering books, craft supplies, and all sorts of goodies with my can of pocket change. C'est la vie.
Well, Brian's parents will be visiting us the first part of November and they've offered to fill their extra suitcases with anything we need, and as I was thinking about what size winter pajamas to get for the kids, it occurred to me that they'll be plenty of room for some good junk!
Therefore I am listing some things that I would love to have for my class and if you are willing to hunt for them during October at yard sales, discount stores, or with all those Autumn Michael's coupons you'll be getting... just get them to Rex and Diane to pack for their trip. Thanks!

book and cassette sets
rubber stamps (alphabet letters, words, pictures, etc.)
stickers
stationary
cancelled postage stamps
restaurant or take-out menus

Knitting

Corrie has been after me (Andrea) to teach her how to knit. The extent of my knitting knowledge prior to two weeks ago, however, amounted to a handful of fond childhood memories watching my great grandmother knitting, and of course the experience of how those hand-made afghans kept me warm in bed, roofed forts, curtained stages, etc. So, I had a friend visiting the States pick up a book for us about how to teach a child to knit figuring it must be able to teach a grown up, too, right? We visited a yarn store in Madrid, buying the items we need to make two scarves- one for Corrie, and one for her doll. The project and the colors being selected by Corrie. I opened the book, followed the pictures, and voila! two weeks later we have half a scarf. (I wasn't sure about the endeavor when I started, but it gets easier as you go.) Corrie is a good little knitter, though it's beyond her to do on her own as yet. She'll knit half a dozen stiches at a time and then hand it back to me. In fact, I was sitting on the couch relaxing the other day after school and she reprimanded me: "Why are you just sitting there, Mom? Why aren't you knitting on my scarf?" What a slave driver! It's been a fun project, though. She determines what color comes next in the pattern, and has been really interested in how I change the yarn colors, etc. And it gives me something to do in the evenings while Brian and I read Lord Peter Wimsey. So, who knows, perhaps you'll find a pair of hand-knit socks from the Jackson ladies under your Christmas tree this winter!

Falcons

Last week were the Camarma Fiestas, which includes activities for kids, the Camarma bull-run, fireworks, etc. We only attended a few events, but we did make sure to see the falcons. In the nearby fields, falconers showed off their falcons and tricks. Corrie drew a "falcon" on a piece of paper and taped it to a stick before we left home, parading it there, back, and around for all to see. What the locals thought of the weird American showing off her bird drawing, I don't know. Looked more like an ostrich, really. But the kids had fun and now Ransom thinks that falcons are "so cool."

Challah

Andrea had the day off today. We got to hang out at home and do chores. Andrea wins the prize for "most productive." Take a look at these babies:

It's Jewish braided bread, called Challah (you have to hack up some phlegm to pronounce it correctly). Here's the recipe for any of you with the chutzpah to try it.

(And yes, those kitchen walls are chocolate brown, orange, and creme. Don't get jealous.)

Girl Day/Boy Day

There was no school last Thursday, so the Jackson girls went to a Museum with Miss McGraw (4th-5th Grade Teacher) and Miss Pi (1st Grade Teacher). The Thyssen Museum in Madrid has a special exhibit featuring portraits from the last 2 months of Van Gogh's life. Corrie and Andrea are fans of impressionism ever since Corrie's art class. Therefore, the Jackson boys stayed home and had a "boy day," which means wrestling, pizza-making, and 3 hours of "Rescue Ranger" cartoons.

The girls on their outing:

...and the boys:

Reading

Corrie has really been into The Boxcar Children. I think she is now on book #12 in the series. She loves the mystery and suspnse of all those new adventures that Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny find themselves in. Fortunatley there are like, six-hundred-million left in the series, so she will stay busy for a while. Ransom, on the other hand, is in love with just one particular book at the moment: The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food. He doesn't seem to get the point that too much junk food is a bad thing. He just loves to hear you tell him about how Brother and Sister Bear get to eat delicious treats like Choco-Chums and Yum-Puffs, Sugar Balls, and Sweetsie-Cola.

The adults of the family however, find themselves staying up much too late to read "just one more chapter" of Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mystery novels.

Burgos

On the way up north to go camping, we stopped in Burgos. Burgos is where El Cid is buried. Click here for information about El Cid (or rent the Charlton Heston movie). We found it to be one of our favorite Spanish cities so far. There is a tree-lined boulevard next to a quaint river. The bridges and arches and trees make it feel more European than all of the "brown" Spanish cities we are used to. We got a few pictures before the camera batteries died.

(Can anybody tell us what kind of trees these are? Leave a comment, if so. )

Camping

We are staying in the house of the Calderwoods, who have a bunch of camping equipment that they said we could use. They told us about a spot up north in the Picos de Europa, so we decided to go for it. Unfortunately, Brian didn't charge the batteries in the camera, so we have no pictures to show you, which is really a shame because Northern Spain is green and mountainous and beautiful. Here's a picture from the internet (isn't technology great?) of the place where we stayed. We were in a campground in that middle clump of trees. There is a gondola that takes you up to where this picture was taken. Great views. We tried to get Corrie to perform the opening scene of Sound of Music up there, but she wouldn't go for it. You know...this bit:

A note to our readers

Now, I realize it appears from our blog that all we do here in Spain is travel, but you have to remember that most of these locations are just a few hours away and most of the time we sit at home reading, cleaning, studying, parenting, etc. Since none of you really care to see any of that stuff, you are just getting the highlights, and therefore our lifestyle appears to be more glamorous than it really is.

...Well OK, some of us are pretty glamorous:

Salamanca

Fast forward to August. We met a woman who will be teaching French and German at the school beginning next year, but first has to learn Spanish since she plans to live here long-term. Her language school is in Salamanca, and since we had not yet seen Salamanca, we tagged along on the trip to drop her off there. Salamanca is famous for its buildings made out of sandstone, and it is said that the purest Spanish in the world is spoken in Salamanca (hence the language schools). In Salamanca, you can go up on the roof of the cathedral, which was really cool.

Steps leading up to the roof:

Views from the roof:

From the inside:

Bobbie brought her best friend Ivy, who looks like a miniature Lassie. (Yes, Ivy is a dog.) Since her breed is not found in Spain (too much hair for the heat, I think) and since Spaniards are dog-lovers, everywhere we went people would whisper "Lassie," and want to pet her. It's a great way to meet people, if you speak Spanish, that is. "Hola...si...perro...si...Lassie...si...perro..."

Bobbi is devoted to her dog and even feeds her Ben & Jerry's. Now that's love.

Salamanca boasts one of Spain's largest Main Squares. Looks very similar to Madrid's, but more uniform in color and appearance. Found this link about it, if you care to know. Salamanca's Plaza Mayor. Obviously the most important aspect about it is that there is a Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream shop.

Nerja

We didn't spend long in Granada because it was hot and crowded, but because we were so far south, we decided to go down to the coast and dip our feet in the Mediterranean. We ended up in a little resort town called Nerja. (Pronounced nair-ha) It felt so good, we ended up diving in and spending the whole day in the water. Most of us had not brought swimsuits, as this was not on the agenda. Andrea wore here pajama pants (not pictured, of course.) We had so much fun and stayed so long, we all got terrible sunburns (also not pictured - who wants to see that?)

On the way home from the beach we tried stopping in Cordoba, but stayed only 20 minutes because it was 41 degrees Centrigrade (106 Farenheit) at 8pm!

Granada!

Granada has been high on our wish list for visiting since our arrival as it is the home of the famous Alhambra. During Tiffany's visit we rented a car and drove to Granada. it was very hot, but the Alhambra was beautiful. Built by the Moors, it is known for its inticate carvings, extensive gardens, and amazing fountains.