On the thirteenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me ...
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.... more guest posts to share with you and me.
Now I know the traditional rhyme stops at 12 but we have had so many wonderful posts to share, we are going to carry on throughout December and today's post is from the lovely Otilia Stocks.
My name is Otilia and as the name of my blog clearly says - www.romanianmum.com - I'm Romanian.
I am a Romanian woman that fall in love with an English guy 9 years ago. Two years after we met we got married and later conceived two wonderful little girls called Kara and Anastasia. We are a truly bilingual family and we are trying to raise our daughters in a happy home where the traditions of both nations are respected.
While growing up for me Christmas meant more than just Santa and presents and now because Kara at almost 5 years old is old enough to understand religion - at least a little bit - I am teaching her the religious perspective too. My husband family is not very religious but I grew up with a very dedicated orthodox grandmother. She used to take me to the church every Sunday and Christmas time was really special there.
So through books and my own stories I'm trying to teach her that Christmas is about the birth of Jesus the son of God. She doesn't really understand but at least the base of the orthodox religion is there in her mind. She enjoys when I am reading the stories though but she always refers at God as the King. I guess this is the way she grasps things.
I am also trying to teach Kara some Romanian carols too although it is a bit more difficult for her to pronounce the words correctly. However I am happy to say that since we are home Kara learned quite a lot of Romanian so hopefully next year she will be good at Carols too.
On the other hand my husband makes sure that my girls have enough presents for Christmas and assures that they believe in Santa Claus. He promised Kara that in a couple of years we'll all go to Lapland to meet the real Santa.
Traditionally in Romania we eat pork for Christmas. In England mothers prepare a big turkey. In our home at Christmas you can find both: pork and turkey breast. I have to say I prefer the turkey as it's not as fatty as the pork.
Now in the days before Christmas, because I am quite lucky to be at home with my girls, we are having lots of fun crafting and baking. Both activities relax me and they give us the opportunity to do something nice together. I could actually say that they are memories that will be kept forever.
Well some of them will probably be ruined by my 1 year old. LOL
This year we made some really nice Christmas cards to be given to friends and family:
We also had a go at decorations - a wreath and some christmas trees. However we just started so if you would like to keep up with our Christmas Crafts do come and visit us on Pinterest too:
Follow Otilia Stocks's board Christmas - Food, Decorations and Craft on Pinterest.
But crafting is not all we do in our bilingual home. Cooking - romanian and british - is a big part of our life. I enjoy cooking and it relaxes me a lot as i am still struggling to cope with my PND.
There are lots and lots of recipes on the blog - some are better than others but we let you decide.
This is just a bit of how our bilingual home is but you can read a lot more on the blog the place where i talk about everything.
Come and visit us and let me know if you think we are doing a good job. And if you have any advices on how to live a little bit more english i would love to hear from you.
Have a fantastic Christmas bilingual or not!
Otilia Stocks
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