"This is the job that never ends . . ."

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Originally uploaded by danishsprite.

I got a "big suprise" on Saturday afternoon. Olivia's mom called, and they've decided to make plans to stay in Århus through January. Their previous plan to move to Scotland just wasn't coming together. At the last minute, her dad's contract in Århus was extended on for two months, and her mom was offered a temporary job for the same amount of time.

While part of me would very much like to see Olivia in preschool, I know that even if I turned the job down she would just end up with another babysitter. So, I accepted. We make an excellent team. John and I will be moving December first to an apartmetn five mintues walk from Olivia's, which will make it easy to travel between homes.

My challenge (and I've already accepted it) is to find us things to do for the month of December and January. I refuse to spend two months rotting in a wet sandbox with a disgruntled child.

December shouldn't be too hard. While Olivia's parents have a different way of celebrating Christmas (no religion, no Santa). Last year I had a hard time figuring out how to handle the holiday with her.

I know the family better now. I plan to be a cookie-baking, tree decoration-creating, downtown lights-and-decorations-observing whirlwind, and dragging Oilvia with me. She likes that kind of stuff, it will round out the dark, wet days on the playgrounds.

I've already contacted the Århus American Women's group, and I'm hoping that there will be a three or four year-old child we can meet up with at the playground. The trick at this point is to find another child she can talk to, in any of her languages. Wish me luck on my search.

In any case, I get Olivia back for two months! I'm excited.