Hip Hip Hooray!!--Woche 51

This week was an exciting week.  Not much out of the ordinary happened, until the weekend.  Both Deagan and Dyllan were invited to play in a mixed age hockey tournament this weekend (one line of 9 yr. olds, l line of 8 yr. olds, and 1 line of under 7 year olds, on each team).  Our youth hockey association put in two teams, so they ended up playing on different teams in the same tournament. 

Dyllan was the first to play.  Her dad had a serious talk with her about leaving the nice girl in the dressing room and finding the tough girl on the ice.  It worked!  Dan was so proud of her.  She must have turned the puck over, because of her forechecking, at least a dozen times during the tournament.  She had several shots on goal and some great passes, after the turnovers she caused, to teammates in front of the opposition's net.  It was awesome to watch her use her strength to fight for the puck and one time she even took on 3 players from the opposing team, in the corner, and still came out with the puck on her stick.  Dan knows that you're supposed to appreciate princess things with little girls, but finally seeing the hockey player coming out with a little aggression, did his heart good.  We will save the princess for home.  Hopefully, we have a new girl on the ice.

Deagan played really well in his first game, as well.  He got to play on the second line of his team, which actually put him on a line with players 1-2 years older than him.  He held his ground well, however, he even  claims he scored a goal, but Dan can't verify it, as he was watching one of Dyllan's games at the time.  The bad news:  the tournament was outdoors and it was REALLY cold (the high for the day was not above freezing and the wind was howling across the ice).  There were a couple of times when Dan said he had to close his eyes because the wind gusts were throwing ice chips up off the ice and creating momentary ground blizzards.  So, about half way through game 2, Mr. 3 percent body fat, a.k.a. Deagan, succumbed to the cold and started thinking more about survival than playing hockey.  Dan had to take him back to the locker room, but he finally returned to the ice just in time for the final championship game complete with a t-shirt, long underwear top, topped in hockey equipment covered in a pullover sweater and then his jersey.  The toes were a lost cause though, and never really warmed up. 

Speaking of championship games, however, Dyllan's team came out on top in the A group, and Deagan's team came out on top in the B group.  So we had Vienna Tigers vs. Vienna Tigers (Baker vs. Baker) final to finish up the night under the lights.  It was a very close game and both teams played really well.  But, in the end, there had to be one winner.  Dyllan's team won the game 2 to 1.  It was exciting for everyone and great to have our kids take 1st and 2nd place in the tournament with a total of 6 teams from across Austria to play.  Both Dyllan and Deagan ended up playing 3 games each.  They both received medals and they got a big trophy to display at the rink.

Because it was so cold, we didn't feel like the baby should be exposed to the elements for 6 hours, so Allynn, Dane, and Danyon, all missed the games.  We had hot chocolate and cream of garlic soup (one of our Austrian favorites) at home, waiting for the champions to arrive.  One thing that we got a kick out of from the day, was the Austrian version of a quick energy snack between games.  We are used to granola bars and oranges, coming from North America.  But clearly, they know how to do it better here.  Every kid got a pair of frankfurters with their choice of mustard or ketchup, and a white roll while they cleaned the ice half way through the afternoon.

Otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful week.  Dan was able to stay in town all week.  It was nice to be able to see him so much.  With the weather cooling down, we spent a couple of evenings watching movies at the house.  We got the house decorated for Valentines.  It is not an easy task here, as it is not such a big holiday, but we went down to the craft store and were able to figure out some stuff to make it more festive around here.

One observation this week.  A couple of weeks ago, we found costumes (very much like our Halloween costumes), in stock at the grocery store.  After looking around town, the toy stores also have a large selection of costumes displayed.  We are finding them more and more places.  We are not exactly sure what the kids will be dressing up for, we'll have to have more on that later.  But, there is no need to clearance out Halloween costumes in the states.  We should just send them over here to Austria, where they'll be just in time, for something.  If we had to guess, we would guess that it has something to do with Ball Season. 

Ball Season is January-February here in Vienna.  There are a total of over 450 balls that happen in these two months.  There is a ball for just about everything.  The proceeds from the balls are generally used to raise funds for different causes or charities.  This last weekend, there was a very controversial ball.  The Akadamiker Ball is attended by many of the far right political leaders throughout Europe.  With all of the economic distress in Europe, the far right political parties that tend to hold facist points of views, have gained popularity and are winning more and more political contests throughout Europe.  The local movements in Austria on the political left, had originally planned destructive protests in downtown Vienna on Friday night, while the ball was taking place at the Hofburg Palace, but at the last minute, most of them agreed to refrain from violence.  However, several bus loads of protestors, particularly from Germany, converged on downtown (total of 6,000 people) and did cause some damage, but nothing of major significance. 


Dan and I have chosen a less controversial ball that suites our tastes much better, and other than anti-obesity activists, don't expect any protests associated with our ball of choice.  We chose to attend the Bonbon Ball.  It will be at the end of February.  It is the sweetest ball in Vienna.  I have read info that it rains confectionary on the guests.  What could be better than that?  There is a Mister and Miss Bonbon crowned during the ball, and the total of their weight in confectionary is sent to a charity.  We will be going with friends of ours.  Dan went to purchase the tickets this week.  Inspite of how grand these events are, the ticket sales tend to be handled through local businesses that volunteer to collect the cash and distribute the tickets.  We didn't realize this, so when Dan went to pick up our tickets on Friday, he was surprised that the address led him to a downtown apartment building, and not a ticket office.  Luckily he had written down the name of the company where he was supposed to pick up the tickets, otherwise he would have had no idea which apartment to buzz.  It is fairly typical here for doctors, lawyers, and other small businesses, to have converted residential apartments into offices and to be completely mixed throughout a residential building.  So when Dan rang the buzzer and let them know he was here for tickets, they directed him to a first floor apartment.  When he arrived, he told them he was Herr Baker and they acted like they had been waiting for him all day.  The small office staff all greeted him and one of them delivered his tickets complete with sweets from Manner, the leading sponsor of the Bonbon ball.  Then everyone in the office shook his hand as he left, and instead of saying goodbye, they said, until we see you again.  Needless to say, it will be a sweet experience.  We can't wait to eat our weight in bonbons, while dancing the night away!!