Happy Thanksgiving!!--Woche 42

 

Happy American Thanksgiving to everyone.  We had a pretty busy week, as I'm sure most people did.  I spent Monday and Tuesday cleaning and doing laundry, getting ready for everyone to come over.  Then we spent Wednesday and Thursday cooking, cooking, and more cooking.  We spent so much time cooking, that we forgot to get some good pictures to document the whole thing.  We did have a really nice dinner.  We were only able to find turkey breasts here this year, so we decided to smoke the turkey breasts.  But, our friend Api found a whole Butterball turkey at the United Nations commissary.  He bought it for us and we were able to have a whole turkey.  It was my first time in a very long time, having to cook the entire meal.  We invited 2 sets of missionaries over, Api, Papa J, and our next door neighbors.  We had a crowd, but it was good food and good company.  Our neighbors and Papa J, had never had a Thanksgiving feast before (our neighbors are South African and Papa J is Serbian/Austrian).  We tried to explain to them about some of our traditions.  They thought it was wonderful, but too much food.  It was interesting that they had never had pumpkin pie before, too.  They enjoyed the pies, but thought that the chocolate pie was too chocolatey!--that phrase doesn't even exsist in the U.S.!!  We have been working on being more grateful all month--especially the kids being more grateful for each other.

We found some pre-made gingerbread in a package.  We decided to make some gingerbread cookies.  It is interesting, because they don't have molasses here.  They make their gingerbread with spices like we do, they just don't put in the molasses.  The kind we found, is made with honey.  The kids had fun baking up a storm.



We missed the shopping on Friday morning, but I have to admit that it was nice to sleep in until 8:00 that morning.  Poor Dan, didn't get to.  He had to go to work and he left early so that he could come home a little earlier.  The kids and I had a great time putting away all of our Fall decorations and putting up our Christmas ones.  It took us all day!  Of course, we stopped to have little turkey and pie breaks here and there.  We waited for Dan to decorate the tree.  After he got home, we discovered that we didn't have enough lights to cover the tree.  We decided to decorate the tree the next day, after we could get some more lights. 

Saturday, we went shopping for lights and groceries.  Our Christmas lights have a 3 year warranty on them.  All we have to do is show our receipt and they will replace them, if they do not work.  However, we're not really sure if any receipts can last three years without fading.  We came home and decorated the tree.  We are now all Christmasy around here.  The decorating is done.  We only have: relax and enjoy the season left on the "to do list"!

We took the kids downtown to a few Christmas markets.  It was a rainy/misty day and was grey and gloomy.  But, the lights, music and food of the Christmas markets were enough to cheer everyone up!  We found a couple of cool ornaments and of course, langosh, fresh made potato chips, kinder punsch, candied almonds and pumpkin seeds, and chocolate covered pretzels.  The crowds were not too bad, considering it was a Saturday. 

All I Want for Christmas Is . . . --Woche 41

I did it!!!  I finally made dinner rolls that turned out beautifully!  This is something that I have been working on for at least 15 years, with this being my first successful attempt.  You can see how tempting they were, as the kids and Dan couldn't keep their hands off them long enough to even get the picture. 

Some other good news:  We officially started a new family tradition this year!  Dan is now taking each of the kids out separately for their Christmas shopping.  Usually we would probably do this in December, but the kids are very excited this year.  Dan and I have been working on getting all of our shopping done early so that we can enjoy December--(a little brag note here, we are 95% done AND wrapped--the 5% left being finishing up Dan's gifts, and wrapping the gifts that are sitting in Indiana, waiting for Dan to pick them up).  The kids have caught the same bug.  They wanted to get all of their shopping done early too (before Thanksgiving, if possible).  Dan came home from Antwerp this week, and jumped immediately into the holiday mood.  He has been out on three dates this week, none of which were with me!  The kids all had lists of things that they had come up with on their own to give their siblings.  I love how the Christmas spirit of giving rather than receiving is really coming alive in our home.  Dan's favorite quote of all the shopping trips was from Deagan, "When Grandma opens this, her eyes are going to pop out and she is going to pee her pants!"  I don't know what it is, as I love the suspense just as much as any of the kids, and I can't wait to see if I pee my pants too!

On that note, I thought it might be fun to document exactly what the kids are all wishing for this Christmas.  It is fun to see how some tastes change, and others don't.  So here goes:


Dane's Top 3:  I would like Lego Galactic Titan, Lego Battle for Ninjago City, and Magic Cards
If Dane could have one wish come true, it would be:  Having all the Lego sets in the world and having them all made so he could play with them and not have to search for missing parts.
Dane's favorite holiday tradition is:  the advent calendar.  He loves that Austria has really cool ones with really cool toys (like Lego).
If Dane saw Santa Claus on the street, he would say, "All I want for Christmas is more Lego and whirled peas".
If Dane could be a character in the nativity, he would be "one of the three kings, because they are smart and they were kings."
Dane's biggest fear at Christmas time is: He won't get any gifts!"
Dane's favorite Christmas song is "Carol of the Bells".
Dane would be sad if he missed, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, on TV.
Dane's favorite Christmas treat is:  Homemade chocolates
It just wouldn't be Christmas without "Grandma--or her gifts".


Dyllan's Top 3:  Kidizoom Smart Watch, Animal Hat Panda, Brown Boots
If Dyllan could have one wish come true, it would be:  to get a sister. 
Dyllan's favorite holiday tradition is:  When I go shopping with my dad.
If Dyllan saw Santa Claus on the street, she would say, "Is that really him?"
If Dyllan could be a character in the nativity, she would be "Mary, because it would be fun to hold a baby.
Dyllan's biggest fear at Christmas time is:  not getting presents
Dyllan's favorite Christmas song is "Silent Night"
Dyllan would be sad if she missed, White Christmas, on TV.
Dyllan's favorite Christmas treat is:  chocolates
It just wouldn't be Christmas without "my family".

Deagan's Top 3:  Playmobil Western Fort, Mini Ipad, Playmobil Falkenritterburg
If Deagan could have one wish come true, it would be:  to get the Western Fort from Playmobil
Deagan's favorite holiday tradition is:  opening presents
If Deagan saw Santa Claus on the street, he would say, "Can I please have a candy cane?"
If Deagan could be a character in the nativity, he would be "A king, so that I could be rich and help people.
Deagan's biggest fear at Christmas time is:  KRAMPUS!
Deagan's favorite Christmas song is "Jingle Bells"
Deagan would be sad if he missed, "Scooby Doo" on TV.
Deagan's favorite Christmas treat is:  Cranberry Pecan cookies and caramels
It just wouldn't be Christmas without "Santa".

Danyon doesn't really have favorites yet.  He really enjoys music, balls, and especially CARS!!!  I'm pretty sure his favorite Christmas song is "Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum, Santa's run off to the Caribbean"--that or "Grandma got run over by a Reindeer"--its so hard to tell at so young an age.  So far he has eaten every Christmas treat we have put in front of him and has really become quite the treat monger.  He tries to steal a treat whenever he can.  He has his mom's sweet tooth, for sure!!  When we all sit down at the piano to play, he needs to be right in the center, playing the piano with us, or sticking his head in Dane's saxophone whilst hooting along.

Dan's Top 3:  Single speed commuter bike, Tracht, Pictures of kids for the office
If Dan could have one wish come true, it would be: to get the whole month of December off to hang out with the family
Dan's favorite holiday tradition is:  oysters on Christmas Eve
If Dan saw Santa Claus on the street, he would say, "Ho, Ho, Ho"
If Dan could be a character in the nativity, he would be "a shepherd boy because then I could hang out with sheep and see and hear the angels sing.
Dan's biggest fear at Christmas time is:  not making it home in time for Christmas
Dan's favorite Christmas song is "Silent Night"
Dan would be sad if he missed, The Racoon's Christmas on TV.
Dan's favorite Christmas treat is:  Grandma Baker's Chocolates
It just wouldn't be Christmas without "music".


Allynn's Top 3:  Tracht, camera lens/gear, Hair removal system,
If Allynn could have one wish come true, it would be:  to have peace and harmony in our home always.
Allynn's favorite holiday tradition is:  this was a hard one to pick, as I LOVE all of our holiday traditions, but sitting in front of the tree, with just the Christmas lights on, a fire in the fireplace, Christmas music playing softly, and just time to sit and be grateful.
If Allynn saw Santa Claus on the street, she would say, "Hey, Dan--Go over there and see if we can meet the reindeer!"
If Allynn could be a character in the nativity, she would be "the sheep because there are no speaking parts, and I still get to go and see the Christ child."
Allynn's biggest fear at Christmas time is:  I forgot to get a gift for someone I love.
Allynn's favorite Christmas song is "that is practically impossible to choose, but I do love Guard Him, Joseph quite a lot."
Allynn would be sad if she missed,--not just sad, I would be devastated, if I missed Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas" on TV.
Allynn's favorite Christmas treat is:  any one that's in my mouth.
It just wouldn't be Christmas without "Christmas lights and my family."

Merry Christmas and Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope I stay "on a roll" with my bun streak through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas--Wochen 39-40

You might wonder why I have a hard time getting the blog posted each week.  I have a lot of help, which can slow the process down considerably.  The past couple of weeks have been pretty crazy around here.  Dan went to the U.S. for a week.  That left the kids and I here to hold down the fort.  Things went pretty normal for us.  Dan had a hectic time at work.  It was hard to get all of his meetings, plus our house repairs, as well as all of our shopping done, but somehow, he managed.

Dane played in his last soccer tournament of the year.  His team played really well and made it to the final match.  Dane's team played a little better than the other team, but the other team got some pretty lucky bounces and it ended up being a tie.  So, they ended up doing a shoot out.  The other team was able to pull off one more goal than we were, and so our team got second place.  It was still pretty exciting.

Dan and I have spent a lot of time choreographing and teaching some teenagers a dance for their cotillion party.  We had never heard of a cotillion before this.  According to Filipino tradition, when a girl turns 18, she has a big birthday party (huge party, think wedding).  They have a huge dinner and then cake, complete with cutting the cake pictures.  There were 2 photographers and a videographer.  They have an entourage, much like bridesmaids and groomsmen, with matching dresses and suits.  There is a father daughter dance.  There is also a whole program, where the girl is presented with 18 roses from 18 different boys in her life that mean something to her, and she dances with each of them for a few moments.
Then the birthday girl is presented with 18 candles from important women in her life.  Each woman tells the birthday girl some sentiments about how the girl has been a light in her life.  After the birthday girl goes and blows out each of the candles.  Next, she is presented with 18 treasures.  Eighteen influential people in her life are chosen to give her a gift (if our kids do this, we will pick wealthy, perhaps influential people :)).  Each presents her with the "treasure" and gives her advice for the future.  The birthday girl and her entourage do a first dance (the one we taught them).  This girl's theme was Disney.  She wanted to dance to "Beauty and the Beast" and "When Will My Life Begin", so we taught them a fox trot and a swing.  There were 5 couples all together, and they did a nice job on the dance.  We spent several hours and weekends trying to teach them the dance, and could have used a couple of more weeks to get it perfect, but they did okay.

Yep, 24 days of beer.
 Bob and Doug Mackenzie
 would be proud

Dan and I were able to get most of our Christmas shopping done and wrapped!  I don't think that I have ever been this organized in years past.  It is a little disappointing that I don't get to participate in the Black Friday shopping, but because there isn't one here, the stores put things on sale for the entire months of November and December.  Some stores will try to do doorbuster sales in December, but it never gets as good as Black Friday.  It will be very nice to be able to sit back, relax, and enjoy December. While we were out shopping, we found some interesting things.  We found some tights.  What would be interesting about those, you might ask?  Well, we found them in the boys section of the store.  After a certain date, you will be hard pressed to find any Austrian boy not wearing these under his pants and socks--no matter the weather.  The kids' German tutor explained to us that when the weather warms up (for an Indian Summer) after it has already cooled off, the Austrians get really upset.  They call it headache weather.  I, personally, enjoy the warmer weather, and think that they get headaches because they are wearing too many winter clothes, sweat, then get dehydrated.  Just as a side note, the Austrian room temperature is warmer by a couple of degrees than the American room temperature of 72.  This poses another heat problem when you have so many layers on.  Another interesting thing we found was an advent calendar.  They were put in a bin right next to all the kiddie ones.  I hope that no kid accidentally picks the wrong one!  They do have several really cool advent calendars--not just chocolate like we have.  They have some that have jewelry, toys, Lego, Playmobil, nativities of all kinds, wooden toys, etc.  They even have several mystery ones.  You get one clue per day to solve the mystery on Christmas Eve.  Several are books, with 24 chapters.  Then they also have several cool advent calendars that you can fill yourself.  It's fun to see all of the different ones.

I have been teaching a lady in our ward how to quilt.  She is so excited to be working on her first quilt.  She has the sewing bug already and is not even done with a full square yet!  It has always been a dream of hers to have her own quilt.  As a result of this, the neighbors Halloween party, and us teaching the dance to the kids, we have acquired 3 boxes of Merci chocolate in less than a month.  The kids are pretty excited and think that it should continue!

The stores are starting to get all of their Christmas decorations out.  The city is starting to put up all of their lights.  Things are starting to get very merry and bright!!  Dan and I were walking the streets of downtown, and stumbled onto our first Christmas market of the year.  It was late on a Friday night, and it was the first weekend that any Christmas markets were opened, but there were still several booths open.  Of course, our favorite was the Langos booth.  Langos can make my mouth water, just by thinking about it!  We are listening to Christmas music almost full time now.  All we need to do is add snow, but hopefully, not until Dan has been to the States one more time, and Grandma gets here!  Since we are having Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year, we have decided not to decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving.  I know that is what we normally do, but last year, we decorated a couple of weeks early, since there is no Thanksgiving here, and we were heading home for Christmas. 

Happy Halloween--Woche 38

I think that it goes without saying that we spent most of the week preparing for Halloween.  I had finished most of the costumes before our trip, but still had Dane's to finish.  We also had signed up to do the Trunk or Treat at the school.  We had to get some supplies ready for the car.  We were also able to squeeze in a soccer game from Dane.  His team won.  He just has one more final tournament and the school soccer season is over.

We had a hard time finding carving pumpkins here.  We could buy them from the school for 10 euros a pumpkin, but we felt like that was a bit pricey.  We thought we would take our chances with what the stores had to offer.  Well, after searching 3 different stores, we had an array of smallish and smaller pumpkins to carve, but we got the whole pile of 7 for under 15 euro. 


 "Sweet Relish" condiment packet

Dane decided to do Gandolf.  It turned out pretty well, though the pictures don't do it justice.  Dyllan and Deagan went for the more traditional pumpkins.  I went for the hungry pumpkin, and Dan ended up just doing a decorative pumpkin.

The kids got to wear their costumes to school.  They had a costume parade and some fun parties.  We decorated our trunk for the trunk-or-treat.  Dane really wanted to scare kids again this year.  He decided to be a chained up scary guy.  When kids would reach in a grab the candy, he would jump and say "Rahhhh".  He had a pretty successful night.  We gaged it by the number of candy pieces we found on the ground from all the kids jumping and dropping their candy.  The kids enjoyed the carnival type set up for the party in the school gym.  Dan and I dressed up in our "Stoic the Vast" and "Tough Nut" costumes.  No one recognized us.  Several people had to take pictures of us.  Some would ask permission and others would just try to take them very slyly.  Unfortunately, we didn't take a picture of us.

Danyon absolutely hated his costume.  He cried every time I put it on him.  So, we waited until the last possible second to get him in his costume.  He cried again when I put it on him.  However, it took just one piece of candy (a tootsie roll) to get him to stop crying.  He learned really fast that if he got candy while he wore the costume then, it wasn't so bad after all.  He wore the costume the rest of the entire night.  He kept it on after we got home.  He even watched a movie in his costume.  When it was past time for bed, Dan started to take the costume off and Danyon cried and cried. 

It is still pretty weird to not go Trick or Treating, so it was nice to get to go to the school.  Although the Austrians really have a hard time with the whole Halloween concept.  Of all the people to come through the line, the Austrians were the ones who didn't like Dane scaring their kids as much.  There were only 1 or 2 people upset at us this year, but a few people remembered our car as the "vampire from last year".  That made our day.  This year, they sent out a website of different ideas to do to your car to decorate.  They had a better turn out than last year.  However, one lady was trying to hand out apples and carrots to the kids.  I think that despite her effort, she left with full baskets of both.

It seems like Fall is the time that we like to take pictures.  While we were on the cruise, we were able to get some family pictures done.  These are the first professional pictures that we've had done since Danyon was born.  Several of them turned out well.  We're excited to get to put new pictures of the family in the hallway.  You'll probably all see them in the Christmas cards if I get them sent out this year.  As we are not heading home for the holidays, we might not get them sent.  Postage from Austria can be pricey!  So, just in case, enjoy them now!