Ski Week--Woche 3

The kids had all week off!!  They were so excited and so ready for a break in the schedule.  We took a couple of days, just relaxing at home, cleaning, playing Wii, and watching some Olympics.  I have to admit, there was less cleaning than I had wanted, but it all turned out okay.  Our weather has been very different from last year.  Last year, we had snow and were making snowmen and having all kinds of fun in the cold weather.  This year, the kids spent a lot of time jumping on the trampoline in their T-shirts.

Wednesday, Dan took a day off work, and took the kids skiing.  It took some work to dig up all the snow gear, but they finally got on their way.  Dan took them back to the same place that we went last year, Stuhleck.  Dan took them on the family lift first, just to refresh their skills.  Both Deagan and Dyllan were able to fall off the T-bar lift in the first couple of tries.  Dan was a little put out by the whole thing because he had to pay for each time they rode the lift, and falling off, not getting to ski down, still counted as a ride.  After 4 runs down the family run, they were ready to move on to the real resort.  They went and bought their "real" lift tickets for the first time.  Dan took them to the top of the world and they got to ski down.  Dyllan thought that the big lift was scary because their skis were hanging down and she thought that they might fall off.  Dane was so scared that he couldn't even speak.  Deagan just went with the flow.  Dan thought it was pretty scary for him too:  taking three kids for their first time on the big lift, two of which weren't even tall enough to get on the lift without him grabbing the back of their jackets and lifting them into the seats next to him.  Apparently, there was more than one occasion that they had to stop the lift to allow more time because one of the Baker bunch hadn't made it completely on, in the given amount of time.

 

There were only a few mishaps.  Deagan, being the typical, reckless maniac, managed to take a run straight down the mountain, where he nearly bowled over the entire line-up for the lift, but upon seeing the wooden fence approaching, decided to do a massive wipeout instead of crash.  On the next run, when Deagan was trying to pull the same stunt again, Dan tried to head him off before he got too far, but Deagan's skis ended up tangling up together with Dan's and they ended up in a pile in the snow drift.  Based on the decibels of the screams coming from the pile, Dan thought for sure, Deagan had broken his arm.  But apparently, it was only the ego that was bruised and for the rest of the day was able to proceed on future runs with slight caution to the wind, and even listened to his dad a couple of times throughout the day.  On another run, on a narrow shoot coming off the top of the mountain, Deagan claims that Dan cut him off, which initiated a chain reaction (in other words, Deagan was racing down the mountain to get down first), which resulted in Deagan barreling into Dane, Dane running into Dyllan, and Dyllan running into the fence.  Again, there was an exorbitant amount of screaming, in which Dan thought the entire ski trip was over.  But alas, it was not the case.  Again, everyone came out unscathed.  They went for a few more runs and claim that despite all this, they had a great time.  The jury is still out on Dan's assessment and he hasn't volunteered to take them again next year.  I have already volunteered to stay home with Danyon for the next three decades--or until he figures out that he is being left out.

The next day we visited the Haus des Meeres (House of the Seas).  It is a small aquarium in the middle of town.  Dan took another half day off work so we all got to go together.  We saw all kinds of cool sea animals and fish.  There were a couple land dwellers as well.  The highlights were 1) A huge (and when I say huge, I mean bigger than you've ever seen) crab.  This one crab would feed an army of people with one leg alone.  Hadn't seen a crab this big--ever.  2) We were there for the monkey feeding.  We went to the monkey area and waited for the feeders to arrive.  We expected to hear the naturalist come and give her spiel and then set out little pieces of fruit, so we could watch the monkeys eat.  Well, she came and said about 3 sentences about the monkeys, then proceeded to hand live grasshoppers to any kid in the area who wanted to feed the monkeys.  Apparently liabilities of monkey bites are not an issue here.  All three kids (with lots of coaxing) were able to hold on to a grasshopper, but the anticipation of holding a live animal, waiting for the monkeys to come and take it was too much.  All our kids ended up throwing the grasshoppers at the monkeys, but in theory, they were able to feed the monkeys.

After our tour of the aquarium, we went to the Snack Shop.  This is a newly found place (someone from church told us about it) that sells some American foods.  We were salivating at all of our possibilities.  Macaroni and Cheese never looked so good (or cost so much 4 Euro/box).  We also found cake mixes (5 Euros--which we left on the shelf).  We were able to afford the Cheetos, the Doritos, and the Oreos.  We bought popcorn and some other little candy as well.  We loved the little taste of home.

Dyllan and Deagan were invited to play in an exhibition hockey game on Saturday.  They both played so well.  We were very proud of them.  Their team won 2-0, with Deagan having 2 assists.  Dyllan and Deagan both had several shots on goal, but the goalie was a little too good.  It was a fun afternoon. 

We had Stake Conference at the church this weekend.  Dan and I had to go to 2 meetings on Saturday.  It was all in German.  Dan did very well with the understanding.  I didn't do as well.  I needed the translation headphones.  Sunday, we had the big meeting as well.  I was a little disappointed because they only had one room set up for English translation and by the time we got there (not late), there were no chairs left to sit on.  We headed downstairs to a room to listen in.  The room was labeled as Deutsch.  As it turned out, it ended up being in English so we were all able to understand it.  It turned out to be good, as on the way home, all the kids could tell us things that they learned and heard from the meeting.  I was grateful that we were able to hear it with English translation after all.

 We hurried home to watch "the game of all games"--Canada vs. Sweden, Gold medal game.  Luckily, Deagan still had on his "lucky" socks.  He has been wearing this same pair for 5 days straight--afraid to take them off, in case bad vibes cause tragic losses in Sochi.  There wasn't as much turmoil in the house as the US didn't do as well as one of us had hoped.  Regardless, there was plenty of celebrating, and plenty of rubbing it in, going on in the Baker household.

Love, exciting and new. Come along, we're expecting you!---Woche 2

We had a great week!  Everyone got in on the Valentine's stuff.  Deagan and Dyllan had some fun ativities at school.  Dyllan celebrated in true American style with 4 cupcakes and 1 cookie. 

Dane decided to make his own Valentine's for his friends and teachers.  Dan and I had our Valentine's dinner party.  We spent two days preparing for it and getting everything ready.  We decided to do a Valentine's theme, of course:  We served strawberry soup, garnished with strawberry hearts.  Next we had a wedge salad, complete with homemade candied pecans, dried cranberries, cherry tomatoes, bacon, and choice of feta or bleu cheese.  We served rolls with heart-shaped pats of butter.  Next our main course was pork and veggie kabobs.  We put paper feathers and arrowheads on the skewers to make them look like cupid's arrow.  We also served baked potatoes.  One of the potatoes was even heart shaped!  For dessert we had a chocolate buffet.  We had turtle chocolate fondue with cheesecake, brownines, fruit, marshmallows, and pretzels to dip.  We also had chocolate covered strawberries, white chocolate covered marshmallows, and store bought candies.  We played some fun Valentine's themed games and had a great time.  Dan had the house all decorated with hearts and red paper lanterns.  It was so much fun!  We just had one little mishap.  Dan went to the church to borrow a table and chairs.  There were people there and he felt sheepish about taking a table from there.  So, he ended up going to IKEA and buying a new table and 6 new chairs.  We are very excited to have folding chairs, as they will always come in handy.  Our new table can accommodate 12 people (all be it scrunched), and it now sits in the dinning room.  Dane was excited to have the old kitchen table for his new Lego table in the play room. 

Dan took me dress shopping for the ball on Saturday.  We were able to find a couple of dresses as possibilities!! I was very excited to be able to find one that didn't need to be altered, as we are running out of time.  You'll have to wait for pictures for the ball.

We went to a professional Capitals hockey game on Saturday.  We all had a great time!  The Capitals lost in a shoot-out.  It was fun to get to see some high-level hockey.--not that we're not getting enough from the Olympics.  Go Canada!!  The kids got really interested in the game, after we bought them Kaisekriners, nachos and popcorn.

We took the kids out to McDonald's after the game, as a reward for all their help with the party.  We actually went in and sat down.  It has been over a year since we have done that.  It was interesting to note the clientele of the McDonalds here in Vienna.  There were a couple of kids, but most of the patrons were teenage kids, and an alarming amount tables filled with only adults.  I don't think that McDonalds is a hot spot for date night in the states.

After our party (not getting to bed until 2:00) and the night before not having a great night (baby up all night), I crashed on the couch on Saturday night.  I was asleep before Dan even could find something to watch.  When he woke me, I had waffle-face because I was sleeping on his waffle Henley.  He laughed and laughed at me, until he noticed the revenge I had already taken.  As I walked upstairs to bed, I laughed too, at the large pool of drool on his shirt.   

Lassen Sie den Beginn der Olympischen Spiele--Jahre 2, woche 1

So many words for something so easy to say!  This week we have been enjoying the Olympics!  We have watched more T.V. this week than we have for the last several weeks combined.  The good news is, we now have three different countries that we can cheer for, so the cheering is more abundant.  We still haven't caught everything, but we watch the highlights in the evening.  It is interesting to see the differences in the broadcasting from a different country.  It seems that the only highlights that we get to see in the U.S., have to do with the American athletes.  While I enjoy watching an American get a medal, I might be still interested in the sports where an American isn't the favorite.  Here, we get a lot of different sports, as the Austrians love winter sports altogether.  They televise the entire events, not just the highlights.  Go USA, go Canada, go Austria!!! (In that order, of course!--for some of us).  If Dan, the editor of the blog, gets his hands on this, it will be a different order.  We are excited to see Canada play Austria in the men's hockey in just a few days.  That should be good!  Dan is trying to favorably sway the vibes of the Canadian team by wearing his Team Canada hockey sweater to church today.  I made sure that I had on red, white, AND blue.  There's obviously going to be some healthy rivalry over the next couple of weeks in this family.  It's probably been years since the likes of this has happened (four to be exact).


Dane was able to play in another hockey game this weekend.  It was an exciting game because he got to play in the rink that the professional Viennese team plays in.  It was fun!  His team won pretty easily, at 13:2.


While at the ice rink, we discovered a new game.  There was a competition going on,on one sheet of ice.  We have seen this game before at the outdoor ice rink, but this is the first time that we have seen it in competition form.  From what we can figure, it is a mix between curling, shuffleboard, and horseshoes.  They throw little alien spaceship type things across the ice and try to hit the other ones at the other end.  We're not sure how you score or even the name of the game, but it seemed pretty popular, as the entire rink was filled with teams for the competition.  They had a whole bunch of flags representing the Austrian equivalent of state flags hanging at one end of the ice.  Thus, we assume that the teams came from all across Austria. Unlike curling, where you sweep the ice to alter the speed and curl of the stones, with this game, they unscrew the base and replace it with the appropriate base for the type of shot that they want to make, with no brooms or sweeping involved.  (Side note, we have since discovered the name of the game:   Eisstockschießen.  Translated to Ice Stock Shoot or Ice Stock Sport or Bavarian Curling.)



We have decided that we love Austrian soups.  It is becoming a habit that Dan will order soup every time he goes to a restaurant because he is never disappointed.  I have bought a few of the dry soup mixes that you just add water.  I think that our tastes have shifted slightly since living here, but I even love the soups from dry soup mixes.  We have tried the cream of garlic and cream of mushroom, and I will buy a few more to try those as well.  I think they are the perfect dinner for cold, busy days!  And what could be easier than adding water and boiling?  They are half the calories of Campbell's and don't contain as much salt either.  Just add a salad from the fridge and have Dan stop at the bakery, on the way home from work, for some fresh bread and you have a complete meal!

We have just been doing the same old stuff this week, but we did invite some friends over for a Valentine's dinner party.  We have been having fun trying to plan it all.  Love is definitely in the air!!  Dyllan will get to exchange Valentines in school.  Deagan can make them, but will not have a Valentine's party in his class.  Dane doesn't even want to discuss the meaning of Valentine's at his age.  He said he would gladly make Valentine's, but not for everyone.  I suppose there's just a few select girls that would be on his list (ha, ha!  But secretly we're hoping that they're cute).

We Made It!!-One Whole Year--Woche 52

It's hard to believe that we've been here for 1 year.  The time seemed to fly by, yet some things seemed to drag.  Looking back, it's been a good year, overall.  We've come a long way.  We are getting used to our surroundings.  Dan even said last week that he was ready to stay here for good.  "Ha, Ha," I said.  "I can't live without real pizza and steak, and who are you kidding, You can't either"  His smile kind of faded, and he agreed that we would eventually move back home.  We have LOVED getting to travel and see different parts of the world.  It has been so much fun. 

But life at home this week wasn't full of travel for anyone but Dan.  He went to Antwerp this week.  This is a regular occurrence and will be for the rest of our time here.  His meetings went well.  He finally got some of the break through that he's been waiting for.  He can finally move forward with his job, instead of being stuck, not being able to accomplish anything.

Dane was invited to play on the hockey team again.  This was his second time playing with the team.  It was exciting!  He got to play in the rink that had seats, so we finally got to sit and enjoy a game!  His team won the game 7:3.  It is fun to watch these kids play.  They're good little hockey players.  It is also fun to note, that the playing style is different here.  For the entire game, there were only 2 penalties called (one being too many men on the ice) and the other being a real penalty.  This is also a league where body checking is legal.  I think that I saw only a couple of hits, and they were just to edge the other kid away from the puck.  It comes across as a much "classier" style of playing, where the kids are there to play the game, not just out to get each other and retaliate and cheap shot each other throughout the game.

A friend of mine and I went shopping through Mariahilferstrasse (the main shopping district in Vienna).  We were looking for ball gowns for our ball.  We went to several stores, and tried on several dresses.  We were exhausted after the morning, and still hadn't found, "the dress".  A lot of shops carry these formal dresses.  It is kind of like shopping for Prom all over again.  I kind of thought that I was too old for such a frilly, poofy dress, but, I was assured, that these were perfectly acceptable for women of my age to the ball.  It still seems weird, so I don't know if I'll ever find the perfect one.  I'll try again next weekend.

While I was out painting the town with Liz, Dan, Csaba, and the kids all went bowling.  They had a great time.  Csaba pulled the win on the first game, and Dan couldn't be shown up, so he had to come through for the win on the second game.  The kids had a great time--except for Deagan, who somehow dropped the ball on his finger.  It was just a 6 lb. ball, but his finger looks like he may have broken the tip of it.  He was done bowling after that, so Danyon took over in his spot.  Danyon's debut went well.  He got a spare (without using the bumpers) on his first frame.



Deagan's finger

After the shopping and bowling, Liz, Csaba, Dan and I met for lunch at a fun little place called Inigo.  We had a fun lunch and it was fun to get out on a date without the kids.  I tried the spatzle for the first time.  These are very Austrian.  They are a potato based, homemade pasta, with cheese.  It was good.  Dan had an antipasta plate.  I have never seen so much prosciutto in all my life.  It was very good, with olives, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, salads, etc.  He is going back, just for that plate again. 

We finally figured out what all the costumes for the kids were for.  The Austrians celebrate Carnival throughout the entire months of January and February (ball season).  They really get into this whole facet of putting on a mask, and being someone else for a night--which rolls into the ball scene, with some of the balls, of course, being masquerade.  I haven't seen any specific activities set up for kids, but there sure are a lot of costumes, so maybe they have parties or something, in their families.

Dan had a surprise "Viennerversary" party for me.  He and Dane planned for 2 weeks.  They wanted to do something really fun to surprise me.  So, today (our actual 1 year anniversary of being in Vienna), Dane suddenly got sick at church and Dan had to bring him home (as he had puked in the hallway).  I had to stay after church for a primary meeting.  So, Dan left me with Deagan and Dyllan to finish up church.  Then, after church, our good friends told me that they would take the kids home for me, while I finished my meeting.  I had my meeting, and started to head home.  One of my friends needed to come to my house to get some electrical tools.  She came home on public transport with me.  When I got home, I walked into a full house of friends and yelling "surprise" and "Happy Viennerversary".  I was completely floored!  I hadn't suspected a thing!  All of the stories were made up--Dane wasn't even remotely sick!  It was all just a big plan to get everyone at our house for the party.  Dan and Dane made sure that we served all of our "favorite" Viennese foods.  Dan had appetizers with bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, all kinds of olives, salami, pepperoni, cheese, kaisekriners, german potato salad, and cream of garlic soup.  We had fresh grape juice and peach nectar along with Almdudler.  For dessert he made Austrian crepes (palaschinken) with vanilla ice cream (eis) and apricot preserves (marillen sosse).  It was so much fun to be surprised for our anniversary.  It was tons of fun and a perfect evening with friends.  I know that after reading this, you will all want Dan to plan your next big event--which he will gladly do---for the right price!

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!!

A Surprise for Dan--Woche 50

This week things were pretty much back to normal.  The kids were all completely back into the swing of things, taking tests and finishing up projects to finish up the 2nd quarter.  We started back up with German lessons for the kids.  Danyon and I stayed home and did endless amounts of laundry and house cleaning. 

Dyllan and Deagan were invited to play in their first real hockey games this week.  They both played well.  Dyllan played on the third line of her team and won both of her games.  Deagan played on the first line of his team, and his team tied the first game and won the second.  Every player got to take a penalty shot on the goalie at the end of the game.  Deagan was the only one on his team to get his in the goal. 

Dan had to travel for work the whole week.  He was in Marrakech, Morocco. This was Dan's first trip to Northern Africa, and he found Morocco to be a very interesting country.  From the beautiful Atlas mountains, to the Moroccan desert, to the extreme poverty within the city.  It was definitely a land of extremes.  Like much of north Africa, the local population speaks both French and Arabic.  You can see the strong Arab influences throughout the architecture and customs.  It was interesting to observe their traditional homes, with no exterior windows.  They typically were made up of three stories with a generation living on each.  Grandma and Grandpa on the first floor, the children and their families living on the second and the grandchildren on the top floor.  Although there are no exterior windows, the interiors open onto a courtyard with balconies overlooking it.  This way, the women could go about their daily routines without having to be completely covered, as they are protected from the eyes of outside men.  The food in Morocco was really good, with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.  The particular highlight was the mandarin oranges that were picked straight off the tree that day.  Dan had to speak at several meetings throughout the week, but did get a few hours on Wednesday afternoon to escape the conference and go explore the desert.  He was able to learn how to pitch a Berber tent, rode a camel through the desert for a couple of kilometers (complete with saddle sore!), and finished his afternoon riding 4 wheelers in the sand and rocks.  Even after he showered, he was still pulling sand off his neck and face with his towel at the hotel.  He left at 5:00am Monday morning and didn't get back until midnight on Friday, so it was a long week and he was glad to be done.

We all missed Dan this week, so we decided to surprise him when he got home.  Dane made chocolate cupcakes with buttercream icing.  On Saturday, we took Dan to a new restaurant that we found.  It is called Ebi.  It is the first "all you can eat" restaurant that we have seen in Austria.  Dan was excited because it was a Japanese restaurant complete with a lot of different kinds of sushi.  My favorite was an avocado roll with hazelnuts in it.  It was all you can eat, but al la carte.  Which meant that you could pick anything on the menu, write the tally mark on your card at your table, and then the wait staff would pick up the card, then bring you your fresh order.  You could pick as many items on the list as you wanted, as many times as you wanted.  It all came out hot and fresh.  Dane's favorite were the imported straight from Japan, made a month ago, monkey poo doughnuts.  Yum!  I think Dan enjoyed it, as we all thoroughly stuffed ourselves. 

Dane and Dyllan were in need of new shoes.  We headed to the mall.  We lucked out and found a shoe store here that had a great sale of buy 2 pairs of clearance shoes, then get the third one for free.  We were able to get 3 pairs of shoes for around 30 Euro.  We were so excited to find such a great deal!

This week was Danyon's first week in nursery.  Dan had to take him, as I was in Primary.  For being such a leech kid, he did remarkably well.  It was a good twenty minutes before he realized that he'd been left.  I think that once he gets to know his teachers, he will have an easier time.  Of course, snack time made things much better!!

Happy New Year! And Where did December go?--Woche 45-49

Well, here we are again, at the start of a new year.  I can't believe how fast the past few months have gone.  Ask Dan--I still complain about not knowing where the summer went, and here we are, already past Christmas and even New Years.  We've had quite a few adventures in the past little while.  I will try to highlight the major ones.

We had some good friends come and stay with us for a week.  We had a fabulous time with them.  We loved getting to show them our city a little bit.  Our favorite is getting to sample all the foods with our guests.  We did a lot of touristy stuff.  We took them downtown, ate Kaise Krainers, ice cream, and walked downtown with the huge lit red balls, and the street lit with giant chandeliers made out of Christmas lights. 

We took them to Christmas markets (they were so busy that we could hardly move in some of them).  We drank the kinder punch (left the Gluckwein alone).  They serve these at every Christmas market (along with Langos--yum!)  When you buy a cup, they serve them in real ceramic mugs.  You pay a deposit on the mug as well as for the drink.  Then when you are finished, you can return the mug and they will give you your deposit back.  If you don't, you are welcome to use the mug as a souvenir.  I didn't pay too much attention to the dishwasher set up in the completely outdoor settings of the stands, but no one got sick.  The one drawback was that our friend, Scott, was allergic to both our cats and the horses from the Spanish Riding School.  We just had one trip to the ER on Sunday afternoon during church--then all was better.  The highlight of the touristy rounds for Dan, was getting to see Elizabeth again.  We love that musical!

While they were here, our friends bought us a very traditional Austrian Christmas decoration that I had been searching for, but had not yet found it.  It is called a Weihnachtspyramide (Christmas pyramid).  They are wooden nativities that are usually on 4 levels that have candles around them.  The heat from the candles, cause the wooden fan at the top to spin, thus bringing your nativity to life.  They are really cool, and you can get all kinds of them.  Even single leveled ones.  Other traditional Christmas decorations are the smoking men.  They are wooden men that you put incense inside and the smoke comes out their mouths, like they are smoking a pipe.  They have tons of different variations on the two different decorations.  Our friends also picked up a small metal tree that you light a tea light under and the heat causes the tree to spin around.  All of these are very cool.

 

 

The kids wrapped up their school work and last little Christmas exchanges and we packed our bags!  We left for our flight to Canada very early Friday morning.  The flights were better than I had expected.  Danyon didn't get antsy until the last hour of the flight into Calgary.  We were home in time for dinner Friday night.  We loved seeing and spending time with family.  It was so nice to be able to go to a Walmart, eat real pizza, and completely understand conversations going on around us!  We were all very exhausted and had a hard time with jet lag and the time change.  We were all up at 3:00am for several nights.  Danyon took it the hardest, though.  Dan got the stomach flu and was pretty miserable for Christmas Eve and uneasy for a few days after that.  We spent a lot of time getting some much needed rest.

I don't care what day it is . . .
Do you know what time it is
where I'm from?

Maybe it's not so bad after all

The kids loved having everyone at Grandma's house for Christmas.  All of Dan's siblings and us were stuffed into Grandma's house and it made for a fun time for all the cousins.  It was the best part of the whole year for Dane.  Santa was able to find us at Grandma's house and Christmas was pretty much a huge success.

A few days later, we were on another flight to Denver.  We were excited to see all of my family and to spend New Years with them.  We had a great time with my family, too.  Our kids got to spend time with most of their cousins on my side.  We really enjoyed spending time with everyone, and enjoyed running all our errands and shopping at yet even more Walmarts, and other stores that we do not have in Austria.



Casa Bonita--go for the atmosphere, not the food

All the kids were able to make it to midnight on New Year's Eve (except Deagan, who fell asleep on the couch an hour early and Danyon who was sent to bed without a choice in the matter.)  It was quite the New Year's Party with Grandma playing charades.  If you know her, ask her about it.  (It's not the first time she's pulled "off" something like this at a family party!--She might deny it, but the rest of us can't stop blushing!) 

That's right, mom showed
 us all up!

We got to drive up to Fort Collins to see our old stomping grounds, but more importantly, to see some old friends.  We loved staying with our friends and hanging out.  Unfortunately, the rest of the family all got sick that week, so that made it pretty fun.  Nothing worse than having the best Mexican restaurant food in front of you, but not being able to eat it.  Dane didn't get sick until we got home, but suffice to say, we all got it.  Dan and I got a chance to go to a movie together and to spend some time shopping.  Time was again flying at warp speed, and before we knew it, it was time to pack up and head back home.



Danyon climbing for coconuts

The flight home wasn't as bad as I expected it to be.  Danyon traveled much better in that direction.  Maybe we were a little less excited and hyper, too.  We were able to make our tight connection, even with over an hour delay in take-off on the first flight.  We returned home Monday evening.  We were able to get everything unpacked and ready for the week.  Dan had to go work the next day, and the kids were to start school first thing Tuesday morning.

I woke the kids up on Tuesday morning, and all I got was rude comments and crying.  I figured that it wasn't worth it, and decided to let the kids sleep in a little.  I finally woke them all up at 10:30 and then took them to school--all except Dane, who was sick that morning).  Danyon, Dane, and I did a couple of things around the house, but really couldn't focus on much, so we felt bad for Dan and the other kids, while we sat on the couch and watched movies for the rest of the day.  Everyone was back into school and work on Wednesday.  Dane even had his saxophone lesson.  Thursday, we added hockey for Dane.  Friday, we had appointments to renew our residency cards.  The kids got another break from the morning school.  They really needed the sleep in time.  We bought a couple of new movies from the store and had a chicken wing/movie night.  Interesting tid bit:  In the movie section of the store, you can find all the different movie types.  There were comedies, family movies, horror, action, etc.  You'll never guess what I found, just to the left of the Westerns.  There was subtitle for Easterns.  I thought that was pretty funny.  They had all kinds of kung-fu and Jackie Chan type movies in that section.  Also, for those wondering, the Special Interest grouping of movies here in Austria contained one or two exercise videos, a couple dance videos, and the rest made me blush so much that I couldn't even take a picture of it.  Just thought it was especially interesting.

Much to everyone's horror, we spent Saturday taking down and cleaning up all the Christmas stuff.  We blasted the Christmas music one last time, and then we cried as we cleaned.  Dan and I decided to go on a date Saturday night.  He took me to our first Austrian Mexican restaurant.  I know that it was nothing compared to the one in Colorado, but it wasn't bad, for here.  We got to go to the Wiener Konzert Haus for "Der Nacht der Musicals" (Night of the Musicals).  We loved the show.  It was so much fun.  They had highlights from all kinds of musicals that we love, and a couple that we didn't know. 

We still don't feel entirely back to normal yet, but we are well on our way.  If you can judge how much of a good time you had, by the amount of weight gained, then, we had the time of our lives--even with everyone getting sick.  So, this next week, will have a lot of new beginnings.  Back to school, back to work, back to cleaning the house, laundry, hockey, music, diet, and unfortunately, exercise.  We'll see how it goes.

These are Marzipan creations.  The Austrians have several good luck charms that they bring
 out at New Years:  a pig, a mushroom, a horse shoe, a cat, a guy with a ladder, etc.  You can find
them all in marzipan, on cards, on pictures, whatever.