Oh How Our "Bahns" Hurt--Woche 3

Ski week started off pretty rough.  Dane had the flu from Sunday to Wednesday.  The other kids thought he was just making it up to get out of house cleaning on Monday, but I checked with the thermometer and at 104.5, he wasn't making it up.  We did get the house cleaned, and by Wednesday, even got some Spring cleaning done, as well. We went through all the kids dressers and got everything that didn't fit out, and put in only clothes that fit and they will wear.  By the end of Wednesday, Danyon caught the flu from Dane.  But, we still got all the laundry done by Thursday afternoon.  We were able to pack for our trip the rest of Thursday.  With all the sick people, we watched a lot of movies and the kids even convinced me that watching German cartoons counted as studying German for the week.

Playing around with my new
fish eye lens

Dan arrived home from Basel late Wednesday night.  His first impression of Switzerland was that it was expensive.  His taxi ride cost him 43 CHF for a 10 minute ride.  Then, because it was so late, he ordered room service for dinner.  That cost him 44 CHF for a salad and bowl of soup.  He didn't get out of the hotel much.  They had one group dinner off-site, but other than that, the meeting stayed in the hotel.  He didn't even get to see the new main headquarters for Elanco.  It was only a couple of blocks away, but he was never invited to get out and see it.  Initial thoughts were that he is grateful that we have not been asked to move there.  We are still looking forward to our trip in a couple months, but will set aside a few more euros to pay for dinners and lunches.



The small towns in Austria
 are full of small dairies.  Note the
Austrian milk tanker trucks waiting
 to be unloaded.
 (maybe 50 gallons each)

So, on to our trip for ski week.  After looking for several hours (back in December), I finally found a hotel with vacancy in Tirol.  We haven't spent much time in Tirol, and since it is full of Alps, snow, and beautifulness, we decided to head there to check it out.  It took us about six hours to drive to our hotel (we were only about 10-15 miles from Italy).  We were surprised that the whole area was not covered in snow.  We have gotten much more snow in Vienna this year than we did last year.  There was still snow, but only on the shady side of the roads and mountains.  Our hotel had recently been renovated and was absolutely beautiful!  They even gave Dane his own room!  Everything looked brand new.  The hotel offered a home cooked dinner, which we gratefully took them up on.  We spent the evening looking at the mountains and relaxing in the hotel.

This is where we stayed

The next morning we got up early and jumped in the car.  We had about an hours drive to the Wildkogel ski arena.  This stretch of mountains is known for the many ski runs and lifts, but also for the sledding.  Since we have Danyon, and he is not quite ready to learn to ski, I decided that we should spend the day together sledding instead.  We parked our car in the garage and had to walk 20 feet to get to the sled rental store.  Then we had to walk 5 feet to buy our lift tickets, and then another 5 feet to board the lift.  It was really slick and easy.  We took the lift up to the top of the mountain (2101m).  The lift ride took about 13 minutes to get all the way up.  We found our sled run--the Rodelbahn.  It was 14km long—that’s right, a little over 8 1/2 miles long.  Dane and Dyllan had their own sleds, but we were advised that Deagan and Danyon should be with an adult.  We set off down the hill.  The sled run was pretty well marked, but we merge with ski runs in a few places along the way.  Dyllan was pretty cautious at first, because there were steep drop offs on the trail with no boards, netting, or control of any kind.  Dane almost learned the hard way, that you needed to be careful.  He stopped just in time.  Dan saw a guy come down so fast that he missed the corner and the only thing that stopped him from going over the edge was that he threw his rear end off the back of the sled and it caught in the snow, just before tumbling down to guaranteed hurt.  The run is giant switchbacks all the way down the mountain, so you have to maneuver the corners.  As you get more experienced, you can go faster and still make the corners.

The sauna.  It really was
snowing outside

Because we were being cautious and didn't know what to expect, it took us about seventy five minutes to get down the run.  It was awesome!!  The second and third runs only took about 48 minutes.  We haven't ever seen anything like it.  After three runs, the kids had enough.  Danyon only made one run with me.  He loved it--except for the moguls.  At one point there was a definite "ha,ha" giggle when we passed Dan and Deagan.  We had to stop at one point to readjust.  Danyon's gloves had come off, and his snow pants had risen up to his knees.  I pulled over to the very edge of the course to make the adjustments.  It just so happened that it was the wrong place, at the wrong time.  Some guy came up fast and rear ended us.  We weren't too worse for wear, but my lower back was sore for the rest of the day.  At the end of the run (it finishes with a very steep hill), Danyon cried.  We had to go down anyway.  We made it, but he didn't want to go again.  He was too cold.  After all our runs, the rest of the crew is all complaining about how their rear ends hurt because of all the moguls on the course.  By the third trip, some bumps were getting pretty deep.  We were not looking forward to another 5 hours sitting in the car on Sunday.

Back at the hotel, the kids warmed up with hot showers and Dan and I hit the sauna.  The sauna had a big window in it where you could watch it snow outside and ponder on the serenity of the mountains, all while you were sweating to death.  It was the perfect end to a great day.  All of the kids were in bed by 8:00 and asleep shortly after.  Dan and I weren't too far behind them.


If you ask any of us if we would do it again, we would all answer "Definitely".  So, if you need another reason to come and visit us, there you have it.  You haven't done sledding until you've done the Rodelbahn!

The bugs are in the air--not necessarily all loveable--Woche 2

We had a great week!  Dan was in town all week!  Deagan and Dyllan each had activities at the school that parents could attend.  I also had my first experience with the dentist, and then there was Valentines Day--hooray!!

At the start of the week, Dan and I were sick with sinus issues.  We were stuffed up and not feeling very well.  Dan came home from work just after lunch on Monday.  He had conference calls all afternoon and told them all that his camera was broken--just so he could stay in his pajamas wrapped up to his neck in his blankets.  I tried to get the cleaning done, but it took all my energy.  We both felt like doing nothing.  We didn't have a fever, but we still felt gross.

Tuesday we headed up to the school to Deagan's Poetry Slam.  Each second grader wrote a poem (mostly about space or celestial things) and they each got to get up on a box and recite their poem in front of a microphone in the school theater with all the parents watching.  Deagan read his poem about going to space. "If I went to space, it would be so cool.  If I went to space, I could see Mercury and Neptune.  If I went to space."  It was okay, but my favorite was by some other kid.  And I quote:  "Uranus is a giant ball of gas.  I love Uranus."  I know that I was the only one whose 4 year old humor came through, because I was the only one shaking uncontrollably trying not to laugh out loud. 


Wednesday, I had my first dental work appointment.  I was scheduled at 10:40am.  I got to the office about 10 minutes early.  I sat in the waiting room.  And sat, and sat, and sat.  At 11:30, they called me back.  I know that dental offices rarely run precisely on time, but I think that waiting for an hour, with no explanation, was a bit much.  Then I got back to the chair.  The dentist then asked what I was there for.  Hmmm.  I only made the appointment because he said I needed to have a filling replaced.  Anyway, he did decide to redo the filling.  Then, he asked if I wanted local anesthetic.  I said I probably would like it.  He asked if I had ever had it before.  (Note:  this doctor has seen the inside of my mouth, including all the fillings!)  I guess that local anesthetic is a luxury here, and not everyone uses it.  I happily went with it.  There was no topical to soften the needle, but I have to admit that he didn't need it.  I never felt the poke and only slightly felt the medicine going in.  5 minutes later, I was numb.  He finished the filling and I was out of there by 12:15.  By the time I got home, I was mostly un-numb. 

Wednesday, Dane had a huge, exciting event.  His school band was asked to play at the Musikverein in downtown Vienna.  This is the equivalent of getting asked to play at Carnegie Hall.  The concert was China meets Austria, and there were several Chinese choirs and bands performing.  Some of those choirs were fantastic.  I couldn't believe it!  Dane's band did well.  Their songs were very technical.  One of the bands had someone playing what I call the "birdhouse".  Dan says it was actually a huge recorder, but I thought it looked like a birdhouse.  This band was only guitars and recorders.  It sounded really cool.  Another band had some harpists that were phenomenal.  The rest of the band was really good too, but the harpists were exceptional.  It was an exciting event for Dane.


Dyllan had her Ink Café on Friday.  We arrived and were seated at our table.  Dyllan was our waitress as she brought us our choice of drink, cookie, and story.  We were to read the stories and then comment on them.  It was a lot of fun.  Dyllan's story was realistic fiction about a girl who lost the bow to her cello.  She found it eventually and even had a cake for her music teacher.  It was a great read.  She also had a fantasy story about dragons, healing potions, and ended with a "Scooby doo reveal." (it was the dad who did it). 

Deagan and Dyllan had their Valentine's parties at school that day.  Dane is too old for Valentine's parties, but he still made a few Valentines and gave them to his friends and favorite teachers.  I decided to try a few new recipes to make Valentines Day more special.  I made strawberries and cream fudge, raspberry and cream fudge, dark chocolate cherry fudge, and strawberry milkshake cookies.  I think that the kids and Dan were well treated (pun intended).  Needless to say, after hearing about some more changes at Dan's work, we were off the diet and plunged right into the fudge to wallow in all the upcoming changes.  These new ones were just little, but made a huge impact on our year end salary, and they just keep piling on all the new policies with the acquisition of the new company. 

For Valentines, Dan gave me Cap'n Crunch
and he got sparkling mineral water filtered
through gold from Canada

Saturday, the day of love, we spent grocery shopping in the morning and delivering Valentines (fudge packages).  Then we came home and spent the rest of the day watching chick flick love movies.  It was fun for most of us involved.  The others had the fudge to console them.  That night we had a nice dinner of Gouda cheese fondue and Caramel Chocolate fondue for dessert.  It was the perfect love ending to the perfect love day!

By Sunday, Dane and Danyon were not feeling well.  Danyon's eyes were so red and swollen that it looked like we punched him in both eyes.  Dane slept in until almost noon with a headache and a scratchy throat.  We are in for an exciting week with all the kids home next week.  Hopefully, we get everyone back to normal before too long.

Two Year Mark--Woche 1

Well, we have officially been in Vienna for two years.  We sure have accomplished and experienced a lot since coming here.  We have learned a lot, too.  It's weird to think back on the last two years.  Some of it seems like such a long time ago, and other times it seems like we really haven't been here very long.

One of our most recent accomplishments is that we now have light fixtures throughout the house.  We have eliminated all the wires sticking out of the walls and everything looks more finished.  It did take quite a feat on a Saturday to get it all done.  Dan put in 22 light fixtures in one day!  You would have thought that we would have been living in the dark, but now, for sure, we are enlightened!!

I figure the extra energy could only be attributed to eating right and exercising.  We have completed 3 weeks of staying within the new diet and exercise program.  We are doing well.  I am now back to my pre-holiday weight, as is Dan.  We ate like pigs for 6 weeks, and it only took 3 for it to come off.  We hope to continue with the program for another 6 weeks.  Hopefully, we will continue seeing positive results.

This is Dan and I in the
main ballroom

To celebrate our two year anniversary, Dan took me to a ball in the Hofburg Palace.  It wasn't as "sweet" as last year's ball, as there was no free candy, but we still had a great time.  We got all dressed up (Dan did a great job on my hair again this year) and we headed out to dinner with some friends, Natalie and Keith.  We had a nice Austrian dinner, then we headed to the palace.  There was a big program before this ball officially started the dancing.  It started at 8:30 and the program lasted until almost 10:00.  They had speeches and Argentinian Tango dancers and singers.  They had some opera performances and, of course, the debutants.  When the program was finished, they opened the ball up for all the dancers.  They had seven to ten different ballrooms/areas where they had live bands playing all kinds of different music.  You could choose your favorite and hang out all night, or do like we did and head from room to room having fun with the different styles of music.  We did have our favorite rooms:  Salsa and Funky Reggae.  Some of the ballrooms were pretty neat to dance in.  One looked just like you would imagine a ballroom from a fairy tale to look.  There were beautiful chandeliers hanging all over the ceiling and, of course, since it was a palace, the walls and ceiling were ornately carved and gold plated.  It was a little surreal to be dancing in such a place.  It felt like a room you could waltz in for hours.  However, the band they chose for this space was a "rock" style band and you could not waltz at all.  We did get to waltz in the main hall, but we did not do the Viennese Waltz.  It was much too crowded and crazy to even get on the floor.  By the time 1:30 came around, my feet were killing me.  I could not physically dance anymore.  We left the ball, just as things were started to wind down, and made the very painful trek to the car.  I can definitely see why Cinderella would have left her glass slipper on the steps of the palace.  Her feet hurt too much to keep them on!  We were home and in bed by 2:45.  We slept very well until it was time for Dan to get up to make scones for a special meeting at the church.  We were pretty tired at church, but we made it through.  Dan even stayed awake for his special meeting after church.  We hope to spend the rest of our Sunday cat napping!

While we were out at the ball, this is what our kids were up to.  Andrew (the babysitter) was a really good sport, to let Dyllan get a hold of him!

This is a sign in a parking garage that we laugh at every time we see it.  It says, "Please don't forget your cell phone, lap top, dog, and mother-in law in the car."

Superkalifragilistikexpialigetisch!--Wochen 49-50

Well, we learned a few new things from Mary Poppins.  Superkalifragilistikexpialigetisch  (pronounced super-cala-fra-gill-iss-tick-ex-pee-ala-gay-tish) is not what we are used to.  Apparently in German, she is just as prim and proper, but she has a whole new vocabulary.  It just doesn't seem to slip off the tongue as easily as the original, but it is certainly what she says here.  Dan decided last minute, that he wanted to go to the play.  We bought tickets and took Dyllan out for a night out.  Dane and Deagan didn't want to go.  The play was very entertaining and told more of the story than the movie.  It also helped that Dan and I had seen "Saving Mr. Banks" a couple weeks ago.  We enjoy our trips to the theater and are looking forward to a few more before it's time to go home.

Dyllan and Deagan started their after school activities.  Dyllan loves her gymnastics class.  It was a lot of fun, right up until a girl stepped on her foot.  I don't know who this girl was, or how she stepped on Dyllan, but Dyllan has been sore, swollen, and black and blue for several days.  We think that maybe an elephant snuck into gymnastics class.  We took public transportation to the play last night and had to walk home from the subway station because we missed the bus by about 10 seconds.  Dyllan couldn't make it all the way home.  Dan had to carry her part of the way.  The rest she limped.  She limps everywhere she goes.  Her other class is choir, where she will have a lot of fun too.  The music teacher at the school is fantastic and I'm excited that Dyllan wanted to sing in her choir. 

Deagan is loving his Ball Sports class and his Taekwondo.  He is practicing a bit too much on his brothers and sister.  Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to make him a weapon.  Danyon loves to practice with him and has gotten into the habit of whipping off his shirt and starting to swing his arms every time he "goes in the ring".  Come to think of it, Danyon spends a lot of time without a shirt on.  I think the islander in  him is showing through.  Bad time of year to express it though.

Dan and I have been officially on our diet for a week.  We started the Shaun T's T25 Focus program this week.  The program was less intense physically than Insanity, but with the fast track diet, it turned out to be challenging.  Pretty much the fast track program is just a diet consisting of 1100 calories per day.  Dan and I nailed it, and both stayed on track the whole week.  We lost 7 and 6 lbs. the first week, respectively.  It was a great start.  We both put 3 or 4 pounds back on Saturday, but it was a great free day!!  We're both looking forward to next week when we get 1600 calories for the day.  That will seem like a feast!

Dan found a new friend in our garage.  This spider might look pretty small in the body, but Dan figures that with his leg span, he was at least 8-10 inches across.  That was one big spider!  If he put all his weight on his finger tips, I think he would look a lot like the spider toy in Toy Story.

We found some frozen guacamole in the store this week.  Avocados are really expensive here, so we were excited to find a cheaper way to have guacamole.  We got it home and opened it up, to find frozen "Hershey's Kisses" of avocado sludge.  No worries though, when it defrosted, we stirred it up, and it tasted great!

We got some more snow!  We woke up this morning to about 4 inches of snow on the ground.  The kids were very excited about it.  Last year we didn't get any, and this year, we've already gotten a few storms.  We're happy with the snow we get around here.  Then it at least brightens up the grayness of the city!

Dan saw this perfect example
 of the gracious parking
allowances the Viennese give
 at the church.
 (Try getting 4 kids out of that car!)

Back to Life--Woche 48

We celebrated the 3 Kings holiday here this week (Ascension Day).  This is a really nice holiday, but mainly because it extends the normal Christmas break by a day or two.  This holiday is spent by the Austrians singing door to door (receiving a gift), and then asking for donations for the church (giving a gift).  So far, no one has knocked on  our door and no one has asked for a donation, as of yet.

Dyllan has been asking to get her hair cut for all of the Christmas break, so we finally went to a salon and got her hair cut.  She loves her new hair and the new length.  She brushed it about 2,000 times that day, and can't keep her fingers out of it.  I really like the new length as well, and her excitement rubbed off on me.  I have been pestering Dan to cut my hair all week, and he finally did on Saturday.

Dane has been dazzling us all break with his astounding magic tricks.  Some of them are not so great.  Others, I haven't been able to figure out yet.  But this one was pretty cool.  He actually got Deagan to grow several feet.  Other than that, he has been learning to master the Rubik's cube.  We picked one up in Hungary, and he has been working on it ever since.  So far, his record time is 2 minutes and 21 seconds.  He was pretty motivated to learn after he heard of a flight attendant who could do it in 30 seconds with her eyes closed.  He has a ways to go, but he is getting better.  I have the really hard job of mixing up the Rubik's cube.  I don't think he understands that it is actually me who has the hard job.  He at least has patterns to look for and follow.  I have to do everything just by sight and feel--with no easy math algorithms to use.

The time came around that the kids had to go back to school and Dan had to go back to work.  We were really starting to like our schedule of staying up really late, and then waking up at 8 or 9.  That ended abruptly, and we were back into somewhat of a routine. 

We had to say "good-bye" to grandma.  We were all very sad--that is, all of us except grandma!  Poor Danyon was asleep when grandma left, and he has been asking for her ever since she left.  (Like every 10 minutes or so--not even kidding).  It is nice to know that she has already booked her return flight--especially since getting home was such a fiasco for her.  I don't think she would book a trip back, if we hadn't done it before she left.

I started up my German tutoring again.  I've had one lesson so far, and it's going really well.  I've studied every day since, and been doing much better at that.  It seems like I've found my motivation somewhere.  It could have come from Dan telling me that I wasn't allowed to go back to the States until I learned German.  I hope it goes better the second time around.

Dan and I stopped all of our normal daily business in order to participate in the exciting game of After School Activities Roulette.  Sign-ups started at noon on Thursday.  This is very reminiscent of signing up for college courses.  Some of the activities are full within 5 minutes of start time.  We both had to plan our days around this one event.  Dyllan and Deagan were interested in a couple of activities that they offer.  So, after much deliberation and planning, Dan and I were successful in getting Dyllan into gymnastics and choir, and Deagan into ballsports and Tae Kwon Do.  They go on the same days, so I will only have to pick them up from school on Wednesdays and Thursdays and they have both promised to be happy as clams every day!

We met up with one of Deagan's friend's family this weekend and went bowling.  We had a great time snacking, bowling and enjoying the company.  Everyone bowled a strike (including Danyon)!  But I must mention that some of us were playing with gutter guards.  Dan was not, however, and he bowled quite well, considering that we haven't been bowling in a year or more.  I bowled 2 or 3 strikes and a spare or two--even with my tennis elbow (but my highest score was 132, so not as great as it sounds).  Dan got a 158!  He felt a little pressure from the other mom, who started off with a turkey.  The kids (and Dan) found the claw machine at the bowling alley.  Deagan begged to try (and Dan is a total sucker for the claw machine--many of you might remember the piles of stuffed animals I had to donate before moving here) so, Deagan tried to get a watch out of the machine.  He got it right on the first try!  He is now the proud owner of a new red (dollar store) watch.  Of course, Dyllan had to try and then Dane.  On Dyllan's turn, she got so excited that she pushed the button before she even moved the claw.  She had to try again.  She was elated when the claw landed perfectly around the pink watch.  Then, it lifted it up, started to move towards the dispenser, and then dropped the watch.  Dyllan was in a bad mood, and didn't think that it was fair that it would drop her watch after she had already gotten it.  Thus, she had to try again.  Same thing happened.  She was bound and determined that the machine was cheating.  When all was said and done, Dan spent 12 Euros on 3 really cheap watches, good life lessons (claw machines are the providers of wonderful gifts), and priceless memories.

But, the most exciting news of all for the week, is that Danyon has graduated from his crib to a real big boy bed.  He is so excited!  He also moved from the boys room into Dyllan's room.  Everyone feels better about the whole thing.  I fear that he is now done napping though, because despite the fact that he was very tired, he spent time in his new bed, in his new room, but never slept.  Dyllan reported that during his first night, he went to bed easily, stayed in bed, except for the one time he fell out (Dyllan did help him back in), and seemed to do well.  I found him sitting next to his bed playing with a dragon this morning.  However, all the lights in the room were on, all the lights in the hallway were on, and all the lights down to the main floor were on.  I don't think anyone could have slept through that.  Dyllan says that she did not turn on the lights, and when she woke up, Danyon was in her bed with her.  It is Sunday at 2:49pm.  Danyon has yet to go up for a nap.  We'll see . . .

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!--Wochen 46-47

The few days before Christmas were spent trying to relax and have fun.  Ha, ha.  The kids were so wired and excited, they could hardly function.  We went to a movie.  (Dad and Dane went to the last Hobbit movie and the rest of us went to the Penguins movie.  Grandma stayed home with Danyon so that the rest of us could all enjoy the movie with no interruptions.)  We played games and the kids loved sleeping by the tree.  Our new pajamas glow in the dark which was a big hit during our sleep by the tree party.  Grandma lasted by the tree until about midnight, then headed up to her bed.  Dan and I made it the whole night!

Our Christmas Eve was spent putting together a huge gift basket for a friend from church.  The dad has been struggling with cancer for a few months and just three days before Christmas took a turn for the worse.  So to lift the families' spirits, we got together with a few families from church and put a gift basket together for them.  We spent time in the kitchen trying to make and bake another batch of Christmas for another family, all in one day.  Grandma was a trooper in the dish pan, and the rest of us were just trying to keep her as busy as we could.  It made for a hectic Christmas Eve, but we found that we wouldn't have rather done anything else. 

Christmas morning was a big hit, as always.  Santa found his way to our house and the kids were excited with their gifts.  Dyllan loves her scooter, Dane his Lego, Deagan his Playmobil, and Danyon his Strider bike.  Luckily, we had pretty good weather that Dyllan and Danyon could ride around the yard whooping and hollering.  Dan loves his new bike.  Grandma thinks she likes her new noise canceling headphones--she has yet to try them out.  I loved all my gifts that I was spoiled with.

We started a new tradition of not having a huge Christmas dinner on Christmas.  I loved not having to worry about another dinner.  We just enjoyed our day.  We spent time visiting with family, playing with new toys, and sleeping.  Danyon for sure didn't want to have his nap, but finally succumbed after I promised him that his toys would still be here when he woke up.  A good time was had by all.  We did do a Christmas dinner on boxing day.  We invited the missionaries and Papa J.  We had a good dinner and everything turned out great. I think from now on, I will just skip Christmas dinner and do Boxing Day dinner.  It seemed to work out really well.

We got an email from our cousins in Hungary, that their daughter was getting baptized on Sunday.  We decided to head to Gyor, Hungary, for the baptism.  The baptism turned out to be full of surprises.  Dyllan was asked to sing a song, with a group as part of the program, and two of the talks were in English, so we could understand some of it.  It was nice to see our cousins again.  We decided to stay the night in Gyor, and then head to a hot springs pool on Monday.  We spent Monday walking around Gyor, a quaint little town, but very cold.  After chiseling the icicles off of our noses, we headed to the hot springs.  We spent the afternoon swimming and sliding.  The pools were full of minerals, so we should be healed of any ailments we had!  However, they were not hot enough to melt off all the extra fat we picked up during the holidays.

Speaking of cold, we finally got some snow!  We had enough to make some snowballs and a snowman.  We've now had more snow here in Vienna than we did all last winter.  The only bad part was that Dan couldn't go out on his bike and Dyllan and Danyon were also out of luck with their scooter and bike.

We decided to take it easy on New Years Eve.  We were advised not to head downtown because the crowds usually got pretty wild.  People throw glass from apartments (I think that smashing plates is a tradition), and the downtown is covered with a few inches of broken glass.  Also, people are not very considerate of others.  We had a friend who got hit with a firework rocket in the back and his coat started on fire.  I didn't think that was an appropriate atmosphere to take the kids into.  But, we got invited to a friends house for a small dinner party.  Our friends told us of some Austrian New Year's traditions.  First off, they have these small metal figures that you can buy in train stations and other random stores around Vienna.  You melt these figures in a spoon over a candle.  When you get it down to liquid, you then pour it into cold water.  From the new shape of the metal, you can predict your future for the year.  Also, the Austrians jump into the new year, by jumping off of furniture at the stroke of midnight.  Then they promptly begin to dance a waltz.  You waltz and kiss for the first moments of the new year.  Of course, alcohol is heavily involved in most celebrations (grocery carts had more liquor in them than groceries for the entire month of December), but we left it out of ours.  Fireworks are everywhere.  We had one of the best fireworks views, as we were driving through the downtown just shortly before midnight.  The fireworks over the Danube were beautiful!  It sounded like a war zone here in Vienna.  Fireworks were everywhere with booms echoing off all the buildings.  It was definitely something to experience!

Happy New Year!!!!

'Tis the Season to be Sick!---Woche 45

There was a lot planned this week.  We had Dane's concert to attend, more goodies to bake, gifts for teachers to wrap, the dentist, the eye doctor, Christmas parties, Christmas markets, German lessons, swimming, baking, and . . .

Dan was not feeling very well all week.  He had picked up a cold from somewhere.  He was so swamped at work, that he couldn't take any time off to be sick.  He made it through his week, but all in all, it was an exhausting one!

We made our gingerbread houses this week.  The kids did a great job.  We bought kits this year:  houses and a train.  The gingerbread here is different.  They don't use molasses and so the gingerbread is lighter in color.  Also, their gingerbread houses are Hansel and Gretel Witch houses (Hexenhaus), complete with marzipan figures.  The kids had a great time putting them together, and hope to be able to eat them this year--without the danger of their witch mother threatening to fatten them up. 

Dyllan was sick on Tuesday (maybe too much candy??) and I had to pick her up from school, shortly after she'd arrived.  Mom and I had planned to go to some Christmas markets, but our plans quickly changed when we had to be home with a sick kid.  I was still able to get Dane to his eye appointment and Dan and Grandma took him to his concert.  They said that he played well.  The next day, Dyllan was feeling good enough to go back to school for the afternoon.

The reindeer fly, too, when
the candle is lit

You can't see the snow flurries,
 but the flakes fly when the candle is lit

Once I got Dyllan back to school, mom and I were finally free to go to some of the Christmas markets.  We headed down to the Rathaus and walked around.  We found some cool candles.  We ate our kaisekriners and langos for lunch.  Then we headed to the Karlsplatz market (the prettiest one in the city--so they say).  It looked much like the others to us.  We walked around and found some roasted potatoes that we wanted to try.  Mom about fell over when she saw him pick up each potato piece with his bare, very soot covered hands, and place them on the plate.  There were not any washing facilities at the stand.  Luckily, neither of us got sick!  By that time, Mom about froze to death, so we headed home. The weather here is actually quite pleasant.  We have had sunshine for a few days straight!  But somehow, the cool, damp air feels much more cold than the drier cold air from Canada.  I also think that mom's internal temperature regulator might be a little off.  She has struggled with jet lag all week.  She has only been getting about 2-4 hours of sleep a night since she got here, and doesn't nap during the day. 

German lessons and swimming are now finished for the year!  Everyone is ready for a couple of weeks of just kicking back and relaxing!  Mom and I made some black and white popcorn--two batches!  We made another batch of nuts and bolts.  We made bubble loaves for the neighbors, dipped chocolates, baked cookies, and made salted caramel sauce (the sauce was for the teacher gifts this year.  I made jars of salted caramel sauce with huge, yummy apples to go with them)--yes, we have all put on a few pounds already, but we sure are enjoying the season!

We did some grocery shopping.  We are trying to pick up all our groceries for Christmas.  Our German tutor explained to us that groceries are hard to come by next week.  Since all the

Black and White popcorn

stores are either closed, or will close early on Christmas Eve, and will stay closed on Christmas and Boxing day, people go crazy.  Since they are used to shopping every day for their groceries, having the stores closed for 3 days in row, throws everyone off.  The tutor said she has seen people fighting over the last milk carton in the store.  People clear the shelves of all and every basic necessity they can.  So, we are trying to get everything well in advance--where possible.  We are struggling to find oysters for the traditional fried oyster feast on Christmas Eve.



The risotto lesson

Gifts for Primary teachers at church

Dan had his work Christmas party this week.  It was at a fun location, close to the Stephen's Dome, right in down-town Vienna.  We had to cook our own dinner.  A chef and his sous chefs helped everyone at different stations cooking different entrees and sides.  We made risotto and watched the chef cut and prepare the beef.  Once all the food was cooked, we all sat down together and tried all of the different dishes.  Together we made 2 different beef steaks, chicken teriyaki, shrimp stir fry, fish, risotto, potato salad, gingered carrots, stir fry vegetables, etc.  Most of the people there don't remember eating the meal anyway, since there were drink stations set up all around the room.  People were pretty sloshed by the end of dinner.  We stayed for dessert and the mandatory gift exchange, but then left soon after.  Oddly enough, Dan was the first one in the office on Friday morning.  The rest didn't trickle in until after 10:00am.



We had planned to go to a movie with everyone on Saturday.  But, it was Dane's turn to be sick.  He had a migraine and we didn't think that a high definition 3-D movie with loud surround sound would be a good idea to help him get over it.  We postponed the movie for next week.  We played board games and had Chinese take-out instead.

The sign I found on the ubahn.
 "We wish you a Merry Christmas and good travels in the new year"