Happy Mardi Gras!  Here, it is "Pancake Tuesday!"  At the hotel we are staying at this week, we celebrated Festival last night (Mon) and had our pancakes ("Kaiserschmarrn").  Here are some of the more outlandish shots:

        

But I am getting ahead of myself.  Let me back up to my last post:

I am a bit behind the pace for another chapter of Viennese life; I am often a day late and an euro short these days! As usual, life here is a series of ups and downs and although I've been editing out too many of the downs, it's not as much fun to write about those!  That said, I've been feeling the stress again lately, although am beginning to improve now. [You can't take any routine for granted.] Frustrations can be intense.  [I actually broke down crying on our 5th visit to the same government office.]  These experiences abroad, although very valuable, are not easy.  [Most especially for the mom, whom usually has the most to juggle. And even more especially when I have an uncanny inability to orient myself when coming up from the U-Bahn.  My sense of direction is usually quite good.]  I would still recommend it despite the hardships because the benefits are so worth it.  It is neither vacation, easy travel, nor to be done lightly.  But the appreciation of the variety and beauty in the world is immense.

Our typical day probably looks a lot the same as many of you (if you have kids).  Get up early, get the kids fed and off to school. Our kids ride their scooters down the hill and jump in the car with one of Carissa's classmates.  They have a full range of classes, each 50 minutes long.  The length of their days varies. Mondays they are not home until 5:00 (due to their extra class for non-native speakers), Tuesday and Wednesday by 2:30, Carissa is home earlier on Thursday and Matthew starts late on Fridays.  In the end, they spend about the same number of hours in school as most American kids. Unfortunately, their school is not a very challenging one and neither child has much homework. Craig jumps on the train and rides to the office, about 50 min.  He listens to German on his phone, or works with an old fashion paper and pencil, so it is not lost time.  He is home between 6 and 7. He works from home often and some days has late-afternoon/early-evening phone calls because of the time differences to areas of the US.  I am up and out doing my own "jobs":  I volunteer in a food pantry on Monday mornings (which also helps me practice my German), go to German conversation class on Tuesday, for coffee with English speaking friends on some Wednesdays, have an informal German class with my friend Angela on Thursday, and catch my breath on Friday.  On Thursday evening, you will probably find Matthew at chess and Carissa at basketball (she and her friend Zora are the only girls in the class).  Otherwise, perhaps like yours, my kids spend too much time on the computer. Carissa still likes crafts and Matthew still enjoys climbing trees.  We still have to clean the house, do laundry, shop for groceries, run errands, do laundry, coordinate school field trips, keep up with the letters and emails, shop for groceries, maintain relationships, do dishes, shop for groceries, etc. Granted, many of these things take longer to do here, and they are in a different language, and we don't have a car, but we are managing. And sometimes, even thriving!

A warm day at the park - panoramic view

Our activity on the weekends may look different because of the diversity of activities around here (something Bowling Green could never be accused of).  We are also cramming several years of vacations and experiences into one year; we are definitely always aware of the time flying by.   We go for hikes or walks, occasionally to a museum or the zoo, parks or churches, keep track of special events like festivals and seasonal events, etc.  My international women's group provides all sorts of activities and I do many of those. They also provide couple events so Craig gets more socializing too.

That is a big change for Craig here - the socializing within his institute.  Everyone - grad students, adjuncts, professors, staff - come early and stay late.  No one eats in their office; they go to the lunch room and often even cook together.  As far as he can tell, they are each other's social group, almost entirely.  We wonder about the few that have families.

On a particularly nice day, we couldn't talk the kids into joining us at the zoo so we went by ourselves!

 

My German continues to come along.  One thing I've finally understood, is that no matter how much you study, you need time to adjust to speaking and hearing the language.  That part can't be rushed.  So after six months, I've had a bit more time and conversations slowly get easier.

Because of all the above, we are rarely lacking in activity or things to report.  As I review my last posts, I realize that I write a long blog!  I apologize if I've worn any of you out.  And here I go again!

As in most places, January is the coldest month.  It was typically in the 20's and 30's, with very little sunshine.  I spent the last two weeks of it in a much more hospitable place: Naples, Florida with my parents. It turns out that there is no place warm (as defined by me as 'sunny and above 60 degrees' anywhere in Europe!).  I was able to spend time with my folks, helping, visiting, swimming, walking, and with lots of conversation.  My mom and I had a great weekend with some of my dad's siblings about 2 hours north in Bradenton, Florida while we were there.  My folks have some medical issues as time goes by and I was able to help them plan a strategy for addressing them.  And more importantly, was able to reassure them of my love and support and to enjoy their company.

Meanwhile, Carissa's class met on a weekend to go ice skating.  They have a very nice outdoor rink in front of the city hall.

Ice skating t at the Wiener Icetraum

There are pathways to the big ice areas

Carissa, her friend Julie, and Craig after skating

I returned from Florida to a quiet house as Craig and the kids were skiing with a group from Carissa's class. They stayed at an awesome kids-friendly resort, that is used primarily to host school groups.  Besides skiing, they have indoor sand volleyball, discos, climbing rooms, theater, etc.  They kids enjoyed it, although they had to ski with a group at all times, and that got old.  Craig took off with Matthew on Tuesday so he could ski at his own pace.  They joined up with some other teenagers.  On the last slope of the last run, Craig fell and hurt his wrist.  They were afraid the carpal bone was broken so they casted it and told him to return in 2 weeks.  No more skiing for him that week.

It would be the right hand!

Beautiful view; Carissa on far left in polka dots

Warming up in an ice igloo

Self controlled roller coasters are fun, too.

At the top.

Matthew in his room, getting set to ski

We will now take a break from your regularly scheduled blog post for a message from the Austrian cultural society.....

You've probably all heard stories about incredibly long, complicated German words, and they certainly do have a penchant for appending all adjectives to a noun.  However, the language is also surprisingly literal in a very fun way when you are learning.  Pronunciation is easier: what you see, you say.  But here are some fun "Austrian-isms":

Staubzucker - "dust sugar" - powdered sugar

Zahnspringen - "teeth slides" - braces 

Handschuhe - "hand shoes" - gloves

Krankenhaus - "sick house" - hospital

Erdapfel - "earth apple" - potato

There are no yards, only 'gardens'; when you are in a building, you are in a 'house';  there are few telephones, only 'handys'; there are no blankets on the beds, only 'duvets'; when you graduate with a doctorate or masters, the term 'Doktor' or 'Magistra' becomes an actual part of your name.  (I told you they love titles here!) There is no 'coffee', there are dozens of kinds. Woe to you if you order "coffee".

Back to our regularly scheduled post:

Luckily for Craig, although those two weeks in a cast were difficult, the followup x-rays showed no healing, thus no break.  It is still sore and healing slowly, but much better than before.

Before the cast came off, however, his institute went away for a week retreat in Bled, Slovenia with other similar labs in Europe.  Much of the time is spent on unscheduled time working together with about 4 hours/day for talks and presentations.  They would often cook together and one night Craig got volunteered to cook vegan for all 80 attendees!

Island on Lake Bled

48 zucchini, 150 potatoes,  22 lbs. of onions, 14 lbs. peas, etc.

Hotel and Meeting place in Bled

The weather was foggy for the whole trip, so he could only see the mountains on the last day, and a previous ice storm had made some hiking trails impassable.  Since half the food budget was for alcohol, not all was lost.

While he was gone, the kids and I had a tour of the Museum for Applied Art.  The building was lovely; the art was....well....unique and interesting.

We are now west of Salzburg to a small town called Kössen, to ski from Monday to Thursday of this week. Our landlord is letting us borrow his van and we met up with our German friends here at the hotel.  They are in a group that makes this an annual event.  Winter in Europe has been warmer than normal, so snow, even in the mountains, is not ideal.  That does not keep the 5 year-olds, nor the 65-year-olds, from flying by me! The next blog will post pictures.

Future posts will also include fun details about our friend Jeffrey visiting in March, an Easter cruise to celebrate our friend Cornelia's 50th (Nice, France - Tunis, Tunesia - near Rome, Italy) over Easter weekend, going to Madrid for a tennis tournament and hosting Craig's parents in May.  The weather is warmer, so more hiking is in the future.  I know midwesterners won't want to hear it, but we are in the 40's and even 50's most days, so it is comfortable, especially when the sun is out.

For us, we have a few more days of "winter" while we hit the slopes.  Then, it's back to Vienna and springtime. Happy spring to you all and best wishes for wonderful weather!

Maria

Your long wait is finally at an end and another posting is here!  It may be worse than waiting for the next season of  'Downton Abbey'!  (Lucky me, it's shown earlier here and I have computer savvy sons who can access things so I've seen the whole season!!  I'm so bad at waiting.) It's funny how my last post covered only one week of our activity and now I will cover the last 6 weeks or so.  I will try mightily to keep the boring details to a minimum.

View of Vienna from our favorite hiking spot

The older boys arrived on Dec. 16 and we had a wonderful visit with all of us together for 3 weeks.  We completed our occasional height check.  Currently, Dominic is the tallest at 6' 1 1/4".  Alex follows (an inch shorter) at 6' 1/4" and Craig at an even 6'.  Matthew is striving to pass up his mom, but not yet: Maria is still 5' 6 1/2" and Matthew is 5' 5 3/4".  Carissa is no slouch at 4' 8 1/2" tall.

Alex is really enjoying his job, learning new things and having adventures with his co-workers (chess, ping-pong, rock climbing).  He jumped into exploring Vienna, Salzburg and Budapest (the last two with his friend Priya who visited for a week).  He sought out several Christmas Markets and was determined (and successful) in trying as many different beers as possible.  We played Munchkin and Dominion together and all 6 of us even conquered in League of Legends.

It wouldn't be a complete visit without Wiener Schnitzel!

For the first time in years, only a few cookies were decorated in "unusual" ways.

Dominion was a favorite game.

Sacher Torte at the Hotel Sacher!

Dominic was happily apartment-bound most of the time when he was here: resting, playing on the computer (glad for a good connection speed) and working on his own projects.  We dragged him out to a few activities and to visit our old friends in Salzburg.  He is as soft-spoken as ever and a man of few words, so I am postulating that he enjoyed himself.  I believe he had a good first semester and (again, speculating) that he did well.  He got stuck for 2 days in Chicago on his way back to the states, until his grandpa picked him up and drove him to their house. He is back to CMU this weekend to start his second semester.  He expects it to be a bit tougher.  He is also considering his options for summer work; he likes to work independently and may arrange to do projects from home.

Opening Gifts on Christmas Morning

Carissa was in heaven with all her brothers here.  Her German continues to race ahead; she seems to have quite a gift for languages.  She has been letting me read to her for a bit each day so I can work on my pronunciation.  School is easy, but as ever, she is doggedly determined to give it her best in all the subjects and usually does more than is asked of her. She enjoys going on outings, especially if hot chocolate or a bakery is involved. She is looking into attending a weekly volleyball class with a friend, and possibly a weekly gymnastics course or basketball class as well.  She has made many friends, continues to be good-natured, and is enjoying her new experiences.

All Austrian schoolchildren (you aren't a 'student' until you go to the university, you are a 'pupil' before that) get a week off of school during February, when the first semester finishes (which is at the end of Jan.). The different regions of the country take turns so that everyone can go skiing at different times of the month and the resorts don't get mobbed with the whole country at once.  The kids in Vienna and the surrounding region have the first week of Feb. as their vacation.  That's why many things begin in mid-Feb here, after the first semester of school and after the week of vacation. Carissa's class has the chance to go on a week skiing together; one of the parents has connections and arranged for a hotel/hostel for a group, with food, lessons, rooms, swimming pool, inside sand volleyball, etc. all included, and at cost.  Craig and Matthew may go along. (I will be returning from Florida after they have left so I may join later or get a few solo days at home. The arthritis in my knees makes me hesitant to try skiing again, but I may risk it for half a day.)

Matthew is continuing his low-key approach and has been staying under the radar, so most of his schooling continues in English, and his German is minimal.  I think he (and I) will both enroll in a 'German for foreigners' class that begins in February to continue working on the language.  We may need to put a bit more pressure on him to take advantage of  this opportunity. Math and science continue to be interesting, but history is in German so that takes a bit more work.  However, the school is not particularly proactive in helping him integrate or facilitating his understanding, so he's had a bit of a tougher time.  He has very little homework. He has started going to a chess club once a week and spends much of his free time reading or Minecraft (and other computer activities), often with his friends from home if he can manage to connect with them.

There are many good climbing trees, and although we haven't seen many other kids in the trees, my kids still love it.

Craig is working a lot and enjoying it.  There is always so much to do!  He loves it so much that he spends much of his free time working as well.  Research is going well, he maintains contact regularly with his colleagues in the states, and is working on grant proposals.   He does break for board games and League of Legends with the kids (he actually enjoys it and doesn't have to be talked into it, unlike yours truly).  He does more than his share of the cooking, and is continuing to be vegan with less trouble.  It's still fairly hopeless at restaurants and at people's houses, but it can be fun to see the waiter's reactions!  If it's not raining, he wants to be hiking somewhere and finds many great places for us to take walks.

I continue many of my same activities - tours, coffee shops, language study, organizational/social director, and housekeeper/butler/short-order cook. I do love to explore, discover new things and observe things around me, which also helps me to make up my own mind about things I like and don't like.  I am lonely sometimes; I am missing my friends to keep me company, listen to my complaints, share my sorrows, laugh with and at me, and share creamer coffee weekly.  I am making friends here - ex-pats from all countries can relate to the challenges of relocation.  I am back to walking more.  It hasn't gotten real cold here - usually the 40's or so - and being outside during the day is quite comfortable.  (Who would have thought that 40 degrees and cloudy would be something that many Americans would be jealous of!)  It does get cold at night, though.  Next week is expected to be colder and with snow.  We have seen the sun a bit more lately.

I also have been feeling the stress of living in a country where you are not fluent in the language.  I always knew this before in my head, but I am actually feeling the discouragement of not completely knowing what is going on around you, understanding what people ask you, not understanding announcements you may hear, emails that come from schools and governments.  It's just hard.  I am working again actively on the German and I am really enjoying it in a way I didn't before. This is where having a second year would really pay off - the first year you learn the ropes and the next year you have that advantage.  However, you all know me enough to know that I forge ahead, keep trying new things, and am constantly surprised when others see me as active and enthusiastic (since I seldom feel that way and would describe myself as "tired and worn out";  I guess I just 'fake it until I make it'.)  I think with the continued classes and individual work, this feeling will gradually dissipate and I will feel more comfortable.  I think it feels stronger after 3 weeks of a family-dominated English-only environment!

Looks like we will have some company in the coming months.  A friend from Ohio may come in March, an aunt and uncle of mine in May, as well as Craig's parents this summer.  I am definitely looking forward to those visits.  Don't worry - we still have room for you!  Craig and I are also meeting my brother and his wife in Madrid in early May to watch some of the later rounds of the Madrid Open TennisTournament.  That will be a real treat for sure!  (Nadal!  Djokovic!)  We will also be visiting friends in northern German (in June or July) and take in some sights on the way and possibly around Amsterdam.  The next 6 months will keep us plenty busy!

I am going to see my parents in Florida in a week and will stay for two weeks.  Besides wanting to see them, the sunshine and warmth will hopefully dispel my SAD until sunny skies are here again.  Perhaps you will have a guest author in my absence - which other Austrian Zirbel would you vote to hear from?

My previous post left you hanging at the beginning of December.  It was advent and advent wreaths are very common here, and almost all houses have them, although most not "liturgical" ones (with the purple and pink candles). The first Sunday of Advent, many bring their wreaths to church to be blessed for the season.  On Dec. 6, we were able to see a very kid-friendly version of St. Nicholas and Krampus in our own neighborhood and avoided the more gruesome displays.  St. Nicholas' Day is a highlight of the Advent season.

Carissa receiving treats from St. Nicholas

We spent a happy weekend in Salzburg celebrating with our friends there.  We went on walks, to parties, to an Advent Market, and had a wonderful time.  Lydia and Thomas are very good friends and their two sons were in the same kindergarten as Matthew was 8 years ago.  Their oldest son Paul may spend a year with us in the future, perfecting his (already very nice) English.  Their daughter Amelie was born after we left Salzburg, and it's been great getting to know her.

A wonderful Christmas Market in Salzburg with the Schrader Family                 Rock climbing at a local park

Midnight mass at our small neighborhood church was surprisingly delightful.  They had a concert at 11:30, with the choir alternating pieces with a large instrumental ensemble.  Both were quite good.  The bright interior along with the good music made it really enjoyable.  Although the church was full then, if they want to increase attendance in general, they could try heating the churches.

Before I forget:  Happy New Year to you all, a little late!  The Viennese celebrate the New Year possibly more than Christmas.  There is probably an entire 24 hours of fireworks, both legal and illegal from mid-day on the 31st to mid-day on the 1st, (and a few rogue ones the few nights before) and the downtown display is stupendous.  We celebrated there with thousands of friends and in a breath-taking setting.


     Family photo on Jan. 31, 2013                                                  Wandering downtown with Sauke's and Priya

We had hoped to sleep in late the next morning, but we began the New Year in an unexpected way:  a trip to ER!  Oh yes, you read that right.  Matthew woke around 6 am, vomiting and with intense pain in his "private parts".  A quick Google search of symptoms led us to believe that we needed to see a doctor immediately.  And now:  how do we do that?  Taxi?  Ambulance?  Call friends at the indecent hour?  (They didn't answer.)  We called an ambulance and they took Matthew and Craig to the Wilhelminenspital, where he saw a doctor, who sent him directly to a urologist, who did an ultrasound, and he was in surgery within an hour of arriving, dry-heaving all the way.   He had a textbook case of "testicular torsion", when the blood vessels in one of the testicles gets wrapped around itself 360' and cuts off the blood supply.  Another 4 hours would have killed the testicle completely, with a good chance of recurrence in the other one, long-term problems and a fair chance of not being able to father children.  Every source confirmed to us that this was an emergency situation requiring immediate attention, so we were glad to have made the right call.  Surgeons made an incision, took out the blood vessels, unwound them, and when they were warmed up in liquid, they returned to a healthy pink color (from the blue-black that they were).  They also pinned down the vessels in both testicles so it won't recur.  He was immediately better.  He stayed in the hospital overnight and was home the next afternoon.  He was a real trouper and despite all the struggles, never even shed a tear, never wanting to bother anyone (although this is pushing it!) and handled himself very maturely.  The hospital was about a 10 minute car ride away; it was built around the turn of the century, where they have multiple 'pavilions', which each have a half-dozen rooms or so, with the high ceilings, and tall glass windows from a different age.



After all that excitement, Matthew wasn't able to join us for much exploring the following week, as he was instructed to avoid physical activity.  The rest of us climbed to the 'top' (you could only go about half way up) of St. Stephens Cathedral, which gave an amazing view of the city.  It was a tightly wound circular staircase and you often had to pause to let people going in the other direction get by.

One last outing was to the Hundertwasser house.  This Austrian artist loved to design multi-colored, non-linear, ecologically-sound buildings and areas.  His famous house is quite unusual.  It has undulating floors, grass growing at the top, and large trees growing from inside the rooms.  He is especially well-known for his remodeling and exterior design of an incineration plant.

 

He abhorred straight lines or flat, horizontal surfaces, and loved bright colors.  Current residents are allowed to decorate their own windows.
It is really quite fun.

The Christmas season end on Epiphany, which is on Jan. 6.  This is also widely celebrated in Austria.  In the afternoon on this day, we were visited by Three Kings in our apartment lobby, singing and dressed in wonderful costumes.

So, the holidays are over, the older boys are gone and we are back to school.  Both kids left here were so jealous of the wonderful snow storm (and snow days) their friends back home enjoyed.  They have a few more weeks of school, until their one-week vacation, and will need to survive (and hopefully thrive) while I am sunning in Florida.  Craig has a week retreat in mid-Feb with his colleagues in Bled, Slovenia.  By then spring will be arriving, and there will be many more things to explore.

Blessings in the new year,
Maria et. al

Last week was so busy, I can write a whole post about what happened in just 7 days!

The week before last, we got our first snow (which has since melted) and attended our first Christmas market to have the traditional Gluhwein (and I also discovered Caramel Punch - oh wow!).  Christmas Markets abound all around Vienna and in every small village with stalls selling handmade things, food, drink, carolers and lights.  It's a great party at all of them.

Christmas Market at Schonbrun Palace

Kids playing outside in the first snow.
It wasn't much but it was packing snow!

Monday
Last week began with a visit to the Snow Globe Museum, home of the 'Wiener Schneekugel' company.  It's a fourth-generation family company. The founder 'invented' the snow globe quite by accident when he was working as a medical instrument maker, trying to expand the area that a light bulb will illuminate.  He tried a water filled globe, without much success, and after putting glass flakes in the water (also without much success), he turned over the globe and noticed the effect.  He began designing the insides and the company was born.  It is the only company that creates them outside of China.  The secret, he says, is in the composition and manufacturing process of the 'snow'.  It is quite true that his 'snow' floats around for quite a long time.  The current owner detailed the whole evolution of the company and the current techniques. Almost everything is created in-house and is done by hand.  It was really quite fun.

The third generation; his daughter runs the company now and he still designs scenes for the insides

You can see at the bottom, the original stove where they would melt pewter and the tools on the top for molding it.

A part of the showroom today.

Tuesday was German conversation.  I have recently realized that I have been putting too much pressure on myself to learn and speak German and it was negatively impacting my experience here.  So I have backed off and "allowed" myself to ask people if they speak English some of the time.  I do know the places where they don't and I still go to the class and work on it as I want to.  I am definitely understanding more and able to communicate.  Carissa, however, is putting us all to shame as she improves every day.  Plus, her pronunciation is the best of all of us.

Wednesday was my weekly coffee in a coffee shop with other English speakers.  This was followed by a tour of the Lichtenstein City Palace.  As in, the country of Lichtenstein.  As in, the Lichtenstein family.  As in, they have their own bank.  Wow.  This palace has just completed a $100 million euro renovation and is completely amazing.  It is still the main residence of the family, with their apartments on the third floor.  It is only open for tours twice/month and it is booked months in advance.  It was originally built in a Baroque style and then remodeled in the New Rocco style.  Everything has been meticulously restored and our guide was an encyclopedia, telling us about every piece of furniture, clothing, design, history of anything and everything. The art collection (a part of it is here and the rest in the Lichtenstein Museum) was so beautiful. Because the collection is private, we were not allowed to take pictures inside.  The amount of gold was overwhelming (and we all agreed in the ballroom that it was way too much!!  But apparently it is what the designer was known for.)

This was the main staircase.

The ballroom.  The chandelier is 1.3 tons.

The only thing in this room which is not gold are the figures on the top of the corner candelabras, which the family insisted be painted brown.  Even they had had too much gold!  There are also mirrors on the opposite wall to increase the effect (and are also rotating doors).

One particular designer did much of the furniture inside in this style.  Love this bench.

Thursday was Thanksgiving.  An American graduate student at Craig's office took care of getting the turkey and started it baking in the afternoon.  I made the pumpkin and apple pies and everyone brought something. We had the traditional turkey and stuffing, baked potatoes, cranberries, carrots and beans and pies.  We had the nontraditional Knudel (balls of breading, potato and spices boiled in water), carrot soup, and red cabbage salad.  We ate in the late evening after an afternoon of board games and Foosball.  The office has a large kitchen/eating room where we all gathered.  Of course, it wouldn't be Austrian if you didn't follow the meal with a small glass of Schnaps to aid in the digestion.

Playing "Small World"

The feast begins. Since the turkey wasn't as big as requested, they also gave us a duck.

Yup, the men did most of the cooking!

And most of the eating!

We left long before the students, who ended up playing cards until late in the night.

Friday, our Carissa turned 10 years old!  No more single digit Zirblets in this household!  Despite her tiredness from the short night, she had five friends from school spend the night.  If you know her, you know that she had been planning this event for at least a few weeks, and had created a power point presentation to include the schedule.

Looking in at the birthday girl.

The evening started with a tour of our apartment and then with tea.  Afterwards, I sent the girls out in sets of two for a scavenger hunt.  Remember, it is dark at 4:30 here (we are too far north!) so they were out in the dark looking for all sorts of things - in English!).  After that was "Taste the Rainbow", where you need to move colored candies via a straw from the main container to your own cup.  There were many on the floor, which didn't keep them from eating them despite my warning about the lack of cleanliness. Then was "Foil Fashion" where each team had to create clothing and accessories from aluminum foil. I tried to convince Carissa to have a traditional American meal (burgers) but she wouldn't go for it. So we had Wiener Schnitzel, rice, fruit, cut vegetables, etc.  Then a movie, opening gifts and an ice cream cake. I herded them into the bedroom at 11, but it was many hours before quiet descended.  They were up early for pancakes for breakfast, which they all loved (many had never had them, although they are familiar with crepes).  Craig took them to the park for a while in the morning, then a game of hide-and-seek waiting for the parents to collect them.  After a brief moment of quiet, we had to get busy cleaning the huge mess and rearranging the furniture back to its place.

Dinner Theater (Carissa and Johanna)

Opening Gifts

At the park for frisbee:  Zora, Julie, Carissa, Johanna, Lea, Kasija

Pancake Breakfast

Not enough for one week, you say?  Well, it's enough for me!  I began to have some fatigue and digestive issues again so have moderated the amount of gluten I am eating, which seems to have taken care of it.  I eat it when I want, usually when I am out and about, but not at home and that seems the right balance.

We went to services for the first Sunday in Advent, but didn't understand much more than when we first arrived, 3.5 months ago.  People brought their wreaths to be blessed.  We have decorated our tiny place - stockings and a few ribbons and knick-knacks. And the required St. Nicholas-Krampus team (in chocolate of course). Alex and Dominic arrive on the 16th for three weeks and we will explore and have family time, the first time all together since June.  You know I've been counting the days until that arrives.

The following weeks will be quite busy as well - mostly with shopping and Christmas markets.  Alex's girlfriend will come for a few days between Christmas and New Years.  We will go to Salzburg once to visit our friends and again to go skiing after the new year.  We wish you all the best in the Advent and Christmas seasons and every joy in the new year! And a white Christmas (if you want one!)  Be sure to send us your news from wherever you find yourself as you celebrate the old year, and/or ring in the new one.  

Frohe Weihnachten und Glückliches neues Jahr!