Ice Skating

This afternoon Jason and I took the girls into town for ice skating. I was excited to get on skates again since I haven't skated in a while and I love it. I was also excited to introduce the girls to skating. They did really well. I was surprised that they were able to stand on the skates by themselves. They seemed to enjoy skating and learning to do it by themselves. After skating by themselves for a little bit I would take each of them around the rink at a higher speed. I would skate backwards and just hold them up so they could just let their skates sit on the ice. Since we just saw Disney Princess on ice I would also do little spins with them. It was nice to see them so happy. That ice rink is only there until Wednesday so I will have to look for another rink that I can bring them to so we can keep skating. If we do, I will have to buy some skates for all of us so that we can have skates that fit properly since that makes it easier to skate. Here are a couple videos of the girls skating.

Merry Christmas!

We have been enjoying our Christmas vacation. On Christmas Eve we went into Old Town Square to see the lights and look at the Christmas Market. We forgot that this was prague and everything closes Christmas Eve, including the Christmas Market. Czech's celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve so Old Town Square was very empty when we arrived but that was fine. It made it easier to enjoy all the lights and the beauty around us. On Christmas morning the girls woke up and we had a little breakfast and then started opening presents. Ali made me laugh because after every present she would ask if there were anymore. It was like she couldn't believe there were all these presents for her. After ripping through all the presents we had a very lazy day of playing with toys, eating and watching movies. This is the second year in a row that we have made a beef tenderloin with a blue cheese sauce for our Christmas meal and it was delicious. The day after Christmas (Boxing Day) we went to our friends house out of town. They had recently moved out of town and we hadn't seen them as much so it was great to visit them. Their new house was beautiful. We had fun hanging out and we went for a walk down to the river as well. It was very cold out so it was quite a refreshing walk. We ended up carrying Ali most of the way back but I didn't mind. I wasn't surprised she was cold since my hands and feet were frozen too. I think today we will head into town for some ice skating. I will post later about that.

The Spirit of Christmas

I love Christmas in Prague. Everything is so festive and it really feels like Christmas (although we could use snow to really make it perfect). Last year I gave a package of homemade cookies to our downstairs neighbor at Christmas since they, while they speak no English, have been so kind to us. This year, before I could get downstairs with their package of Christmas cookies, they came upstairs with a package of Czech Christmas cookies for us. It was so nice of them. I never expected them to give us cookies or to make the climb up to our apartment since they are older and it takes them a while to climb the stairs. Once again I find myself wondering how people can think the Czechs are cold people since they have been nothing but welcoming to us. This morning I took Watson out for his walk and I brought a bag of homemade cookies to our local lahudky (kind of like a delicatessen). The ladies in the lahudky have always been nice to me and I just wanted to give them a little something for Christmas. They were surprised when I came in and put the package on the counter and said "vesele vanoce" (Merry Christmas). I had to tell them that it was just American cookies. They were very happy and very thankful for my gift. I left the shop to head home and when I was partway down the road one of the ladies came running after me with two big chocolate Mikulases for me to give to the girls. Again, so nice and unexpected. The spirit of Christmas is alive and well in Prague and I'm happy to be apart of it.

Disney on Ice

This morning Jason and I took the girls to see Disney Princesses on Ice. It was a great show and the girls were mesmerized for the entire two hours. They didn't seem to care that the entire show was in Czech. They know the stories and characters so well and they are use to hearing Czech that I don't even think it occurred to them that they were listening to Czech. We of course bought the obligatory items..popcorn, rainbow ice in a princess cup, magic wand and tiara. It was all worth it to see the girls enjoy themselves so much. After we got home the girls went to there room and "skated" for quite a while. Here is the video that Jason took of the girls skating like the princesses.

Christmas Party

Last night Jason and I hosted our first party in Prague. This last week has been a mad dash to get everything ready for the party. Unfortunately the list was pretty long since we had put off a lot of things on our "to do" list. The party was a catalyst for the completion of many "to do" items. We had to buy new dishware and glassware since we had not replaced all of our broken things from when the kitchen cabinets fell off the wall last year. We had to clean the windows which we hadn't done since we moved here! We also finally hung pictures in the kitchen.

My friends were all great helps to me. One friend brought me to a wholesale dish/glassware store which was great. Since it is a wholesaler you have to have a business license to shop there which I don't possess so having a friend with one who is willing to go shopping with me was great. The prices were so much lower I saved a ton of money and now have new dishes. They were out of stock on many of the glasses I wanted but that was ok since other friends let me borrow their Makro card. Makro is a big box store similar to Costco but you have to have a business to be a member. I went to Makro and bought the rest of the glassware that I wanted as well as wine and other food/drink for the party. Again, because it is basically a wholesaler the prices are a lot cheaper so I was able to save money here as well. After acquiring all these wonderful new dishes and glasses I had to, of course, wash them all. It also required reoganizing the kitchen to have appropriate storage for everything. In the reorganizing we realized we needed another storage container so off to Ikea I went. Jason and I laughed about storage b/c whenever it seems like we can't fit more things in the apartment we somehow manage to get more organized and we can fit more things.

Anyway, I made a lot of cookies and then bagged them all and put them in gift bags with pretty ribbon to give to our guests as a little christmas present. I also made spring rolls, spinach puff pastry, BBQ pulled pork, chocolate cream pie, chocolate chip bread pudding with caramel sauce , and brownies. Store bought items filled in the rest of the food...shrimp cocktail, nuts, olives, chips, and cheese & crackers. We also served, wine, beer, soda, water but in addition we created 4 speciality drink cards with instruction on making a drink for those who wanted a christmas cocktail..holly-tini, christmas cosmopolitan, peppermint stick or for the non drinkers the Merry red dragon mocktail. There was plenty of food and drink for everyone and it was a great group of people. One of the things that is great about living here is the diverse group of people that we have in our lives. Last night we had friends from Scotland, England, Australia, Czech, Russia, Slovakia, Canada, United States, Poland and Serbia here celebrating with us. It was a great night.

I am looking forward to entertaining more often now and welcoming more of our friends into our home. I will post pics soon. I, unfortunately, didn't take many pictures last night so once my friend e-mails the pics she took I will post them.

Vienna

On Friday we collected our rental car and hit the road for Vienna. It should be about a 4 hour drive but it took us about 6 hours between the traffic leaving Prague, potty breaks and food breaks. It was a fairly easy drive though which was nice. As we left the Czech Republic you drive through a weird "in between" space between Austria and Czech where there are outlets and casinos and some sketchy looking flea markets. We had to laugh though since the outlets were called Freeport but we were definitely not in Maine! We continued our drive into Austria and made it to our hotel with little difficulty. We waited a little while in the car while Jason finished up a conference call and then headed into the hotel. The girls were excited to be staying in a hotel. Upon arrival our room was not ready but that was fine since they offered us free coffee and cakes while we waited. The girls enjoyed their hot chocolates and had fun drawing with the paper and pen the hotel staff gave them. We eventually headed up to our room and got ourselves sorted out while the girls jumped on their bed. We headed downstairs to the restaurant and ordered dinner. The girls were so tired that they didn't eat much. I finished my meal and left Jason to pay while I took the girls upstairs to get ready for bed. They were very tired but the excitement of a huge bed and sleeping in it together was a little too much for them and they didn't fall asleep right away. Such is life...I was excited about the big beds with down pillows, comforters etc that I couldn't really blame them for their excitement! Ali had a fitful night sleep which meant we all did but we got up in the morning and headed out of the hotel to do some sightseeing.

Our first order of business was to find breakfast. To our surprise there were not many places open in the morning at 8:30. We had to wait until about 9 for a few cafes to open. Needless to say we were all a bit grumpy until we had some food. After finding breakfast we headed out to St Stephens church which is a big church in the middle of the city. We looked at the church and let the girls run around in the pedestrian area and then continued on to the Christmas Market. The Vienna Christmas Market has a lot of fun things for kids. The market is essentially broken up into three parts. The middle part has all the stalls selling food, drinks, ornaments, hats, nativity scenes, etc. On the left and on the right were areas for kids. The right side had houses to go in and watch little puppet shows as well as pony rides. The kids loved the house with the hand puppets. They pressed the button to make the show start again many times. After leaving that house we moved on to the pony rides. Here is a video of the kids in the house with the hand puppets.

After all that excitement we headed back to the hotel for a nap. The girls were definitely tired. Sofia slept for 2 hours and Ali slept for 3 hours. It is unheard of for Sofia to sleep during the day so we decided to just let the girls sleep as long as they wanted. After a good nap we went to the pool. After going from hot tub to pool many times we decided it was time to head outside again and finish seeing the market. We were all excited to see all the Christmas lights as well. We walked along the inner ring until we reached the market. We started with the left side to see what else they had for kids. Unfortunately we couldn't go in any of he houses since they all closed up at 7pm but the girls did get to go on the carousel and a little train ride which they loved. It was hard to pry them away from the rides but we all needed food. We headed back into the crowded middle section and had hot drinks and sausages and then headed back to the hotel. By the time we got back and were ready for bed it was 10pm. Even with the long naps the girls were still tired. We all fell asleep very quickly. Before going to sleep however, we didn't want to wait for the cafes to open in the morning for breakfast so we splurged and ordered room service.

In the morning we woke and had a leisurely breakfast in our room and then packed and headed out to Schonbrunn Palace. We didn't have much time before we needed to be on the road back to Prague but I really wanted to see this palace. The pictures of it are so beautiful. We didn't have time to go inside but we went out back to the gardens and walked around for a little bit but it was very cold so our time was brief. We agreed though that we will need to go back to Schonbrunn in the summer so we can see all the flowers in bloom and enjoy walking around the grounds.

It was a whirlwind weekend but we did get to see a fair amount of the city and we are looking forward to going back again.

Decorating the tree

Our schedules have been so busy with Jason's work, the many school activities, and my girl's weekend away that we hadn't had any time to decorate the Christmas tree. It took a week for us to even move it off the patio and into a stand in the apartment. Last Thursday night was finally the night we had designated as the tree decorating night since we wanted to get it decorated before we went to Vienna. The girls were so excited to decorate the tree and wanted to immediately put the star on top. We had to explain that the star goes on last and that they would put it on together. After explaining that both girls were eager to get all the ornaments on the tree. Ali helped Jason put the lights on the tree and then the kids quickly whipped all the ornaments out of the box. We had to give them a little direction so that all the ornaments didn't end up in the same location but all in all they did a great job.

Nursery Nativity Play

Party & Plays

Today was a busy day. Jason and I brought the girls to school and dropped Sofia off at her class and then went to Ali's class for the nursery nativity play. Ali played an Angel in the play and had to say "Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem to look for a place to stay." I wasn't sure how she would do during the play but she did great. She loved practicing her line at home and would yell it out. Since she can be a little shy sometimes I thought maybe she would just put her head down and mumble it but she didn't. She said her line loud and clear. I guess that is all part of Ali coming out of her shell. (I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but in the last few weeks Ali has really come out of her shell. She is very talkative at school now.) After the play the nursery class joined the reception class for games in the jidelna (cafeteria).

While the kids played games in the jidelna some of the moms and I prepared the Reception classroom for the Christmas party. The parents provided everything from plates, cups, and decorations to quiches, sausage rolls, cookies, cakes, vegetables and even a chocolate fountain. The kids were all very excited when they came into the class and saw all the food and decorations.

Visit to Santa

While I was in Nuremberg with my girlfriends, Jason had the kids all to himself. He had to pick up the girls a little early on Friday since Santa came to the kids' school. The school lets the nursery and reception classes out thirty minutes early so that they can get to Santa before the rest of the school. This is great because once the rest of the school is released the line for Santa is very long. I forgot to mention to Jason that Sofia also has ballet on Friday afternoons so he arrived to pick up the girls and Sofia was in her ballet class. Luckily the ballet teacher ended class early so that the kids could go see Santa. Once the girls got to Santa, Sofia forgot what she wanted to ask for and Ali froze up. I guess that is an improvement from last year! Maybe by next year they won't be so intimidated by Santa. After seeing Santa they headed to the bake sale in the high school for a couple treats and then home.

Girls Weekend

On Friday I headed to Nuremberg, Germany with my girlfriends for the weekend. This was my first weekend away from my children since they were born so I was VERY excited. The drive to Nuremberg was easy and uneventful. We found our apartment rental easily which was nice. I forgot to call the apartment owner when we were thirty minutes outside the city so we had to wait a little bit to get into our apartment but that was no big deal. I was happy to stand there with friends and not have children whining about having to wait. When we got into the apartment it was nice. It wasn't fancy or decorated in my style but it was clean and comfortable. We dropped our stuff off and headed into town. The train station was a 2 minute walk from our rental. We figured out the ticketing system (or at least we bought a ticket) which I was surprised did not have instructions in English. You are probably wondering why I would be surprised to not see English when I'm in a German speaking country. I was surprised because first, even the Czech train system has instruction in Czech and English and second, it is Germany and I have never had a problem speaking English while in Germany. It seems most people in Germany speak English very well. In any event, we bought a ticket and rode the 4 stops into town. Nuremberg is such a cute town! I really didn't know what to expect of Nuremberg since when I hear Nuremberg I think the Nuremberg trials and Nazis. The town was so cute though and there was tons of shopping. We spent the rest of Friday shopping and eating to our hearts content.

More friends showed up on Saturday morning and we headed back into town for more shopping and to go to the Christmas Market. The Christmas Market was our main reason for going to Nuremberg since it Germany's most famous Christmas market and over 2 million people a year go to it. The market was a lot of fun and was packed with people, even in the rain. I bought Nuremberg Prune men to put in the girls' stockings for Christmas. These are, apparently, one of the things that the Nuremberg market is known for. The prune men are made out of prunes, figs, and walnuts! After checking out all the stalls at the market and hitting a few more stores we had dinner and hot chocolate then headed back to our rental and hung out and chatted. We stayed up late and slept late this morning.

After getting all of our stuff together and loading everything in the car this morning we headed into town for brunch and to pick up a few last minute items. It was a great weekend and hopefully the first of many! Also, since it was raining and my hands were loaded down with shopping bags I didn't get too many pictures of the city itself. I guess I'll just have to go back again sometime soon.

I wish we had...

Tonight at dinner Sofia turned to me and said, "Mommy, I wish we had a microwave." A microwave is just something we have never had here. It isn't that they aren't available because they are available. When we moved here we figured we didn't need one since we weren't going to be here long. By the time we realized we were going to be here longer than two years we realized that we didn't actually need a microwave. There are occasions when it would be nice to have one but those times are so few it just doesn't seem worth it. Anyway, when Sofia said she wished for a microwave I asked her why she wanted one. She told me because she wanted popcorn! Well, that was an easy fix. I excitedly told Sofia that you didn't need a microwave for popcorn and that it is fun to make on the stove. Luckily I had popcorn kernels and quickly got them out and showed the girls how to make popcorn the old fashion way. They were very excited to have popcorn and to hear it popping in the the pan. I was happy to share one of my childhood memories with them (although I don't own a big yellow pan like my mom had) and to see their joy at having popcorn at home.

Happy Anniversary

Today marks our two year anniversary of moving to Prague! Time flies when you are having fun that is for sure. I can't believe that we have been here for two years. When we moved here we had originally thought it would only be for two years and now I couldn't imagine having to leave here today. We have made great friends here and are having a blast. The kids are happy. They love their school and all their friends. They love learning to speak other languages (Sofia can count to ten in Czech, Spanish, & English). They love to travel and see different places and to try different foods. They love seeing their Daddy for two hours more a day instead of him spending that time commuting to work. We all love our family time. Jason and I love our friends who have become our family. We love our Friday night date night every week. We love the feeling of success when we can communicate to someone in Czech. We love traveling and we love seeing our children grow up with the knowledge of many cultures. Never would I have thought we would be living in the Czech Republic but it has been a HUGE blessing!