Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Happy Birthday to a great Dad and Grandpa!  We hope you have a wonderful day. We love you!!

Christopher Pop-In-Kins

Along with the snow last night came Christopher Pop-In-Kins.  The girls love him and were very excited last night when we told them that maybe he would come during the night.  Sure enough he made it through the snow storm and arrived at our house sometime last night.  The girls looked all around the livingroom this morning and finally found him on top of the bookcase.  As it is the first time they have seen him in almost a year we let him touch him but since we don't want to make him go back to the north pole all the time to replenish his magic they won't be allowed to touch him until Christmas Eve when they say good bye to him.

SNOW!!

 Winter had begun in Prague!  We had a small amount of snow on Friday night but last night the snow started in earnest.  We woke up this morning to find about five inches (12cm) of snow on the ground and it is still snowing.  This does cause some problems for us since we had not put our winter tires on the car yet and our summer tires are less than ideal for driving in the snow.  I went out this morning to the cash machine to get money so that I could bring the car to the tire shop but unfortunately the bank machine had no money so I turned around and headed home.  By the time I headed home the traffic was so bad heading in to town that I made the executive decision that the kids would have a minimum one hour delay.  Well, I have moved that to a two hour delay after speaking with a friend who told me the traffic is still horrible going in to town.  Once I bring the kids to school (if I bring them) I will head all the way into town to a cash machine and then head to the tire place to have new tires put on.  That is problem number one which will hopefully be solved later today.  Problem number two is waiting in the wings and that is our septic.  We were holding off to empty it until mid December so that it would be ok for most of the winter and we would not have to worry about the septic man being able to make it down our road.  Well, let's hope this doesn't become a problem and this first big drop of snow melts enough to allow access to our house so the septic can be emptied.  The third problem which isn't really a problem but more of an inconvenience is all the shoveling that is ahead of me since just like last year I will have to shovel our entire road.  Such is life, at least I get to enjoy the beauty of the snow.  The trees are all looking beautiful with the snow resting on all their branches and their is a definite peace in the air when the snow is falling and everything is pristine.

Play Date

On Friday we invited Sofia's friend, Matilda, over to play after school.  It is such a nice age for playdates since the kids just go off and play with each other and require little interference from me.  We got home and Matilda and Sofia took off their jackets and headed upstairs to play without even a second glance for me.  They played nicely together and really seemed to enjoy each other.  They eventually came downstairs as part of their imaginary game to play and to put on their mermaid bodies.  Here they are sitting in front of their mermaid rock together.

Thanksgiving leftovers

It has been great to have Thanksgiving leftovers all weekend.  I invited some girlfriends over for leftover lunch on Friday.  It was nice to sit and relax with friends.  It started to snow a bit on Friday night which made for a perfect Saturday.  The kids played in the yard a little bit and since there wasn't enough snow to make an actual snowman, Ali decided to make a snow Peep.  Peep in the Big Wide World is a PBS TV show that the kids have enjoyed for a long time and Jason and I enjoy it too.  After playing outside for a little while we called the girls in for leftover lunch.  The girls really like eating the legs and wings from the turkey so they were happy to see I had put a wing on each of their plates.  While it is definitely not polite to gnaw on a bone in public it is perfectly acceptable to do it in the privacy of ones own home and Jason and I had to laugh at the gusto to which the girls ate their chicken wings.

A letter for Sofia

As I mentioned before, Sofia's good friend Lars moved away this past summer.  I knew they were friends and, of course, were going to be married but I did not really truly understand the depth to which Sofia enjoyed Lars' company.  Since he has left she rarely talks about him but I find little things every few days that tells me she still misses him.  A letter in her bag that she wrote to him, a heart that says, "I love you Lars", a card that tells him she misses him...it really is heartbreaking to find these little glimpses of my daughters feelings.  I'm glad she has a way to express herself though and doesn't just keep it all inside.  We did send a letter to Lars along with the Flat Stanley Project that Sofia's class is working on and we will wait to get the Flat Stanley back but today a letter arrived for Sofia from Lars.  I was very excited for her when I picked up the mail and saw the letter and I couldn't wait for her to open it.  I knew she would be excited to receive the letter.  It is so nice that Lars and Sofia are both at an age where they can write letters and can maintain their friendship.  She has read the letters multiple times since she came home from school and I'm sure she will keep them in a special place.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving Day in Prague always feels different since to most people here it is just another day.  While we still send the kids to school Jason and I still want to celebrate and enjoy Thanksgiving.  It is not as easy to celebrate with all the fixings but with a good scavenger hunt I managed to come up with all the necessities for a good Thanksgiving meal.  To find all the things we needed for dinner I had to go to the British shop to order the turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce.  After the British shop I headed to the fruit and vegetable shop near our old apartment to find butternut squash and sweet potatoes.  I managed to get the sweet potatoes but not the squash so the search continued to the Bio shop which did not have it either.  I decided to try one other bio shop and I was in luck because they had three squashed left.  Since the squashes were enormous I only bought one and headed home. I sent Jason to a shop in town to buy pureed pumpkin and another shop to buy pecans.  At least after almost four years here I know where to go to find everything we need.

We invited two families to join us so we had six adults and eight kids and we all had a great night. Jason and I prepared the house and figured out where to seat everyone for dinner.  I made the sweet potato casserole, squash, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate cream pie and custard pie yesterday so today Jason put the turkey in the oven and we figured out the timing for all the side dishes.  It all worked out great and we served, turkey, sweet potato casserole, mashed potato, gravy, green beans, stuffing and the above mentioned pies.  I had cranberry sauce but in the rush of getting the kids food and sitting for our adult dinner I forgot to put it on the table.  We did have a brief power outage just as we were finishing up making all the sides but we figured out the problem and continued on with dinner.  We had such a great time talking that I completely forgot to take pictures so the only pictures I have are the ones I took before our guests arrived.  Such is life, I guess I was having so much fun I did not think to take pictures.

Velka Kunraticka

Today I ran the 77th annual Velka Kunraticka, which is a unique race run in a public forest in Prague.  The race is unique because it is only two miles but is on a forest trail with three stream crossings and three successively larger hills to climb up and back down: 90, 120 and 180 foot climbs.  I have wanted to run the race the past three years but the last two it just didn't work out so I really felt I needed to do it this year.  Mary and the girls came to cheer me on and we were fortunate to have an absolutely beautiful day that felt more like September than November. 

Because the race is on a narrow trail runners are started two at a time every ten seconds.  For me, number 1316, that meant I started about two hours after the first runners went.  With the nice weather it didn't really matter and before long I started the race down a completely muddy rutted trail.  After running through the first stream (that's me in the stream in the photo to the right) and gettnig up the first hill I knew I was in for something interesting.  .  My surprise came when I got to the second big hill - on the other side of a stream again - and noticed it was very steep and had a rope run up the side to help runners get up.  It was steep and slippery enough that I had to hold and pull the rope most the way up.  After another stream an even bigger hill climb and a much needed stretch of flat runing the trail went down to the finish.  I was tired, wet and muddy but thrilled I did the race.  The other victory for me was that I got to run the race at all and felt fine doing it.  Since last Saturday night I have been suffering from we assume was a bout of food poisoning.  I felt terrible most of the week and wasn't sure I'd be able to run.  My weight was even down about ten pounds after day four.  However, on Friday I felt things were largely better and yesterday my stomach was fine although I still felt a level of exhaustion.  I am very happy that I recovered in time to run.  I'd like to think my time would have been a couple minutes faster had I not been sick all week but this race wasn't about the time, just the experience of participating in a long running Czech tradition and getting the chance to run through the woods and get muddy. 

Reading

The girls are doing well with their reading.  Sofia is currently reading Rainbow Magic collection of books which she loves.  She has reading homework every night and is allowed to read the Rainbow Magic books.  When she completed a chapter the other night I couldn't believe how much faster she is reading  I thought for sure she would only get two pages read but she proved me wrong.  It is nice to see her enjoying her reading so much.  Ali has also improved in her reading and has moved up from stage 1 books to stage 4 books in just two months.  I took a video of her reading.  She has come a long way!



End of road excitement

Our road turns off the outside edge of a U shaped bend in the road.  You have to slow down a lot to make the bend.  We surprisingly had not seen any accidents here until the last couple of weeks when there have been two.  The first one we did not see but only saw the aftermath.  The car must have come down the road in the middle of the night and rather than follow the road around the U shape it shot straight off the road, jumping the ditch on the side of the road, going through some small trees, across our road and through the fence of the first cottage on our road.  I am amazed every time I drive past it since I can't imagine how fast this car was going to clear the ditch and how lucky the driver was to miss all the large trees and bricked electrical box.  I'm sure the driver isn't feeling very lucky though as he/she must have been very sore and the car must have been a complete wreck.  Last weekend a truck that had an additional back end attached to it must have come around the U bend to fast and tipped on its side.  It took about five hours to clear the road.  Jason had gone out to the store but then could not drive back to our road since it was blocked by a fire truck.  He ended up driving to the next village and across a bike path and up to our village pub where he parked and then walked home.  We all decided to see some of the excitement and headed down our road to watch them finally get the truck upright which they pulled upright and right into the ditch on the opposite since of the road.  We did not stay to watch them get the truck out of the ditch or to get the trailer upright since it was cold and drizzling outside but I'm hoping with two accidents and a road closure that people will start driving more cautiously especially with winter approaching.

Fireworks Night

Every year the kids school puts on an amazing fireworks display during the weekend closest to Guy Fawks Day.  We didn't go to the fireworks when the kids first started at school becuase they were too afraid of the loud noises made by the fireworks.  It wasn't worth it to bring them to something they would not enjoy.  The last two years we have gone to the fireworks and they absolutely love them.  Ali still covers her ears becuase it is so loud but the looks of pure amazement on their faces is worth a million dollars!  The fireworks display is amazing.  It is constant fireworks without any breaks for at least fifteen minutes.  The safety precautions that we have in the U.S. are not in place here so we aren't placed an entire football field away from the fireworks.  We stand far enough back to be safe but we are close enough that when we got home I realized all our jackets and clothing smelled like the sulphur from the fireworks smoke.  The entire area was covered in smoke so this isn't surprising but as kids we were never allowed to be close enough to any fireworks that we would be in the smoke!  While the kids do love the fireworks I think they are a bit overstimulating since Sofia was almost asleep in the car on the way home at 6:30 and they were both in bed and asleep by 7pm which is unheard of for Sofia to fall asleep in the car for a 5 minute drive.  It was a great night.

The only downside of the fireworks night has been for Jason.  This year and last year he had a hamburger which is provided by a caterer hired by the school for the night.  Both times now he has been horribly sick for days after.  I don't know if there is something bad in the burger or if they put something in that bothers his stomach but given the three days of feeling sick I'm guessing it is food poisoning.  Luckily the girls and I were spared!