Ice Skating

As soon as Mason stepped on the ice he saw his whole life flash before him, including a whack to the head in Strasbourg, France.  That was his last memory of ice skating.  So, he attempted three minutes, max, and became our photographer after deciding his were not blades of glory.

The other kids, however, were all over the ice (mostly in good ways).  After seeing the rink a day earlier, Mark and I froze our toukas off whilst the youngsters enjoyed circling round and round.  There were a few of these polar bear and penguin guides--not enough, though--for little guys to lean upon thus you see the photo of Nico and a particularly obnoxious child vying for Mr. Penguin.  That kid would try to take any one he could get, and we witnessed him trying to steal several, even when he had another one in his possession.  His mother almost took me out with some vigorous skating so I guess their talent ran in the family!  Marina did very well so her inline skating must be paying off.  Nico was kamikaze but also remarkably solid for only his second time.  Emma relived the excitement of an episode of 'Peppa Pig' ice skating and wouldn't stop, even when Mark and I got tired of holding her up for an hour and a half.  We got our quota in for the year!

The Beast

Here are a few shots of our rental car in Austria--wasn't it kind of us to provide free advertising for Buchbinder rentals?  Just a word of warning, I don't advise booking with AutoEurope because they sell your reservation to other companies (which I knew, but I reserved a Chrylser Caravan not an airport shuttle :)  It only took the heat 45 min. to circulate in the van!  But the best part was that we were able to park in front of our hotel in Salzburg for free since the van was too high to fit in the paid parking garage.  Vienna, however, was a different story.  We had to park the beast in a bus parking lot, ha ha and lost any money we might have saved.  Oh, well . . . all's well that ends well!

Salzburg, 1

This post goes from sunset to sunrise; a bit backwards, but that was theme of our Griswald holiday vacation! You'll see what I mean when I reveal a picture of our luxurious rental car; it made us laugh and cry at the same time.

In both Salzburg and Vienna we enjoyed freezing temperatures, so even though there wasn't snow on the ground (albeit in the mountains), il faisait froid!  We walked around the quaint and picturesque city with about a million other tourists, and all along "The Sound of Music" soundtrack played through our minds.  Someday we hope to return to Maria's home when the hills are alive and green!   Check out Mark posing with Mozart and his chocolate balls below.  Just so you know, there are also Beethoven balls, Princess Sisi discs and Schubert's mounds.  Conjures up all sorts of lovely ideas!  One never knows what you can endorse when you're dead famous.  We had lots of fun ice skating, too.  It seems we have to torture ourselves every time we spot a quaint skating rink in a village center because it just seems more like Christmas!  Ok, that and the kids wouldn't stop asking :)

Christmas 2009

It hardly seems fair that there is so much build up and hype to Christmas and then boom, it's over.  So, I wanted to savor that wonderful celebration of our Saviour's birth with a few pictures.  It was a very peaceful day spent with our little family, and we indeed have much too be grateful for  . . . we also have much to work toward, in terms of bettering ourselves and giving Jesus Christ the best kind of gift one can offer.  And what would that be?  Perhaps a kinder, gentler heart, less arguing and yelling and more listening and serving, and developing true charity and humility.  The list goes on.

Let's get our "houses" in order!  I pray 2009 will be a year of good health and happiness for our family and yours.  

Christmas Eve

Just a few pics from our Christmas Eve gathering . . . we hosted our friends, the Crane family, their friends from Italy (Max, Louise and Sophia), the sister missionaries, and brothers Moses and Noel.  It was a fun evening with dinner, dessert and capped off by the traditional (or not :) Nativity reading and "play."

Celebrating Mark

Mark lived to see his 39th birthday on Dec. 9, so naturally we celebrated in style.  What does that really mean?  Well, we attempted to celebrate in style by meeting up with some friends in London who share Nov. and Dec. bdays with us, the Crane's.   It was a lot of fun getting out as adults and shopping before dinner at Selfridges, but the prices were way to high to justify spending anything (except for Mark's spiffy new scarf, see photo).  We also visited a little German-themed Christmasmarket in Hyde Park that was more Kitsch than Christmas.  The holiday lights were pretty, though, and made our little detour there worthwhile.  Our chosen restaurant, The Wallace, was set in a museum atrium area--very pretty but Mark described it best as the "British version of French food."  Not great but the company was the best part :)  

Mark's actual birthday was spent working at home so we spent the evening as a family with an assortment of birthday cheesecakes and a chocolate, cherry cake . . . no, I did not turn into the perfect wife, just bought them to try out and see which was best since I couldn't decide!  We love our dad and husband and can't count the reasons why here since 39 is not enough.  I have a friend in her 60's who often says, "the boy I married turned out to be the man of my dreams." Well, no one's perfect, but this pretty much sums up Mark!  Corny, yes, but true.

Santa's Grotto and More

Here we are with Emma and Father Christmas, Père Noel, Santa Claus, St. Nicolaas, etc. Fuzzy cell phone pic--I thought they might have a photographer taking pictures but should have known it was going to be a room with Santa all by himself, waiting for eager children to come tell them their dearest Christmas wishes. Kind of creepy, eh? Emma was very cute and brave, though, and told Santa she wanted a princess tent (as rehearsed).











Fuzzy cell phone pic #2, Mason's Drama Club production, "Fabaroony." He played a disgraced Italian chef mourning an admired American girl's poor taste in food, i.e. McD's, Wendy's, BQ, and so forth. I couldn't get his whole face as he was supposed to be emotional and only gave us a partial silhouette. It was fun to see him on stage, however, he was just glad it was over!






Guess who was so excited to finally lose his first tooth and join the toothless club in 1st grade? Nico had been downing apple after apple in hopes of forcing one out and then one day it did, painlessly. A week later the second one came out and the Tooth Fairy did her thing again.

Santa and Emma discussing what she would like for Christmas. She is ready to bolt if he asks her to sit on his lap. The only one of my children to not freak out or melt down in the big man's presence.