SKIING

Off to skiing in Austria tomorrow with Curt, kids, Curt's parents and his sister, Lisa. Very excited. Lisa, Curt's dad and T will take the train while Curt and I will drive with Mia, Ali and his mom. Just about packed up but have a few more things to get together so must run as we want to leave tomorrow morning (not too early so we're not too stressed).

I'll update again in the New Year once we return back to Budapest.

Happy New Year to you all! xoxo

HO HO HO - Santa Came

Merry Christmas!!! From our family to yours.

As we are busy with visiting family, lots of presents (all already opened) to look through, play with and assemble as well as food to be eaten, I will make this a short post with some fun photos.

The wait is finally over and the big day is finally here. The kids seemed to have to wait forever for it to arrive. Lists were made and sent to Santa ages ago. December was filled with attempts to be as good as possible in order to earn as many goodies as possible. Curt and I have been trying to excercise more often than usual in order to gobble up all the cakes, cookies and sweets that friends have been dropping by. This is the first year that Terence and Emilia have either made and bought (with their own money!) gifts for Curt and I. Both of them even managed to wrap their gifts without any help. They did extremely well with double the amount of wrapping paper and tape necessary but to us it was perfection!

Earlier this week, Curt's parents and sister Lisa arrived from the US. We are happy to have them here with us but sad that their luggage with their clothes have yet to arrive or be found! We are still holding out hope - especially for them to arrive before our Austria skiing adventure on the 27th of Dec (for one week). Fortunately we were able to pick up a few essentials for Curt's mom and Curt's dad fits into Curt's clothes. I'm sure they'd still be much more comfortable with their own belongings.

The extra Santa's helpers has been fantastic! We hope that they'll be able to visit next X-mas too. Since their arrival, we have had many visits from friends, eaten a ton, taken lots of hikes with the kids and 4 dogs (we have an extra one visiting), built fires every day, eaten more, watched movies, listened to carols, played charades, eaten more, etc.

Christmas Eve consisted of a fun day at home with an evening of tracking Santa's path through noradsanta.org (with Google Earth). The kids were very excited to watch him and his reindeer get closer and closer.

They went to bed somewhat easily on the eve of Christmas. Terence fell asleep quickly but Mia and Ali had difficulty. They both had very long naps during the day and the excitement was a bit overwhelming for them both to fall asleep easily. Mia kept saying she was scared of Santa and when Curt went up with the video camera she confessed that her fear was that she was only going to be left coal as she was often naughty this year. Curt told her that Santa would hear her confession (think we're getting him a bit mixed up with the big guy) and probably understand. For those of you that know Mia, she is very dramatic and emotional. Always keeping us on our toes as well as entertained.

Anyhow, back to the toys... Here is a glimpse at what our day has been like so far.

The tree after Santa's visit.

The girls woke up first (at 7:30am) followed by Terence about 20 minutes later.

After most of the pressies have been opened.




The next photos are from Christmas Eve.

Our dog, Blue, protecting Terence's stocking (they were laid out instead of hung as they are huge and easily fall off their mantle hooks)



T laying out cookies, apples for the reindeer, milk, a letter to Santa and scotch (still being poured)


Ali giving Nana hugs and kisses before bed.

Our three angels* in their new Christmas pjs from Nana and Papa.

* They have had many non-angelic days in the last few days. Maybe they've been together too often and need a break...

Ice Skating

This morning Terence, Mia, Curt and I (Ali was with her favorite babysitter, Brigi) went ice skating at the back of the West End shopping center. It's one of those things we've always thought about but never did with the kids. Well, we maybe going again very, very soon. It was so much fun. It probably helped that a bunch of Mia's friends were their with their moms and dads.

Curt watched and took a few snaps from the sidelines and I decided to be brave and put skates on after ... hmmmm... 15 years! It's been that long since I've put my feet into ice skates. Surprisingly I remembered how to do it. I'm not graceful at all but I was more than capable to do my laps around. Will be going back soon to improve my technique and watch the kids improve too.

Mia loved it and Terence ...well, he expected to be cutting up the ice and ended up falling... a lot. He has so little patience for learning something new and gets so frustrated.

Enjoy these photos and the videos (glad I got them up as I've recently had trouble with uploading videos) from this morning.

Below is our group of friends.

The boy at the beginning of the first video is Mia's good friend Abel. He was the only boy amongst all the girls. His dad is French and mom is Hungarian.

Mia's School Christmas Play

Yesterday at 13.45, Ali and I went to watch Mia's class perform on stage. Mia is in Kindergarten at the French Lycee. Her class in French is called the Grand Section. There is one other Grand Section at the school along with 2 Moyenne Sections and 1 Petite Section. Therefore all 5 classes performed together.

Like last year, they all wore red and white which makes them look fantastic on stage while singing their French (and a couple Hungarian) Christmas carols. I actually managed to get a video in this post so you can listen for a while.

For a while the French school, didn't allow parents to take pictures but I'm happy to see that this rule has been lifted and we could click away!

The first two close ups worked out well. Mia was in the back row. In the photo on the left she is in the top left corner.






The kids were excited to get a visit from Santa Claus (Pere Noel). He handed out presents to each class. Mia's class received a puzzle. In the photo just above on the right, the kids of Mia's class are gathering around their teacher, Agnes, to look at the silver wrapped huge present.

As the kids all seem to blend together in the video. Mia is in the back row, 3rd from the left.

Blog Slacker

I have been really, really a bad blogger lately. It's not that there hasn't been anything to share or no photos taken, it's just life has been busy. Earlier this week, the day after the x-mas party, I woke up ill. That just about knocked me out for 1 1/2 days. Then, the kids programs have been overwhelming. I feel like I've handed over hundreds and hundreds of dollars for teacher presents, tennis instructors, gymnastics, babysitters, curtains (i've finally ordered my first pair of really professional curtains in our family room. i feel like such a grown up - especially after seeing the price!), parties, x-mas presents, food, doctor's bills, pharmaceuticals, dance classes, etc. It never ends. In this country so much of it is cash, cash, cash. Very difficult getting these large amounts of cash all the time. But, 'tis the season.

The entire city is beautifully decorated with lights everywhere. Our home is completely finished and covered with lights indoors and outdoors. We have the fire going almost non-stop, the evergreen tree makes the entire home smell so festive and even the kids' rooms look like x-mas. Both of their rooms (the girls share) have their own uniquely decorated trees (these ones are fake). Mia and Ali's is only 90cm and is covered with purple lights, girlie ornaments, feathers, and silver sparkly stars. T's, on the other hand, it 120cm (he has a bigger room and is also alone in there) and has snowman lights, red x-mas balls and lots of cool, rustic ornaments. He broke his favorite ornament accidentally of a silver, sparkly empire state building that we bought in NYC last year. We're hoping he'll get a new one from his nana and papa as they'll be flying through and spending the weekend in NYC on the way to Budapest next weekend (hint, hint, nudge, nudge).

In addition to their trees, the kids also have x-mas lights in their rooms. T's are around the windows and he chose big red bulbs while the girls picked pink feathery lights that twirl around this supportive beam in their room. They are both very satisfied with their decorations and are convinced all the extra wattage will help Santa find and get to our home much quicker on the eve of christmas. Very clever!

On Friday, December 12th, my husband and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. I asked him if we could skip the gift exchange and instead just spend the day together. I usually prefer this way of celebrating but unfortunately work and travel (he was away last year) doesn't always allow it. This year it worked out well. And, since it was a Friday it gave us a 3-day weekend. We had a lovely day together starting with a couple's Thai foot massage. It was a 1 1/2 hour treat that was just heavenly. After, we checked into our hotel at Le Meridien downtown (it's a great time of year for us to have a night away as the rooms are all so, so cheap) where we were going to spend the night. From there we took a lovely stroll down the downtown walking street Vaci utca which is completely decked out for Christmas with a market, gluhwein stands, roasting chestnuts and lights, lights and more lights. Lunch was at our favorite Italian restaurant on the river, Trattoria Toscana.

In the evening we had our company Christmas party. It was at one of our old favorite hang outs - Fat Mo's. We had the venue all to ourselves. About 100 Move One people drank, ate, boogied and repeat... There was karaoke and a lot of laughter. Curt and I dragged ourselves out of there at around 2:30am while the place was still buzzing and most were not even thinking about an end being near.

Saturday brought our dear friends, Sue and Peter Tatrallyay into town. They spend the day, night and Sunday am with us. It was such a treat. They were visiting from Bratislava and always bring lots of fun and joy to our home. Another friend, Stephen Spinder, joined us for dinner and we spent 1/2 the evening playing Monopoly with the kids then Wii Fit. It was lots of fun and not too late of a night.

Now, we are waiting on our sitter as we get ready to head to a friend's home for x-mas cocktails.

Hope you are all enjoying this time of year. Wishing lots of love, peace and happiness (and good health, of course).

More soon. xoxoxo

Tree Trimming Party

What a success last night was. Our tree looks spectacular. Thanks everyone for your efforts in making this tree beautiful for Christmas 2008. Santa will be proud.

Below are all the hard working elves that made it happen.

The finished product! Measuring 3.8 meters tall.

St Marton Nap

I'm so behind on keeping this blog up to date. This time of year is overwhelmingly busy. On top of everyday stuff like working, school, extra curricular activities, shopping, homework, cleaning, cooking, etc we have x-mas shopping, decorating, holiday parties, school plays, etc. Tonight is our annual tree-trimming party. Every year we invite all the Budapest managers and their spouses / partners and their children for a traditional tree-trimming afternoon / evening. This year our tree is not as big as our 4+ meter tree but it's pretty darn close. From 4pm our home will be filled with about 28 - 30 people drinking champagne and helping us decorate our Christmas tree. We started this tradition about 5 years ago and hold this even in our home the first Sunday of December. It started out that I did all the cooking (usually a turkey) but I got smart and decided only to do some finger foods and outsource the rest to a friend's catering company. Much relief. Especially as this year I've contracted what everyone has had over the last few weeks. Fortunately I have no fever, just a sore throat and lots of congestion. I'll ignore it for now as the 'show must go on'.

Just to back peddle a little. I finally managed to download my camera's photos (through the help of one of our IT guys at work) from November 11th. It was Ali's nursery school's St Marton Day celebration. They do it every year to celebrate fall. I've been to many as before Ali attended the Heidi Ovoda nursery school, Terence and Mia used to go there. It's one of my favorite productions. Here are some photos:

T had my other camera and was in charge of getting videos. He got many great ones. Mia maybe our future fashion diva but he definitely has a talent for film! You should see some of his videos that he creates. I've tried to upload them onto this blog but have had trouble. I promise to keep trying as I'd love to share some of them.

The photos below are of the start of the show. Every year the parents are asked to get there about 15 - 30 mins before the children start their show. We go to the top of the school's garden where they have a huge pavilion that looks down over the school and the playground. The show starts with the kids lining up outside of their little classrooms. They start by climbing up the hill with their homemade lanterns singing. It's so adorable (I always tear up).

Ali is about 5th in line holding Brigi's (her teacher, babysitter and 2nd mother at times). Below is a better shot of her looking at T's video camera.

Once they come into the pavilion they line up and sing more songs and even do a few dances. You can see Ali right next to Brigi (3rd kid from the right).

After the show they got to run out into the audience and hug their parents (Curt wasn't there as it started at 4pm and he had to work). She still sometimes does the underbite smile for the camera.

We have lots of fotos like this when I take it of us. It's a bit washed out but still cute.

The last 2 photos below are of the buena vista. The one on the left is looking down from the pavilion where we all waited for the kids to come up at the beginning of the event. Then, at the end of the event, looking back up at it all lit up.

Who You Calling a Chicken?

One of the best things I've ever done decoratively is use chalkboard paint for our pantry door (on both sides). We used it for allowance tracking, shopping lists, dinner menus, kid fun and holiday pictures. For Thanksgiving I drew a turkey - to the best of my ability. We laughed about it looking like a chicken and not a turkey so I wrote 'gobble, gobble' and 'Who you calling a chicken?' Just had to share as we all got a big kick out of this funny guy.


PS Ali has been really sick all week. She started with a fever on Tuesday when we were in Bratislava. Yesterday we took her to the doctor to learn that she has a horribly red throat with white dots all over, the beginnings of pink eye and a sore looking ear. She didn't get antibiotics as her strep test turned out negative but her week long fever which reached high levels of 103 degrees F was a cause for concern. She received a few drops - one for eye and one for ear and we are keeping a close eye on her. Today she woke up feeling pretty good, with lots of energy, an appetite and no fever so hopefully she's on the mend.

Thanksgiving in Budapest

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving on Thursday. We used to wait until Saturday to celebrate and share a feast with friends but it didn't seem right. A few years ago we moved back to having it on it's actually day. Fortunately most of the guests were able to get here early (between 5 - 6pm) so we didn't go too late on a work / school night.


Curt carving the giant bird. It was almost 15 kgs! Fantastic!


The youngest guest. 'Baby Aidan' as our girls refer to him. He actually walked across the threshold. What a big boy!


The adult table


After dinner, the boys read what everyone was thankful for (filled out when they arrived).


My two fab friends. Both non-Americans but always welcome to share in the festivities. Nicola actually surprised me by turning up at my door with Kim, Kim's son, Harry, and Nicky's 3 1/2 year old daughter Hannah at about 2:30pm. I was completely caught of guard and as happy as can be as we had planned for her to come (she's been for many other thanksgivings) but then about 1 1/2 weeks ago she called and said she couldn't make it happen. The two of them planned a surprise which was so fantastic! So not expected. Unfortunately she could only stay for about 24 hours but it was all worth it. Thanks Nicky (above in the center). Kim and her family were invited because their son, Harry, now attends the American school and needed a taste of our Thanksgiving. He saw the turkey and actually thought it was a roast chicken ;-)



All the girls dressed up and got their faces painted by Mia. She's above left holding Aidan. Molly is above getting kisses from Kim. Molly will be 4 in Feb.


Mia and Hannah making their grand entrances.


Curt found a bride-to-be having trouble coming down the stairs in heels.

All in all it was a fantastic Thanksgiving. It almost went down without any hitches. A few hitches:

1. napkin lining the bread basket almost caught on fire when it got too close to a candle. Jay saved the day by catching it, taking it outside and stomping it out in the snow. phew! Thanks Jay (photo below). PS He managed to save the homemade dinner rolls!

2. Pumpkin pie was awful. First time I made it. In the past, I always had my dear friends Bill and Kerry (we missed you guys this year!!) help with dessert so I never had to think about it. I think I added more than a pinch of salt. Fortunately, I also made a pecan pie that turned out great so we were all okay. I am determined to bake a pumpkin pie in the very near future just to give everyone who was craving it a taste!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

our thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims and their family's in Mumbai during this terrible time.

Earlier this year Curt and I stayed at the JW Marriott hotel. The security there is like no where else I have ever been. Cars are all checked at gates, trunks open, mirrors under cars, etc. Then, there are metal detectors at every entrance with bags carefully checked and scanned. It's just devastating. We have many friends there and are still waiting to hear that they are all safe.

Off to Bratislava Tomorrow Am

Trying my best to do some blog catching up. We've been very busy! Seriously, ridiculously busy! It doesn't seem to be slowing down. Tomorrow Curt and I go up to our Bratislava office for some work, then a cocktail reception where we are guests of honor (Move One were big sponsors of a recent charity event), then dinner with our friends Peter and Sue. We'll spend the night at their home and then return on Wed. I've already started some prep work for our big Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday night. We are having a house full of people and I am doing it 100% alone this year. Bill and Kerry used to always share in the food prep but this year they are back in the USofA. boo hoo. Other than the turkey, I have lots of goodies including a pumpkin and pecan pie to make. Hopefully we won't be home too late on Wed so I can dive into it all! More updates will most likely only happen from Friday on...

To all of my American friends and family: Happy Turkey Day!!! xoxo

Down on the Danube

2 weekends ago (on Saturday, Nov 15th) while Mia was at her friend Isabelle's b-day party down in district 13, T, Ali and I decided to go for a walk along the river near the b-day girl's home. I took a few photos and a video (coming soon) of our little adventure.

I think she's trying to imitate T's peace sign.

Sharing chips and walking and talking. She caught everyone's eyes and smiles as she looked so cute in her little Ralph Lauren red jumper (thanks Keira for passing it on) and new white hat (bought on my trip to Brighton last week).

T relaxing river-side (doesn't have the same ring as 'seaside')


Love these 2 below of them looking at the ducks on the river. The one on the left is without a flash and the one on the right was with the flash. The sun was just setting.


2 more showing the colors of the beautiful sky. Photo of me (bottom right) is taken by Terence.