On a 2 Horse Open Sleigh

One of the highlights of our ski trip to Austria was on New Year's Day (Jan 1), we went on a horse drawn sleigh through the village and country side of the Schladming Dachstein area where we were staying. It was a one hour ride and just beautiful. It started snowing on the morning of the 1st so it felt extra special to be riding with the big snow flakes coming down on us. We weren't too cold as the sleigh had big wool blankets for us to cover ourselves with. Plus, our driver gave us some schnapps to help warm up our insides.

Waiting for our sleigh

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T and Curt rode up front with our sleigh driver while Curt's parents and sister, Lisa, were in the middle. I was in the back with the girls.

Ali actually fell asleep while sitting upright. We laughed as she fell asleep on the sleigh last year too. It must be a relaxing rocking feel for her.


Next up our my scenery shots.

Tall trees in the forest.

And below a tiny tree amongst all the huge ones. It reminded me of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree so I had to capture a shot of it.

Ski Shots of Mom and Dad

For 3 days in a row Curt and I had the freedom to ski sans kids. It was great. Even though it is lots of fun skiing with T and Mia, we had fun just skiing faster, not worrying about the kids and stopping for gluhweins when we wanted to.

We took lots of self portraits!

This one was taken by another patron in the cafe we were in. It was actually so sunny that it felt great to sit outside!

Terence and Mia Skiing in Austria

We arrived at our destination in Austria on Saturday evening. On Sunday we enjoyed sleeping in, going to the ski shop, getting the kids (T and Mia at least) new skis and T new boots (Mia grew into his old ones), then skiing with the kids for the day. I love that they are now at the age that they can ski with Curt and I. It's unbelievable and I'm so proud. This is, after all, their 3rd season skiing. And, like riding a bike, they always remember how to do it and do it well. T needed a bit of adjusting as his new skis are long. When we bought them at the ski shop the store clerk had to ask him if he was an advanced skier. He wasn't kidding, I guess these are serious skis and not for the 'beginner'. Terence didn't boast or lie, he just told him the truth that he knew how to ski and has been skiing for 2 years.

Ski school registration was also on our Sunday agenda. This was the first year that T and Mia actually got into a ski school which started on Monday at 9:30am. Each day they had lunch with their instructor and class and then we picked them up at 3pm (one day it was 3:20pm as they skied in another location). I'm not sure if I'll do ski school again for them. It's great for the beginner but they now need a bit more one-on-one focus to improve their skills. I think ski school was a better intro and a great babysitting service. C'est la vie. Next time. We'll be skiing again in 2 months time so we can work out something else then.

Anyhow, here are some shots of them with their class and the videos are of me picking them up at the bus stop after their one day's lesson. Curt only took these short videos but still we thought it would be fun to include. We video taped so that we could capture their exhausted faces. Mia was really tired (and grumpy as she gets grumpy when she's tired or hungry) and T was also tired from a long day of skiing.

One last note, at ski school Mia made some friends. Many who old spoke German but somehow Mia always seems to befriend people everywhere she goes. T also made a friend which isn't the usual case for him. It was another boy who looked about 10 that also spoke English. Sometimes that's the only thing in common required to strike up a conversation and short-term friendship. The funny thing is right after this video clip ended, Mia's friends were all saying good-bye to her. I congratulated her for making so many friends on only the 2nd day. T told me that Mia was a terrible friend as she made all her 'friends' carry her poles on the lifts. She then turned to me and said in a very teenage way (you know, the head shaking valley girl style) 'Well, they wanted to!'. Mia, Mia, Mia - what are we going to do with her... The funny thing is that she'll always get what she wants and somehow make people feel that they are getting a good deal out of it...

PS Curt's parents are still here and leaving to go home tomorrow. boo hoo. We're having such a nice time. It's not that we're doing anything special. It's just great having them here for me, Curt and the kids to spend time with. Plus, I love that they enjoy everything I cook. I've cooked almost every night because they are a pleasure to cook for. It's nice to hear their appreciate other than our kids who often say 'yuck, i don't like this.' T, by the way, is named Sam I Am at dinner as at least 8 out of 10 times he says 'Yuck' repeatedly. Then, I tell him he has to have one bite to first taste is as he cannot just judge it by it's appearance (like Green Eggs and Ham). He often finishes swallowing, looks up, smiles and softly under his breath says 'I kind of like it'. That's the best!

Ali Skiing

Ali is still not 3 years old and she is our youngest family member to get up on skis. It was absolutely adorable to see her still not fully coordinated body trying to maneuver around with these short little skis. She was lucky enough to fit into T's old ski boots. We had planned to put her on Mia's old skis (both T and Mia recently upgraded to bigger skis and boots) but we thought they seemed a bit too long for her. Mia started with the length a year later when she was 3, going on 4 years of age. So, we were able to rent these short little skis for Ali to test out. We were hesitant and gave her many opportunities to get out of trying but she saw all 4 of us and had to give it a try too. It was a great warm, sunny day for her to try and she did... well, probably like any 2 year old would... she needed a lot of hand holding and helping up. She still loved it and especially loved the ski schools magic carpet taking her up the little hill (check out video below).

Boxing Day

I have quite a bit of blog catching up to do. I'm starting back on Boxing Day (Dec 26). The 5 of us (Curt, me and the kids) along with Curt's parents and sister, Lisa, all went out for breakfast at our favorite morning spot. The Four Seasons Gresham Palace. Neither Curt nor I are 'brunch' type people. We just feel like it's too much food and we don't even eat (or like) 90% of the food choices. We leave with empty pockets but still not completely satisfied. The Four Seasons is not a cheap place, however, we think it is reasonable as the quality is extremely high, the service is unbeatable, the atmosphere is warm and cozy and we leave satisfied.

Anyhow, we went into town for a wonderful breakfast after several days of enjoying being at home, eating lots, opening presents, catching up and spending time together. By the 26th, it was time to get out. After breakfast, Harry and Lisa wanted to see the Christmas market at Vorosmarty ter. Unfortunately, we were surprised to find that they were closed on the 26th except for the food vendors and 2 small craft kiosks. The stands were still set up and expected to reopen again on the 27th. It just surprised me that they didn't open for the many tourists that were hoping to get more of a x-mas feel (and even spend some cash). It was still nice to walk around but very cold. Here are a few photos of us at the square. During our stroll, Curt, his mom and Terence remained in the warm Four Seasons finishing their warm drinks and catching up with their newspaper reading.



The below snaps are of the girls on the lion statues.

We Are Back

Happy New Year everyone!

We are back from our ski trip. It was a great trip, other than the departure. After Curt got our roof rack on the car, packed everything up perfectly, we all piled in and tried to start the car and .... nothing! As I mentioned earlier, Terence, Curt's dad and Curt's sister took the train. It worked out perfectly as there was a direct train to Salzburg and from there they took a 1 hour taxi drive to our hotel.

After calling City Taxi and attempting to get our car jump started, we decided to call our move manager to ask for advice. We also called Misi who is responsible for all our company cars and looks after our car too. After some consideration, we decided to change our car with them and instead take our company van. It's an 8 passenger van so we just put down the last row for our skis and all our bags (we had the train people's luggage too so they didn't have to worry about lugging it). It worked out really well. However, it put us about 2 - 2 1/2 hours behind our original plan. No big deal. We made it shortly after the train group and met up for a beer and nice, light dinner of antipasto.

The next day we hit the slopes. We skiied as a family (just the 4 of us) while Ali stayed behind with Curt's sister, Lisa. The hotel also had a kindergarten for kids over 2 years old but we didn't need to use it as Lisa and Ali were very happy together. They hiked the cross country trails every day while Curt, Terence, Mia and I skiied. From Monday, Terence and Mia entered ski school from 9:30am - 3pm (lunch included) and Ali took a few attempts on skis (her request). Curt and I had great fun skiing alone and then enjoying apres ski until T and Mia were finished with ski school.

We'd meet up back at the hotel where we would usually go for a swim, then cards and coffee (or sometimes we'd stick to gluhwein or beer), then from 6:30pm dinner. Dinners at our hotel are fantastic! It's all included (as is breakfast) and we ate well!

Photos are still to be downloaded so in the meantime, here is a photo of the ski area we just returned from:



Pat, Harry and Lisa are still here with us until Wednesday, January 7th. We are having a great time together but taking it easy. Tomorrow the kids return to school, Curt back to work, me back to unpacking (I'll return to work on Thursday) and getting the house in order, my car repaired, our heat fixed (we returned to a very cold house), and everything else back in order. The week between Christmas and New Year's no one seems to work or do anything in this country so from Monday, it's time to get serious.

Photos coming soon... I promise.

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.