Christmas in Austria

We have multiple Christmas traditions here. In Germany, the Christkind brings the presents on Christmas Eve, usually in the evening. We took that tradition, as well as Santa from the US (stockings only, to be filled overnight for the kids to discover on the morning of the 25th).

We wrote to both the Christkind and Santa to tell them we would be in Austria. The Christkind brought Jay his (finally!) lightsaber and Nils a Star Wars Captain Rex costume. Since we were still (trying to remain) asleep when the kids dug into their stockings, we have no photos of it. But the Christkind won the best gift prize this year anyway.

On the 26th, it snowed almost all day. The snow is too powdery to make a snowman or even snowballs, but we took some clumps of snow we found and buried Nils.

Food, Glorious Food!

Nils gives the food here two thumbs up!


































Jay eating with the kids from the Kinderbetreuung (Kiddie Care). He doesn't want to have anything to do with us anymore!

As practically everyone knows, Jay and Nils are not interested in food. For Jay, even sweets and dessert are not too interesting. Except ice cream, of course. Every night there is ice cream for dessert here. Naturally, the kids will eat so they can have ice cream. But it doesn't stop there- they really eat quite well here!

Austria at Night

Here are some photos of us at night. The hotel had a nighttime stroll with torch-candles. We also went to the local Weihnachtsmarkt. The temperature was -16 or so and very, very cold, so a Gluehwein was very welcome.

Austria Holiday

We were in Austria for two weeks to ski and relax. M was overdue for a long vacation and the boys and I really should learn to ski. We chose an amazing hotel; we can't believe how lucky we were. We searched and searched for weeks on the internet, not knowing if we wanted a hotel or a house, not knowing which part of Austria we wanted to be in, nothing. We were happy with our choice before we arrived, but once we got there- WOW. We fell into holiday mode right away, normally it takes a couple of days to finally relax (and the fourteen hour drive, full or traffic, did not help either!).

I'm just adding a few photos at a time. Here are some from our first day, when we decided to go outside sledding. We met the cat (Amadeus) and the kids had a lot of fun playing with him.

Football Ole!

We took the kids to their first professional soccer game. They've been to hockey games, but never soccer (in Germany, go figure). Our local team worked its way from the third league to the second league last season. So we went to go see them on a Sunday afternoon with some friends. At the end of the game (we won), our team was in the top two of the table. At the end of each season, the top two teams from each league move into the league above and the bottom two fall to the league below. Needless to say, the crowd was pretty excited.

ps- it was COLD too. Note Nils in his hooligan gear. If an adult came dressed like that, the stadium staff would probably not let him in!

Zoo 2

I think I've probably blogged about the zoo a dozen times, not just once. We had a beautiful fall day and took the kids to the zoo. In the fall, you never know when the good weather will end and the endless rain will begin here, so any nice weather needs to be taken advantage of!

This zoo has a delphinarium, with show, so we got the extra tickets to the show. We got a little wet (exciting for Nils, tragic for Jay), but it was a great performance by the dolphins.

Last of all we have two photos of Nils: one as a clone trooper (in his own self-made costume, note the "armor" on his arms and head) and in his birthday crown on the 2nd.

Portfolio Day, Chez S, Vivaldi

Jay's school had Portfolio Day for the parents. Basically, the parents are invited into the classroom for about half an hour and the children take them on a tour of their work. You can see Caleb, Jay's friend, in the background here. He is half Asian and has the same haircut as Jay. He also is an Adidas freak, so I wonder if people mix the two of them up.

Here we have Nils eating his lunch in his "restaurant-" he doesn't want to eat with me at the table anymore! At least he's eating....

We took the boys to see a Kinderkonzert of Vivaldi at the symphony hall. It was done really well. Each season was a prince, trying to woo a princess with his music. Afterward, we went to a restaurant and enjoyed a coffee while the kids played.