Just a few of the desserts from Christmas Eve at the Krupa home
So confusing... Did St. Mikulas, Baby Jesus, or Santa Claus bring these gifts?
Christmas morning. Decorations by LG...
Christmas Day + one...
Took JE, MA, and the squishy little guy to the airport in Vienna today. Sad to see them go, but they had been visiting for two weeks and the little guy was sick for two-thirds of the time. Wait until he wakes up in his own bed tomorrow morning! He will be so happy he might not leave his bed all day.
He had some good times with his cousins... Learned how to pick on those smaller and weaker than him--giving the littlest girl a shove every chance he got. :) Shocking to his parents, but teeny, tiny KF never knew what was going on and would always right herself and go smiling on her way. The little guy was appropriately disciplined--could (and frequently did) verbalize his sins, but when the opportunity again presented itself he couldn't resist a good shove in KF's direction. Wouldn't have been half so amusing if he wasn't such a compliant, sweet-natured little guy 99% of the time.
LG has had a big time with a new and larger audience. She fancies herself a singer--doesn't matter if she knows the words or the tune(?!) she just keeps on rocking. The really fun thing about her is that she LOVES to cook. At 3-1/2 she cracks fresh eggs flawlessly and needs to have her hands in every project happening in the kitchen. Christmas morning as I glazed great grandma's Christmas tree coffee cake recipe, she knew intuitively to put one gumdrop dead center on each of the rolls. A smashing success!
KF has been a delight. She began walking at about 10 months. She is such a tiny little girl and she considers herself on an equal level with the older two. She chases around the dividing wall, carrying a toy in each hand. She has a sweetly melodious little voice--inherited from her mommy--like angels singing. She sticks like Velcro to her mommy but has warmed up considerably to grandpa and I. Don't think she would settle down if left with us for a day, but we would be game...
This past week we've had lots of French press coffee and many Czech beers and regional wines were consumed. MA managed to get 9 beers and 13 bottles of wine (or some such number) into their luggage. He will be enjoying memories of Central Europe for many days to come and sharing his joy with family and friends!
MP's mom did her traditional over-the-top Christmas Eve extravaganza! All the traditional foods, including three entrees, soup, salads, and too many desserts to count. There was a wonderful multi-layered chestnut cake with meltingly, yummy buttercream icing. And, a similar coffee-flavored confection. There were two strudels--apple & cheese and poppy seed--and an endless array of cookies and sweets.
MP's parents always serve Nescafe with dessert. Yep! The instant kind. It is surprisingly better than you think possible. MA is a die-hard coffee afficiado, so I asked him to have a cup. He agreed, Nescafe works. Go figure. And I thought I needed to spend $3.70 on a Starbucks!
Christmas Day was just our famly--6 adults and 3 little ones. We had great grandma's coffee cake in the morning, guacamole, chips, egg salad, and shrimp cocktail in the afternoon, and dinner was salad, steak and pomme frites with a buerre blanc sauce--thank you MA!
Took JE, MA, and the squishy little guy to the airport in Vienna today. Sad to see them go, but they had been visiting for two weeks and the little guy was sick for two-thirds of the time. Wait until he wakes up in his own bed tomorrow morning! He will be so happy he might not leave his bed all day.
He had some good times with his cousins... Learned how to pick on those smaller and weaker than him--giving the littlest girl a shove every chance he got. :) Shocking to his parents, but teeny, tiny KF never knew what was going on and would always right herself and go smiling on her way. The little guy was appropriately disciplined--could (and frequently did) verbalize his sins, but when the opportunity again presented itself he couldn't resist a good shove in KF's direction. Wouldn't have been half so amusing if he wasn't such a compliant, sweet-natured little guy 99% of the time.
LG has had a big time with a new and larger audience. She fancies herself a singer--doesn't matter if she knows the words or the tune(?!) she just keeps on rocking. The really fun thing about her is that she LOVES to cook. At 3-1/2 she cracks fresh eggs flawlessly and needs to have her hands in every project happening in the kitchen. Christmas morning as I glazed great grandma's Christmas tree coffee cake recipe, she knew intuitively to put one gumdrop dead center on each of the rolls. A smashing success!
KF has been a delight. She began walking at about 10 months. She is such a tiny little girl and she considers herself on an equal level with the older two. She chases around the dividing wall, carrying a toy in each hand. She has a sweetly melodious little voice--inherited from her mommy--like angels singing. She sticks like Velcro to her mommy but has warmed up considerably to grandpa and I. Don't think she would settle down if left with us for a day, but we would be game...
This past week we've had lots of French press coffee and many Czech beers and regional wines were consumed. MA managed to get 9 beers and 13 bottles of wine (or some such number) into their luggage. He will be enjoying memories of Central Europe for many days to come and sharing his joy with family and friends!
MP's mom did her traditional over-the-top Christmas Eve extravaganza! All the traditional foods, including three entrees, soup, salads, and too many desserts to count. There was a wonderful multi-layered chestnut cake with meltingly, yummy buttercream icing. And, a similar coffee-flavored confection. There were two strudels--apple & cheese and poppy seed--and an endless array of cookies and sweets.
MP's parents always serve Nescafe with dessert. Yep! The instant kind. It is surprisingly better than you think possible. MA is a die-hard coffee afficiado, so I asked him to have a cup. He agreed, Nescafe works. Go figure. And I thought I needed to spend $3.70 on a Starbucks!
Christmas Day was just our famly--6 adults and 3 little ones. We had great grandma's coffee cake in the morning, guacamole, chips, egg salad, and shrimp cocktail in the afternoon, and dinner was salad, steak and pomme frites with a buerre blanc sauce--thank you MA!
The 26th is a holiday in most of Europe, so not much was happening in Vienna. We walked around the center of the city, enjoying the empty spaces and having time to explore all the side streets. The architecture is overwhelming! The area surrounding St. Stephen's Plaza [Stephensplatz] is usually crammed with tourists and we are too distracted to really take it all in. We found a Segafredo cafe for a melange and croissant, then later had lunch at the Cafe Europa--a chicken club sandwich for me and an array of sausages with a Kaiser roll and condiments for CA. I topped my meal with a Vienna coffee--black coffee topped with whipped, but unsweetened whipping cream. I appreciated that this cup was hot! I like my coffee hot, but the earlier Segafredo coffee was no better than lukewarm--I could almost just not bother with coffee if it isn't hot.
Tomorrow we may drive half way to Vienna to--big surprise--an outlet mall! First one ever in this area and a new concept for Europe. Shopping pretty much sucks in Slovakia and Austria, so my expectations are low...
Count your blessings, Americans. You have fantastic variety, the best quality and prices, and endless options of places to shop. Here you might as well forget about it if you are over a size 10, and most of what you see is either designer labeled or crap quality. I always wonder, "Where do the normal people shop?"
Part of the answer to my question is that people here need far less than what Americans "need." And, if they can afford it they buy excellent quality and far, far fewer items. I would love to shop that way, but told CA that for that plan to work I would need to buy far less for a long period of time and then buy the top quality. Otherwise, I might have to work full time to pay for my wardrobe. Marielle does not plan to work full time! In fact, she would prefer to only work for herself and not have to take any more contract work at any time! Maybe she needs to begin buying lottery tickets? Or, planning a trip to Vegas?
We're here for almost two more weeks. CA started teaching LG a bit today--numbers and connecting dots--and they had a big time. She gets easily distracted [normal for an active 3-year old] but her little mind is always racing and we think that if grandpa challenges her intellectually, we all will better survive her school holiday. We also plan at least one outside activity a day, if the weather holds out and we all stay healthy.
Tomorrow we may drive half way to Vienna to--big surprise--an outlet mall! First one ever in this area and a new concept for Europe. Shopping pretty much sucks in Slovakia and Austria, so my expectations are low...
Count your blessings, Americans. You have fantastic variety, the best quality and prices, and endless options of places to shop. Here you might as well forget about it if you are over a size 10, and most of what you see is either designer labeled or crap quality. I always wonder, "Where do the normal people shop?"
Part of the answer to my question is that people here need far less than what Americans "need." And, if they can afford it they buy excellent quality and far, far fewer items. I would love to shop that way, but told CA that for that plan to work I would need to buy far less for a long period of time and then buy the top quality. Otherwise, I might have to work full time to pay for my wardrobe. Marielle does not plan to work full time! In fact, she would prefer to only work for herself and not have to take any more contract work at any time! Maybe she needs to begin buying lottery tickets? Or, planning a trip to Vegas?
We're here for almost two more weeks. CA started teaching LG a bit today--numbers and connecting dots--and they had a big time. She gets easily distracted [normal for an active 3-year old] but her little mind is always racing and we think that if grandpa challenges her intellectually, we all will better survive her school holiday. We also plan at least one outside activity a day, if the weather holds out and we all stay healthy.
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