A big year coming to an end

So 2014 is coming to an end, and what a year it's been! As BK and I sit here enjoying Baby K's nap time, and eagerly await cheering on the Frogs in the Peach Bowl, I figured I might as well try and squeeze one more post in. It will be quick, as I have at most 20 minutes before she wakes up.

So what have we been up to lately? Baby K and I have been in the US for almost three weeks now, and BK has been here for almost two. Sadly, this also means his time here is almost up and it's time for him to go back to Switzerland to work while Baby K and I enjoy one more week. Before we left Switzerland in December we did get one last weekend away in Davos. We didn't do much, just enjoyed the mountains and outdoors. The snow wasn't quite good enough to ski just yet.

The flight over with Baby K was good, fairly uneventful, which is always a positive thing when flying with a baby. It took her a couple of days to get used to the sheer number of people who were here and wanted to spend time with her. I always forget that she's really used to it being just me, her and BK at home in Switzerland, and underestimate how overwhelming seeing tons of new people is for her. It took her two days to warm up to my dad...needless to say, PopPop's feelings were a little hurt.

Since then, it's been a whirlwind; seeing people, getting ready for the holidays, and going from event to event together. Here are some of the highlights so far.

Nani came to visit our first weekend in town:

We got back to our "normal" routine of walking the dogs in the mornings:

We met Aunt K for dinner when she was in town:

Baby K has had lots of cousin time:

I've had lots of fun dressing Baby K in numerous holiday outifts:

BK and I had a date night and Baby K spent the night away from us for the first time! Aunt C, Abbs and LJ took great care of her. I think they all had a geat time too. Not to worry- I survived as well.

For the past week we've been in East Texas and Arkansas visitng BK's family. BK got me a new camera for Christmas, so since then I've been taking lots of pics with that instead of the iPhone. Unfortunately that means that I have lots of pictures that I haven't uploaded just yet to use. Hopefully I'll have more to come later.

We are back in East Texas to cheer on the Frogs and ring in the new year. The past few days have been spent relaxing and trying to catch up on some much-needed rest. We've been enjoying some good family time too. HG loves to help cook and bake with us when we're here.

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas, spent with those you love! Here's to a great 2015!

Giving thanks in Switzerland

Thanksgiving came to Switzerland a few days late this year. And in case you're wondering, no, we did not have last Thursday off for the holiday. Thanksgiving is an American holiday, meaning the Swiss don't recognize or even acknowledge it here. If you're someone who had never thought about that, don't worry, you're not the only one- I've gotten the question numerous times.

Since we were away from our families for the first time this year, BK and I decided we should get some Americans together to celebrate. It also happened to be BK's birthday, so it was fun to have everyone over for that occasion as well. Our friends M, J, and Baby M came down for the weekend as well. We had the babysitter come Friday night for parents' night out to celebrate BK's birthday. We enjoyed a nice dinner out and drinks afterward.

I think this year is the first year I've ever been away from my family on Thanksgiving. Of course, being married and all, we have had to decide which side to spend the holiday with and celebrated beforehand as well. But this year it was just me, BK, and Baby K as a family. I was a little bit sad that we didn't get to spend the holiday with our families, but this year we decided to skip Thanksgiving and have a longer trip at Christmas.

All that said, Thanksgiving turned out great! I cooked a whole turkey (actually two) for the first time, made my grandmother's stuffing (with cornbread mix brought from the US), homemade cranberry sauce, and BK made mashed potatoes. All of the guests also brought a dish as well to fill our table.

                                          

The turkey was a serious source of worry for me leading up to Thanksgiving. Having never cooked a turkey before and wondering if it would fit in my oven were my two main concerns. I bought a 3 kilo (6 lbs) turkey as my practice run turkey, and cooked that one on Friday just to make sure I had some clue about what to do. I had to special order a bigger turkey, weighing in at 6 kilos (13 lbs), for the main one. 

They both turned out great, although I think the first one was a little better than the second. In all honesty, we probably could have just gotten by with the little one; everyone fills their plate with sides anyway, right? Now BK and I have turkey that goes on forever. I need to freeze it or something. Baby K may have turkey with every meal until we come to the US.

We had 11 people, plus two babies join us for the meal. Afterwards we enjoyed lots of lively conversation, getting to know one another better, and discussing how we find life here in Switzerland. Football doesn't typically come on for us until around 6pm, so we didn't watch all that much football until later when everyone else had started making their way home.

Sorry I don't have more pictures to include. Making that Thanksgiving meal is a lot of work! I got caught up in hosting and preparing and forgot to assign the picture taking to anyone else. Also, I think I owe the moms in my life a big thank you for all the years they made Thanksgiving dinner...and they should really have the weekend off from cooking after all that production! 

It was a new way to celebrate Thanksgiving, but we had a great weekend. This weekend we're off to Davos for some skiing (BK) and playing in the snow. And just 9 days from now Baby K and I are headed to the US for Christmas! See you all soon!

Parlez-vous le français?

Oui!!

Okay, okay, so I answered that question like I was fluent or something. I am not just yet, but have made tons of progress in the past three days.

As you might have guessed, I'm back at it again, and am in language school- this time for French. Thanks to Switzerland having four official languages, we are now living in the French speaking part, and have said auf weidersehen to German. For the next two weeks I am spending three hours per day at school in Lausanne, then after that will move to going two days per week.

I'm excited and having fun trying to bring French back to the front of my brain. Now that I'm being reminded of the French I know, it doesn't take me nearly as long to recall words and sentence structure as it did when first learning German. Although, it is strange that occasionally when asked about a word, sometimes I can only come up with the German word. Never thought that would have happened, but after 18 months of being immersed in Basel, it's probably a pretty natural thing.

Where is Baby K you may wonder? She stays home with a babysitter while I'm in school. We're on the waiting list for creche (nursery), but you often have to wait quite a long time before getting a spot, so in the meantime, a babysitter it is. I gave her Baby K's schedule in French, and they seem to be doing well together. They get out and stroll, she feeds her, they play- you know, the typical baby stuff.

A reassuring pic from the babysitter on our first day apart

One thing I really like is that she is a local; she is Swiss and speaks French with Baby K. Now that I've been going to class and picking things up again, I try to communicate with her in French. This typically involves me speaking to her in French (simple things) and her speaking back to me in English (she knows some). We're making progress.

I have to wrap this post up now. I have homework to finish before Baby K gets up from her nap.

A bientôt!
(See you soon!)

Prague, take two

So it's back to Prague we go! After our parents' night out on Friday night, we hit the ground running on Saturday. BK was a little weary about the trip, with lots of questions about exactly what we were going to be doing because I didn't do the serious planning that I normally do. I looked at some stuff, knew the landmarks and areas we should see, but didn't have a ton of stuff booked and scheduled, like I normally do. Not sure why; but don't worry, things turned out just fine.

We started Saturday with a walking tour. For some reason we also started like amateur parents as well, forgetting Baby K's coat, mittens and hat. I'm not sure if we thought it was warmer than it was or what, but we seriously failed on that one, and then we didn't have time to go back and get them. At least there was a blanket in the bottom of the stroller and we had the winter lining on it. We stopped and bought the hat, mittens and a scarf.

Make-shift bundling

We went on the Royal Free Walking Tour. The guides work off of tips, but it's essentially free so they get you into their other tours available (which we did as well). We took this tour because it was ranked the best on Trip Advisor, and it was a really good experience.

Outside of the fact that there are a lot of people on the tour with you, our tour guide gave lots of great info, turning everything into an informative story that kept our attention. BK and I were both interested in hearing some of Prague's history since we had no clue about it prior to arriving, and the guide did a good job at incorporating that in as well, but not bogging you down too much.

In a nutshell, here's what we did in 2.5 hours (as to not make you take 2.5 hours to read this post)...

Astronomical clock

Old Town square

Rudolfinum

Old New Synagogue in Jewish Quarter

Franz Kafka statue

Spanish Synagogue

After we walked for the first tour we had a little less than an hour before the Castle district tour started. We figured we would probably just be wandering around otherwise, so we figured we might as well go on this one too. The Castle district is across the river from Old Town. We worked our way from the Astronomical Clock again, took the tram up and walked around the district. All of Prague is really old and charming, and this area does not disappoint either.

Starting our second tour

Monastery at the castle

St. Vitas Cathedral

Flying buttresses, back of cathedral

View of Old Town from Castle

Saturday night BK and I enjoyed another dinner out in Prague while Baby K slept soundly at the hotel. Sunday we took it a little bit easier and wandered around leisurely. We had brunch at Cafe Savoy, which feels much like a cozy Parisian cafe, then walked up Petrin Hill.

Cafe Savoy

Petrin Hill has a tower you can climb to the top of that was done by the same person as the Eiffel Tower and typically provides a great view of the city.  It was foggy the day we climbed to the top of the tower, but it was still a nice walk and climb to the top. We also stopped at a playground "for" Baby K, and got some good giggles from the merry-go-round and teeter totter.

Fun on the playground

Observation Tower

Cloudy Prague

Monday was our last bit of time in Prague and when the stomach bug came and got me. We were up and out relatively early and spent the morning exploring the Jewish Quarter. It was once the Jewish Ghetto, where no one wanted to go and where Jewish people were sequestered in a tiny little area of the city. It often flooded and was a nasty place to live. Now, it is one of the nicest places in Prague and a highly desired area to live.

Jewish Quarter

We did the walking audio tour of the Jewish Quarter, which consists of the museum, synagogues and cemeteries. The whole thing is extremely impactful, as there is such sorrow, discrimination and pain in all of these monuments. The Jewish Museum is a former synagogue which now has over 77,000 names of the Czech Jews who were killed during WWII, along with their date of birth and last known date of life- typically the day they were shipped to a concentration camp.

In the museum we also saw the Jewish cemetery. The Jewish population was only given a small plot of land for the cemetery, but it seems like it goes on and on. Because the city would never give more land for burying Jewish people, there are generations and generations piled on top of one another, dating back from the 1400s.

Jewish cemetery

BK and I decided that Prague is definitely somewhere we would visit again. We missed a few things we wanted to see and thought we would also like to a day trip outside of Prague. Of course, Baby K was a great traveler as usual, so I'm sure she'd be up for it as well.

Like many other places we've visited in Europe, go if you get the chance!

Prague + an unwanted gift

I'm sorry to report that our trip to Prague has been overshadowed by a nasty stomach bug I brought home, then passed to BK, who then passed it along to Baby K. Yuck! But now that we're all recovered, we can move on with life.

Prague was our last European destination of the year and somewhere we've had on our list for quite some time. It is a beautiful city and somewhere BK and I both agreed we would like to visit again. There's so much history in Prague, but I guess that's true about most of Europe. Being here, I'm constantly reminded just how young the US is.

We spent a long weekend in Prague- from Friday afternoon to Monday afternoon. Flying from Zurich, it's just an hour long flight to get there. Baby K was a little restless on the flight, but not all too bad overall. We arrived in Prague, got settled, then headed out to explore a little bit. We stayed at Unitas Hotel, which I would highly recommend. It is in a great location in Old Town, the room was perfect for us, breakfast was included (something that I seriously love), and they were helpful with anything we needed.

Our first evening we wandered around Old Town and across Charles Bridge, kind of getting a feel for the city. Charles Bridge connects Old Town and Lesser Town, which you go through to get to the Castle District. We enjoyed the sights and stopped at Kampa Park restaurant to have a drink on their terrace. It was fun for the three of us, and Baby K had an exceptionally good evening with us, being playful and cordial the whole time. It gets dark around 4:30 or 5:00 in Prague right now, so even though it appears to be late, it was really early evening, and quite chilly.

Something BK and I typically try to do anywhere we go is find a babysitter for at least one night when we're traveling. Everyone wants to know how we find someone we're comfortable leaving Baby K with. One thing is, we always do bath time and bed time ourselves, so that we essentially just need someone to physically be there while she sleeps. So how do we find this person? Usually the hotel can recommend a nanny placement agency who has a bank of people who have been checked out and are available for other jobs. Just contact them and they can typically send someone. Yay for us!

So Friday night we went to a restaurant close to the hotel, Klub Architektu. It had a great wine-cave type atmosphere and the food was good as well. We discovered that Czech waitstaff are typically a little standoffish; they want to get your order quickly, and leave you alone otherwise. After that we stopped at Bonvivant's CTC for one more drink. According to BK they made a really good Old Fashioned, and my cava was good as well. It was a great little place, and you could tell they really cared about the drinks they made and served.

So that's all for our first night. More to come on the rest of our weekend- we did LOTS of walking over the next few days, braving the chilly weather and seeing the sights.

More to come soon, but French starts tomorrow, so I need to get ready for that. I'm very excited and am hoping it all comes flooding back very quickly. Au revior!

Baking for Baby K

I'm excited to report that I have someone new to bake for...Baby K! I didn't really think about this possibility until recently when either my mom or sister asked me if I had teething biscuits for Baby K. Oh yeah, I forgot about those things.

This is my first time baking for Baby K, but it's not my first time cooking for her. I've been making her baby food since she started eating solids. I'm not opposed to feeding her store bought food, but I figure, I like to cook, so why wouldn't I cook for her? Not to mention that each packet of baby food is 1.95 CHF (about $2), and I can buy 2 pounds of fruit for 3.50 CHF; not much of a comparison there as far as cost goes. Every two weeks or so I spend a couple of hours making food and then we're set.

They were easy to make, and Baby K sat in the kitchen with me while we were baking. She wasn't always this excited about baking with me, but at least I caught a good one.

I used this recipe, which is made up of things she's had before (my main requirement). In addition to the other couple of ingredients, I used banana and avocado as my "pureed fruit". Doesn't sound too appetizing, but it works; they were easy to mash up and I didn't have to use another cooking utensil.

After I rolled my dough out, I was all excited to get to use my cookie cutters, as I don't typically make cookies that require a specific shape. I somehow overlooked the fact that all of my large cookie cutters seem to be in shapes that are related to dogs. So I have a dog bone, dog paw, dog house and a dog shape. All of the cute ones I have are miniature cookie cutters, which I did not want to use, as they would be too small for Baby K. For easy handing we went with the paw and bone. I apparently need to work on my collection of cookie cutters...

Regardless of what they look like, I think they were a complete success. They occupied her and stopped the fussing for quite a while. I think her favorite part of the biscuits was that she "got" to share with the dogs. Of course, the second I put her in their vicinity, they were all over that. They seem to think it looks like a dog treat as well. She was delighted to go ahead and give Toby the majority of the biscuit below. On the upside, at least he gently removes it from her hand, being gracious and all.

So when you see pictures of us out and about, and on our trip this weekend, don't be alarmed thinking she's eating a dog treat. Nope, just a teething biscuit that looks like a dog treat.

Random musings today

I can't decide if I think living abroad would be an introvert's worst nightmare or dream come true. For the record, I'm not an introvert, which is sort of why I pose the question. It seems like being an expat, and especially a trailing spouse, you have to be an extrovert. I've spent most of my day today networking and finding new groups to be a part of. It feels like I've spent my day saying, "Will you please be my friend?!?!"

I'm sure if you have a job or children in school, this might not be so hard, but when I'm at home with Baby K, I could seriously go all day and only have contact with her and BK. It just seems a little hermit-like to me. And I'm sure I'm overwhelming to BK some nights when I need to get all my words out for the day and they rain down on him. I have been told before that I don't need to take 40 minutes to explain something that happened in 10.

***

Related to this, part of the reason I've been doing this is so I know when things happen. I'm so not good at being spontaneous. So when I see a message come across that there is a meet up or something that I didn't know about, I have a hard time fitting it into my day because I hadn't really planned for it. Boring and somewhat inflexible, I know.

BK even unexpectedly left me the car one day last week, and I didn't really put it to use. When I get the car during the week I like to be prepared to go to the store and get bulky stuff, run to places that are not so convenient by train and other random stuff, but if I don't even know what might be on my list I struggle to get out of what I had planned in my head of how the day would go. Yes I know, it's a little ridiculous.

I have the car tomorrow, but don't worry I have both my grocery list and the list of other random stuff that I want to get done ready to go and have sort of mapped out how Baby K and my day will go.

***

French is not coming back to me quite as quickly as I had hoped, but I'm still excited to get to use it. I met with a French school today about enrolling in class, and as soon as I have Baby K situated I can get started.

I am very excited about getting back into language class. I'm also excited to speak English and French to Baby K as she starts to develop language skills. She will get it while she's in creche (nursery) as well, but I'm excited about the possibility of reading children's books and doing other activities with her in French.

And to think...everyone said taking French in Texas was useless! Little did they know!

A new set of wheels

Well, we took the plunge here in Switzerland and bought a car. It was no easy feat, with about a three month processing time after we ordered the car and all kinds of financial what-not involved, but we are now the proud owners of a new Volvo.

Now, if you know BK well, you may be thinking that never in a million years would you see him own a Volvo; it's just so sensible. I never thought I would see the day either. And plenty of the guys at work have given him such a hard time about this purchase.

But in the end, practicality outweighed everything else. Volvo has a special deal for expats, making purchasing a Volvo more attractive than other cars in Switzerland. Cars are very expensive here in general, so any break you can get is beneficial. The primary thing it's being used for is for BK to commute to work, so it needed to get good gas mileage and to be safe. Don't worry though, I think he added every possible feature available. He hasn't completely lost touch with his old self.

I kept the car last Friday so I could do some running around, including getting some bigger items that are not so easily handled with Baby K in tow, either in the stroller or being carried on me. BK was eager to hear what I thought about it and how it went. I really like the car, and it has all kinds of great features, but the best one for me is probably the parking sensors.

I say the parking sensors because parking is not my best skill in life. In my past two cars I never had a fender bender, but I did have some unfortunate run-ins with our garage. The bumpers nearly always had a black scrape on them from me coming and going out of the garage. In my defense, we did have a garage that had two separate doors, and since I had the smaller car I had to use the one that required a bit of a turn to get in.

Here's how our new car fits in the garage.

Okay, so it doesn't look like such a tight fit here, but I swear I feel like I have to hold my breath while I'm pulling in. I also told BK that the parking sensors don't really help in this situation because it's just one constant beep at me when I'm parking. He laughed at this and let me know that they did not do that when he was parking. Let's just say we apparently have different methods. I try my hardest to let BK drive as much as possible, and you better believe I won't be parking with him in the car. No one wins in that situation, trust me.

So we're off and running! It has been kind of fun to have a car on the weekends so that we can explore around the area and up and down the mountain. If you come visit us we might even come pick you up from the airport too.

Is winter on the way?

Just after I posted about the amazing weather last weekend, winter seems to have said hello to us. Yesterday is was cold and rainy. Today is was beautiful and sunny, but still cold, with a high around 50.

Yesterday Baby K, the dogs and I went out for a walk, but I apparently did not pay close enough attention to the weather. When we were nearly back home we got caught in out in the sleet! I totally did not expect that! Before that on our walk we wandered through Montreux old town, up and down windy cobblestone streets, just to see what we could find.

All bundled up!

Church on the way up

Old Town

Old Town

Blurry, but it's the only way I could get the sleet on Tobs

There is snow on the mountains now!

Baby K stays warm in her slippers

Today the sun was out again, but it was still cold. We did get out and enjoy the "fresh" weather and had lunch with BK at a local Tea Room. It was nice, but pretty chilly!

Not sure how she feels about the cold weather

It looks like the weekend will be sunny, but still on the cool side. I'm sure we'll be up and out exploring, but as always, home to watch Frog football!