Tis the season

Traveling around European wasn't the only thing we had going on in December.  Here is a recap of a few other holiday related activities we were up to. 

Olivia's School Christmas Program
Olivia's nursery school had a little Christmas program the children put on for the parents.  The parents were instructed to dress their child up in Christmas-type costume for the event so Olivia went as a snowman.  The program didn't last long, maybe only 10 minutes, and included the children singing three songs and reciting a poem about Father Christmas.  Despite how much she loves to sing, when it came time for the performance, Olivia's general discomfort with being at the center of people's attention took over.  She spent the whole first song and poem twisting her scarf around and looking down at the floor.  The last two songs involved the kids ringing bells so that at least made her do something else with her hands.  And by the last song, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, she was actually starting to sing a little.

Afterwards, for Mommy's ears only, she sang all the songs along with me and with much enthusiasm.  So proud of her!  

Andy the Elf
In early December, we had a visitor arrive at our house...Andy the elf.  Every morning, Olivia would jump out of bed and eagerly search for him around the house to see what he was up to.  The concept per the Elf on the Shelf book is that the elf is suppose to be watching the children during the day and reporting back to Santa their behaviour every evening.  Well, we didn't really play up that idea and rather explained to Olivia that he was a special guest in our house until Christmas to have fun with.  The only rule was that she wasn't allowed to touch him, which surprisingly she kept.  We had a lot of fun with him and he even traveled with us to Germany, Salzburg and Prague.

I found Olivia reading to Andy from the Bible one morning and telling him about Jesus's birthday  :)

Anadarko Christmas Party
Geoff's company Christmas party was held about 90 minutes outside of London at the headquarters for the Formula 1 car racing team.  The facility was filled with racing cars and various racing memorabilia. Kinda cool if you're into that thing.  I just enjoyed the food, dancing and free business class tickets to the US that Geoff won at a raffle they had.  Given the party went late into the night and we were so far outside of London, we decided to spend the night at a nearby bed and breakfast.  It was the first time I'd been away from the girls overnight in about 16 months and it was much needed.

Geoff in the racing simulator

Happy Christmas!

We spent Christmas day at home this year celebrating with just our little family.  It was strange not being with either of our families for the first time.  But at the same time, it was really nice to be in our house and to be establishing Christmas traditions of our own with the girls.

This girl loves her daddy!

You know it's been a good Christmas and you're blessed when it looks like a tornado went through

Who needs toys when a box will do just fine

Birthday cake for Jesus

Christmas picture fail

Destination: Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic (Part 2)

Here's Part 2 of our Christmas travels to Salzburg, Austria and Prague, Czech Republic.  If you missed part 1 of our adventures throughout Germany, see previous post.

Salzburg, Austria

This city is best known as the birth place of Mozart and where much of the Sound of Music was filmed.  We arrived in Salzburg via train after dropping off our rental car in Munich.  We had one full day there which was pretty much just spent walking around Old Town Salzburg and taking in the sites along with the Christmas market there.  Unfortunately, the city was covered in fog for most of the day; fog so heavy at times you could barely see across the street.  So we weren't able to see much of those beautiful hills which Maria sings about in the movie.

There's a river somewhere behind us

While we were in Salzburg, we rented an apartment for two nights.  The building the apartment was in was literally built into the side of a mountain.  The entire back wall of the apartment was actual rock.  Looked like the wall of a cave.  Furthermore, the owners of the apartment had an affinity for zebras and snow tigers as all the deco was of this white and black variety.  Interesting to say the least.  Unfortunately, Geoff and I realized after the fact that neither one of us took any pictures of it.

Prague, Czech Republic

When we started planning this trip, Prague was not originally in our plans.  However, it was someplace that Geoff wanted to get to while we're in London (I was neutral) and since it's in the general vicinity of Germany and Austria, we added it on.  I am so, so glad we did.  What an absolutely beautiful city it is.  One of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to.  The pictures here really just don't capture it.  We only had one full day there and we primarily just walked around, taking it in.  I would love to go back again someday as there is so much of the city left to explore.

Christmas market in Old Town Square

Astronomical Clock which dates back to the 14th century

Church of Our Lady at Tyn sitting next to an absolutely massive Christmas tree

The 13th-century Charles Bridge with Prague Castle in the background

On the bridge.  Unfortunately, it was a bit overloaded with tourist.

Trying out some Czech beer

Thank goodness for Google Maps!

Views from Petrin Hill

Once it got dark, the city just took on a whole new feel with everything so beautifully lit up, especially with all the Christmas lights.  Shortly before we left for this trip, Geoff stumbled onto an article that listed the top 10 European destinations for Christmas and Prague was #1 on their list and after having been there, I can see why.

Carriage ride around the city

Traveling with small children is HARD, HARD, HARD.  I know I've shared a few stories before of some of our travel challenges, but here are a few more things we dealt with this trip:

• Increased whining
• Numerous meltdowns (just to clarify, Olivia had the meltdowns...not Geoff, although I was pretty close a few times :) )
• The stress of dining out daily - multiple times/day with small children who can be loud and create big messes including a certain child willfully dumping the contents of a salt shaker into the table's candle holder at one restaurant. 
• Tummy issues for Ashton due to eating different foods
• Several long nights with Ashton waking up due to the above mentioned tummy problems
• Disruptions of normal schedules resulting in increased crankiness in both parents and children
• Vomit on child and car 
• Getting around foreign countries via cars, trains and planes with three suitcases, three backpacks, diaper bag, stroller and a shopping bag with fragile Christmas ornaments. Oh yeah....and two children!

I'm not sharing all this as a means to complain.  Rather they are just a reminder that the behind the scenes of all the beautiful photos is not always very glamorous.  These challenges certainly humble me as a parent and occasionally make me long for the days of traveling without children in hand.  We've been so very blessed to have traveled with our girls to seven different countries in the last seven months making lasting memories with them and as Geoff gently reminded me at times when I was at my wits end, with that blessing comes the joy of traveling with the girls too....both the good and the bad.  

We are excited for what 2014 brings.  We are currently planning a return trip to Paris (Geoff is training for the Paris Marathon) and want to get to several other destinations too throughout the year (Italy, Greece and Ireland are at the top of the list).  We don't know how long we'll be here in London; Geoff's company originally told him 2-4 yrs.  If it's two years (which we hope it's not!), that means we could be returning to Houston by the fall.  So to the extent we can, we hope to keep up our brisk European travel pace in the coming months in order to experience as many places as possible.

With that, thanks for reading and Happy New Year!!