December in Luxembourg

It has been an extremely busy month for us as we have had the pleasure of hosting visitors all but 1 week this month!  And we have been thoroughly enjoying the lights and local traditions that Christmas brings.

The boys each worked with their classes since the start of school to learn a series of songs that corresponded with local holidays, seasons and such to perform at their "Spectacle de Noël".  Colden even had to announce one of the songs all by himself.  He was a bit blushed, but did so great!

 

(working on s video upload for you!!)

Blakely sang his songs all day long when home with me, but when it came time for performance, he and 2 others, were not about to sing.  We were not too surprised. The show was cute anyway and he loved bringing Christmas gifts to his teachers.

At the end of each of their shows, Père Noël arrived and gave them each a gift.  Colden was curious to know if his beard was real ;)

The Christmas Markets have been fun. We visited our markets in Luxembourg several times.  Our favorite treat to get is a Kurtos. It's like a hollow cinnamon roll baked perfectly with a thin layer of caramelized sugar on the outside... Not too sweet, just right.

Then there are the kids rides which are such a money pit, but they love them!

There is always a big Christmas Pyramid (Weihnachtspyramide) that looks like a windmill at each of the markets.  This is the pyramid in Lux.

You can buy small pyramids for your home.  Most of them are intricately crafted with nativity scenes, others with snowmen and other secular Christmas scenes.  I found one that I loved, but didn't have enough cash to but it... will have to wait tip next year!

Bratwurst is everywhere (Blakely is so happy!)

At the Christmas markets in Germany we usually find nice music entertainment, this one was especially unusual.  It sounded like organs playing with some percussion.

It's hard to get up to speed on everything, so I'm not trying... I must however include a few pictures from Carol's visit.  The boys had such a great time with her!  Of course she spoiled them (us). 

 

Mardi, le dix decembre, deux mille treize

That's today's date.  What's significant about it is that today, Colden finally was brave enough to stand up in front of his class and say the date in French!  I am so proud of him!

Bon Saint Nicholas

Friday was a holiday in Luxembourg, celebrating the arrival of Saint Nicholas, patron Saint of children, who brings gifts to the good children.  This is is different than Santa as Christmas was traditionally celebrated as a religious holiday and not as a secular holiday.

We received 2 of these bowls of goodies, one for each of the boys as a traditional gift from Saint Nicholas from our sweet neighbors!  We are so blessed to have so many nice and friendly neighbors!

If you're interested, a little more info on St. Nicholas:
http://www.luxembourg-city-tourism.com/luxembourg-events/saint-nicholas.html

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for. To our family and friends overseas, we love you and miss you.

We are most thankful for the gift of Jesus. We are excited to celebrate His birth over the next month and thrilled to live where there is a lot less apology for Christianity.  There is a nativity at each of the Christmas Markets we've seen so far, a whole schedule of live Nativities in Luxembourg and even as we have been traveling in France, Germany and Switzerland, Jesus' birth is obviously present in most all of the Christmas decorations around.

Second for God giving us two crazy little boys who are sweet and bring us so much joy.  

We are SO blessed to have the Cantando family here to celebrate our first European Thanksgiving with us! 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving lunch was a little less traditional, but how can we go wrong eating smoked reindeer ham with candied walnuts and cranberry sauce?  Sounds pretty festive and tasted even better!  

Where do you eat reindeer meat on thanksgiving??  At the top of a mountain in Luzerne, Switzerland, of course!

Definitely one of the most spectacular views seen in anyone's lifetime.

The Pilatus Gondola took us to the top of the mountain and was well worth the cold 40 minute ride.  We loved the views and the boys had fun guessing what kind of animal footprints we saw below in the snow. The last quarter of the climb was almost vertical in a large gondola.  Matt, who is afraid of heights, probably wouldn't have agreed to this had he known before we got up there.  When it was over, he agreed it was well worth it!

After lunch, there was a snowball fight and a memorable ride back down the mountain.

We spent the rest of our day in Luzerne, sampling Swiss chocolate and window shopping at all the watch and jewelry shops!

Our First Snow

We woke up to snow for the first time (that the boys can remember).  Our street looks so pretty covered in snow!

The boys remember going to the snow last year in Washington, but to wake up and find it in your yard is super exciting!   They had a great time playing in the snow before school and I'm so glad we enjoyed it and were a little late to school because it was melted by the time they got home.

The Grund

The area of Luxembourg city that is down below the city walls is called Grund.  There is an elevator that takes you down through the old walls.  On a sunny day, it's a pretty area to visit.  While the city center bustles up above, it's pretty quiet in Grund.

Ariane and I were just out for a walk and a little adventure on a Wednesday morning.  After walking through the parks, we arrived at a restored abbey where we stopped for a coffee and looked around the old building.  On our way out we couldn't help but notice the amped security detail and a navy blue Audi with the crown on the license plate.  Unfortunately, I did not see the Duke or Duchess, but I might have to check back there more often. :)

Looking at the Casements (city walls) from below is quite impressive.  Luxembourg was often caught in the crossfire of Belgium and Germany battling for land.  Apparently the walls have an intricate series of tunnels used to live in or escape during wars.

After taking the elevator back up to centre, we stopped by the Wednesday market for some flowers!

I also introduced Ariane to a Charles "Simply Bacon" sandwich.  I forgot to snap a pic again!!  She is hooked now also!

Hola Barcelona!

We put a new marker on the map of places we have visited with our trip to Barcelona the last week of October.

The boys had a week off school to celebrate the "All Saints" Holiday in Luxembourg.  The holiday is quite important in the catholic community here... we received a 12 page booklet listing all of the services held in honor of the Saints just in our quarter of Luxembourg City.  We celebrated by traveling to sunny Barcelona since the gloomy Seattle-like winter has begun to settle in.

We arrived on a beautiful 80 afternoon and enjoyed sitting out on the balcony with a glass of Rioja that evening after we finally settled into our condo in Diagonal Del Mar.  This area of the city is modern and full of families and more parks than you could imagine all around us.  Even our condo had its own playground and 3 pools (unfortunately, they were not heated as promised).

Our first morning in Barcelona, playing at the parks along the beach.

 

Ariane and I hit the grocery store the first day... it was amazing how much more everything costs in Luxembourg!  Check out this wall of jamon on the bone!  There was an equally as big department of jamon and other cured meats in casings or sliced in packages.

The boys will tell you that their favorite part of Barcelona was playing at the beach.  We didn't have much beach weather, but it was fun while it lasted!

The Sagrada Familia is an amazing cathedral, Gaudi's most famous work. 

He spent 40 years working on the design and it is still under construction today.  You can see that some sections of the stained glass are not yet complete and you can even watch the workers making models of the sections that are yet to be built.  Jeremy and I would love to return to Barcelona in 20 or 30 years and see how it has changed.  Its work is completed as private funding comes in (and tourists fund it, of course). 

Never would you be walking around in a construction site like this in the US! 

The boys loved the façade where the birth of Jesus is depicted.

My favorite part of the trip was our babysitter!  Jeremy's previous manager at MS has a daughter studying in Barcelona this semester, so we connected and she gave us some time away from the kids!  The afternoon pictured here was our only rainy day, but we had fun looking at shops and enjoying some mid afternoon cava!

Here I am with Ariane and Scott.  They live around the corner from us in Limpertsberg and have 2 boys of similar ages.  Ariane and I have so much in common and the guys both work at Amazon.  I'm so thankful that I met her and soooo glad we decided to book this trip together!

One of my favorite meals (with the boys) was at the Boqueria Market selecting different foods to sample from the various stalls.  We didn't take many pictures in the market(imagine a Spanish style Pike Place), but here is one from the Gothic district leading up towards the market.

We also had a really fun date night with Ariane and Scott while the babysitter took care of the kids.  We found our way back to a fabulous Tapas restaurant in El Borne that we ate at a year ago.  It was just as fantastic the second time and so fun to find ourselves in a local restaurant away from the busy squares.

We enjoyed riding the Bus Turistic around Barcelona with the boys.  Jeremy and I remembered one of our favorite sections of the city and enjoyed walking back through it stopping along the way to let the boys play at the neighborhood parks, eat some amazing pizza and browse in a few local shops.

It was a lovely week away and so amazing that it is a 2 hour flight away!

My Week in Lux

I have not been to any new places to tell you about this week, but as I go about my usual routine, I always notice something that I didn't before.  Often is the same street I've walked a hundred times and out of the blue I see a house with interesting architecture or a beautiful garden that I just didn't notice before.

This house is an example of one that I often pass,  always thinking that this street is so cute, but this week, the green house with the beautiful red flowers really caught my eye.  I see all sorts of interesting colors on houses here, but this minty green is just lovely... Subtle enough to blend in, but still standout enough to make me want a green house!

You can get a little glimpse of the crystal chandelier hanging upstairs.  There is another gorgeous chandelier on the first floor too.  They always seem to be lit in the late mornings when I pass.

The Wednesday market is not to be missed in Luxembourg.  All sorts of specialties, many Luxembourgish, but there is an Italian vendor (who promised me Italian sausage next week!), German, French and most likely some of the farmers are Belgium too.  The flowers are always so pretty to browse.

Oh, learned something kinda cool this week.  Maybe this is the standard in Chicago, NYC and other older cities, but I've never known about it.... I've seen this metal covers on the sidewalks all over.

Inside, they are small lifts that raise/lower deliveries to the lower level of the building.  I see the beer distributors delivering beer this way and picking up empty bottles.  The restaurant food deliveries are often being lowered down this way also.  Kinda cool.

To round out the week, on my walk home from school this morning, I glanced back and noticed the steeples of the Notre Dame Cathedral from the south side looked especially pretty with the sun and had to snap a picture.  This is the same cathedral that I recently posted a picture of from the front.

Best Sister Ever!!

Yes, I am trying to start a competition :)

Renée and family sent us a care package filled with goodies from the US that we are missing!  Blakely cheered so loud and cute when he hear we had goldfish!  He begs me to buy these fish looking crackers all the time, but we tried the letter version and no one would eat them, so no point in buying the same thing in a new shape!

The cough medicine... I cannot tell you how amazing that is to receive, after learning that the doctors here won't give you anything like it.  Honestly, I won't give it to my kids anytime but before bed, but it's so nice to have something to help calm a cough at night!  You may think all the protein bars are funny,but everything here is lacking protein!  Even Greek yogurt is so sweet and not at all like what we eat in the States.  No such thing as protein bars except these mini-things I found that have 5g of protein in them.  Portions of meat are way smaller than we are used to also.  Lots of chocolate to replace it  though!

Autumn in Luxembourg

Fall weather arrived a month ago (ushered in by 2 weeks of rain--Yuk!).  Since then, I have been loving the fall weather and my daily walks home from dropping the boys off at school.  It's a 45 minute walk home that often turns into 2 hours due to shopping, coffee or just finding a new route home.

The morning sun is really beautiful, but getting in the way of my photography (I'm clearly lacking skills).... But I managed a shot of the Notre Dame Cathedral that I walk by most days.

Up near my house in Limpertsberg is where several embassies are located.  The US embassy is the most beautiful and located at the corner across from the park that I love to walk through.

On another note, Jeremy and I had lunch at a cool sandwich shop today.  Not only was the shop cute and the fresh cut fries delicious, but the sandwich was possibly the best I've ever eaten.  It was a gourmet BLT with sliced hard boiled eggs on baguette.  Jeremy's bacon, brie and cranberry was great too.  I was so anxious to eat it that I didn't get a picture first.  I guess I will have to go back soon so I can "food spot" about this place!

That's all for now... Just a little update!

Sunday in Trier

We spent our Sunday afternoon in Trier, Germany, one of several cities built along the Moselle River Valley.  The River Valley is farm and wine country.  It is so lush and green, a lovely afternoon drive from Luxembourg.

Trier is said to be the oldest city in Germany and even older than Rome. It has some impressive ruins to show.  We saw the Porta, which are Roman City Gates built before 200 AD.  We enjoyed the Trierer Dom also, beautiful inside and out!  It is the oldest cathedral in Germany with its original construction beginning in the early 300's.

The pipe organ and dome were particularly impressive.

The boys were definitely intrigued by the street performers dressed in mid evil dinosaur-like costumes.   I thought they were really cool too.

While in the city center, we enjoyed some of the street food, opting for hot fresh waffles with sugar over the many ice cream options.  It's interesting how popular ice cream is here in a climate that is barely hot in the 2 months of summer.  I saw a cafe called "Cafe 1900" that will be returning too.  It had the most beautiful cakes and only cakes.  They did not appear to be for take-away... just to enjoy with your café.

The boys also took turns in the pilot seat of a German fighter jet!  A highlight of the city visit trip for them!