Visit to the Vosges Mountains

I'm excited to have something new to write about!  We just returned from our visit to the Vosges Mountains in the Alsace/Lorraine regions of France.  We chose to make this visit because the boys have been so disappointed that everyone we know in the US has had snow and we have had the most lovely mild and dry winter for Luxembourg!   Seriously, our spring flowers are blooming and my allergies have kicked in!  First of February for allergy season is even early for Texas!!

Our first stop was in the mountains.  The Vosges are a small mountain range, not impressive like the Rockies or Alps, but pretty, easier to drive and only 3 hours from Luxembourg.

The boys had such a great time playing in the snow and shouting "snowball fight", though Blakely definitely didn't want to get hit with a snowball and Colden was willing to aim at my head every time, but don't you dare get close to his!!

The unseasonably warm winter weather has left the ski resort not in the best skiing conditions.  So we decided to skip skiing ourselves and made a ski lesson appointment in the morning for Colden.   After plenty of time in the snow, we headed down into the Alsace Valley to check into our adorable hotel, l'Auberge Alsacienne.

The town of Eguisheim was just picture perfect for an Alsace wine town similar to where we explored this summer in the Northern-most area of Alsace.  Many of the wine tasting rooms were open, so we bribed the boys with snacks and playtime in each of the squares so we could stop into a couple!  We just love the Reislings and Pinot Blanc's grown in this region.  They also make Muscat wines that have a dry finish rather than sweet... Really nice for an aperitif!

Saturday morning, we headed back to the ski resort, where it was snowing and prepared Colden for his first ski lesson!  He was so excited, couldn't stop talking, and did such a great job.  We couldn't watch all of it because he seemed to be distracted by us and we really wanted him to learn from his instructor.

The instructors report was great. He did well learning to snowplow and said he was surprised it was his first time.  Colden's report was that he knows how to ski and doesn't need an instructor again.  He liked going fast and just falling :)

Blakley put on Colden's skis to try it out a bit with daddy and thought it was fun.  So, I think we may have a new family sport to pursue.

It's Already February!

I have not forgotten about my resolution to blog consistently, but honestly, there hasn't been very much interesting to write about.

Taking my French class has been very time consuming and brain consuming, but my language has improved remarkedly.  I can speak (properly) in past and future tense pretty well and my vocabulary for practical use has increased as well.

I have also been knitting and crocheting quite a bit whenever I get to finally sit down.  Colden's hat is one of my favorite little projects.  Blakely and I got new hats too!  Isn't my cowl funky?  I love how it turned out.  The other navy, grey and yellow item you see is an infinity scarf that I made for J.

Finally, we have been consumed with planning out some of our travels for this year.  There will be some more interesting posts coming!!  French Alps, Portugal, Italy...  I am SO excited.  We are SO blessed!

What do we miss?

We are often asked about what we miss from home...Goldfish is my first response!  It's a funny thing, those silly little cheddar crackers!  We really try to eat primarily fresh whole foods and very little out of the box, but we still miss Goldfish!  There is nothing quite like that here.

It's funny though, one day we will live somewhere else and will have a whole new list of things that we miss from our time here!

For example, the cocoa here is so dark and rich... Why anyone would prefer Hershey's, I do not know, except that you haven't experienced anything different.  Have you ever heard of speculoos?  It's kind of like graham crackers (which we can't get here) but better!  It is darker in color and a richer flavor.  You can buy speculoos ice cream, cookies, crumbs for baking and even comes in a jar like peanut butter.  Trader Joe's has a product that I've tasted, cookie butter, that must be the same.  It's pretty much sugar in a jar--something I wouldn't personally buy, but YUM!

Oh and the dark brown sugar.  It's nothing like our American brown sugar.  It's so dark and rich and full of flavor.  I made my first batch of cookies with it and they were the best cookies I think I've ever made!

Are you hungry yet?

We sure are missing some of our usual Mexican products and that is a tough one.  For now we will just get our Mexican food fix at a cute Mexican restaurant in centre.  We met there for lunch today and it was delicious!

Always nice to have a lunch date with Jeremy too :)