NYE

For our day activity we decided to find some fireworks and pick up groceries while Jack had Bball practice. Practice was good, but Kyle couldn’t find any fireworks tents in Ogden. He found a random person on Facebook spouting business with the city Santa run.  They met in the parking lot of a restaurant and made the deal. Meanwhile, the rest of the kids and I were busy making food for tonight’s party.

We invited a few families, but in the end only one could come, one needed to host the party at their house and one needed to stay home and recover from surgery. The venue was even better than our house, as they had an indoor gym AND a place to shoot off fireworks. The company, games, food and fireworks were top notch!  The best part was we got home before midnight, put all the kids to bed and Kyle and I rang in the new year shortly before heading to bed ourselves!!

Mini Crochet Creatures!!

Ava has really been into crocheting lately and worked up quite the gifts for Christmas with her talent. Money from Grammy and Grandpa Dennis in hand, she headed to Amazon, found a new book to be passionate about, and started making little creatures using the sneak peak of the book on Amazon.

Ava is getting so good at this crocheting business, she improvised on this pig pattern, opting to create her nose instead of using felt as instructed!

Amigurume

Ava received a gift from Grandpa and Grandma Barb that she used to buy a crochet book that she found on Amazon. She had already been busy whipping up this turkey leg as a gift for an uncle!  We are all placing orders for one of her cute creations.

Snowbear

Ulli has been loving all the snow we seem to be getting daily.  He jumps around in the drifts and looks completely fluffy and adorable.  The kids have been sledding and snow shoeing and he bounds around after them lodging ice cubes in between his toes.  Cleaning him up afterwards is kind of annoying, but since getting his bath on Saturday, he smells like a freshly shampooed dog again!

Snowflake Cupcakes

Jack only has three more months of his cookie of the month club and decided to use his new Cake Decorating kit to create this snowflake patterned chocolate cupcake.  The cake was moist and the frosting looked and tasted perfect!

Box Troll

We have so many Amazon boxes laying around that poor Ulli was running out of places to walk and lay down.  At one point he had stepped on a Nike box and it got stuck, giving us all a good laugh.

Homemade Goodness

The kids really impressed Kyle and I with their generosity and talents this Christmas.  Most of them took time to think of and make gifts for Kyle and I and/or for each other.  The fingerless gloves probably took Ava the longest, but the coupon book from Norah and the Lakers colored 3-D pen heart with Kyle and I's initials from Jack were pretty intense too!

We loved spending the day together and enjoyed a delicious dinner of Prime Rib, lobster mac n cheese, broccoli and Rhodes rolls.  Dessert was a peppermint pie with Oreo cookie crust.  Everything tasted fabulous and the memories of the day will be with us forever.

Christmas Morning

Somehow Kyle and I got to sleep in while these guys played in their gift wrapped rooms together.  I didn't ask who was up first or what time, because that would have just taken away from the magical morning.  We ate our traditional cinnamon roll and sausage breakfast before opening all the gifts under the tree.  It had snowed a little bit the night before making for a beautiful scene to look at all day.  I took Ulli snowshoeing; his favorite Christmas present.  I think the kids' favorite present was taking turns playing video games with Kyle and all the Christmas movies we had playing (The Santa Clause, Elf and Klaus)!

Temple Lights 2019

We weren't sure what Jack would be up for, but we were trying to stick to our traditions and visit the Salt Lake City Temple Lights.  He seemed fine to sit in the car and watch another movie, but once we got there and he couldn't just eat ice cream, his jaw started to bug him.  Our favorite German closed on us, so we were forced to walk to City Centre and brave the crowds in the food court for dinner.

With McDonalds in tow, we headed across the street with the masses and viewed all the amazing lights in the warmest weather we've had during a temple light trip since moving here.  It was beautiful and with the kids' help, Kyle and I were able to take this great picture!

Last 4!

A few weeks ago Jack had his orthodontist appointment and we were encouraged to have his final 4 baby teeth removed.  His bad experience back in June with the general dentist pulling 3 of his baby teeth, led us to believe that an oral surgeon would be necessary.  We made our appointment for the first day of Christmas break hoping it wouldn't hinder our holiday or prevent Jack from eating fun Christmas goodies.

He went in fasting, watched the IV be inserted and woke up about 15 minutes later visibly upset.  When I walked back to the area he was being held, it broke my heart to see this big boy crying so much.  He wouldn't open his eyes and did not seem to notice the nurse or I was there.  About 10 minutes into the tears he started to open his eyes and we were able to calm him and get him up for a minute.  The tears were done at this point, now to get him moving.  He eventually made it out to the car with me and home for some Advil, video games and movies!

2019 Christmas Recital

The girls have been practicing for months for tonight's recital, and it has been so lovely hearing them play and sing their pieces.  The two weeks away from the piano, though, took a toll and Ava was not able to memorize her songs or perform them as best she could.  It was still very moving to hear both The Christmas Song and Time To Say Goodbye played by our 14 year old!

Norah had memorized her songs and messed up a tiny bit while playing, but rocked her vocal solo and brought me to tears.  She held back a tiny bit, can't wait for the day she belts out her songs and brings everyone to tears!  Love these musically talented girls and their ability to perform in front of a crowd.

BIG Man

I attended the assembly at Snowcrest today to see the drill Jack and his fellow teammates would be doing.  It was fun to see him standing so tall among his peers, but not fun to see him airball his shot during the drill.  Not sure how well the season will go, but am excited for Jack to have this experience.

Goodie TIME

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull off the goodie boxes this year, but somehow I did, again.  Kyle helped make one pan of caramel bars while Ava helped make fudge and the candy coated pretzels.  I did the rest, cut everything up, printed the cards and envelopes and with Jack's help packed them all up today.  Once he was at practice and the little kids were in tow, we delivered all 30 boxes AND stuffed, stamped and sealed our Christmas cards!  I mailed those after picking Jack up from practice.  It was a very productive day!!

This year's "best of" lineup:
Carmelitas
Peanut Blossoms
Fudge
Candy Coated pretzels
Jam Thumbprints
Oreo Mint Amazingness Cookies

Ski Day

All the snow we had while we were gone resulted in Powder Mountain being open for the season earlier than last year.  We were thrilled and thankfully already had all our gear rented and were able to head up the mountain and ski today after getting the house all cleaned.  The weather was cold, but the conditions were fun!  So glad we live close!

MVP MVP MVP

Ava had her awards dinner tonight with her coaches and team, parents were not invited, and walked away with two awards.  We were all glad she was recognized for her contribution to the team and were even more excited to have the season behind us and not ever have to deal with the poor coaches again.

Lakers FAN

Kyle loves having a few fellow Lakers fans around the house, but until recently Ben was a Bulls fan.  Not anymore, this kid is a committed Lakers fan now!

All Ready For Christmas

We got home last night around midnight after travelling for nearly 24 hours.  All the trouble we had on our way to Europe seemed inevitable on our way home, so we made sure to get up early and take the train to give ourselves enough time to work things out at the ticket counter.  Once we got everything squared away, which took almost 45 minutes, we had to combat with the security line-which was LONG.  We ended up finding a bit shorter line and jumping into it. 

We made it through all the checkpoints and onto the plane with little trouble.  The flight was long, but we watched movies and tried not to notice.  We landed in Atlanta around 11pm Munich time where we suffered through a 4 hour layover.  We tried to find some American food we had missed and found ourselves at PF Changs for about an hour.

The rest of the layover was spent walking around, trying to sleep in the waiting area and trying to get seats near each other on the plane.  Once boarded we finagled our seats together and then enjoyed another 4 hours of plane time.  We arrived in SLC, with our bags, around 4am Munich time and then found the bus to the economy lot and drove the hour home. 

Kyle tried to stop for groceries on the way, but I was pretty much hallucinating at that point and insisted we go straight home.  The driveway was cleared thanks to our guardian angel plowing friends and we found the house in perfect condition.  The kids sleep walked to their beds around midnight and woke up 5 hours later!

Getting on the time zone in Europe was tough, getting back on the time zone here should be a breeze right!  Last night was bad, but hopefully we will keep ourselves busy today and then head to bed early and be ok!  All the extra time during the day allowed us to completely unpack, pick up Ulli and set out all the Christmas goodness we picked up overseas.  The Bristol Torte for dessert was the cherry on top!

Los Ghetes!

No one wanted to get up today and have a battle, but it happened nonetheless. We will be awake for 24 hours before we reach our home in Liberty-hope all is well there and we can get into the garage after the insane snow storms we had the week of Thanksgiving!!  We had a 10 minute walk, a 50 minute train ride, a 10.5 hour flight to ATL, a 3.5 hour layover, a 3.5 hour flight to SLC, a 15 minute tram ride to our car and an hour drive home-should get there around 11pm!!!!

Last Day!!

We’ve had these days before, this is the last time we will see “fill in the blank” and today was no different, we found ways to visit everything we love about Munich-and put in 17,000 steps doing it!!

Our morning started with a trip to the grocery store for milk and water and quickly turned into breakfast, a train ride and a walk through another Christmas market on our way to see the Glockenspiel. We made it in time to watch the whole thing and then hopped on a train and bus to see the Chineseturm and walk through the Christmas market there. We found a marzipan filled baked apple with warm vanilla sauce as well as an angzebrote and enjoyed a beautifully sunny afternoon walk through Englischer Garten. 

We hit up a park and did some obstacle courses, a European favorite of the kids, on our way to watch the surfers at the eisbach. The surfers were all wearing head to toe dry suits and carried on as if it wasn’t 48 degrees outside!!  We jumped on a tram after a while and then rode a train over to Hofbrauhaus for lunch!  We barely found a table it was so packed, but eventually ordered lunch and enjoyed one more meal of German favorites, schweinehaxa, foulasch, laberkase and even some duck and of course dumplings. 

We walked over to the city center and pursued the Kaufhoff for some souvenirs and gifts before walking around the city some more looking at various things. We wound up at St Michael’s church and rested a minute before realizing we weren’t attending a choral concert, but am evensong service. We headed across the street to look at some traditional Bavarian dresses for the girls while Kyle took a work call. 

Our evening ended in Marienplatz amidst the Christkindlmarkt. We loved Our time here even though it was short lived. Honestly, though, I feel like we did everything we wanted and left nothing to be desired; another two months here isn’t necessary!  The kids are tired, I’m stressed and tired and Kyle is needing to get some work done.  Ulli is missing us and I’m sure there’s a driveway that needs tending to-Utah here we come!!!

Krampus Lauf!!

We’ve had some amazing tender mercies in the way of enjoying many of the things these cities have to offer, but today when we pulled into Salzburg after waiting an hour in traffic to happen to see a parade of Krampus-we were floored!!

We thought seeing a portion of the parade from our car was amazing enough, just to find a poster announcing the Krampus lauf was tonight 30 minutes after our arrival in Salzburg.  That was pretty insane, but then after waiting nearly 45 minutes (15 of which we spent trying to enjoy a talented group of drummers), Security parted the crowd and we had first row seats to the parade!!

We were so close to the action that all the kids and myself got encounters with the Krampus we will never forget!!  Mine involved a Krampus pulling my hood over my head and then having the sides of my hood rubbed vigorously!  Ava had a Krampus do almost the same exact thing to her while Norah and Ben were both juked by a Krampus and Jack was whipped on the backs of his legs by one!  Kyle watched it all and we couldn’t believe it was all happening!

Knowing we had spent too much time in Salzburg and that we needed to race back to the parking garage and head to Munich; we started running away from what we thought was the end of he parade only to find 3 more huge groups of Krampus walking towards us!  It was so intense to be running and have the Krampus lunge at us and try to scare us!!  What an experience!!

After hustling to the parking garage and talking about what had just happened, we drove to Munich and got settled in our last apartment of the trip. 

Oberndorf

Kyle discovered another waypoint for us to visit and break up our drive to Munich-The Silent Night Chapel!  Back in the 1800’s a famous song was performed the first time in this village. An assistant priest and the choir director/organist made history on Christmas Eve night in a tiny town outside Salzburg. We were able to drive in, find a ridiculous parking spot and then followed an entire tour bus to the tiny chapel.

At first the group of about 50 elderly folks seemed like the worst people to follow to a small chapel, but when they broke out in song and sand Silent Night in German-we were grateful to have made it here when we did.  We enjoyed some kinderpunsch and looked around the small square with the reconstructed  chapel; the old one had to be demolished after multiple floods. 

Gerti’s Gravsite

We cleaned up our apartment and packed our bags, then headed to the store for some water and then onto the parking garage. We left for Langenlois about 15 minutes later than we’d hoped, but made great time and were able to find the graveyard and gravesite with minimal searching. Kyle had a picture of the grave number on his phone, leaving no room for doubt. 

Gerti loved God, music and her family, so to honor her, our family sang God Be With You Till We Meet Again in German and Kyle said a dedicatory prayer in German. We placed the flower headband the girls made yesterday using the technique Gerti has taught them a few visits ago as well as bouquet and a fresh candle.  We were worried about the state of the grave, since Gerti’s burial in April, as she had been taking care of the grave by herself since 1994.  From the looks of the multiple candles and flower pots as well as a huge wreath, it seems as though Gerti has friends carrying on her legacy; which is not surprising considering how many friends she had. 

We picked up some laberkase and laberkase cordon bleu sandwiches on pretzel rolls from Spar and started for Salzburg. 

Magical Wein

The lights add so much magic to the beautiful Imperial city.  We walked to the Hofburg Palace and then through the National Library and Museums Quartier taking all the sights in as we went in spite of the bitter 31 degrees temp.  The windchill made it feel like 21 degrees and boy did we feel it while enjoying one more walk through the Rathaus Christmas Market.  We are leaving for Munich in the morning so we headed back to the apartment for one more night.

Day & Night

After a much needed bread at the apartment, headed back to city and then onto dinner at Kyle and my favorite restaurant for date nights in Vienna. At first we regretted bringing the kids along, but really liked getting so many dishes and trying everything!!  The spaetzle with bleu cheese sauce and pork medallions is always a favorite and this time we were able to try the goulasch, zwieblrostbraten, schweinebraten with semmelknodel and for appetizers some knoblau soup and Camembert.  Yum!!  Stephansdom and it’s new Christmas tree was beautiful to see one last time!

Opera House

We left Zanoni, made a stop at Manner and then walked through the city center. We needed to get a Bristoltorte for Sunday dinner-so Kyle headed there while we snapped a picture in front of the Opera House and met him back at the apartment for a break from the freezing cold, literally, weather. 

Zanoni!

A quick bus, tram, train ride, and walk later we were back at one of our favorite grocery stores picking up souvenirs and gifts. Next we went into the city center and headed for lunch. The kids picked their favorite place and before we went to Zanoni and Zanoni, Kyle and I went to our favorite fast German food place-Schactelwird. Kyle and I both ordered the schweinebraten mit Semmelknodel; mine was sans sauerkraut and it was so amazing the kids even ate it!!

We made our way to Zanoni and Zanoni and the kids all ordered their favorite crepes, Banana, Himbeer and Erdbeer. All four came with ice cream and schlagobers!  While the kids devoured their delights, Kyle and I came up with a game plan for tomorrow and enjoyed a slice of cake.

Central Friedhof

We got Ava up a little earlier today so as to have enough time for everything!  After breakfast we headed to the cemetery to do some upkeep on the Komenda gravesite as well relight the candle and adorn it with some Christmas boughs. It was a special time as being here always reminds us of family that has gone before and the special history of the Komenda lineage.

Can’t Get Enough

These guys have been troopers as we have drug them around three countries and dozens of Christmas Markets. There has been some complaining, but mostly just enjoyment with the constant request for various food items!  Our family has been so blessed to make this trip during Kyle’s busiest time of year and to have so many tender mercies throughout has made this past week and a half so special and memorable!!

Dessert Before Dinner

After some fun at the park, we headed back to the apartment to warm up and for Kyle to finish a work project. It was a little over an hour later when we decided to head to the biggest Christmas Market in the German speaking world for dinner!

The Rathaus or city hall market is amazing. The stalls are all individually decorated and the amount of lights was unmatched by any other on our trip!  We didn’t catch opening day or the tree lighting ceremony, but we did find dinner and dessert and plan to go back tomorrow to do some actual shoppinf.

I was being picky about my dinner and the kids had already found their dinner, sausages, and dessert, XXL Krapfen, before I found some food that spoke to me. The Kaselangos was almost exactly like a special quesadilla from El Centro with a European twist-Gouda cheese and a garlic butter spread on top of the fried dough!!  So dang good, I had to share and everyone agreed!!!

Karlskirche

We all slept great last night and even woke up late-8:30 was our earliest riser!  Breakfast and showers happened with some urging as well as some laundry and dish doing!  We finally made it out the door around noon and headed for our favorite lunch spots on our way to the city center!  Norah and Ben opted for some more laberkase from a Christmas Market we saw, while Jack and Ava enjoyed some fried shrimp from Nordsee!  

I held out and hit my favorite store’s hot foods section and ordered a cordon blue sandwich with a pretzel croissant topped with sunflower seeds-it hit all the right notes!  We made our way over to Stephansdom and walked around inside enjoying all the craftsmanship!  We needed to meet up with Kyle at the Karlskirche steps, so we headed to the U and actually beat him there!

The fountain in front of the church was filled with hay and turned into a petting zoo. We didn’t bother petting anything, but saw some fun piglets before cruising around the Christmas Market. Everything on display was handmade and had to be approved before it was allowed to be sold at this particular market.  The vibe of the market wasn’t traditional Christmas; making it less fun. The kids opted to go the park for freeze-tag (literally, it was 32 degrees) while Kyle and I walked the rest of the isles and found a beautiful stained glass star ornament as well as new glasses and pencil cases. 

Just Magical

The freezing cold weather takes a little away from the magical here, but all the wonder of the season and warm food and drinks have made our time at the Christmas Markets worth it!!  It has been 17 years since Kyle and I were in Europe at this time of year, a visit that introduced us to an amazing friend and relative, Tante Gerti.  This is the first visit we have ever made to Vienna without visiting our dear Gerti; we all love and miss her. 

Pretty As A Picture

Kyle has seen these photo opportunities on his way in and once I freshened all of our wind blown children, the pictures turned out fantastic!!  Hoping to use these on our Christmas card this year after a tiny bit of color correction!  The backdrop and faces couldn’t be more perfect though!!

Schönbrunn

We have never visited Vienna at this time of year; all the trees and flowers were nowhere to found making pictures kind of lame. Ben made a mad dash for the guard stand, though and I was happy to have a shot at a good picture of this beautiful palace!!  We had to rush meet up with Kyle since my phone wasn’t turned on and we stopped for a snack of laberkase and kasekrainerlangos that slowed us down.  We walked toward the Christmas market in the front of the palace as planned and were so glad to see Kyle walking towards us in the rose garden!!

That Just Happened

A late night made for a late morning!  The kids were happy to hang at the apartment since Ben brought the Minicube to Europe in his backpack!  Mario is their favorite right now!  Breakfast was tasty and then I headed to the zoo at Schönbrunn with the kids while Kyle tended to his work lunch.

We made it there with Ava’s expert reading of ubahn maps and even used the WiFi outside McDonalds to get in touch with Kyle so as to save us from having to turn on my phone today.  To say it was cold outside was a serious understatement, making the walk to the zoo from the train uncomfortable and made me seriously reconsider our choice of activities for the day!!

The kids seemed ok, so I ran with our plan and spent over 3 hours cruising around various outdoor exhibits interspersed with indoor ones. The highlights were watching the cheetah eat, seeing the Koala move for a second, the jellyfish in all their glory bumping into the walls of their tank, the polar bear pacing back and forth, accidentally attending the anteater feeding (a favorite of ours), looking up from the zoo map to see the lion staring at us out of nowhere, seeing the Giraffes inside drinking, the panda bear come outside and sit right in front of where we were standing, the giant butterflies emerging from their chrysalis, the bats attacking cockroaches and lastly the otters one of which was playing and carrying around a rock while swimming!!

All in all it was a completely mind blowing visit-so glad we decided to stick it out!!

Adventconzert

A quick clean up from dinner, Sunday lesson and some church videos later, the kids were in bed and Kyle and I snuck out to a concert at our favorite church in Vienna!  The Stephansdom is breathtaking outside and in and the opera singers and intimate orchestra performing music about our Savior made the evening even more magical!  We looked in wonder at the beautiful cathedral while German Christmas music was performed for an hour-such a memorable event!

Afterwards, we caught the train back to our apartment; I was feeling sick so we found a döner stand that sold us some Sprite and plain piece of bread-which helped immensely.  We walked over to the car and knowing it had to be moved from it’s parking spot, we started looking for a parking garage with overnight parking.  

The garage right next to our apartment had a full sign flashing, but for some reason we drove down into it anyways just to find a sign that said frei!!  We were elated to grab a spot amongst so many, right in front of the elevator and to ride said elevator to the top to find ourselves even closer to our apartment!!  This day could not have been more filled with tender mercies!!!

Right At Home

The drive from Prague to Vienna couldn’t have been easier!  Kyle maneuvered through Sunday traffic in Prague like a champ and then drove through the town the Komenda’s originally came from and added only 15 minutes to our trip.  Once in Austria Kyle subconsciously found a gas station and bought a sticker allowing us to drive in the country!  He is so seasoned!

Getting through Vienna was a breeze as well as locating our apartment, we even found a parking spot, unheard of on a Sunday, right outside the building; allowing easy retrieval of all our luggage. Just downstairs from our apartment is a Spar, giving us the heads up on the new Sunday hours!  In the past we would have had to go to the train station or airport to find a store we could buy food to cook!

Once we got a little settled we headed to the aforementioned store and bought some schnitzel, laberkase and spaetzle to prepare for dinner as well as a load of garlic bread; all favorites!!  Dinner was delicious, the kids were thrilled to be able to have some downtime at the apartment and I was beyond thrilled not to have eat another meal out!!  

Church Time!!

It took a lot of planning on Kyle’s part last night to figure out how to get us all the way here, but somehow we caught a street car after missing the first one and the kids even took a ride on the zip line at the park adjacent to the stop while we waited!  In spite of yesterday’s early morning, no one was up early today and we had to wake the troops around 8 to get ready in time to leave before 9-unheard of back home!  

The translators were perfect and there were even a few English speakers present at the meeting who bore their testimonies. We loved singing in Czech and were thoroughly pleased to get out of the meeting on time and make it to the street car on time with a little jog!!