Delirious

I know what you are probably thinking... she's got a 2 month old baby... of course she's delirious; and you are right, I'm usually a little nutty due to lack of sleep. But, this Delirious reference is for a much better reason. Our favorite Christian band Delirious is breaking up after this concert tour. James has been watching their website for any opportunity to see them near us. And while, Weisbadden (near Frankfurt), a 2.5 hour drive away from Luxembourg isn't exactly close, James insisted we attend this phenomenal opportunity. So, what did we do with the kids??? We have a wonderful couple friend who watched Anna and Sam along with their almost 2 yr old. I told Louise she was a little crazy for accepting this babysitting challenge. Especially because I dropped the kids off at 4pm and then we picked up the 2 sleepy heads at 12:30am.

Everything was wonderful that night. Temperatures even stayed above freezing so we didn't have to worry about ice on the roads which is a crazy concept for southern californians. Erin even bought a bratwurst and a concert T-shirt (which was her 2nd ever concert tee... the first being DC Talk when she was in Jr High :). The music was unbelievable, and they displayed most of their lyrics on screen, which made for a wonderful praise environment. Delirious rocks. Too bad they are calling it quits. If you can see them when they come to the states, do it! It was also fantastic to get out for a date (our 4th in the time we've been here in Luxembourg) and have some kiddie free time.

Well, now I'm off to nap. I've missed my opportunity to blog in November basically because I LOVE sleep and have a hard time giving up my chance to nap. I beg the online world's forgiveness for my sorry amounts of blogs; and wish everyone a Merry Christmas filled with Christ's Peace and a sleep-filled New Year!

Samuel Edward

Wow. What a month October has been! Sam was born on the 3rd of October at the hospital up the street (Maternite de Grand Duchesse Charlotte), exactly 48 hours after his cousin Zeke was born halfway around the world. Congratulations to mamma Janna and daddy Matt :)

Sam is pretty mellow kid, so this first 4 weeks has gone better than we had previously feared. Sam is sleeping a lot more now at nighttime, which makes his mommy very happy. Also, grammy Martha (or 'mingy') has arrived, and Anna has happily monopolized her time since the moment they met in the airport. Anna is adjusting well to having Sam around, and likes to hold him for brief periods and give him hugs and kisses. She is definitely acting out more of her 2 year old impulses recently, but we can't really attribute her favorite word being 'NO' to the birth of her little brother :)

Before Mingy arrived, James was the superstar daddy/husband who took several afternoons off work to help out and even... cooked a couple dinners!!!! I'm still in a bit of shock over that one, and I must admit they turned out better than I would have made them myself.

The photo of Sam was taken for his passport. He is registered at the US embassy, and now has full US citizenship. No Luxembourgish passport for him, as we don't meet the 5 year residency requirement.

Thanks for all the kinds emails and cards. The outpouring of love and gifts for this little one has been incredible. Thanks to one and all!

Autumn Day in Luxembourg

Last Saturday was a perfect autumn day here in Luxembourg. The day started with my marvelous husband taking Anna out for a walk through the field behind our house, so I could get some more sleep, yeah! After breakfast, we bundled up a bit and set off for France, to tour Chateau de Priesch. It took us approximately 20 minutes to get there (we told you the country of Lux was small). It was a nicely up kept more modern chateau with a moat that actually still had water in it all the way around the buildings. Sadly, there were no turrets to be found, and really it looks so much less 'castle-y' if there are no turrets... more like a big house on the rich side of town. So after a nice walk on the grounds of the castle, we came home for lunch and a nap for the girls.

Upon waking, we made our way to a fantastic apple orchard about 25 minutes from our house. They had a wheelbarrow for Anna to ride around on; which I'm sure are really meant for the more determined apple pickers who take away boxes & boxes of apples, but anyway, Anna loved the ride through the trees. We ate an apple right off of the tree and had Anna help pick. All in all, I think we ended up with about 20 very yummy crisp apples in our 'petit boite'. They also had a section of blackberries, and while we didn't take any home; wandering through the rows and having a sample or 5 made me think of my childhood in Northern California and the fall berry picking walks that my family would take. Hmmm, yummy fruit + nostalgia = fantastic experience. This afternoon was especially good for James, who had never been apple picking before, and enjoyed himself thoroughly. After exhausting ourselves in the orchard (ha, ha, with our pitiful loot of 20 apples), we settled into some apple fritters and fresh pressed apple juice. We enjoyed these with some other Americans we bumped into in the orchard. Another point that makes this day rank very highly in my book is that one of them called me 'petite' for being due to have a baby in 2 weeks. I laughed out loud--- I've never been called petite in my life!

After such a tiring afternoon, I decided to forgo cooking dinner and we got some take-away Thai food from a restaurant by the train station. The food was adequate and it was half as expensive as other restaurants we've tried, but still twice as expensive as LA Thai food--- we miss you Natalee Thai and Kabuki Sushi & Akbar too!

We're not Aggies

As a matter of fact, I don't even think I can spell Aggies. So, you can understand how a couple of city slickers like ourselves would mistake the field of wheat behind our house for weeds. Yep. We're that out of touch with agriculture.

Here's a photo of the field in Novemeber when we moved in:






Here's a photo of the field of 'weeds' this spring:









Here are some fun photos of the harvest & tractor (of utmost importance to Anna):








I'm sure the farmer thought the mom and little girl staring at him every time he was in the field was crazy; but we had never seen anything like it before. It was fun to see the whole process (though the fertilizer applied at the end wasn't my favorite).

London

Hello All! I hope the cool slide show is working above. Let me know if you can't see the photos please.

We had a very relaxing trip to London, as we summarized to some former Londoner Brits we had dinner with last night. It was not as fun as we first expected, since our friends who we were supposed to meet up with had to cancel. This meant no golf for James and more time than we thought we needed to explore the city.

We used this extra time to enjoy the wonderful parks in the city. St James park was a favorite, and Anna loved to play 'hiding' behind all the trees in it.

The Tower of London was our tourist attraction highlight. The crown jewels were amazing! There was a scepter with a diamond called the Cullinan I, also known as the Great Star of Africa, which has over 530 carats. It is the second largest cut diamond and WOW. We walked past it twice to appreciate it from all angles. I was also impressed by a beautiful 'crown of India' which was made and worn only once in India. Apparently, the crown jewels can't leave the island, so the King had one made just for his visit. After seeing these amazing jewels, James told me he never has to buy me jewelry again, as nothing can compare to what we saw there.

Another cool experience for me was attending an organ concert at Westminster Abbey. James & Anna stayed in the hotel to watch the end of the British Open (if you can't play golf, then watch right??) and I set off to enjoy by myself. It was wonderful (and free!!! a regular tourist entry is 12 pounds or $24 per person) and I got to hear a marvelous organist from the Netherlands perform for 30 minutes. I was obviously much more impressed than the older American man sitting beside me who was asleep before the concert even began! All attempts by his wife to wake him did not work, and so this provided for some comic relief as well.

We also throughly enjoyed Trafalgur Square and the free national Gallery. I saw a Monet painting I'd never seen before of Venice that I became quite taken with. We also saw a painting of George Washington in the portrait gallery that is the same image used on the dollar bill. Anyway, it was a cool American moment in England.

And now for my favorite part of vacations (you'll know what this is if you've read any of my other blogs) --- The FOOD! Our first full day in town, we started off very American, and ate a Cinnabon (I haven't even seen a cinnamon roll since last summer) which Anna loved and then proceeded to have lunch at TGI Fridays--- they had Coke with unlimited refills, pure madness for Europe! We ate ribs, spinach dip with tortilla chips, and Anna & I fought over who could drink an Oreo Shake faster (she won).

This American-fest calmed our subconscious need for comfort food and made us considerably happier than the so-so Indian food we had the night before. The wait staff at the Indian rester aunt was almost entertainingly bad. We watched 6 people leave the restaurant after sitting down due to their arrogance. Then, after we finished our meal, a waiter stood 6 inches from me with a new table cloth & settings practically shoving us out the door. It became much more funny the next day :)

But the best food was found in and near China Town. If you are in London ever, do go to the Imperial Palace for Chinese food--- Incredible. James and I think it may be the best Chinese food we've ever eaten and Anna wasn't complaining over her rice bowl either. We also had Thai, Vietnamese & Sushi; and were so grateful to eat good Asian food again! Yeah for happy tummies!

In the square just south of China town (where we happened on the European Batman Premiere & the batmobile one night) was an amazing homemade ice cream shop. We ate there daily, and learned NOT to give Anna her own spoon, as she is too good at using it for 'Big Bites' and gobbling up our sacred ice cream much too fast!

All in all, it was a good trip. Expensive ($2 = 1 pound, YIKES), but more fun than we thought would have. Now we are going to be staying much closer to home, so I will try to do some Luxembourg updates next.

Farwell Feet

We have entered the 3rd trimester with our baby boy (well, I have, and James still is supportive of my excessive grumbling). I knew the day would be coming when I wouldn't be able to see my feet anymore, but it is surprising when they actually disappear. One day you look down and all you see is belly going out, out, out. Oh, I see them pop out occasionally, but it's a sure sign I'm getting much bigger.

Here is a photo of me pregnant with Anna, beginning my 3rd trimester:










And here is one of me at the same point in the pregnancy with baby boy (much bigger):









Onwards to October 2nd; by which time he will hopefully have made his appearance.

Greece (sorry, it's a bit wordy)

Our Greece trip didn't exactly go as planned. It all started to go wrong on Friday afternoon after we boarded our turbo-prop flight to Munich... they asked us to get off the plane after sitting there for 15 minutes and canceled the flight. From Munich we were supposed to catch a flight to Athens, but this would not be possible now. So, James, Anna and I ran through the new Luxembourg airport trying to find people to help us and reschedule our plans. The best option according to LuxAir was to fly through Hiraklion to Athens. When she first said it though, both James & I thought she said we should fly through Iraq. Once we verified that the flight was through Greece, and the island of Crete specifically, we accepted the change of plans with our free lunch vouchers. Things went more smoothly until we arrived at Hiraklion airport at 10pm. Our supposed standby reservation for a flight to Athens that night had been canceled due to improper booking and our back-up flight the next day was also canceled. It took over an hour of wrangling with 4 different attendants and 3 supervisors before we were rebooked on the 7am flight the next morning. We received way to many, "you have no reservation" or "you aren't in our system" comments to make James or I very happy. Fortunately, Anna was a trooper and sat merrily in her stroller eating cookies and drinking milk the whole time. So, after confirming we are on the unbelievably early flight the next morning, we went off to wrangle with LuxAir, who was supposed to have arranged a hotel for us... hmmm... no hotel and another hour of discussion and phone calls later we finally get them to fix the problem and get us a room 30 minutes from the airport. Now, we are off on the scariest cab ride in my memory. I'm wracked with guilt over putting Anna in an adult seatbelt and the Greeks have made their 2 lane road into a 3 lane road... where all cab drivers and other crazy fast drivers drive in the middle and try to avoid the crazy people driving in the other direction, also in the middle of the road. So, 4 almost head on collisions later we arrive at a nice resort, were we sleep for 5.5 hours before repeating the drive of the crazy people back to the airport. Needless to say, Greece has been added to my list of countries I never want to drive in.

So, after a relatively uneventful flight, we arrive in Athens and take the metro to our hotel Acropolis, which was actually quite close to the Acropolis itself. Though exhausted, we decided to forgo a morning nap and go sightseeing. We headed to the Acropolis first and it was an amazing sight. So many cool old buildings on top of the hill. We enjoyed ourselves, though it was VERY HOT. I don't think Anna had been in heat like that since the summer she was born. We learned that she inherited my less than attractive "tomato face" trait, where her face goes beet red in extreme heat. So, after our ramblings on the Acropolis and subjecting ourselves to heat stroke we headed back to the hotel were we all collapsed into sleep. The afternoon's highlight was seeing the hill called the Aeropagus where Paul addressed the Athenians (Acts 17:16-34).

The next day we woke up early (sense a trend here?) and caught the 8 hour ferry to Santorini. We bought cheap seat tickets, which means that we fought with all the other cheap ticket holders for a table and chairs on the deck. We were glad for clear skies, and Anna was glad for the many stairs and the helicopter pad that she spent ours playing on. We wanted to take the ferry to see some of the other islands, and most looked very similar to the next. When we finally arrived at Santorini, we could easily see why it is called the most beautiful visually; the dramatic cliffs of the volcano caldera and the white and blue villages were a feast for our eyes.

We relaxed the next day, as we were all exhausted. The pool was a big hit with Anna, though it was very deep, so mommy and daddy had their work-outs treading water with her. She developed a very cute wiggle to travel with her life-jacket swimsuit on, not quite doggie paddling, and definitely silly. We also tried the famous Santorini wine (well, their white wine is some what famous) and picked up a couple bottles to bring home so I can try more than a sip once the baby is born :)

On Tuesday we took the very inefficient buses to the other side of the island where the beaches are more Anna friendly. We ended up at Parivolos beach and rented an umbrella and chairs. Once we got into the water, Anna screamed then whimpered for 30 minutes while clutching onto me. Not a fan of the ocean & waves, would be an understatement.

In the middle of Tuesday night, the second major blow was dealt to our vacation when James woke up with a fever. The next morning, he was barely able to walk around the hotel due to what felt like muscle exhaustion... excellent vacation fun. So, Anna and I wandered around the village of Oia, played in the small park, and Anna showed off her genetic shopping skills of going into every store and trying to touch all the pretty things (we blame Grandma Trish & Auntie Janna's genes for this). We also enjoyed our dips in the pool twice a day, until we left on Friday morning to catch the first our our 3 flights back home to Luxembourg. By Friday James' condition had worsened and spread to his upper body--- what a fun way to travel?!? Thankfully we got back to Luxembourg without any hitches we encountered on our outbound trip. The next evening we went to the emergency room for James where we has diagnosed with an unidentifiable virus and told to stay home from work for a week.

All in all, this was not the trip of a lifetime, especially for James. I think Anna would give it good marks though, as there was plenty of ice-cream and pool time. If you ever go to Santorini, we highly recommend our hotel, the Oia Sunset.

Photos


A link to our Greece photos is above

In Brugge

We had a wonderful weekend. Actually, we probably rated the trip more in the "good" category. Of the cities in Europe with canals that we have visited, Brugge is #2 behind Venice, which we LOVE, and high above Amsterdam, which we didn't much care for. It was a quaint city with some very OLD houses (built in 15 or 1600's) and lots of churches--- almost all of which were locked. This is the first place we have come across in Europe that didn't have carte blanche entrance into the churches. The one we did get into see, on the 3rd attempt, the stained glass was amazing... how do they do all that fine detail??? and the colors were unique and striking... a panel of brown and blue was particularly impressive. See our photo site for an example. We all enjoyed the canal boat tour, particularly Anna, who love love loves water, birds, going through tunnels, boats and every other aspect of the trip. However, after completing our boat tour and wandering through the city on Friday evening, we didn't have much left to do on Saturday. We weren't bored exactly, but it is a small town. We persevered and went off to explore some old windmills and arrived back into the old town in time for the morning market for lunch.

In typical Erin style, which has rubbed off on James after 9+ years of marriage, if the food is good, it colors the whole experience in a more positive light. Things looked much better after we gnawed on some delicious chicken legs and ribs on a park bench. Amazing how 2 big and one little person can eat 11 euros worth of meat so quickly! Also, the yummy ice cream treat that afternoon added to our feelings of happiness.

Anna's loves pools and thankfully, I pulled a last minute switch to a cheaper hotel that had an indoor pool. The hotel karos was not the poshest place, but the pool was clean and heated, so we enjoyed ourselves throughly there when we ran out of touristy things to do in town.

All in all, it was a good trip, though we did catch an earlier train on Sunday, arriving home just in time for Anna's (everyone's) afternoon nap.

It's a BOY

Well, that's what two different doctors said anyway. On Friday's ultrasound, I could actually see the anatomy they were talking about, so I think it's a definite now :)

We feel blessed to have happened on a moving sale just after we found out, where we picked up 5 diaper boxes full of baby boy clothing for a steal. God is good.

I'm having an okay pregnancy, definitely not feeling as good as when I was pregnant with Anna, but maybe that's because I chase Anna around all day now. Anna is still a bit confused about the whole concept. She says hello to the baby in my belly and gives him kisses, but last night she also pointed to James' belly, said 'baby' and kissed his belly! So sweet.

Wow. What a month.

Well, from Luxembourg to Paris, back to Luxembourg and onto Ireland and Scotland-- All in one month!!!



These trips were fabulous. Anna and I spent 5 nights in Paris with my parents during their visit (James joined us for a weekend of fun). It was great to be able to share all the amazing things that I love about the city with my parents. Before going I was a little nervous about how having our wonderful little toddler along would affect the touristy fun, but I needn't have worried too much, Anna Joy is an amazing traveler. We simply went out for a morning of fun and returned to the awesome apartment for a nap (yes, everyone napped). Highlights of the trip were the Musee L'Orangerie with Monet's wrap around waterlilies, seeing the beautiful gardens of Paris, eating the amazing 'glace' (ice-cream), going to Giverny where Monet lived, and topping it off with a fancy French meal. We returned home to Luxembourg, exhausted but happy.

Though I was sad to say good-bye to my parents 2 short days later, we moved quickly onto a massive laundry pile and packing for our 10 day trip to Ireland and Scotland a few days later. Another amazing trip was in store for us here. The most important part of this trip was the fact that James enjoyed the golf and shot great scores (see our picasa photo site for tons of photos and you can make his day by emailing him requesting a hole by hole description of each of the 4 courses he played).



OK, now that that PSA is out of the way--- What a great trip! James stood up admirably to the challenge of driving on the left side of the road, even in a massively oversized SUV in Ireland and then a sleek Mercedes in Scotland. The scenery was amazing, so lush and the gorse (thorny bushes) all over the countryside was flowering a beautiful yellow. James and I began talking about a return trip to Ireland before we had even left the Isles. Highlights: Cliffs of Moher in Ireland and the West coast was truly a breath-takingly raw beauty; staying at the Westin in Turnberry Scotland and being pampered beyond anything we had previously experienced (and may ever experience again at those prices); and all the castles and ruins of castles along the countryside were just plain cool. Anna's favorite parts were probably the pool at the Westin, seeing 'ba-ba's' (sheep) as we drove around, and seeing the airplanes.

The only bummer about the trip was the abysmal exchange rate for dollar to pounds (also for dollar to Euro, but we live with that every day!). We feel blessed to have seen and done as much as we did! I think Anna was happy to get back home and be done with car rides that lasted several hours :)

Quick Post

Hello All!

A quick note to say that you should check out our photo site for our Paris pictures (http://picasaweb.google.com/erin.melcher/Paris). My folks left yesterday morning and now we are in a flurry of laundry and packing for our trip to Ireland and Scotland tomorrow.

Will write more upon our return!

DIJON

Mmmm... mustard is yummy.

We had a good trip to Dijon over Easter weekend. It was fun to see the French countryside dotted with little villages, each with it's own church steeple peeking out of the top. The weather was a bit wild. We had rain, hail, slush, snow and sun. Anna didn't sleep well, so we spent early Saturday morning wandering around the medieval parts of town while the weather created a snow-globe around us. This was fun until I realized my winter boots were no longer water proofed :(

We bought mustard (I liked the Parmesan/basil while James favored the 'Ancienne' version) and visited museums & churches. The big news of the trip was that James broke his 5 month streak of non-golfing. Note the weather referenced above, and you will begin to appreciate how much of a die-hard golfer he is. Also, the fact that we collapsed into bed with a fever at 8pm after his round, shows the insanity that this sport breeds... but that is another subject. Suffice to say his score was not great, but he was happy to have golfed.

Sunday morning after a leisurely brunch, we drove the 'route de grand cru'; which is a road through little villages south of Dijon through vineyards. We tasted the wine (not big fans) in a fantastic cave, that actually was a real cave in the basement. Then we drove back to Luxembourg while listening to 4 downloaded sermons from Bel Air Pres. Not your typical Easter, but it was fun.

I'm a slacker

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. Believe it or not, things just haven't been that interesting around here :)

This afternoon, however, we are heading to Dijon for the weekend [that's in France people]. We are hoping to enjoy some 'mustarde', see the old city and James is planning to end his golf drought for more than 5 months (shocking, I know). The only slight snag in our plans is the weather forecast or 'la meteo' looks like Heavy Rain for Saturday (and James' golf round) and 3 degrees C is the high. Brrrr... should make walking around fun! Anna Joy is NOT a big fan of cold and wind either. Oh, the challenge of travel.

Seriously though, we are looking forward to the break and the fact that James won't be working the weekend. Yeah! I'll give an update next week on our trip.

HAPPY EASTER. HE IS RISEN!!!!

Anna's my joy

Since it's busy season for James, we're not planning to travel until Easter weekend. So, what to write about??? Anna Joy is the first topic that comes to mind.

She's such a fun 19 month old; who is the size & weight of a 2.5 year old. She loves bubbles, animals (the 'neigh-neigh' is a current fav), chocolate, babies (any child under 7) and her Da-Da. One of her friends is named Emily, but Anna calls her Eh-mine, and asks for her at least once a day.

One of her most cherished books is a children's book of prayers, called the 'baby book' after the kids on the cover. Her favorite prayer is the Lord's prayer, and she really likes the word 'debts'. After most prayers she says Amen unprompted.

Her vocabulary is huge (or maybe I'm only saying that since I'm her mom). New words in the past few weeks are: smoosh (for when her yogurt cup collapses), IS (she likes to repeat it when she hears it), rayon (crayons) and Amen. There are more, but my mommy brain won't let me recall them.

Her favorite numbers are 2 & 8, and she loves to draw with her crayons (thank you Smiley's for that present!). She loves the park and has just learned about shovels in the sand-box.

She's extremely shy in new situations, but once she's comfortable, she won't stop talking! She still uses her adorable Anna-baby language, that James and I will be so sad to see go someday.

So, that's my Anna report. It's not complete, but it should give you a glimpse of how much she's grown since October!

She's up from her nap, not doubt she'll tell me that she's "All Done!"

~One Proud Mama~

Stuttgart Report

We survived the 5 hour trip to Stuttgart and the 4 hour return trip (I sped up on the return a bit). I can now, honestly say that I'm not afraid to drive our car anymore. Do I love driving a stick shift? No, I don't think I'll ever be one of those people. However, the Autobahn has made me a more confident driver.

My favorite driving moment, was on the way to Stuttgart, after Anna's bed-time on Friday night, Anna was very cranky and needed to be entertained. So, James & I struck up a chorus of Old MacDonald had a Farm, where one person said the animal and the other had to do the noises. We had just run through all the normal animals 'pig', 'cow', etc. and the choices were becoming increasingly bizarre. James chose something like "emu" for me to sing, and at the same moment I was cut off by a semi going up hill. Needless to say, the song feel apart, as I frantically down-shifted and cut over to the fast lane. James was dying laughing singing the song and watching my circuits reach overload very quickly and finally ask, "WHAT animal am I supposed to be?" And really, who knows what an emu says?

Stuttgart was good. We stayed at Le Meridien, the nicest hotel in town, booked at 50% off on their website. I throughly enjoyed the big bathroom and loved the big room. The indoor swimming pool was enjoyed by all! The reason we chose Stuttgart, was a work associate of James' is from there and had encouraged James to go to a football (= soccer in America) match. Unfortunately, she had to work, so James ended up going to the match by himself :(

While we were there, we enjoyed the beautiful park, old & new churches combined (restored after WWII bombing), the Mercedes Benz museum, the Art Museum and the biggest zoo & botanical gardens in Europe. Whew... we were busy in the 1.5 days we were there. We put some photos up on the website, under the winter folder.

Also, James found a new love at McDonald's, which we have eaten only as travel food. A Big Rosti... a horrendous looking combination of burger, hash brown patty, bacon, onions and a white sauce. I took his word for it that it was fantastic.

One more comment on the Autobahn... there are speed limits on most of it, and all of the sections we drove on. I did feel pretty speedy on Sunday when I got up to 160... km/hr which was 30 km/hr over the speed limit. On accident though, really! You do have to be careful of the multitude of speed racers that care nothing about the speed limits though. I stayed in the right lane and let them fly by us as much as possible!

Thanks for your prayers.

Salzburg Trip

Okay, this is old news really. But, since I promised myself I'd blog on all our adventuring here in Europe....

We went to Salzburg, Austria the day after Christmas with James' mom. It was a great trip. We took a sleigh ride in the Alps (awesome!). One of my favorite moments was either Anna snoring on her grandma in the sleigh or her looking at the next sleigh's horses and saying 'neigh, neigh' repeatedly. Also, James & I also had an Anna-free day where we skied in Flauchau, site of the Winter Olympics in 2014. We have never experienced such LONG ski runs. Our final run of the day was from the top of the mountain to the bottom and it took about 25 minutes. By the way, Anna and grandma had a great time running around the hotel :)

The actual town of Salzburg was quite charming. The Christmas decorations made the old streets look even better and there were several old churches to explore. Even the Salzburg museum was a fun experience. We all agreed the layout of the museum was the most interesting and inviting that we'd seen. Also on the plus side, we were able to find good food for way less than we'd spend in Luxembourg. In Lux, we expect to spend about 30 Euro a person on dinner with leads to a bill of $90 for 2! And that's just for an average meal... nothing special. Needless to say, we don't eat out as much as we used to. But, I digress.

The only bummer about the trip were the long travel days. Thankfully we took the train, so Anna could move around. But, traveling 10 or 11 hours with a 18 month old isn't very fun no matter how you slice it. Thankfully, James' Mom wanted to take the lead in Anna's care... and we didn't want to stop her!

And tonight we take our 4 hour drive to Stuttgart. Thanks to your prayers and my increased practice time, I now have faith that we can make it there in one piece. We're planning on going to the Mercedes Benz museum, and zoo in addition to James' football match. I hope to be more timely in my trip review for Stuttgart :)

Stick Shift Shimmy & Shake

Well, after almost 3 months of being "bus-people," we now have a car. I love having a car for one reason... grocery shopping. Picking up Anna (30 lbs) in her stroller with 2 or 3 heavy bags of groceries and getting her on and off the bus was my least favorite activity in Luxembourg. Actually, grocery shopping while it was raining, that was the very worst. Aside from that, the buses here are really quite excellent. Clean, modern and there are many convenient stops for all our needs.

But now, we have a beautiful carriage in blue (Renault Megane) with a manual transmission. Hmmmm. Manual transmission. Let me take you back to my high school days, when my friend Christina tried to teach me how to drive her stick shift car. After several failed attempts in the hill lesson, I got out of the car and threw the keys across the street. I said I would never drive a stick again and this was stupid (or something like that). Well, Christina... it wasn't stupid. ME, I was stupid. Oh well.

So, now I have been a slowly moving traffic blockade in the west part of the city. I have gotten much, much better. The night we brought the car home, I stalled and lurched so much that poor Anna was crying in the backseat "All done, All done!!!" I know all of you that can drive a stick are smirking right now and thinking 'just get the right timing/balance and you'll be fine.' I'm sure I will eventually be fine, but my lack of coordination will probably make my learning period much longer than most.

If you have a moment, please pray for our protection in our little blue Renault. We're driving 3 hours to Stuttgart, Germany next weekend for a holiday and so James can go to a football match. Insanity.

By the way, James is pretty good at driving a manual, for never really doing it before; but since I have more time to practice, I'm our designated driver for now--- Ahhh!

May we drive with angels on our wings!

Brussels or Bruxelles visit

We took a road trip to Brussels the weekend before Christmas with James' mom. It did not start off well.

The 2.5 hour drive to Brussels was fine, but once we got to the city, our driving directions were lacking the specificity we needed to accurately find our hotel. When you reach a dead end and it says to 'continue on' the new road--- what exactly does that mean--- left or right??? We tried left 4 times before we realized it meant right. It took us over an hour to navigate these cryptic instructions. So... nerves frazzled... we arrived at the hotel Bedford, which was nice and very close to the Grand Place and Christmas Market. Anna and I fell exhausted into an afternoon nap (driving under high stress for that long makes you tired!) and James and his mom set off to explore the city Trish remembered from her trip there as a 16 year old.

So, that afternoon and evening we all explored the Grand Place which had lighting with synchronized music on our night there. The interesting closing number of the show was Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody... not quite the usual Christmas finale, but good with flashes of color and lights. The Grand Place is a large square with amazing old buildings. I think it was the most interesting part of the city.

Also, we also took in the full Christmas market, which was quite large, but also very crowded, as it was the Saturday evening before Christmas. As an aside, all major European cities hold Christmas Markets in December. They sell food, drink, and items that you can give as Christmas presents. The decorations and fun of the markets are a wonderful thing to experience. James hit all the major food vendors: beignets (soft and chewy, fried dough-nut type balls covered in powdered sugar); frites (french fries) with a spicy sauce; roasted chestnuts (which taste terrible!!! yuck. really. a horrible taste that linger in your mouth for a long period of time. awful.); vin chaud (hot mulled wine, we had lots of this!) and Belgian waffles (wow are these really good! a hot waffle covered in sugar that carmalizes on the top covered in thick whipped cream & strawberries or chocolate. totally worth the 2000+ calories that I'm sure are lurking inside). Also, at dinner we discovered raspberry Belgian beer... so good. We did do some non-culinary shopping at the market as well. We got some beautiful ornaments and Anna got a Santa hat from Grandma with pigtails included.

On Sunday morning, we took a walk to see more of the city. Nothing special to report. It was winter so the parks weren't pretty. All in all we were glad we visited in December, since the market made it a special memory for us!

Apologies

Sorry all, that it's been so long since my last Blog posting. The Christmas holidays, a visit from my mother-in-law ("ma belle-mere" in French, literally translates as my beautiful mother), 2 trips out of the country and being completely addicted to reading Harry Potter books has slightly distracted me.

Christmas was great. There was snow on the field behind our place-- truly a white Christmas! Anna opened presents ALL DAY LONG. Amazing what her 'monga' (that's how Anna says Grandma) could fit into her two suitcases!

We were very blessed to have James' mom here for Christmas, as it somewhat lessened our sadness for not being with the rest of our family. We did see the rest of the family on Christmas eve and Christmas--- Skype is an amazing, free video website. This is a photo of our Christmas Skype with the California Melcher-Anderson crew.

Hmmm... still have to report on our trips to Brussels (Bruxelles) and Salzburg over the holidays, but Anna's nap is over, so I'll do that later.

Happy New Year.