Save the Last Dance for Me

Little did we know that last Christmas, our girls would be having their last semester-end dance presentation.  

They did one performance Friday night and another one Saturday morning, and then two and a half months later, their dance teacher moved out of the country right before lockdown.

The funny thing about this first picture is that this is on the way to the Friday performance after a long day of school.  Keira hadn't even performed yet!

She woke up when we got to the studio, and she made a lovely "Snowflake."

Kylie and Karis handed out their end-of-the-semester certificates to both of their classes after their girls performed for the parents.

Keira also finished gymnastics for the semester.

Two nights later, the older girls performed their last class.

This was Kylie's last performance.  

The production of "Peter Pan" that the entire dance studio was working on for May was cancelled...

as so many things were.

 

Last Days in the Land of Christmas Markets

On our last full day, the older kids and I woke early to go see the sunrise from Charles Bridge. Doug volunteered to stay behind with Keira while she slept.

Depending on the lighting, the bridge can look like an historic backdrop, or

a creepy setting for a movie.

Funny enough, these three attend an online school whose "thing" it is that when you see/meet another student from that school, you are supposed to touch elbows, take a picture, and send it in to the school.  I never sent this in to the school, but it is so funny looking at it now, because it no longer looks like a Northstar Academy picture, it looks like a social distancing picture during Covid, even though it was taken three months before lockdown.

After Keira got up, I took her and Caleb ice skating while Doug took the older girls off to explore more places in the city.

Caleb was a patient teacher.

Later that evening, I took Caleb, Keira and another friend with us to the Gallery of Steel Figures. There were tons of sculptures inspired by movies, cartoons, history, and legends, and they were all made with recycled metal parts.

She really does love him.

While the Emperor was battling with Darth Vader, Doug and the girls were out having a good time in the city.

And then we all met up for brick oven pizza for dinner.  We were so hungry!

The next morning, we all walked through one of the markets to catch a bus to the airport.  

Vacay over, but SO many memories made!

 

New Wonderings

We awoke early before the town started moving.

 

We tried a new place for breakfast that Doug discovered that served melted chocolate in a cup!  It was so rich and amazing

Then we headed over to a Christmas market that Doug, Kylie, and Karis found the day before. 

It was set up in front of the cathedral that's pictured below. We went inside the church and found all the walls and columns painted BY HAND in intricate design!

And we decided to take one to be like others we have seen in some of the places we have lived.

My first ever successful picture with all 6 of us.

So, we did it again.

Czech National Museum behind us and Wenceslas Square in front of us.

These Christmas decorations reminded me of my hometown in Texas. I could see some creative person there designing these for their front yard.

Our Airbnb was near the famous Prague Astronomical Clock, so we stopped and took pictures when there weren't crowds around it (which was hardly ever).

Cold nights wondering around the markets never seemed to get old.