Morning, Noon, and Night

Blog Post About December 2021

The day after the fancy holiday party at the hotel, Keira and Karis performed at another fancy hotel.

This time, there wasn't a big party, but one of the ballrooms was set up where vendors could come to advertise and sell their wares.

Keira performed with her ballet group, and Karis and Keira's teacher (below) performed a duet.

Karis and Keira's teacher performed a duet. 

I've never embedded a video before, so I don't know if this will work.

That afternoon, we returned to the hotel again for Keira to perform a gymnastics routine.

This picture makes me laugh because Keira is the only one with her legs crossed.

December 10, 2021 

A Christmas, A Birthday, and a Holiday Party

Blog Post About December 2021

Yes, this is what my friends here like to do.

They love to take pictures with different filters. 

I usually don't post things like this, but it keeps their anonymity and provides a little fun for you.

At the beginning of December, knowing things were going to be busy for the month, we decided to get together for breakfast. We met at my friend's house who doesn't believe in the truths of Christmas, but she loves to decorate for all holidays.

December 8,  2021

It's good that we took that day to be together, because even though I have seen one of the friends several times since then, my other friend has a fear of Omicron, her mother came to visit, and she has been busy with other things, so we still have yet to meet face to face again.

The next day, I was invited by Doug to join a birthday celebration at the language school that Doug oversees. I was a little late, and Doug called to tell me that 25+ people were all waiting on me to start (maybe because I'm the boss' wife)!  

I begged him to tell them to start, and thankfully they did.

The food was amazing, as you can see, but the best part of this story is that the gentleman who was throwing this party for himself, gave the bill to his boss, another American in the building. 

He had done it the year before as well.

I don't know why I get such a kick out of that story, but it really makes me smile.

December 9, 2021

That night, Karis, Keira, and I went to a local, fancy hotel to see some of Keira's friends sing in a Christmas performance.

I visited with many people and had such a good time, but I was in awe of the trays of wine, smoothies, hot cider, appetizers, and other array of things that came out of the kitchen continually that night. 

I had never seen certain items served like this in this country, and it caught me off-guard. 

It made me aware that there is another whole side of this city I have never seen.

Santa and his elves also made an appearance and gave every child in the hotel lobby a gift. 

It shows you how much of the world's culture has crept in here, because the reasons we celebrate Christmas are almost certainly foreign to them.

December 9, 2021 

A Mad Race to the Finish Line

Blog Post About June 2021

The girls and I planned our departure to the States after all the end-of-the-year dance performances; however, things kept being added that we weren't ready for.

Keira had two ballet performances at a local hotel arts and crafts fair. 

Karis also performed a solo.

June 18, 2021

The next morning (Saturday), I had a "goodbye" breakfast with two friends at one of their homes.

June 19, 2021

After breakfast, Doug and I had to rush Keira to another local hotel where the gymnastics class was invited to perform at a Kindergarten graduation??

This is one of those events we didn't plan for.

June 19, 2021

Then that Saturday afternoon, there was a "garden show" at the dance studio for the parents to attend. It was outside and smaller because of covid.

The girls repeated their performances from the day before and Keira added gymnastics.

June 19, 2021

When the show ended, Karis had to leave, and as Keira and I were getting ready to call a taxi, my friend who lives RIGHT ACROSS THE FENCE from the dance studio, called me and Keira over.

Her daughter was having a 16th birthday party in her garden with a few friends, and she wanted us to come.

It was a beautiful night! The teenagers gladly let Keira hang out with them, and I visited with the mom and aunt of the birthday girl, helped bring out the food, and became the official photographer of the group. After the food was set out, they spent FORTY-FIVE minutes taking pictures of the food and each other before we ate :)

We had a lot of fun, and I'm so glad this impromptu invite happened.

June 19, 2021

The next day (Sunday) at the same hotel as the kindergarten graduation, there was now another arts and crafts show where our girls performed (which we had not planned for either).

June 19, 2021

After the performances, we went home, showered, finished packing, left for the airport around midnight,  and flew out at 1:55 in the morning.

Keira didn't get to finish her last two weeks of school, but this is a picture of her 3rd grade class.

Whew!  Now on to America!

We're Leaving on a Jet Plane

Blog Post About January 2021

The morning we were leaving, we got up early to get PCR tests. Everyone was a real trooper except me. One of my children has a video of it, but of course, I will spare you, and it will remain hidden.

Several friends came to pray over us and say goodbye as we were loading the car. For the things that wouldn't fit (see one of the items in this post), a sweet friend mailed them to us.

We made it to the airport with zero positive Covid tests and said our last goodbye to Kylie from the same. time zone.

Keira always has some crazy "arrival eyes."

And when I finally had access to my texts again, we had a sweet text from Kylie ;)

After arriving, we settled in a hotel and Doug got our car from a friend who had been taking care of it. 

After getting some sleep, Doug ran some much-needed errands. 

One of those errands was scheduling for the "generator man" to come and hook our house up to the neighborhood generator.

We went to see the house we had rented 7 months early. It was Keira's first time to see it and mine and Karis' second.

The man that kept our car had some guys clean the house for us before we got there, but unfortunately, they didn't do the most thorough job.

While Doug was unlocking the door for us to go inside, I saw this plug in the outside porch area.

Guess we aren't supposed to use it :)

Thankfully, city power was on, so we had lights. 

You can see where we ran our fingers over the wall in all of the dust the cleaners had left behind.

The "generator man" was late. We waited for TWO hours (cleaning in the meantime), but he never came.

January 14, 2021

The next day, Doug graciously hired the cleaners we've had for our other houses, and they did a fan-tab-u-lous job!

They bring about 12 guys and clean from the roof all the way out the front door.

Yes, they literally mop their way out to the street!!

January 15, 2021

Some dear friends of ours invited us to live with them until we could actually get in our house. The hotel was expensive, so we took them up on their offer. Karis went to live with two single girls, and the other 4 of us moved in with our friends.

This is our luggage as we are leaving the hotel.

Two days later, Doug and I went to a "cabinet" store to order our cabinets. You knew that most houses come without cabinets, right?

Doug had already met the man on a previous day at the house to take measurements.

This is what our cabinets looked like on the man's computer when we finished.

Is this what we got?  No

Did we get them within a month?  No

The saga continues...

An Unplanned Getaway

My last post came out May 2020.  

Life happened.

Hopefully, since there wasn't much to report for most of 2020, I can get caught up again soon, but who knows. The trick is making the time to sit and do it.

For now, instead of starting current, I'm going to back up to December 2019 where I left off before the world went crazy. It's funny to look at all of these pictures where so many were gathered before we had to social distance.

We had a meeting in late November with our friends talking about Kylie's last Christmas at home, our friends' son turning 16, and the fact that it was time for a break, and we decided to quickly plan a Christmas getaway to celebrate all of it. None of us had ever been to a Christmas market in Europe, but we had heard great things about them, so we decided we would give it a try. (In hindsight, I'm so glad we went because lockdown was coming in a few months)

My sister has told me in the past how much she loves Prague, and we decided it would be a great city to explore.

We had REALLY early flights, and unbeknownst to us, Karis took photos of our exhaustion during our layover.

We arrived late in the afternoon, and right outside our Airbnb's window was a magnificent tree and one of many markets in the city.

Our window.

Keira taking it all in from the window seat while we rested from travel and got settled in.

Later, we went out to experience a little Christmas spirit and find something to eat. We found all sorts of food that didn't disappoint.  You just can't find this sort of thing where we live :)

Boys

This is the Czech Republic version of St. Nicholas. He was posing with people in the town square.

(Caleb thinks this could be Professor Trelawny with Dumbledore ;)

December 6, 2019

What a fun first evening. We planned for an early morning so we wouldn't miss a thing.