2009 CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRIA

Stephansplatz at night


INNSBRUCK TRIP

The angel statue that we caught smoking
(not exactly my picture of an angel!)

A German Santa complete with organ

Beautiful decorations

GATHERINGS IN OUR HOME

Greg reading Christmas book to the kids

Greg's German class (UK, Italy, and India represented)

What would the holidays be without cookie making?

We were honored to have Greg's parents for a week

Well here it is, almost Christmas. After so much anticipation I can't believe it's almost here. We have loved being able to leisurely stroll down the streets of the various markets in Vienna (also Salzburg and Innsbrück), buy Christmas gifts, and have hot punsch (pron. poonch) and tasty treats. The Christmas Markets are coming to an end and families and friends are preparing for their time together. Everything shuts down tomorrow (Christmas eve) at noon and re-opens Tuesday, December 29th. That's right, no day after Christmas sales! So, four days of no shopping (including groceries.) Actually, I'm looking forward to not have to be out there with the mobs.

20 NM expats in our home making tamales

In the last few days I have made numerous trips on ubahn, strassenbaum, and bus to the commissary and stores with my trusty little pull cart. This evening as I walked home I decided to pick up some pine greenery. I guess I've turned into quite the bag lady!

Tomorrow is Greg's birthday (he will finally be as old as me!) and I am planning to take him to lunch at an Indian restaurant. We will have several families over tomorrow evening for a little celebration and some Posole (a NM tradition.) We are planning to sing Christmas carols in our park for whoever would like to listen.

Christmas Day we will go to a friend's home for brunch and then on to have dinner with another family. It's good to stay busy on Christmas so as not to have too much time to think about missing family and friends in the US and Canada.

CHRISTMAS MARKTS 2009
Karlskirche

People from church

Rathaus

Schönbrunn

Spittelberg

Wishing all of you a blessed Christmas!

MORE INNSBRUCK PICTURES

These were lit up at night and were gorgeous.

Love these "wonky looking" apartments

The Alps are only 7000 ft.
We actually lived at higher altitude in Los Alamos.

NM TAMALE MAKING PARTY

We hosted the first annual tamale making party with about fifteen NM expats this afternoon. With the expertise of Heather who grew up making tamales every Christmas with her family, we were able to crank out about eight dozen. We have never made tamales and discovered it is no trivial task.

Heather had the masa and corn husks shipped and everyone made the red chile to fill them. We had a meal together of pinto beans (brought over in our shipments), chile, and all the trimmings.

Oh, and the tamales were excellent!

WEEKEND TRIP TO INNSBRUCK, AUSTRIA

Six of us spent Friday night and Saturday in Innsbruck
following a five hour train ride. The time went by quickly
as we did not seem to lack for things to talk about or
activities to pass the time.

The bridge over the River Inn (Innsbruck)

View from atop the Rathaus Clock Tower after climbing
many stairs in through a narrow, winding staircase.

2009 THANKSGIVING DINNER IN VIENNA

Not sure how more than two weeks could have gone by since my last post. It has been a rather hectic few weeks. Greg had a week-long business trip to Sweden, then we met in Rothenberg, Germany for a Euro-American retreat. Following a six hour train ride home we hit the ground running preparing for an American Thanksgiving on Sunday.

It's not so easy to gather all the food here. Then there's the problem of where to put it. A good portion of the cold items were stored for a few days on our balcony. Thankfully the weather was cool enough to provide adequate refrigeration.

After several trips (on foot and by public transportation) to the commissary and grocery stores with my shopping cart on wheels I was able to find most everything necessary for our Thanksgiving dinner. Fortunately, I wasn't responsible for the entire meal since everyone brought yummy dishes.

The next feat was to cook the dinner in the one rack oven. During church (we had our home church at our place) I had to keep a timer with me to put in three pans of rolls one at a time for 30 minutes each in order to free up the oven to heat other food. The turkey had to be cooked on Saturday evening. After church more people arrived for our afternoon feast. We had a grand total of 26 present (17 adults, 7 kids 11 and under, and two babies.) A young Austrian couple present experienced their first Thanksgiving dinner (including a football game!) After dinner the kids kept busy making Christmas ornaments and watching Polar Express in 3-D.




Our guests represented Oklahoma, Maryland, New Mexico and Austria. It was a great time of food and fellowship.