So, where to start? I guess at the beginning. Saturday started with a trip to the Farmer's market and the butcher. I finally bought some lamb. I've been wanting to diversity a bit and we eat so much chicken back in the U.S. (and we aren't big beef eaters). So, first duck, now lamb. And it was delicious for dinner later that day, I must say :-)
Anyway, I rushed home and collected Grace. We headed over to the outdoor skating rink for the 10a opening. When I could hear an announcer about a block away, I knew something was wrong. Anyway, the rink was host to a children's hockey tournament. They had the ice all day and so, after consoling ourselves, we watched a little hockey. It was fun. The teams were mixed age (probably 5-8?) and mixed gender. We were captivated by one girl that was much taller and more talented than anyone else on the ice. Unfortunately the puck always seemed to find the goalie's stick, but she was still fun to watch.
With skating out for the day, what to do? Well, I had this thought in the back of my head that I wanted to get the kids their skiing outfits for Christmas. But we didn't want it to be a present, as we wanted to have them pick them out, etc. So, Grace and I took an exploratory trip over to K&O (pronounced, "Kah unt Oh"), the big department store. I had heard from someone they were having a sale on skis, ski clothes, etc. When we arrived and could not find skis, etc., but saw the store was connected to the large sporting goods store, we figured it out.
Grace quickly found many outfits that she liked, which is good because the sizes weren't always in inventory. You know how that goes. And it took Grace a while to get used to the multiple layers in the pants, etc. But we quickly got her squared away and were helped by a nice young woman who spent a year in Michigan with an exchange family in high school.
When we went home, Henry was motivated to join us (he was not into the ice skating!) for a return trip. He really liked Grace's "overalls" (ski pants with suspenders). He wouldn't settle for pants without them! He found a great pair in lime green ("just like airport fire fighters!"). Unfortunately, they were really pricey (twice as expensive as Grace's). But Henry can be very flexible and is happy with the color combination that he came up with.
After a failed attempt to buy an outfit for me (I knew I was pushing my luck with two kids in a busy store!), we stopped by the ski equipment shop and bought the kids helmets. They loved the kind with the built-in goggles and wanted to get home quickly to model everything for Sue!
I then went grocery shopping to make sure we didn't run out of staples Sunday, made dinner (lamb, marinaded with peanut satay, rice, sauteed bell peppers with garlic), and then collapsed on the couch with everyone to watch a DVD! And this was just Saturday!
Sunday was all about getting back over to the skating rink for Grace and me. And now she had a helmet of her own to wear! We arrived at 10a on the dot and there were at least 20 people already skating! I guess they opened early today (language-skill deficit strikes again!). But they had skates in both of our sizes and we were off. Grace hugged the wall the first few times around, but gained courage within a half hour or so and was out there skating away from the wall. Towards the end we even had a contest to see who could weave around more kids in a lap (I won the first lap, 7 to 4, but she won the next lap, 5-1!). It was so great to see her go from, "this is hard and I'm kind of scared" to, "did you see me get around that kid that fell?!" Priceless, I tell you!
They had a great little tent setup next door so that we could warm up with hot chocolate after our 2 hours of skating. They even had a kids area (patchens only, please!) and live music. When I texted Sue that we'd be home about 1p for lunch, she said that she and Henry wondered how long we'd be gone!
After lunch Grace, Henry and I went over to "scooter park," which is located on the other side of Stadt Park (the large park near our apartment). It is setup with traffic signs/lights, railroad tracks, lane markers, a hill, etc. The kids played some game that involved locking Grace up in a jail cell and Henry running away (I didn't quite get that, but I was listening to my German language CD). I did get it when they asked me to be the robber and to run around scooter park and they would chase me (each taking different routes, cutting me off, etc.). They were mad when I stopped at the train tracks (there was a stop sign!). They said no robber would do that. After tiring of catching me (and I was tired too!), we walked/scooted home.
In the last few days, Christmas trees have invaded Stadt Park, with multiple sites to buy trees from. And in fact, we had just decided what to do about a Christmas tree in our apartment (smallish, but not Charlie Brown size). So, given that we saw a very nice one on the way over, and it was still available on the way back, we bought it. It wasn't too much of a walk back to the apartment, but I had to rest a bit (even a small tree gets heavy after a few hundred meters!). The kids went up to open the doors for me to move it out onto the deck until we can buy some Christmas lights.
And we had one more event for the day ... our friend David, who sings in the Graz Opera, was playing the part of Goliath in a children's musical at a local church (right next to the Opera House and the Farmer's Market). (Grace thought it was funny that David was playing Goliath instead of David, but I think she got the point when she saw the musical!) It was all in German, but it was short, and being a musical, it was a pretty simple plot line. Grace said that it wasn't as scary as it could have been because we knew who Goliath was (he doesn't look scary below, but he did walking in, swing a 2-meter sword!). I think everyone enjoyed it and Sue was feeling well enough to join us, which was nice. We hope to see David sing Christmas Eve or Christmas Day at the "big Catholic church" on Herrengasse (the main pedestrian street in Graz).
 |
| David's not that tall, really. He's walking on 6" tree stumps! |
Just five more days of school/work and then Christmas will be here ... then we rest!
Russ
No comments:
Post a Comment