We had a lovely Canadian Christmas this year, a very relaxed one. We managed to stretch the day out, we enjoyed our turkey and we enjoyed just having time together. We skyped with friends and family in Austria, Los Angeles and Calgary. The kids were sending and receiving messages with friends through my Whattsapp and their school messaging site. It's been great keeping in contact with people that way.
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| Austrian Blaukraut, Wurstel & Semmeln (not as good as Oma's!) |
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| By the tree |
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| Canadian Turkey Dinner with everything! |
So, we had a lot of snow. And then cold. Both are new to us at Christmas (not to me but to the rest). Dominik and the kids had a blast taking the snow from the driveway, as well as some from the back yard, and making a huge snow hill in our back yard. It kept snowing and they just kept on shovelling and using the snow blower. The hill got higher and higher! Then, about a week later, when it was nice and cold (at least -15 degrees C), they dug out a snow cave. A nice BIG snow cave! It could sleep 4 people. But it hasn't yet because then the weather got colder and dropped down to -27 at night. But it was supposed to be feeling like -34 or something. That's the great thing about Canadian weather reports. It will tell you how cold it is and then add how cold it FEELS LIKE, just to make you feel braver and stronger about feeling cold. Usually it does have to do with the humidity or with the wind, and it's always fun to hear it when it's really cold.
We have also been enjoying some of our presents which we received at Christmas. There were the usual things, you know, the nice Christian western romance novel (or collection of stories) set at Christmas. I really enjoyed that little fantasy every evening. Jeremiah got a Minions version of the game 'Trouble' and it's great because he can play it with Josiah and Elena quite happily. They play for hours with the Playmobil. Seriously, they imagine so many things and can play undisturbed for hours. This can be quite handy! But the two best...so far the most-used things are.....ready? 5 Krazy Karpets (plastic pieces to go sledding on- they have handles hence turning a piece of flexible coloured plastic into a sled!) and a GoPro! We have taken these two in combination and have had hours of sledding and filming fun. On top of that, before we left Austria we made sure that we had purchased some sort of video editing program. Dominik cut a LOT of videos while working at Schloss Klaus and now he has been teaching the kids how to do it too. Today we started videoing the birds coming to the feeder. This might be a part of the homeschool program as well as it is amazing to see how a bird actually flies- when you get to see it all in slow motion! For now we'll let you see our first video of 2018- Sledding with the Castle's. Thanks to them, Emily and Andrew and kids, for having fun with us!
New Years itself was pretty quiet for us, especially as there aren't any fireworks to watch. Now, a clarification for the Canadians/Non-Austrians reading this. In Austria every year over 10 million Euros is spent on fireworks just for New Year's Eve. Yup, that's a lot! I used to visit Dominik's parents with our kids (he was working) for the celebration, not just because it was nice to be with family, but because the neighbours there spent a lot on fireworks. We just had to look out the window or step outside (sometimes carefully- watch for falling debris!) and we saw a spectacular show! When I stayed in Klaus and celebrated with friends, I could watch the fireworks from our village, the next village and also you could see the sky lighting up behind the mountains since the villages back behind them were also shooting a lot off. Someday we will have to experience a Vienna New Year's (Silvester). Then we can enjoy punsch stands, other snacks and a fantastic and government-sponsored pyrotechnic display! So, back to Brockville. Nope, nothing. Okay, it was really cold. -25C. They had also cancelled some of the activities in Ottawa, Calgary and other cities because of the cold. But the fireworks would go ahead. But no, for us with a bunch of small kids, the idea of standing around on Parliament Hill in Ottawa at midnight when it's that cold????? No. So, we stayed in. BUT. And here is the great 'BUT' in the story. Our great friend Miriam Merz showed us the fireworks from Klaus live as it happened! Usually we celebrated together, when most of the staff were involved in the New Year's retreat, like Dominik and Kerstin and other friends, so it was nice to kind of, in a way, be able to celebrate with Miri again this year. And we got to see the fireworks!
This was our first year to have this holiday as a family, completely undisturbed. Usually Dominik had to be back at work on the 27th. The Silvester retreat was big and busy and great fun, but a huge amout of work too. It was wonderful to have the time together but, at the same time, it was odd not to be there, Still, we were in contact with some people on the team and it made us feel a little closer.
That was our holiday. We had Christmas and New Years and now we're back to school. We are both reading the Permaculture Book (by Sepp Holzer- an Austrian! ;-)) and are getting lots of good ideas. Elena has a book on bee keeping. Rebecca received a book on keeping horses and ponies. We have a homesteading class and Rebecca is eager to learn how to cook more and more. But we still don't have land. We know that we will likely have to wait until spring because there would be too much risk involved in buying something covered in snow. (Right, Patrizia? :-) She told us the story of a German who came to Austria and saw a lovely snow-covered field with a pile of hay on it. He managed to buy it and then went back to Germany. When he returned in the summer he couldn't find his field- it had been a frozen lake! So, we're not going down that road! :-)). But please pray with us that we find the right piece of land at the right time and price. We're pretty calm and patient but it will be a great relief to have it and to get going! Thanks!
God Bless in 2018! We will be back with more soon!
