Lots of Visitors!

We've had a blast with lots of family visitors over the last week or so. We watched movies, visited Christmas markets, cooked up a storm, opened gifts, and even sneaked a few minutes to enjoy a warm treat from Starbucks. What a huge blessing to spend Christmas with family, even when we live so far away. We hope you had a Merry Christmas as well!

Merry Christmas!

We've been talking about the Christmas carol God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen lately. It seems strange that often we sing these carols and ignore the true meaning of the words. This particular carol holds such great news!

God rest ye merry ___________ (insert your name)
Let nothing you dismay

Remember Christ the Savior was born on Christmas Day

to save us all from Satan's power while we were gone astray

O Tidings of comfort and joy!

Tidings of comfort and joy to you from the Franks in Vienna!

Food Subs Dot Com

Ever need a substitute for something that your cookbook does not list. Like...what can you substitute for eggs when baking?
Fear not! The Cook's Thesaurus is a fantastic website I stumbled upon today and HAD to share.

Bubba and Gammy are here!

Bubba and Gammy Frank arrived last night from Southern California! Yahoo! Cole is now ready for Christmas with his Santa hat, and tonight he discovered the gifts under our tree. 'We were kinda hoping he'd wait for that discovery until they were all opened. No such luck. After pretending to drink from one of our new Starbucks mugs from Aunt Debbie, Cole tore...well, almost...into Gammy's present. I managed to salvage it so she'll still be surprised on Christmas morning. Whew!
We also had a bath tonight, which is always BIG fun. We slather Cole with soap and watch him splash. He has learned to pull the drain plug, too. He can't resist the silver chain. It's pretty cute.
Keith, I used slather again just for you :).

A Hoover in the house

Yesterday, all 3 of us went to some of our neighbors' apartments to give them some Christmas cookies (see our earlier post for a visual of the cookies). Anyhow, we went to one nieghbor that we're pretty sure is Jewish. He was really nice and even wished us Merry Christmas.
Then we went to another nieghbor who invited us right in and told us she was making Christmas cookies as well. We had hardly spoken more than a sentence or two with her before. Well, she instantly busted out with amazingly good English - we never knew she could do that! So we just obliged and continued in English. Anyhow, she had us sit down at her table and opened up probably 7 containers of different kinds of traditional Austrian cookies. They aren't nearly as sweet as American kinds.

We were thinking we'd give Cole a cookie, but before we even could pick one up, he did himself. Then he put it right in his mouth and ate the whole thing up! It was so funny and the lady loved it. We got to know a few things about our neighbor - she plays the viola and does workshops with other musicians. As we were talking, Cole snatched another cookie (they were very small). A few times, he dropped pieces and crumbs on the floor like a normal baby. We apologized and tried to pick up the pieces, but she quickly responded, "Don't worry, there's a Hoover in the house!"
Anne and I pretty much died laughing, but it was covered up because all 3 of us were continually laughing at Cole. I mean, where did our neighbor learn some phrase like that???? I guess it was some old advertisement that she picked up on way back when she learned English.

HI. LARIOUS.

Cookies!

Chris and I decorated Christmas cookies tonight! Great fun decorating, MORE fun eating!

Christmas Market Time

Tonight we took Cole downtown to see the Christmas lights and to a Christmas market at the city hall, or in German, the Rathaus. He liked seeing the lights and the people, but it was a chilly evening! The Christmas markets are a special thing in Austria. From mid-November until Christmas Eve, local merchants put up wooden stalls and sell their handmade wares in outdoor public areas all over the city. Ornaments, jewelry, and wooden toys are among the Christmas market goodies. You can also enjoy unique food like langos, an elephant ear type bread slathered with butter and garlic, various sorts of pretzels, and lebkuchen (gingerbread). Austrians really enjoy visiting with friends and family over a hot mug of punsch or gluhwein. No matter the temperature, you'll always find folks bundled up, drinking, and laughing at tall wooden tables. It's a really fun experience!

The Week's Highlights

1. Cole threw up on the U Bahn the other day. He smiled afterwards. Yuck.

2. Chris went back to work today after a whole week of being sick at home in bed. He's feeling much better now, thankfully!

3. I learned that I have a convection oven last week. Since then, I've baked sugar cut-out cookies, a butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and some honey baked chicken using the convection setting. Who knew? It's AMAZING, and it cooks so fast.

4. Cole is crawling...Cole style. See video below.

5. Only 18 more days until CHRISTMAS! Yahoo!

The Lord's Prayer in Review

So today was the last chapel of the semester about the Lord's Prayer from Matthew 6. I taught the kids a learning trick...putting things in your own words. It helps when you need to remember the WHY about something, not just WHAT it is. For the real version, read Matthew 6. For my version, read on...

God, you are in heaven, and you hear us
You are GREAT! I can praise you!
I want to be part of your kingdom, and
I want what YOU want for my life like you direct things in heaven.
Give me what I need for today, and help me to
remember that you've forgiven me so I can
forgive others too. Help me make good choices when I'm
tempted to sin against you, and protect me from anything
that may hurt my mind, body, or heart.
Amen.

Library Visit

Our librarian took this photo of Cole at our school library one day a few weeks ago.

crawling & carrington

Cole and I played together in the bathroom on Sundayd, and here's some footage to show you crawling...Cole style.


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Cole has not been liking his booster seat so much lately, so to help the process, Chris showed him some photos of friends and family. He likes Carrington's picture the best!


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more pictures!

Cole and I had some fun in the bathroom this afternoon. Cole was entranced by the washing machine, so while he watched, I hid his rubber duckie in the laundry tub. When the washing machine novelty wore off, he crawled (well, shimmied on his tummy and knees) in and got it, and then we figured out that Cole is the perfect size to sit in his laundry tub. Fun!
Chris has been pretty sick this weekend, and still is as I type, so Cole and I have been fending for ourselves pretty much. Chris's mom, Nancy, and her friend Eileen who have been visiting this past week, left yesterday, too. We were sad to see them go. It was a fun visit!

gammie, fruit peels, pictures, and washing machines

Long Weekend

Above you see Cole's latest toys...kitchen stuff! He has figured out how to open the small drawer underneath the oven that houses cookie sheets, wire racks, and cutting boards. Fun and loud! He also spends time rocking back and forth on his hands and knees...crawling is coming I think.

Last week was a crazy long weekend for the Franks! The VCS staff moms came over for brunch, Gary & Shelley Brumbaugh visited from China, and we hosted a small Thanksgiving dinner. Cole held a basketball on his own on Thanksgiving Day with our neighbor, Lauren, too. Then, Gammy Nancy and her friend Eileen arrived on Saturday for this week. Chris took them to a mass to hear the Vienna Boys Choir yesterday morning, and in the afternoon we all went to the Schoenbrunn Palace Christmas Market. More adventures coming, I'm sure!

Cole also turned 8 months old yesterday. 21.5 pounds and 29.5 inches long. What a growing boy!

WANTED: Packages

Cole's entertainment can be greatly improved by a simple box sent to him in the mail. Contents not necessary. Be sure to stress with the USPS that the package is going to Austria in Europe, not Australia.
See video below for benefits.



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Ikea Bags and More

So here are some highlights from our weekend...

1. Cole enjoyed hours (well...minutes) of playtime with a paper IKEA bag. He even loved hiding underneath it!

2. Chris used tin foil to get our Christmas lights to work. Then he called our maintenance savvy friend and decided that wasn't such a great plan.

3. Cole saw a picture of me on the picture slideshow on our computer and said, "mamamamamamamamamam." Very Cool for me!

4. Cole's favorite snack lately is book edges. No wonder the make board books for little kids who eat as much as goats do.

5. Chris played in a volleyball tournament with some guys from school on Saturday and had a lot of fun.

6. I decided to give Cole a few bites of fish and a few bites of cheese to eat with his fingers. He liked them both! He's WAY into eating by himself, and almost all of the food makes it in the mouth, even tiny peas and edamame.

7. My mom sent us a box with goodies like Cheerios, but it was sent to AUSTRALIA. Yep, Sydney. Postal workers! The box supposedly left Sydney on October 26, but we have yet to see this mystery box.

Video Crazy

Cole makes this noise so often that we had to capture it on video.

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Yay for dinner! We love clapping hands!

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Friends & Family

Our friends Mike and Becky had twin boys in August. They live in Flagstaff, AZ, and used to work with us here in Vienna. Here are the McTwins...Jason and Trenton McDonald. Rebecca Morrissey came over to trick or treat the day before Halloween. She dressed up, as you can see, and Cole loved laughing at her. He really does laugh at everything. And check out the drool patch on Cole's shirt! It's a daily occurrance.
Carrington, Misi, Bubba, and Leighton at Leighton's ballet.

Dinner Last Night

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Feeling Better

We've been sick since Thursday. Yuck. All of us BUT Cole, that is. Today, though, we're back to almost 100%. Chris is at work, and Cole and I went to the Naschmarkt for sweet potatoes. Since today we're all feeling better, I decided to give Cole a few lumps of cottage cheese, like my Super Baby Food book suggests. We had a great time! More mess than in the mouth, but full of discovery. I think the next time the cottage cheese will go in the mouth with a spoon!

Cole the Cat

He's already a drumming machine. A special shout out to Grandbob!



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Joke O. Heute

Been wondering who or what "Heute" is? Maybe so. It means "today" in German.

Onward...

What does a pig put on his cut?




Oinkment.

Aaaarrrrgggggghhhhh

That's frustrating.
I was trying to be all sneaky and clever with the 15 different things I just posted. But I was thwarted. If you're willing to humor me, scroll down two thirds of the page to the post titled "Austria and more". Read that post, and then go up one post at a time.
If you read from top to bottom like normal, it won't be nearly as much fun.

enjoy :)

Unbelievable!

"That's impossible, Chris and Anne! You couldn't have made it to all of those places in 4 days. Plus, aren't you on support? I'm not so sure you should be blowing all of that money on those travels."
You're right - it is impossible. We didn't do it.
But we we did do was go to Minimundus. It's in Klagenfurt, which is in Carinthia.

Hope you enjoyed the "trip"

Last stop...

New York! We were running out of time, and we were feeling pretty wiped out by this time. So we hit up the Statue of Liberty and then flew back to Vienna. What a trip!!!

Launch!

The space shuttle launch was also pretty impressive up close!

Going east

At this point, we couldn't back track to the amazing West coast, so we had to hit up the East coast. How about Cape Canaveral, FL? Cole was mesmerized by the Space Shuttle.

Literally around the world

Since we were halfway around the world, we figured we could swing by the United States.
First stop, Colorado - where the Native American cliff dwellers used to live.

G'Day Mate!

We made it to Sydney! Maybe it was the jetlag, but I thought that the harbor around the Sydney Opera House was a little bigger.

a quick stop

So on our way to Sydney, we had a layover in India. We figured we should take the opportunity and see the Taj Mahal. When else would we be in India?

Who are you kiddin?

At this point, we had only spent 2 days of our 4 day break. The beauty of modern technology and transportation. On the way back to Vienna on the Autobahn, we came upon Munich. For some reason, it occured to us that Lufthansa has cheap flights out of Munich - in particular to the land down under...

Back home to Vienna

After all of this craziness, we decided to head home. But on the way home, we realized we could just take a short trip off of the Autobahn in Germany and see Neuschwanstein Castle.

Vive le France!

Once you're in Pisa and Rome, how can you not swing by Paris? We wouldn't know. The good 'ol Eifel Tower and the Arch of Triumph.

Italia!

So, I've never been to the leaning tower of Pisa, so we had to make it there. I mean, Cole needs to experience the world right?

Back to Europe

The unrest in the Middle East made Anne a little uncomfortable (although it was nice and warm), so we headed back to Italy. Last time Anne was there, she tried to get in to the Vatican in Rome with shorts on. No dice, little one. But this time, we were properly clothed.

More travels

But then, it's not so hard to rationalize and just take another short flight over to Jordan. Carpe diem! Remember that scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? I was anxious to go there to the Rock of Petra.

and more

we thought - we're only a couple hours away by plane from Greece, why not go? So we did and the Acropolis was amazing!

Austria and more

So VCS has a fall break each year, which works out to be a 4 day weekend. Anne and I wanted to go to a nice calm relaxing place by a lake in a beautiful part of Austria called Carinthia. So we did. It was beautiful and this picture doesn't do it justice - not included in this picture is the Wörther See (a huge lake) and tons of mountains in the distance.

Winter is coming!

We decided this year to buy a small, potted evergreen tree to be our Christmas tree. Since we had a rental car for our little Fall Break vacation last weekend (more on that later...), we took advantage of the car's trunk and bought the tree early. Fun! We ventured out to run some errands today, and since the beautiful fall weather is officially over, I broke out the winter city garb. It's the thing in Austria to get a stroller sleeping bag since city life demands being outside so often. So, ours is ready to go. Cole's hat reminds me of the hat my Uncle John wore when he told the fish story in Northern Michigan. Anyone remember?

Back by popular demand

We went to the park today and knew that some of you would be anxious to see more video of the Cole meister. It's a windy day so it's a noisy video, but it is still cute. enjoy


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Joke O. Heute

What is a cat's favorite thing to read?




A catalog.

New Video!

We're trying something new with this video thing! Cole & Chris had fun after dinner tonight. Our friend Lauren was over, too, and got to see the show. In the background, we're trying to sprout avocado pits. Chris's new venture...we'll see!Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Joke O. Heute

Where do very smart hot dogs end up?




On honor rolls.

Park!

It seems like the park is our new hang out. It's close. It's free. Cole laughs at other kids doing silly things on the slide or at dogs that bark and frolic around. The weather has been amazing. The swing is Cole's favorite, especially when I make faces or jump.