Merry Christmas!

5th Anniversary!

We have been married for 5 years now! December 18th was our anniversary, and to celebrate, we went to a Mexican restaurant about a 5-10 minute walk from our apartment. We left both of the kids at home with a babysitter so we could have 2 1/2 glorious hours of uninterrupted time together away from home. :-)
We forgot the camera, so we snapped these on Petr's work phone. They turned out pretty decently, but we can't figure out how to make it show up on this blog in the right direction! At least the prettiness of our cappuccino and Vienna coffee shows up!

And a plateful of yumminess! Taco, enchilada, refried beans, and rice (Petr had a tasty burrito). So good!

Tour of the Christmas Trees

Every end of November/beginning of December, Christmas trees and little Christmas markets sprout up all around Prague at just about every square in town. Magdalena loves looking at the"Christmas," as she lovingly calls the Christmas trees, and the accompanying nativity scenes. On her last day of preschool before Christmas break, we took a little tour around our neck of town to see 3 trees. This one above is from the square in front of the Cathedral of Saint Vaclav in Smichov.
Magadalena's newest favorite pose, as she scrams, "syr!" (cheese in Czech). This is at Paleckeho Namesti.
And the last of our trek - our own dear tree in Namesti Miru. She's seen it a hundred times, but still runs up to it each time as if it's the first. :-) Gotta love the child's spirit!

Magdalena's photography from Andilek

The first gift of Christmas

While Kveta and Milan were visiting the weekend before Christmas, we let Magdalena open one gift from them for herself and for Vojta. It was their first present of the season and both really like what they got!
Magdalena's 99 piece puzzle with two cute puppies on it...
and getting some help from Daddy to complete it immediately after opening it. :-)We let Magdalena open all of Vojta's presents since he's too small to do it himself. She thoroughly enjoyed that job! And he enjoyed watching her - never taking his eyes from his big sister. :-)

Christmas at the Mall

A family pose with the "train crew" snowmen. Magdalena loved the snowmen and their scenes. She hugged as many as she could touch and ran from one display to the next display full of glee!
Even though we don't do Santa or the Czech Mikulas, when Magdalena saw Mikulas at the mall giving out candy and offering a table to write letters to Jezisek (baby Jesus who, according to Czech tradition, brings presents on Christmas and never grows up), she had to get in on the action. So, she sat in his lap very briefly before getting to the good stuff - CANDY!

Decorating for Christmas

Magdalena with her Babi. She gave Babi and Deda a "baby" to hold while Daddy was holding Vojta. In this picture, Magdalena is enjoying some banana-nut bread that she helped Mommy make in preparation for the grandparents' visit. :-)
Petr and Voja with Deda and the "baby bunny." Milan brought some wire to make hooks for the tree decorations we'd bought.
Kveta brought some of their surplus ornaments for us to complete our tree.
Magdalena getting the ornaments on the tree and making sure they're just right!

Magdalena's singing

Ever since Magdalena could talk, she's been creating her own songs about whatever is happening around her like she's a minstrel. Recently, she's begun singing about emotions. "I hate this" was her tune today, but to a jovial melody! But, mostly she sings pleasant lyric-ed songs. "God, I love you" is my favorite!
Today she sang, "Sometimes I'm happy, sometimes I'm sad. And I get angry too. Sunny asked me..." On Monday, Sunny, who is earning her counseling license now, began an emotion management program with Magdalena via Skype. It's giving Sunny credit hours toward her license and helping Magdalena process her emotions, which have been a bit crazy since Vojta's birth. Hence, her song's words this afternoon.
Yesterday afternoon, as we were decorating the Christmas tree (which we've put in Magdalena's room), Magdalena wanted to practice the song she'll sing in church next week. Here is a long, 35 second clip preview of what's to come...

More Bathtime

Bathtime continues to be a favorite activity around our house. Magdalena is part fish and so, it seems, is her brother. He's already begun enjoying baths and smiling as he chills in his little seat. Magdalena has taken to "watering" him (and herself too) as you can see in the video.
This face is too funny! I couldn't go without sharing it! After I put him in the tub and turned to help Magdalena undress to get in too, I heard a little trickling sound. When I looked at Vojta, he was grinning ear to ear and peeing a tiny fountain!

Of course, as soon as I ended the video, Magdalena said, "I'm a wolf!" A clever ending to her air blowing, I thought. ;-)