New Years Resolutions

I know that a great deal has happened since we last wrote in our blog. Since it is the New Year I thought perhaps I could write once a week - even saying that I am listening to Sasha complain that I am not baking banana bread as promised, thinking about the German homework that needs to be done, laundry to be hung, dinner to be cooked, house to be cleaned and, worst of all, ironing that needs to be done. That said, it has been a fun New Year.

We decided to take the train to Wien (Vienna) for god only knows what reason. It is a 9hr train ride that required Jakun taking 2 days of holiday. Had we factored that into the budget we would have quickly realized that it did not pay, in any way, to take the train. Jakub had the boys mostly for himself for both legs of the trip due to me vomiting on the ride their and having a migraine on the ride back(both due to some weird health thing that we are trying to clear up, no worries).Once home, we were glad to be in our own flat but sad to be back in the land of no smiles and "No kids please!".

That said, we are back! Sasha and I did our yearly ritual last night and saw the Nutcracker or "Der Nussknacker" at the Hamburg Ballet. He and I were both looking forward to Christmas trees, mice and lots of snow. Unfortunately,John Neumeier decided to update the ballet and it instead featured Claire at her 12th birthday. Drosselmeier the head of a ballet school and her dream involving seeing the inner workings of how a ballet comes to life. It was a ballet in 2 Acts, the first of which I found rather weak, the second I loved.

Jakub and I have also joined a gym here, with free child care. Given that it is dark out here as late as 08:00 and it only light till 16:00 we felt a gym would be a good investement. We just don't have the motivation to run although, Jakub did buy himself a Christmas gift that is helping a little to get us out the door. Check it out at: http://www.jplichta.motionbased.com and click on the runs listed on the right hand side.

Both boys are up so that is it for me today....bis Nexte Woche