Sunday, November 28, 2010

happy thanksgiving, happy birthday seth, and happy 90 more days in hungary kate

So much has happened in the last few days, and I took a lot of pictures over the last few days, too! I have a feeling this will be a long post, but it should at least please the family who are asking for pictures. And I said that I would "hopefully" post pictures a lot recently, and that hasn't happened. So here we go...

Wednesday
We invited over a bunch of "little kids" to make turkey cookies with us. Trying to get a time down when everyone takes naps at various times is rather difficult, so they were made in shifts as people were available. I only remembered to take pictures of the cookies after they all left. Oops! But it brought back wonderful memories of making them as a kid with my dad's side of the family when we would go to NY for Thanksgiving every year. And thanks to my mom for sending me everything we needed to make them!


Seth stacked up Kate's buckets and pretended they were a microphone, and he did a little song and dance. It was hard to choose which pictures to put up because I got a bunch of good ones!




Thursday
Happy belated Thanksgiving! This year the plan was to have Thanksgiving with just the Lang family. Once again, too difficult to have all families together now that we have all grown and kids nap at drastically different times. So we had to split up this year. :(

The plan was to eat around noon after Kate woke up from her morning nap and after the guys' annual Turkey bowl game (American football) finished. We were headed out the door to go to their house when Becky called to tell me not to come yet because an ambulance was just called because they think Aaron broke his leg on one of the last downs of the game.

Plans changed as the rest of the day for the poor Lang family was not good. Aaron was taken to the hospital, and Becky went with him. Their kiddos came over to our house for the rest of the day. I had the turkey and potatoes, so we ate that and a few favorite things that the kids wanted from their house, plus MY favorite, Becky's stuffing.


Aaron did break his tibia, and he had surgery late Thursday night. I am constantly amazed when I learn about what hospitalization is like for people here in Hungarian state hospitals, as compared to the one where I went to deliver Seth and Kate. Socialized medicine...

Here is Zach cuddling up next to Kevin while watching a movie that night. (Yeah for the first Christmas movie of the season!)


And Miriam and Seth shared the chair, too. :)


Friday
Happy Birthday Seth! Yes, it was Seth's third birthday. I cannot believe that he is three years old. My how time flies! We had Miriam and Zach for a lot of Friday, so we did things a bit differently. But this birthday was one that I will always treasure in my memory, not because it was so fantastic because of Seth's presents or anything but because of how Seth was that day. He could not have been any sweeter or more grateful. He was excited about every little thing. I can't even describe just how GREAT his birthday was.

Seth had asked for a chocolate cake with green frosting, the number three, and "guys" on it. I had already been thinking of doing a Lego cake for him, and this was a lot simpler than what I was thinking, so no complaining from me! And he LOVED it.




We Skyped with Grandma and Grandpa Y during all of the opening of presents since we had already celebrated when my parents were here with their gifts. He would take the present up to the webcam so that they could see.


I made Seth a felt board and did not anticipate him liking it at all, but he even loved that! Now I need to find a bigger board because this is too small for all that he wants to do. Ha!


I love Kate's face in this one.


By the way, he had no idea what bowling was. Now he does. :) And Kate LOVES it.


Lego's are his most favorite toy, and he got a bunch of those. He was thrilled!



All in all, it was a fantastic day with one super excited and thankful three year old. He blessed my heart so much!

Saturday
We had to reenter Hungary for Kate's residency permit, so we left the country and came back in. Seth asked us in the car what we were doing, and we told him that we were going for a long drive but that we would stop and get McDonald's on the way home. Seth said, "I think we're just driving in circles." Hilarious! "Yes, buddy, just one really big circle."

We had our first snowfall Friday night and woke up to some snow on the ground. The first one, especially when it's around the Christmas season, is always beautiful and somewhat magical. The weather on our trip started out really yucky, and as we drove through some low mountains, the snow was much heavier there. And then we hit mostly glorious sunshine the rest of the time.


It has been unseasonably warm, so I shouldn't complain. But brrrr...


For you, Dad...


Apparently people aren't allowed to walk on the side of the highway. Imagine that.


Either one will take us out of the country...


Border control with lots of guard stations before Hungary was a part of the EU...


And now that we're a part of the EU... No stopping! Just drive right through :)


Officially in Austria now.


Another language every time you cross a border. But I can read this :)


Turned around and now less than 170 km until home... One BIG circle ;)


On the way back home, Zsolt and Gabi called and asked if they could come over when the kids got up from their nap. So they came for dinner, which we turned into a simple Thanksgiving meal to share in with them. They brought birthday gifts for the kids, as they do every year despite my asking them not to. But I realize that when I want to do something for someone, I don't want them telling me not to. So I have stopped saying anything this year. They love our kids, and our kids love them. It was a wonderful night.




We also put up our Christmas tree, although I still need one more strand of lights, and I put up a couple other decorations. The rest will hopefully be put out this week. I put up a magnetic nativity scene, and the kids have played with it numerous times today.

Here, Seth told me that everyone is sleeping. Love that they are all sideways!


And that is one long update of this past weekend. But 29 pictures should suffice everyone for now. :)

7 comments:

Stefanie Schocke said...

Phew...long. Good thing there were pictures! :)

What was Seth singing?! Daniel has the same shirt (the picture of him singing) and the same sweater in the picture next to Miriam.

How kind of you to have the kids over :)

Doug said...

Zach was trying to cuddle up to Kevin, but I see Kevin didn't respond in kind! Thanks so much for the pictures! Love them all! I still do not understand taking Kate out of the country since you don't get stopped by customs... What is the purpose?

Love, Dad

Doug said...

Forgot to say thanks for the special picture just for me!

mom y. said...

Good job Kristen!! Wonderful blog!

Kacie said...

The kids are precious, and the house looks great! What fun to see the pictures!

Jill said...

Since I'm an honorary Dunham girl and I saw on fb that you posted pics, I thought I'd log on and see. :) Wonderful pictures! You are a gracious woman, Kristen, to handle all of the last-minute schedule changes, especially around a major holiday and a family birthday. I'm sure you are the sweet aroma of Christ to everyone around you. God bless you and your dear family.

Muthering Heights said...

It sounds like an eventful weekend!