Thanksgiving with Family & Friends

What a treat it was to catch up with family after so many years abroad.  We even somehow managed to mix in a trip skating at Union Square & an afternoon Tea with the girls – in between all the Turkey Day festivities.

Skating on the canal

We were in the midst of a deep freeze last week, with a couple inches of snow every night.  Mind you, Munich is flat, with snowplows for both the streets & sidewalks, so we weren’t really affected by the snow at all.

[Except it takes sooooo long to get the girls dressed for school, clean the car off, warm everyone up.   I have never been much of a morning person, but I am really beginning to hate the 7-9am hours.  Just too much stress for that early in the morning…]

However, we were able to take advantage of the low temps (a high of –5 on Thursday) to have some fun on the canal in front of Nymphenburg Palace. Alexandra managed to talk us into letting her out of her stroller & being able to run on the ice. Sophia just had a great time skating around in circles, and pulling our friend Dominic who was visiting from Italy. She & Alexandra are so funny together Alexandra is just doing everything she can to keep up with Sophia.  This does not bode well for us in the future… And yes, all Alexandra wanted to do was eat the ice shavings. So we left for lunch, and passed by all of the Germans playing a game on the ice, a mixture of shuffleboard & curling.  I don’t understand it, but with all of the ice cleared it looked like there was quite the serious tournament going on.

Ice Hockey Country (aka Switzerland)

We left the estate for Bern, Switzerland - figuring that Bern is a little over half way and that would give us an easier drive on Sunday. As we arrived at our hotel ( a brand new Holiday Inn that was clean, simple, and attached to a new mall complex that had an AMAZING water park in it), the front desk worker asked if we were there for the World Hockey Championship. Obviously, Troy's interest was immediately peaked. We said no, but asked who was playing. He thought it was US vs France that night. Interesting. Having been to the French Hockey league Championship game, we weren't too impressed by the level of play, but thought it might be a fun thing to see the US in action.

After Nana & Papa volunteered for babysitting duty, Troy found out that it wasn't US vs France, it was US vs RUSSIA!!! At that point there wasn't a question of if we were going to go or not. If there were tickets, we were there!

Swedish Team fans

We were 2 of 10 Americans at the game and the Russian fans were loud & crazy! Beers were good, the stadium was more like a barn that seated 7,000 people than a state of the art stadium (we are truly spoiled by our stadiums in the US), but it was fun, and the Russian team was amazing (with at least 5 NHL players). The poor US guys were just completely outplayed, out manned, out maneuvered. The 4-1 ending score was a gift, and the US goalie was actually named player of the game!

** End note: Russia beat Canada in the finals for the Championship, Sweden beat the US for 3rd place.

Back on the Ice

Sophia and Troy went back to the Ice Rink today. Sophia continues to get more and more comfortable on the ice, especially with the help of a few friends. She walked about 10-12 feet today with the help of a partner. It was another amazing day in Munich - cold, but lots of sun and a wonderful sunset over the rink.

Ice Skating on a Sunday

Troy & Sophia spent the evening at the outdoor ice rink at Prinzeregenten Strasse (during the summer they have an outdoor pool there!). Sophia wore her snow pants, and Troy taught her how to fall, and then she pushed around a tri-pod penguin for balance as she experienced skating on her own for the first time. She was so excited, and very proud of herself. We were very proud of her for trying something new (sometimes she is a bit of a perfectionist & won't try new things easily ~ I wonder where she gets that from?)

Now I wonder if she will go to the classes on Monday evenings? Stay tuned...

Skating at the Hotel de Ville

Well we finally were able to take Sophia skating for the first time this year at the rink that is set up in front of the Hotel de Ville. She wasn't too sure about the skates (double blades that attached to her shoes), but after a couple times around the rink she was having a great time. Then we were able to put her on one of the small seats & whirl her around in the kids rink. The only concern was trying to keep her off the inch of standing water that covered the ice due to the warm weather. Otherwise, it was perfect to be able to skate without freezing!