Our Favorite Pix from Prague

Clearly when we travel, different things hold the interest of our children and this blog is dedicated to highlighting those differences.

While Garrett and I were in awe over this absolutely amazing clock tower in Wenceslas square in Prague, our boys found this more interesting.......a Stretch Hummer, of course! (pix by Jacob)



















Garrett and I loved walking across the Charles Bridge, built in the 1300's and the boys took pictures of....these swans and numberless ducks (pix by Jacob)and pigeons (pix by Mason)! I loved walking the streets of the Czech Republic and seeing all the Russian influence which reminded me that in my lifetime this country has gone from a closed Communist regime to now, when we didn't even show our passports at the borders. The weather and architecture reminded me of its dreary, ominous history. The architecture reminded my boys of...






















....the Lord of the Rings' Black Riders.





















Finally something we can all agree on...TGIFridays! We saw so many American chains in Prague--KFC, Little Caesar's Pizza, you name it. The food was excellent, but the service needed help--our waiter tried to rack up an 1800 Euro bill on our credit card! Luckily the credit card company caught it. I guess you have to expect something like that from a country that makes words without any vowels. We all made good memories of Prague, even if the memories are different for all of us--the boys put pillows in their shirts at the hotel and did a little WWF. Jacob loved teasing me about the elevator plummeting us to our death, because it looked pre-Stalin era, truly an antique in the worst sense of the word. And of course, a super-duper highlight--Mason lost a tooth in Prague--and the tooth fairy paid him in Crowns (KC). Now I have to fess up that some of the really great pictures on this blog were taken by my boys--initially I put mine in and then they showed me the pictures that they had taken and they were much better than mine. They must belong to Garrett.

Recent Wood Funnies

So I just finished reading "The Host" and take a look at the back of Joe's neck. Should I be worried?

The other day, in his sweetest, most loving voice Mason said, "Mom, you're a really good mom--I mean, I don't know of anything you should have to go to jail for right now." (I think the "right now" part is key--it could go either way in a day or two from now!)

Jacob told one of our friends, Jewel Weigand, that Garrett was gone this week to teach spies how to do their own dental work so that when they're undercover they can do it for themselves. Jewel asked yesterday, "When does Garrett get back from teaching the spies to brush their own teeth?"

The other night Garrett came into the kitchen to polish off some cake I'd made a few days before. Sam came in the kitchen and Garrett said he was sorry if he'd eaten all the dessert and the boys hadn't gotten any. I said it was o.k. that the boys had eaten a different dessert. Garrett asked Sam what they'd eaten and Sam put on his saddest face and answered, "It's o.k. you ate all that cake Dad, we kids shared a cookie for our dessert!"

Can you see Joe's Spiderman slippers (Hausschuhe auf Deutsch) in this pix? The other day he asked me "How do you say Hausschuhe in German?" I have re-soled his Spiderman slippers two times already. I've never had a kid wear his slippers so much to wear them out twice and still demand that I fix the old ones again instead of just getting a new pair. Every other kid at his school leaves their slippers at school--he insists that we bring them home each day and take them again the next morning.

Our first witch baptism

On Saturday, the 10th of January we got to go to our very first Hexentaufe or witch baptism with our good friends and next-village-over neighbors, the Weigands. Each year the equivalent of the village Lion's club does an initiation for new pledgers where they are baptised by immersion (we of course couldn't support it if it was done any other way!) in a farm manure spreader full of semi-warm water with buckets of dog food, real chicken and goose parts, feathers, and other unmentionable wastes. Here I must add that these "lion clubs" are sometimes referred to as drinking clubs which may be the only way they can pass through the initiation ordeal and then return year after year to wear their quaint dresses (yes, the men too) and scary masks for hours in below freezing weather. The Hexentaufe is the start of Fasching, a Catholic tradition which was explained to me as a month you try to sin as much as possible before repenting during Lent. If I've explained this incorrectly, that's how a Catholic explained it to me, and besides, it sounds more interesting that way! Anyone up to celebrating Fasching?

First Time Photographers

We spent yesterday in Switzerland, taking the boys on their very first photo shoot. Our fingers nearly froze off to bring you these excellent shots. We hiked to Boelchenflueh, trying to get above the fog, but didn't have any luck. Then we went to Aarau, a city Garrett served his mission and took some pix there too.

This street canal and tree pictures were taken by Fantastic Sam.

The archway and clock tower pictures were taken by Marvelous Jacob.

The city buildings and Garr and me pictures were taken by Awesome Mason. Mason took a picture of us while I took a picture of them!

Joe's picture is the snowy forest one at the bottom--pretty good for a less than one megapixel fisher price camera!

What we've been up to..

Happy Holidays to everyone! We miss you all and wish we could be with you. I thought I'd share some of what we've been up to over the Christmas break. The boys each painted one of the nutcrackers to the left and I love them. From left to right they were made by Jacob, Sam, Mason and Joe. Each year I have them make an ornament for our tree and someday when we have enough I'm going to make an "Island of Misfits" tree with just their ornaments. They are truly my favorites.

For Christmas Eve we had cheese fondue which was so delicious and we're going to make this our new tradition every year. We were sure to eat German pickles with it because, as all good Germans know, Pickles help you digest the cheese. We decided that we would get up at 7:30 on Christmas to open presents, but the kids weren't allowed to come upstairs, so from 7:30 until 7:45 we got a minute by minute update for what time it was until Garrett and I pulled ourselves out of bed. We started the German pickle tradition--you hide a pickle ornament on the tree on Christmas morning and the first one to find it get to open the first present. Jacob was the lucky winner, however, the tree was roughed up enough by the extensive search and seizure that it later fell over and broke nearly every glass ball on our tree. Maybe I'll have to make the pickle super-obvious next year to avoid catastrophe. The boys got cameras this year and are excited to go later today on their first personal photo shoot. Jacob and Mason got scooters and Sam got a skateboard and Joseph got 2 clone trooper costumes and blasters as well as all of them getting alot of legos. They had a great Christmas! Garrett is sporting the rag-quilt that his boys made him, which may explain the chagrinned look on his face. If you look up at the fondue picture you'll notice we are drinking hot chocolate out of real teacups--between the painting, the tea parties, and the sewing I've heard Garrett say many times, under his breath something like "What a bunch of Faeries!" I'm as pleased as punch--who needs girls anyway? Come on, they are saudering and carving wood at school and watching Jaws, light sabering and playing air guitar non-stop at home, so it's got to be a little therapeutic to have a tea party once in awhile, right?

The day after Christmas we went to some hot mineral pools with the kids. I'd include pictures, but they were nude pools. O.K. I'm just kidding, but lucky for us we did get to see alot of old men in banana hammocks and old women with hairy armpits in bikinis. Other than that it was so fun to relax in the hot tubs. I had to include this pix of my kids in their super-cool duds before we went to the pool. We're stylin'! On the way there I was giving my usual lecture about how we were going to a German place and they're not used to alot of noise or kids so we need to be quiet and behave and then Joe put in his two cents worth, "And if a German talks to you, you just stare at him until he goes away!" We were cracking up--this tactic must have worked for him before!
We've had fun putting a Lord of the Rings 1000 piece puzzle together. Of course, our usual luck is holding and if you look at Gandolf's beard you'll notice we are missing a piece--must be business as usual at the Wood's house.

Mostly we've just hung out together and eaten junk food and watched movies. Here's a picture of our glasses club. Jacob has them, but never wears them anymore, he says he sees better without them. Last night we went to our first German New Year's Eve party and had so much fun. A little before midnight everyone goes outside and lights fireworks--not just sparklers, but the rockets that you see at the big fireworks displays in the States. You can turn in any direction and watch an amazing firework display light up the sky from Germans' houses all over the valley. Other than Mason almost getting his foot blown off by a firework, we all had a great time.

We hope you all have a great New Year and spend some quality time doing the important things!

Medieval Christmas Market in Esslingen

The Friday after Thanksgiving we took the kids to the Medieval Christmas Market in Esslingen. Our favorite part was the fun Medieval Carnival Games. The picture below is Mouse Roulette. You put your money on the colored spot over the mouse hole that you think the mouse will go in. Whoever guesses right gets a prize. We also got to watch some medieval minstrels play on bagpipes--pretty cool, but so loud!

One of our favorite Medieval games was where they set a real egg in a carved out spot of a wooden stump that was about 10 feet away from you. They gave you some heavy metal balls and you tried to smash the egg by throwing the metal balls and hitting it. These last 2 pictures of Joe and Sam are hard to make out exactly what they're doing, but Joe chose to throw "Chinese Stars" and you try to get them to stick in the logs and Sam is throwing axes at logs and trying to get them to stick in. Mason threw stars and Jacob threw axes also. It was a boys paradise. Thank heavens OSHA hasn't seen this Christmas market--they might think it was dangerous or something to give sharp metal objects to children between the ages of 5 and 9. The guy who did the axe throwing booth was so awesome, giving the kids extra turns and making a big deal out of all their direct hits. I think he liked it that the noisy Americans cheered so loudly that they brought extra customers to his booth.

A Serious Santa Oversight

Today is St. Nikolaus Tag--Santa Claus day. Last night children in Germany put their shoes on the front porch and then Santa came and left either sweets in their shoes, if they've been good, or straw in their shoes if they've been bad. It was evident to Garrett and me that they'd be getting straw, an especially harsh punishment for Jacob who has severe hay fever. Best case scenario it would be a 50/50 mix of straw and treats. However, due to an unexplained Santa oversight they each received a large bag of wrapped German chocolates. In the picture Garrett is video taping this rare phenomenon of Santa stupidity. The only thing we can figure is Santa was unaware the previous renters had moved.