Hezký Štědrý Den

Vám všem!

White Christmas?

I was not really crazy about this particular Santa, silly-jumping skinny...probably a recession-friendly one. Though it was not a bad idea to spend the afternoon in a cozy Irish pub and have 'Lunch with Santa'.


Last week was actually the coldest period of our stay here in the Bay Area.
The heater has been on every day.
Rain showers changed to hail and when the clouds cleared, the tops of Mount Diablo and Sunol were dusted with snow.
What a pretty sight! Just perfect for the season.


PS: Another bike accident today...

Speaking of Biking

It's already dark when Rob returns from his work.

Tonight he 'almost' had an accident with a car.
The driver was about to turn right and obviously didn't see him.
Rob saw the car though. So he braked suddenly which caused him to fly over the handlebars.

Luckily he 'only' ended up with a bad scrape on his knee (and pants) and his front light is probably broken too.
The driver apologized and offered him 20 dollars to make amends.

This is not Holland after all...

Speedy Maarten

Mikuláš

Some of you already know that here, far away from Czech Republic , we still celebrate our traditional Mikuláš.

For the occasion of Saint Nicolas Day the local Czech community organized a CHILDREN'S PARTY.


Maarten was very excited to meet this mysterious Mikuláš /Sinterklaas in person at last.
And there he was all holy and shiny, wearing cloak and mitter (even not red as usual) holding his big golden crozier, accompanied by a beautiful angel and a friendly devil.
Maarten was so impressed.


He did sing his Sinterklaas kapoentje song to them but not as loud as he did before to us.

There are probably no bad or naughty children here in the Bay Area. No one received a lump of coal or a potato in the stocking and the devil didn't put any child in a sack (if he had any).

I hope Maarten understood well that Sinterklaas (the Dutch one who brings presents during the night) is gone to Spain now and Maarten will no longer look in his shoe at 3 o'clock in the morning.

Indeed, I'm dying for a good night's sleep.

Happy Looking-Out!

I really hate visiting dentists but there are still good things about it.
They are reconstructing my mouth and because I have to wait there for hours (seems pretty normal here) I have plenty of time to read magazines.
That's how I learned about the possibility of renting fire lookouts. Last summer we visited one and we found the idea of spending a night up there pretty exciting.


There are many structures like this atop Sierran peaks. Some are still in service during the fire season, some are abandoned and some are in fact converted for public rental.
The one we visited this weekend was built in a special WINDMILL STYLE once popular throughout California. I appreciated the thirties pictures above each of the wall-to-wall window explaining the panoramic view in every direction. And what a view!
Some previous visitors suggested the trees be cut to improve the 'original' view but I hope the rangers won't listen to such thoughts. The scenery is just perfect. Forested hills, purple-pink glowing sunsets, the wide flat Sierra Valley with its tiny towns shining in the dark... even Maarten got poetic watching the valley's lights deep at night...instead of sleeping!
Actually for the most part the nights spent up here turned out to be a real nightmare. Maarten stayed awake almost the whole night. This was not because of Tuesday night's storm when the whole tower was shaking, the broken windows in the attic rumbling with heavy squalls of wind making loud passing-train-like noise.

And no, Rob and I were not waking up romantically in each other's arms watching the beautiful sunrise...
You see, the cabin wasn't pet free as advertised and therefore Rob spent nights in the car.

Anyhow the stay at the lookout was a delight and the day adventures made up for it for sure.

We did some awesome hikes in the area.
There are so many LAKES here. We hiked past Long Lake, Silver Lake, Cub Lake, Big Bear and Little Bear Lake, a more than 5 mile trip.

I was afraid Maarten would not enjoy the lakes without splashing in the water, but there was another big trigger to keep him walking. Snow and ice along the trail!

It would be too boring to spend both days admiring the local lakes. We set off to hike to the top of SIERRA BUTTES. I had some serious concerns about taking Maarten up there. I wasn't sure how difficult and safe in particular this hike would be. We decided to give it a try. We'll just drive to the trailhead and see.

Once we saw the lookout at the top of the buttes we couldn't resist it. And it was really worth the climb even though Maarten and I spent only a moment at the scary lookout atop. Climbing the steep stairs is compared to climbing Half Dome, but some find it even scarier. My knees were really weak and shaking. Because of the steep climb or fear? I'm not sure. Maarten was behaving and stayed calm. He even tried to comfort me that looking through the grated walkway around the lookout isn't scary at all.
It seems pretty safe if you behave.
But the tiny teddy bear and silk flowers tied to the railing are a reminder of someone who probably didn't.

Hen and Then

The Thanksgiving hassle is over and the shops are back to normal.
Somehow we were also tempted by the Black Friday savings but the idea of being dragged around stores by the mass of scurrying shoppers was just too scary.

However this was for the first time we tried to eat something more 'Thanksgiving' like. But we were obviously too naïve trying to buy some turkey breast the day before.

We were lucky to at least get this very tiny hen.
It was more than enough for the three of us though.

For most Americans Thanksgiving probably is an important holiday. There were even campers in our usually very quite street coming with their RV all the way from Washington for this family celebration.


Of course even we are happy with this long weekend. Maarten and I have finally started baking Czech and Dutch holiday cookies.
Now I have to look for a place to hide them from him.


Time to write something nice about our little rascal. Thanks to his daddy's patience and thanks to an accident when one of the training wheels got damaged, Maarten just learned to ride his bike without training wheels!
Now he is really free to go FAST!

Lake Chabot

Now and then Sinterklaas drops by; therefore Maarten keeps putting his shoe next to the chimney.
This is a very exciting time and Maarten can’t wait till morning comes. Read: the entire house has to wake up before 4!
Maarten probably thinks the shoe is kind of a carrot-operated machine. In the evening, a carrot goes in and in the morning there is a present instead.
But the holy man can’t visit Claremont Crest every night though. Maarten has a hard time accepting that.
There are so many children in the world, you know...


Our house is on a hill so the paved trail round Lake Chabot is a better opportunity for Maarten to practice. Despite the foggy weather at the lake early this week Maarten was really enjoying biking with his friend Dejda. That’s why I suggested a ‘bike trip’ there on this sunny Sunday again.

However it definitely didn’t go as smoothly as the picture may suggest.


PS: Maarten was very much impressed by Anton's birthday party.
This year we will really have to think of something similar I’m afraid.

Health above All

The results of the medical tests taken a couple of months ago have brought some worries into our lives.
Assuming Rob's kidneys are not working properly he had to test his blood again and again. You may understand we became pretty nervous knowing that my father-in-law actually died because of kidney failure.
Well this was a false alarm. The problem is not the kidneys but a blood disorder...
Should we be relieved?

And about me? Probably something wrong with my liver...

~~~

When Maarten suddenly lays down on the floor trying to convince me that he is 'only tired from school' I know there is something more.

An hour later at the emergency room they tried to bring down his fever of 105°F. After more than five hours, his temperature finally went down and they let us go home. Maarten seemed to be healthy as ever. We still didn’t know the cause of his fever. Some virus probably...

To sum up, we ended up at the clinic two days later. The fever came back and his left eye became badly swollen. If he hadn’t rubbed his ear I would probably have never found out he was in pain. Sinus and ear infections.
Of course he could have told us earlier and spared all of us, and especially himself, this misery. But he simply didn’t want to see the physician.

~~~

PS: Although SINTERKLAAS has already arrived to our Oma’s town and Maarten can put his shoe by the chimney, the temperatures in San Ramon still climbs to the high 70s.

Exciting Times

This past Friday was Halloween. Our fourth one. As I’ve already mentioned, we arrived in the U.S. three years ago exactly on this particular day. I remember having mixed up feelings about seeing the people at customs dressed in costumes. Weird people those Americans, I thought...

After learning more about this practice and getting used to it, I have to admit that Halloween became one of my favorite holidays.

I love fall and this celebration fits very well into this season.
Even though we spent almost all of October visiting Europe, we were still in time for the Pumpkin Patch.

The boys even successfully made their first “jack-o’-lanterns”. Everything is much more fun to share with a little one. Maarten was soo excited seeing the lighted pumpkin face in the back yard.
Unfortunately, he laid down on the sofa seized with a fever. Probably still an aftereffect from jet lag.

We spent HALLOWEEN NIGHT at a friends’ house and Maarten and Anton, all dressed up as a pirate and a vampire, had an exciting time going trick-or-treating from door-to-door in the neighborhood.

The best part of the evening were of course tons of candies and...Maarten’s trick-or-treat baskets.


Starting with Halloween night the weather finally felt like fall. It also started to rain which pleased me and Maarten as well.


It got much colder and therefore Rob looked for his winter slippers. That’s how we found out that we are not the only residents in this house.


Another big issue during the last week and, I believe the most important one, was the presidential election. We are not allowed to vote of course but even we had our preference. I will not sum up all the reasons why I support Barack Obama.
I hope he will fulfill his promise to endorse the recovery of American economy and first and foremost take actions to improve our environment.

I understand some people are disappointed with the election results.
Yet, what shocked me was the range of reactions among my Republican friends against those with opposite political beliefs.
Let’s all respect each others' views and opinions!