Brace for impact... 2014 coming in!

Well folks, here we are on the eve of another new year, anticipating the next set of 365 days. We are more than ready. We have chosen our attire to ring in the new year, coincidentally we both opted for our well worn draw string sweats and our favorite pj shirt (mine has Perry the Platypus plastered on it. Oh YEA!). New Years Kiss? We'll be taking that early. About three hours early... so we can have a New Year's snooze. No countdown, no noise makers (other than the occasional snore...), and I am very much looking forward to that!

If I were superstitious, I might think 2013 was an unlucky year and possibly out to get me (don't get me wrong, loads of good things happened too, but also a lot of challenges and difficulties). Whilst drafting my resolutions/goals for the year to come, I looked back to see what took place this year.

Some of the larger occurrences were moving halfway around the world (overseas to a foreign country where we didn't speak the language!), first home with just me and hubby, having our first child, learning about and dealing with his PKU condition, discovering I have cancer, undergoing major surgery, then discovering I still had cancer and it was far more extensive than they first thought which resulted in massive diet and lifestyle changes for us (the status of it's efficacy is still undetermined). These were some of the bigger things, though not all. There were ups and downs, hubby missed his test for promotion, I lost one of my best friends of eight years, but gained many new friends. I have traveled to 8 different countries this year, which were wonderful opportunities that I am quite thankful for, but traveling can also be very tiring. I added everything up and found that I spent over two months staying/sleeping in places other than our home. Looking back at all that's happened this year, the first thought that comes to mind is, man am I exhausted! What an intense year it's been! I wish I could pull a Rip Van Winkle and sleep for the next couple decades, but alas, aside from death I don't think that's a feasible option.

I recall last year at this time, getting the vibe that 2013 was going to be a big year, and that certainly proved true. I am praying for and anticipating a much more peaceful and uneventful year for 2014. Other than successfully ridding myself of cancer, I think I’d be happy if nothing else happened this year.

As far as the blog goes, I noticed that I have 73 published posts. Not bad! That’s an average of 1.4 posts a week. (And I have 24 drafts that never made it to publishing… hm, better luck next year eh?) The blog has also amassed over 15,000 views since I started it in January of this year. Cool.

The resolutions/goals were easy to make this year. Most people have goals to eat healthier (can’t get any healthier than I’ve been eating!) or to lose weight (I’ve lost 20 pounds since starting this diet, I’m trying to figure out which vegetable will most help me gain weight!) and I already spend the max amount of time with all the loved ones and friends that I can. My main goals are to get more sleep, spend more time in meditation, and to conquer this cancer. Keeping it simple ;) My hubby and I also came up with goals as a couple, like going on an excursion of some sort every week, which should be fun.

I’m very thankful I made it to see a new year. I pray that I make it to my birthday, then my son’s birthday, and so on and so forth and hopefully next year I’ll still be around to write another scattered post about the following year to come. Thank you everyone for your love, prayers, and support. They helped to brighten our 2013 :) 

A picture from our excursion this morning. Family bike ride! Our LO wasn't too keen on the helmet, and he wouldn't keep the sunglasses on his head... but he definitely enjoys the riding part!

P.S. Ring in the New Year for me? This tired woman is going to bed! 

Buon Natale a tutti!

Buon Natale! (Merry Christmas!) This year was our first Christmas abroad, and it was definitely a different experience to be without immediate family, but there were positives and negatives to that aspect. While we missed our family, being without them gave us the opportunity to figure out what we wanted to do as a family and the traditions we would like to start. We also got to invite other Airmen over who would have nowhere else to go otherwise.

I finished our stockings Christmas Eve! Whew!

Our tree this year, as you can see to the right, is really a garland that we taped to the wall. And yes, I then strung lights through it and hung ornaments onto it. It made it all the way until dessert time on Christmas before the tape decided to fling itself off the wall. One ornament was sacrificed in the process.

I looked into traditional holiday desserts, and found that mince pies, marzipan, and figgy puddings, all seemed to have odd ingredients that might be difficult to find, and were either too complicated or time consuming for my energy levels. Then I found that “Yule Logs” are also considered a traditional dessert, so we decided to give that one a try. It was a success! I was rather concerned as I was making it that it would resemble a turd instead of a log, but one of our friend's was able to guess what it was, so I think that qualifies it as a success. And hubby said it was delicious. Voila! We have now voted in our candidate for yearly traditional dessert. My hubby made a fantastic meal of glazed ham, sautéed green beans, creamy mashed potatoes with chicken gravy, and mango chutney brussel sprouts (who won’t be reprising their Christmas appearance as a vegetable side…) and warm Italian bread rolls. For me, it was another dinner night like any other, and all I ate were the green beans. But I was pleased to watch everyone else enjoy the good food.

Our Yule Log! It was a large flour-less chocolate cake (baked in a cookie sheet) which I rolled with a fluffy chocolate cream filling. I then frosted the outside. All from scratch, and hubby said it was 'delicious' multiple times. Yay!

"Brown paper packages tied up with string, these are a few of my favorite things..."

 For those of you who ‘Pinterest’, (yes, that is a verb, just like ‘google’), you know that wrapping presents in brown paper is a current trend. I decided to join that bandwagon this year (mostly because I didn’t want to spend the money on rolls of wrapping paper), and my hubby and I quite like how it turned out. Hubby and I wrapped our gifts to each other with reused brown paper grocery bags and twine. I would decorate a couple of them with some fake foliage or pine-cone of some sort and it looked great. The presents looked sweet and simple, clean and neat, instead of the overwhelming shiny color onslaught, it was inexpensive and recycled, and made far less mess than the other shredded Christmas papers. This might become a wrapping tradition of ours.

Someone on base picked us as their Secret Santa recipient. What a kindness! Whomever they were, they are very generous and gave Adam a load of gifts, most of which were hand made wooden Italian toys. What a lucky kid! And due to overseas shipping difficulties, not all of our gifts from stateside family made it here on time, so our Christmas has been extended!

Even our Christmas cold seems to have an upside, as it has forced us to stay inside and snuggle. We had a very blessed Christmas and I am so thankful for everything in it. I hope you, dear reader, also had a lovely Christmas. Buon Natale a tutti!

P.S. Below are some pictures of our Little One exploring Christmas decor. Rediscovering Christmas with little ones really helps rekindle the magic and wonder side of Christmas! So fun! And bonus, I got to practice my night photography skills ^_^

Austria - Hohensalzburg Fortress

We awoke today (at 6 am sharp due to our ever punctual little alarm clock!), to a flurry of snowflakes outside our window. When we left the house at 8:40, a good amount of snow dusted the roads and houses. 

We apparently like to travel in packs of red Camrys. Here my friend helps improve our driving visibility through the snow covered windshield.

In the hopes of saving on parking expense, we parked at the airport Park and Ride and rode the bus into the old town (For the record, it was not the cheapest option, don't try it). Once in Old Town Salzburg, our first destination was the impressive Hohensalzburg Fortress, pictured below. This Fortress is the largest fully-preserved fortress in central Europe and dates back to the 11^th century.

It was so cold there that my camera was having difficulty working! I ended up removing it from my backpack and wearing it under my jacket layers in the hopes my body heat would keep it working when I removed it for pictures. That was a good plan and it seemed to work with less difficulty after that! You can see our fortress destination on the hilltop behind us. 

Several archbishops, starting with Archbishop Gebhard and later expanded upon by the following archbishops, built this grand castle. In order to reach the fortress from the city below, one can hike the footpath, or take the funicular from Festungsgasse. If you look to the right here, you can see the track in which the funicular travels up the mountain. We had originally planned to hike up to the fortress and back down, but due to the extreme cold, snow, and intense winds, we opted to take the funicular both directions. 

The funicular, built in 1892, was a tram, traveling up the hillside in minutes, with large glass windows offering breathtaking (and sheltered!) views of the surrounding city below us. With the purchase of our Salzburg card, (which I mentioned in yesterday's post) the Funicular and other entrance fees at the Fortress were already included. The card also allowed us to 'fast pass' the line and jump directly onto the funicular, saving us wait time and allowing us a choice spot for viewing as we rode up the mountain. 

Here is one of the pictures I took on the Funicular ride up! Center bottom you can see one of the trams traveling down the track back to the station, and above you can see a wintery view of Salzburg.  

After leaving the Funicular station at the top, we walked along the fortress exterior, making our way to the main entrance. It was enthralling to be at/in a fortress and feel immersed in medieval Austrian history! 

The picture at left is one of the doors and stairways we went through. The symbol above the doorway the fortress symbol: a lion with a beetroot/turnip in it's paws. They told us on one of the tours why the turnip became a part of the symbol, it was something about possibly being the crop one of the Archbishop's home towns grew. Though another story was that he was beat with the turnip by his father. Whatever the reason, it is the symbol and you would see it in various locations throughout the fortress. I tried to snap as many of these fascinating details my freezing fingers would let me! On the other side you can see my hubby standing with our LO on his back.

One of the shots of the view on the walkway. 

Welcome to the fortress! Once inside the wall, we entered into an interior road dotted with many buildings which were small shops, museums, or places to dine. It was also well decorated for the Christmas season. So pretty!

On one of the tours, we were led up to the highest lookout tower. The view was spectacular, even with the winter storm swirling around us. I can only imagine how fabulous it would look if the skies were clear!

This is a view down into a portion of the grounds from that same tower. It was another one of those, "Wow, I AM IN A CASTLE!" moments. 

The tower was a neat place to be, but we didn't get to explore it long as it promptly started hailing. We then fled back into the safety of the castle walls. 

We went on a self-guided audio tour, which was fairly interesting, though made slightly difficult by fussy little ones. My husband missed nearly the entire audio guide and I only caught bits and pieces, however we still got to walk through the rooms and explore the history for ourselves. This picture is of the battlement walkway; A long hallway running along the exterior fortress wall, with frequently placed lookout spots or windows, allowing one to see what was going on around and below. 

We also visited where prisoners and criminals were kept and viewed commonly used torture devices. Let me tell you our modern day criminals are lucky to be in modern prisons!

Despite being well outfitted for battle, the assets of this fortress were never used since it was never attacked or conquered as it’s appearance itself was foreboding enough to ward off enemies. 

This courtyard (pictured above) served as the main square for the fortress community, which was home to around one thousand people. If necessary, this fortress could be entirely self-sufficient and was home to bakers, blacksmiths, and other various craftsmen. The well in the far left of the picture, connected to a rain-fed cistern and provided ample water for the people. We stopped here and procured some Glühwein to drink. Glühwein is a warm, spiced wine, and is a common beverage here. My hubby tried it and wasn't fond of it, our traveling mates however, loved it. Whenever we bought some sort of warm drink, it was served in a unique mug which was meant to be kept. As such, we now have several Salzburg themed mugs.

A small but ornate chapel off of the courtyard. 

Us, on a balcony off of the courtyard. My friend took this one of us! Another benefit of group traveling, you get more family pictures than you would by yourselves. Thanks! And just in case you couldn't tell, I am smiling under all my warm layers. Hubby is holding his mug of warm spiced wine. 

My hubby has a great smile, but here his face was mid-thaw. (Did I mention it was freezing outside?)

We lunched at a restaurant in the fortress that was decorated in renaissance style. If you look very bottom right of the picture above, you can see that our LO has fallen asleep in his carrier. He slept for two hours! While we appreciated his sleep, it was a bit of a bummer because I really wanted to put him in that highchair on the right. However we were very thankful that the carrier arrived just before our journey. It made it so much easier to travel about, and he would sleep in it all the time! 

The next few pictures are for the foodies, those who want to know all the details of our dietary intake in other countries. You know who you are ;) The dish right was what my husband ordered, some pork loins with a dumpling served over cabbage. Austria and Germany both were very much a meat and potatoes sort of people. Austria was also very fond of cabbage, and a bed or bowl of it seemed to be included in every dish. 

This plate at right was my dish. Yes, I took some liberties with my diet. Not always intentionally, but I did all the same. However none were as much as I wished I could have. It was more like, I’d let myself have salad dressing on salads (I normally eat them plain) and here I have veggie patties, which were mostly potato (and potato isn’t normally on my diet). So while I took some liberties, they were almost all considered vegan, so they weren’t a far stretch from my normal dietary intake. And let me tell you, those few things, like salad dressing, tomatoes, and potatoes, were deliciously flavorful! I may not have gotten to have roast suckling pig and dumplings, but I got to have some exciting foods without going too far away from my diet. 

I don't recall the name of this dish, but our friends ordered and shared this large platter of mixed meats with dumplings over a bed of - you guessed it - cabbage! They said it was quite good, and I got to eat their wee salad on the far right. Yay for even more veggies!

My knight in not-so-shiny armor is a lot shorter than I had thought he would be... I think I'll keep the hunk at far left ;)

After lunch, we departed the fortress in order to explore the baroque styled city below us.

Leaving the Fortress and heading to the Funicular. I love how everything is built around rock and stone! 

I leave you with this final picture I took of the beautiful city of Salzburg. Thank you for bearing with my on this long picture filled post. I have much more coming if you're interested, so stay tuned!

This was a view off of a balcony at the fortress (when the snow let up for a bit!). Salzburg with it's baroque elements was very picturesque. The ribbon of water weaving through the city is the Salzach River. 

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