It’s almost time!  The first Christmas markets in Vienna open up this week, and I’m nearly bouncing up and down with excitement.  I really, really enjoy the whole Christmas market experience.  It epitomizes many of my favorite things about the holidays — time spent together, socializing with family and community; doing a little bit of holiday shopping, mostly from small, local vendors; spending time outdoors (even when the weather is less than ideal); enjoying some warm, seasonal, festive food and drink and special treats.

I absolutely love it.  I’m kind of crazed about it.  I can’t get enough of the Christmas markets.

And, I’m a bit of a crazy person when it comes to planning and organizing.  I try to restrict this part of my nature to the parts of my life where it helps more than it hinders my general happiness.  In this case, I think it might help, so I’ve allowed myself to draw up a calendar of Christmas market attendance for the family.  My plan includes visiting all of the big Christmas markets (including one we didn’t make it to last year — see why we need a schedule?!?) in the first few weeks that they’re open.  This will allow us some flexibility in case the weather is truly terrible or any of us gets sick, and it’ll give us the time to go back and visit the ones we liked the very best again and again as we get closer to Christmas.  Plus, I’m hoping to be able to get all of our shopping done for our family in the US by early December, so we can get everything packed up and shipped off in time.  And, of course, I need ample opportunity to show Jo just how wonderful the Christmas markets are (of course, this is just an excuse, because she’ll undoubtedly figure it out on her own).

Ok, so I realize this is a little obsessive.  But, right now, I’m pretty excited.  Our first Christmas market visits will be this weekend, and I can’t wait.  Frohe Weihnachten!

I really wish I was a better cook.  Generally, I do ok, but it’s not a strong skill of mine.  I follow recipes really well, but I don’t know a lot about anything that requires any degree of discernment.  (So baking generally suits me better than actual cooking.)  It’s a skill I admire and envy in others, especially since I’ve become a stay-at-home mom.  It would be such a nice way to show love and caring for my family, but I don’t really possess the patience to put up with the learning curve, nor the time it takes to practice and get good.  So, I only really make a few things, and they have become routine (and thus, not very interesting).

Dan has become our main dinner preparer since we’ve lived in Vienna.  Mostly because he enjoys doing it more than I do, but also because when he spends an hour in the kitchen, the kids are happy to play with me, but if I try to spend an hour in the kitchen, I usually do it with one child wrapped around each leg, and that does awful things to my stress levels.

But, one of the amazing fringe benefits to having “Jo pair” here with us is that she likes to cook.  She loves to cook, actually, and she’s really, really good at it.  In the past 2 weeks, we’ve been regularly treated to yummy meals for lunch and dinner:  lasagna, caprese paninis, salads and pork medallions.  And, equally as cool, having her here has freed me up to cook a few meals that I usually don’t have the free time to prepare (like chili) and has made it so that when Dan cooks for us, it’s more of a treat for him, and less of a chore, because he’s doing it twice a week instead of five times a week.  She takes requests, input and the kids’ preferences into account, too.  We’re all eating really well.

So far, Jo’s time here has been (in my mind, at least — we’ll have to ask her) a real success.  She’s gotten to see some of the city, I’ve gotten to have some help with the kids, Dan’s getting in to work earlier and coming home earlier, which is nice for all of us, and we have the largely unanticipated benefit of having one of the day’s major tasks (feeding everyone) no longer occupy such a large part of my mental energy.  Life is good (and so is the food).

I set out this morning on a (very rare) solo errand.  I didn’t go far — just down the hill, towards the canal, still in the 1st district of Vienna, so still in my neighborhood.  Today was absolutely beautiful — sunny skies, cool weather (the breeze was a little chilly, but not unexpectedly so for Vienna in November).  It was a great day to be out for a walk, and, given that the mental energy I typically use to make sure my kids are happy and safe was momentarily unused, I contemplated how much I truly love not having a car.

Actually, maybe it’s more accurate to say that I love not needing to have a car.  I don’t mind having a car, if it’s free, and I don’t have to drive it very far very often, but honestly, right now, I prefer to not have one.  I really enjoy taking a quick trip down the hill to the toy store, or around the block to the grocery store, or downstairs to the stationery place — and I enjoy doing all of that MORE because I get to do it on foot.  Walking doesn’t carry the stresses (however small) of being in the car:  potentially getting stuck in traffic, being even slightly worried about the skill and awareness of the other drivers, finding a good parking space, having enough gas, etc.  Stepping out my front door, and setting out, on foot, to accomplish my tasks for the day, is really quite peaceful.  I find going out and running my errands so much more inviting and simpler because I can get there by walking.  I think it’s like the difference between having to “go to the gym” to run versus just being able to step out the front door and run — it takes so much less motivation, thought and mental energy to just be able to do it, without having to “go” anywhere.

I also really like the awareness I have of my neighborhood and my community because I walk through it every day.  I see the people, I hear the children playing in the park, I smell the good food cooking in the restaurants and the wood smoke from the chimneys and the leaves on the ground.  I know that it takes me 10 minutes to get to the toy store but 15 to get back, because the hill is long and steep.  I like it.  I like the sense I have of where I am and what’s around me.  I like being in touch with this city.

Today is my sister’s 32nd birthday.  As stated above, she’s awesome (she also suggested that as the title of today’s blog, and I don’t think she thought I’d do it, but there you go).  It’s wonderful to have a sister.  I have 3.  And 2 brothers.  (It’s wonderful to have them, too.)  And I have an amazing mom and a wonderful dad and a fantastic stepmother, and tons of aunts and uncles and cousins.  I am truly so very fortunate to have the family that I have.

The only problem is that I miss them terribly.  There is not a single day that goes by where I don’t have the thought, ‘I wish *they* could see this’.  (*They* could be any one, or more, of them.)  It happens EVERY SINGLE DAY.  I see something new, or watch my kids do something amazing, or witness something funny, or do something impressive, or make a complete fool of myself, and I constantly think, “I wish I could have shared that moment with my family”.

So today, like always, I am thinking of them, and most specifically, of my sister Amanda, who has a birthday today.  I wish I was there.  I wish I could be making plans with her about where we’d go to dinner this weekend, or what we’d make if we were staying in.  I wish we were in the same time zone so that I could have texted her as soon as I woke up and thought of her this morning, or the dozen other times I wanted to say “Happy birthday!” that happened before it was a decent hour to call or text where she was.

So, happy birthday Mina — you’re awesome!  I wish we could be together to celebrate how fantastically wonderful you are.  I miss you.

Like just about every other American, I’m pretty excited about the election happening today.  I have a very strong opinion about who I think should win and I feel like the stakes are very high.  I’m on pins & needles waiting to find out which way things are going to go.

But, I also feel INCREDIBLY distant from all of it.  Obviously I’m physically very far away from all the action, but I really feel the distance in time today.  I woke up, took B to school, came home, cleaned the house, took a shower and played with Liam for an hour before the polls had even opened back home — and I was already waiting anxiously to find out what was going on.  All day, I’ve been looking at Facebook, reading prognostications and examining evaluations of the Electoral College possibilities.  Even now, when dinner has been eaten, the kids have been bathed, stories have been read, children are falling asleep, and I am finishing up my day, there are about 3 more hours before the first projection will come in.  The suspense is maddening.  (Worse, I’ve been conditioned to expect a turn-around of less than 24 hours between casting my vote and finding out the results — and I voted almost a month ago, so I’ve been waiting a long time now.)

I may see some of the earliest projections from the “sure thing” states in the east that close the earliest before I go to bed, but it’s more likely that I’ll be in bed before even those states start to be called.  Hard to say whether I’ll be asleep, though — I’ll be very tempted to check the news outlets every few minutes while I try to convince myself the greater good will be served by closing my eyes.

On the plus side, I may know the result (or that there won’t be an immediate result) sooner than I would have if I were in the US — by the time the west coast polls close and get themselves sorted out, we’ll just be getting up here tomorrow morning.  I’m hoping we wake up to an answer — and a good one.

We woke up this morning to the sound of rain — big, heavy raindrops.  It rained on and off all day, and as the day went on, it got chillier outside (our high of nearly 50 was around 7 this morning).

When I went out this evening for my German lesson, it had stopped raining and the temperature had leveled out in the mid-forties — chilly but not unpleasant.  I walked the 10 minutes to my lesson wearing a jacket and a scarf, and I was very comfortable.

An hour later, I stepped out onto the sidewalk and got hit with a sharp breeze that cut right through my jacket and had me shivering before I’d gone a block.  In my fantasies of Christmas markets, gingerbread and roasted chestnuts, I’d managed to forget the biting cold of winter in Vienna.

I’ve got to crank up the radiators, put on my fuzzy slippers and dig out the gloves and hats.  I might have forgotten how cold it can get, but I’m certain I’ll be reminded of it soon enough.  Winter is coming, for sure.