Wrapping Up 2015

It's that time of year - these past few weeks have been super busy and I am frantically running around trying to get everything done before we leave for Boston tomorrow! I can't believe Christmas is next week. Getting our tree up didn't go exactly as expected and because of some issues with the lights (and the fact that we didn't have a Christmas party that I thought we were going to have last weekend which would have been the ultimate motivation to get it done), it has been a slow work-in-progress. Once I got the lights on the kids were in charge of decorating.  I never ended up finding a mini saw or wire clippers or something to cut the really long branch at the top, but I think it still looks pretty and the kids love it! I am just super disappointed that once again our tree doesn't smell, I guess the ones in the US are special.

I am not sure if I ever mentioned before that I coach girls soccer at the kids' school, and at the end of each season I organize a game against the teachers. The game was Monday after school so I found a place to make cute soccer cupcakes and then after a fun game (the girls won of course!), one of the Polish moms brought in pizza and we had a little celebration.

Then one of the Polish dads gave me this huge bouquet of flowers to say thank-you for volunteering my time, then he had all the girls sing hip hip hooray! to me - I was really touched!!

Earlier in the day my personal trainer (I have been forced to use one since the first two gyms I belonged to closed down!) brought me some bottles of beer from her father's specialty beer store because she knows I love beer.  Cherry, gluten-free, and dark. Yum!!

Then in our subsequent discussion about her father I discovered I am 2 years older than her parents and I wanted to cry. How is that even possible?!

Even though I was feeling some Polish love this week, Poland still managed to annoy me - the lady I bought the cupcakes from runs her shop out of her apartment, so when I asked for her address she wrote 'Gen. F. Nila 9/7'. I searched and searched on google maps for it before finally giving up. Luckily I was going to school that day so I asked one of the taxi drivers who had to drop a pin on the map for me. The correct address is, 'General Emilia Augusta Fieldorfa Nila 9/7'. Really?! I need to find the person who names streets here and smack them upside the head. After I ended up finding building #9, I started buzzing #7 but the lady never answered - thankfully my internet was working (because I always run out of data, have tried several times to increase it with no luck) and I was able to find her phone number and call her, and she told me it was buzzer #9. Makes no sense to me - or maybe she just wrote it wrong. Anyway, the cupcakes were really cute but the kids said they weren't that great. I am not surprised, because Europeans just don't know how to make a good cupcake!! So now I will sign off until Christmas, but want to leave you with a picture of our girl Stella hanging out in the cupcake carrier. We are going to miss her, but luckily she will be in good hands with our housekeeper Asia. Merry Christmas!!