leise rieselt der Schnee - for all those lovely people in Germany and Austria or whoever wants to join us!

[Canella]

a new wintery thread in honour of Hupa's first snow of the season!

Congratulations on your exam, bananas! Sorry to hear about the job, though - even though it may have been for the best in the end if it would have been very stressful, it must still be disappointing.

We clubbed together with the other parents to buy DD1's teacher a present as she had her class Christmas party on Monday, but we won't be getting anything for DD2's teacher (the parents' representative doesn't do half as much so no party organised, no collection arranged, etc.) or the kindergarten teachers. I've seen some children take flowers in for their kindergarten teacher at the end of the school year (esp. if they're going to school the next year) but otherwise I don't think that parents tend to give presents as much as they do in the UK (only if the teacher is leaving or the children are moving up from kindergarten to school - but then it's often a joint present from all the children/parents).

We've also had some good news - my dad has just phoned and apparently the train strike on Monday is confined to the Cardiff area. We're planning on catching the train from the airport to my parents', which takes about 3.5 hours - the only alternative would have been a taxi, but it would be extortionate on a bank holiday.

I've just agreed to help out with DD2's English lessons too, but will be alternating the two classes so still only need to go in to school once a week. DD2 is quite excited; she keeps coming home saying sentences like "This is ay car" and will start saying cät and räbbit soon if I'm not careful.

congrats banana on your exam but also :-( about the job! in scotland people say "whats for you will not go by you" - meaning the job wasnt for you. Are there many opportunities for jobs in your field in Austria?

Linzer - glad the strike isnt going to affect you! seems like travelling this xmas is definitely more stress than other years!
oh the joys of our bilingual kids not being able to say a good british "a"!!! my boys are not so bad except for saying "petrick"!!

dd got to school today! thankfully before we had killed each other!!

but its dh thats stressing me out now - he suddenly says yesterday - oh i can def take that first week in January off (after much hassle at work trying to sort out!) - do you think we could get a last minute ski holiday!!!

He wants me to find a ski holiday in Austria to go on Jan 1st or 2nd!! thats in 10 days time!! he's crazy! so i feel like i've spent too much time looking at a map of Austria trying to work out where places are!

does anyone know about the north corner of Austria - just north and a bit east of Salzburg? could we ski there - even a bit of cross country if there was no great downhill? any advice welcome!!

I'll ask DH about the skiing Canella - he's sort of from that area (well, from Linz which is north east of Salzburg!) so he might know. He's gone to make the last-minute arrangements for DD1's birthday party this afternoon, which we're having at a pottery studio and we'll then go to the Christmas market afterwards. It's such a relief not to be having the party at home this year!

It's the last day of school today so I'm enjoying my last few minutes of peace and quiet, but really should be getting on with some Christmas preparations. The tree is up, all the presents are wrapped and I think I've written all my cards, but I've hardly had time to think about food (DH has decided to cook a chicken for himself and the DC, and bought the smallest one he could find).

thanks for that linzer!! i also asked SIL since she's from the corner of germany that borders it but she didnt have much to say! but she gave me some other areas to try - think its round Lofer? so emailed loads this morning but just waiting to hear back!

found a half board hotel that i think was 1000? all in (have emailed them too just to check!!) which i think is ok for 5 nights but dh still lives in cloud cookoo land where he thinks holidays are cheaper than that for a family of 5!

Hope dd enjoys her party - sounds like a great idea for a party with no stress for you!

Well, I asked DH but he wasn't much help - he said he doesn't really know any skiing areas north east of Salzburg and that it's fairly flat there. He did suggest Flachau, which is south of Salzburg, but I'm not sure whether that would too far for you.

?1000 euros for five day's half board sounds quite reasonable to me; you could definitely spend much more for a family of five. A friend of mine is paying ?500 for an apartment for 6 in the Semesterferien, but it's self-catering - and she said they're too exhausted after a day's skiing to do much cooking.

Thanks for the kind words re job. Not sure how many more in my area of work, I shall have to explore....

That sounds like a good deal canella...esp at this time of year.Cool that you found it. I looked up the area you mentioned in my guide book but it was not very useful about skiing, sorry. It mentioned a few places but south of Salzburg.

Linzer- Thanks for the info on the presents... Hope the party goes well, it sounds lovely!

I missed DD1 class christmas party . She has been in a foul mood over the past few days...back to aggressive, hitting me, shouting at me. This morning, I warned her that I would not attend her party if she continued shouting, stomping round the house (at 7am)...and well, she continued. Oh dear, hope it gets better for the holidays. She is making family life pretty miserable at the moment. I feel awful writing that...

Off to do final bit of food shopping before the holidays break loose!

Hi! Hope everyone is having a lovely Christmas. We had raclette on Friday night, turkey with all the trimmings on Saturday and tonight it's roast beef with Yorkshire Pudding. Dh wanted to make the most of the holidays and to him that means FOOD.

Hi! Hope everyone has had a nice time. Far too much food eaten here and the dc had far too many sweets and chocolates! Today I think a nice crisp salad or plain veggies would be good.

Anyway, back to normal for the rest of the week. Westvan, do you know when the dc go back to school? Is it the Wednesday or just the Friday? Is the 6th a holiday here in Hannover?

We had an enexpected guest on Christmas day. Dh went in to his office to pick up some papers and saw a lonsome student who just arrived here from Bulgaria so he brought him back home rather than let him spend the day alone. He was - thank goodness - a nice polite and friendly student who even communicated with the dc! We have had some (mostly German nationality) who didn't even speak to the dc in the past.

morning!! glad you both had a good christmas - that was def a good deed you did there ad!! bet that made his christmas - must be awful to be alone at christmas in a foreign country!

same here with way too much food!! had a lie in this morning - didnt get up till 9.30 and i still wasnt hungry! think it'll be salads for us too today!

Bananas - hope things with your dd got a bit better over the christmas days! it feels like a long time that they're off when they're being naughty. ds2 was an awful toddler so much so that i used to dread times when he wasnt in kiga! but its just recently got better - not sure whether its that he got older or whether its my parenting (altho i really doubt that!) hope things improve for you too!

well we booked a few days ski holiday in the end in the Thueringer Wald. My MIL suggested it and suddenly made sense! its not that far from us - maybe just over an hour but there is proper ski facilities and ski schools for the dc! so we're staying in an appartment in a hotel for 5 nights - really looking forward to it think especially cause i dont need to spend hours in the car! thats the worst bit for me about holidays and we're scarred after spending 11 hours (!!!!!!) getting to the Ostsee in the summer!

so got a few days to get stuff organised! bet i leave all that to the very last minute too!!

hope you all have a great week! off out now to buy snow shovels - my FIL broke ours cause there was that much snow on christmas day!!! going to buy 2 this time just to be sure!

Hi Ad! Sounds like you had an interesting Christmas. I double checked - the kids go back on Thursday January 6th.

Schulferien Niedersachsen

No time to read or post right now - after Christmas mess to clean up!

Hope you have fun skiing, Canella!

Good to hear that everyone has had a good time. We´ve had a really quiet, but enjoyable Christmas.

admylin - I´m sure the student really appreciated your kindness. I bet his parents were also delighted when they found out - I know I would be if either of the dc were in that situation.

Well there was me thinking we were heading of to London, but dh has booked us a surprise skiing trip in Austria. I only found out just before Christmas as I wanted to book the ferry and dh had to admit we weren´t going. Luckily my friend in England was in on the whole thing, so won´t be disappointed that we´re not coming (more likely relieved that her house isn´t being invaded). Anyway we´re off on Saturday to Zell am See.

What´s everyone up to at Silvester? We´re planning to get up early the next day, so will be staying at home, but will probably stay up to midnight as dh loves setting off fireworks.

Great to read that christmas was good to all.
We also had a good time, then DH went back to work on Tuesday and half an hour later the electricity and heating went off... luckily someone came out to fix it that afternoon! Now I know there is also a fuse box in the stairwell outside the flat and know what a blown fuse looks like there.

Have fun skiing Canella and Hupa. Sounds lovely. Hope Linzer made it to the Uk okay.

off to start the day and venture out. all the snow has gone but it is cooooold!

It's so cold isn't it? We can't get the car out now. The slope is iced up and we can't shovel it so dh is going to try and get some of that evil salt/grit stuff at the petrol station. Don't fancy the trip to the Baumarkt on the bus and tram. Have thought of spraying anti-freeze on it but that might just make it worse.

Well done on getting a holiday booked Canella. Your holiday was a nice surprise hupa! Hope you both have a great time. Linzer hope you're enjoying yourself and the trip to London is good. Happy shopping!

Is everyone buying fireworks this year? I got a small pack last year (the safer ones for dc) but I am trying to convince them that it's too cold to go out at midnight this year. We've booked a table to go out for a meal at a nearby restaurant but we'll be home well before midnight!

It's freeeezing! Warmer today than yesterday, though. I don't think I've been out of the house since Saturday except to feed the birds and hack the ice off the steps so the postman doesn't slip.

We always have tons of fireworks, the loud sparkly rocket kind. Not my choice at all, but dh and the kids love them. They go outside on the lawn and set them off and I stay inside and watch. This year I think we'll have to go out onto the street corner and hang around with the neighbours for a while - they're all thick as thieves after the summer block party they had that dh went to (I was ill so couldn't go) and we're now expected to show up. Ugh. Maybe for five minutes and then off to bed. I don't even know if I can stay awake until midnight!

We're having a fondue, same as every year. I make a vegetable broth beforehand and then we cook different kinds of meat and seafood in it. I guess I should go grocery shopping now so we'll actually have something on the table.

Hello all! We had a surprisingly smooth journey back to Wales on Monday, although it was a long day - it took us 12.5 hours to get back here. Having to change in Düsseldorf didn't help, as we had a 2.5 hour wait there, but at least it meant we could fly from Vienna rather than Bratislava.

We had a day to recover from our journey before DH and I went to London - we had a great time there, although I must confess we focused on the shopping rather than the cultural side of things. DH had booked afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason as a Christmas present, which was lovely; it was so nice to be able to linger over a cup of tea/coffee and to be able to have a conversation without being interrupted every 10 seconds by one of the DC.

Hope everyone's OK and that you enjoy your skiing trips Canella and hupa. We've just booked a skiing course for DD2 and DS in the Semesterferien, but it's within driving distance so we can take them there and back every day.

Re fireworks - they're selling them here (in the UK) at Lidl at the moment; in fact, I seem to remember fireworks being let off at New Year last year too, so it looks like it's becoming more common in Britain now as well.

All the best to everyone for 2011!

Happy new year everyone!
It's thawing here and last night wasn't as freezing as I thought when I went out at midnight to the firework madness!
Hope everyone had a nice time and enjoy what's left of the holidays.

happy new year everyone!! hope you all had a nice time! glad your journey went ok linzer!! and hupa - that was a proper nice surprise!

off skiing tom - hope i come back in one piece!! must crack on with the packing!!

Happy New Year! We made it to midnight and set off a few rockets with the neighbours.

Happy new year all!

Hope that skiing holidays and family visits are going well as I type.

The DC are still off school here. We are filling our days with lots of free activiites that different groups put on over the holidays...wonderful.

Back from skiing!! had a fantastic few days! there was an unbelievable amount of snow - it was as high as the bathroom window! And the kids actually did some skiing - well cross country skiing! and they all loved it! Especially the downhill bits! so going to look for some downhill lessons for them all! But ds2 was so cute - he's only 4 and everyone was amazed to see him pushing along on his wee skis! he had all the women cooing at him! which he promptly ignored since he's a macho boy!

But the journey back today was a nightmare - the council have ran out of grit so they've just left the roads to turn to black ice!! we live really rurally and were driving over the hilly road to us when the car just wouldnt go any further - it was slipping down instead!! we were about 3 miles from home but it took us 3 hours to get there!!!!!! I got out to walk with the kids - well at least to the next village - but a kind family in an isolated house took us in and let the kids watch tv till dh got the car out! But i'd managed to fall hard on the ice before this - really unsure if i've not broken a bone in my hand! its even a bit sore to type! cant believe i survived a few days skiing but then injured myself on the last bit of the journey home!!

but we got home in the end thanks to another woman who, with dh, broke enough ice that dh could get the car started going again! think other people were more sensible - there were only 4 cars on the road in that whole time! but all of them got stuck!

so will see tomorrow about going to A&E if my hand is still sore - not going anywhere today! waiting for the promised melting to start!

hope you've all had a good few days! Can throrougly recommend my wee ski area if anyone wants to ski but not drive to the alps!

Welcome back!
Sounds like you got caught in the Blitzeis canella. It was really bad here too. Loads of accidents on the roads and schools closed (first day back too).
In Hannover they announced it was up to parents to send their dc or not but my 2 made it slipping and sliding along the pavement!
Good that you enjoyed the skiing, now you will have something to look forward to every winter!
Hope your hand is OK.
Off to get dinner ready, a colleague is coming with dh so no peaceful evening under the blanket on the sofa!

I've broken my hand!! Not too badly but its my riight hand and i'm in a splint to the fingertips of my last 3 fingers!!! Wondering if since the ice has gone if i'll be able to drive - i've got a finger & thumb free!!!

oh dear canella...sorry to hear that. ouch. what hand is it? how long will you have a splint for? Hope it heals well and that you get lots of help. Great to read you had a good time on your holiday. It must be nice to have the whole family skiing!

I can recommend Schuh-Schneeketten that tchibo are selling at the moment.I have something similar from Finland and they saved me from many falls on the ice.

School starts on Monday here...so last couple of days of relaxing mornings...it´s going to feel like a rush to have to get out at a certain time. But then, in a couple of weeks it is the Semesterferien....