Goings On

Been a while since our last post, so a few little stories to write about.

The 5th here is St. Mikulas day.  Mikulas, is sort of like Father Christmas, but with two sidekicks, an angel and a devil.  The devil and angel ask the child if they've "been naughty or nice."  If you've been judged bad, the devil may put you in his sack and take you away.  Kids know to sing a song for the devil to calm him down.  Meanwhile kids hope for the angel, who carries a basket of candy, to handout their share.  Everyone really enjoys playing it up.  In a way, it's a cross between Christmas and Halloween, but with only 3 costumes.  People, mostly teenagers and young adults, dress the part.  The pic below has two devils, the favorite of the 3 costumes.

Ella sang to most devils, or in the case of one special devil, she gave him a drawing she prepared.   I think her extra step confused this young Mikulas.

On the weekend after that, Ella and daddy went on a boat ride.  A promise for a couple weeks, Ella finally had her first boat ride on the Vltava, the river running through Prague.  Picture is of Ella's pirate face with the Charles bridge behind her.

When we finished our tour up and down the Vltava, we walked to Old Town Square to see the Christmas markets.  We listened to a visiting choir sing (ours was from the UK), ate a sausage and drank juice (Ella) and mulled wine (daddy) and watched the tourists shop.

Old Town Square also sports a petting zoo during the holidays.  Pic of Ella reaching in for the mama goat.

Another big event for us - getting our Christmas tree.  With some helpful guidance, Ella selected our tree.  Here's us walking to the local street vendor near Letna. 

And us bringing it home to mom

And it's up!

Oh, one more thing...while mommy and Mattias were out grocery shopping...daddy introduced Ella to a very special treat: fluff.  Yes, daddy discovered a jar of fluff in a store a few weeks back - quite a shock to daddy!!  He had been waiting for just the right time to bring it out.

So, Ella and daddy made themselves each a "fluffanutter" sandwich, peanut butter and marshmallow fluff.  Mmm, mmm, good.

Picture of Ella waiting oh so patiently for daddy to take this picture.