Super-Cute Birthday Video

No, not Jeff's birthday (although some would say he looked "cute" celebrating his birthday). This is a belated posting of Mattias blowing out his candles.

Sledding Action!

Ella flies solo in Stromovka...




Mattias and Ella sled with Mom in Spindleruv Mlyn...

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

We finally made it to the Czech mountains this past weekend. Jeff arranged the trip with some of his coworkers, who happen to be Malaysian and Indonesian, so there weren't many skiiers in the group. :-) We rented cars and made our way to Spindleruv Mlyn, which lies in the Krkonose Mountains, about 10 kilometers from the Polish border. We were very happy that the weather cooperated, and the chains for our tires remained in the trunk.

Rather than ski, we enjoyed exploring the town...

playing in the snow....

admiring the view (it actually reminded us quite a bit of the White Mountains in NH)...

and sledding....

We also enjoyed an absolutely lovely ride by horse and sleigh...a real "over the river and through the woods" experience complete with "jingle bells just like Santa".

All too soon it was time to go home. The kids were happy to be back in Prague...

...but Mattias is already saving for our next trip.

An Update on Jeff's Job

Update to this update: Yes, it means we're heading back to North America (don't know where exactly yet, but when we know, you'll know).

Back in early December, we mentioned that Jeff's (my) days are numbered at work.
There's not been a lot of talk about it here, because -- there's not been much to say.

I first heard rumors in September.
In October, rumors were more credible, with estimates of numbers & dates.
Through November, memos and meeting minutes were leaked and spread (but no official announcement).
Finally, in early December, during our annual "all-hands" meeting, we got the official word, complete with one slide showing a timetable. Layoffs to happen sometime between February and April.

Corporate culture is what it is.

But, yesterday was a breakthrough. Yesterday, those of us who already knew we were "affected," got to meet with HR. HR had us sign a form as a formal "at risk" warning of a layoff. [Required by law here.]
What was on the form? An outline of applicable employee protection laws (Czech national, plus some EU ones).
The key points that affect our timing are these:
- A forum will decide on February 4th whether to proceed with layoffs or not.
- If decided, notices will be served no sooner than 30 days after yesterday.
- Once a notice comes, we work 2 more months, to start the next calendar month.

So, it looks like 2 scenarios could happen for us:
1. Notice comes 25th or 26th of February; I work March and April.
2. Notice comes in March; I work April and May.

'Course, if my notice is delayed, the end of work is delayed. We're keeping our fingers crossed for Feb or March. We'd like to spend the summer here, but no later.

On our end, we're arranging our flat's future, making travel plans, making party plans and reviewing our CVs/resumes.

Hope to have more word in late February!

-Jeff

2010....So Far

We haven't had much to say lately, but isn't because we haven't had much to do. Here is a quick summary of some of the things we've been up to (or those things we can describe with photos, anyway!)

Jeff and Maylia celebrated New Year's Eve in Prague, the way they know and love....in the middle of the mayhem at Wenceslas Square. It was just as crazy as the other years. Maylia even got hit in the arm with one of the smaller rockets. Luckily nothing but a singe mark on her jacket resulted.

New Years Day saw the arrival of Grammy and Grampy. We found out their flight was delayed after Jeff and Ella had been waiting for them at the airport. Ella was so excited to see them that she made the decision to stay and wait, basically resulting in a full-day spent at the airport! We had lots of fun while they were here, starting with the official city fireworks the night of the first.

Ella and Mattias loved having Grammy and Grampy here. They visited the Salt Cave, drank hot chocolates in the cafe across the street, went to the municipal house to see an exhibit of costumes from Czech fairytale movies...but most importantly, they just spent time together.

As seen below, Mattias turned two to great acclaim. But another member of the family also celebrated a birthday. We enjoyed a fun night with a bunch of friends at a Peruvian restaurant (Casa Andina) and club (Barra Libre). The next day was a LONG day.

Another birthday celebrated, was Ella's friend, Santi. Who turned the big 5. He had a costume party where Ella got to dress up like "Fancy Nancy" (Thanks for the fancy costume, Grammy!)

And...we've got snow! Ella has been going sledding with her skolka nearly every day. Yesterday we even got to build a snowman with Karen, Sasha, and Roman.

Mattias' Birthday

Our big boy turned 2 yesterday.

Mattias invited 14 of his closest friends & siblings to the Prague aquarium. The parents got to come, too -whew.

Grammy & Grampy Parker are visiting us here since the 1st. They made sure the kids were supplied with plenty of fish food for the aquarium's open tank where kids can make a lot of swimming friends. The party was a really fun time.

We would post some of our own pictures, but they can't compare to a video made by our friend, Susanne. Susanne's daughter, Elise is Mattias' newest playground buddy.



Thank You, Susanne! :-)