Ella's First Ride

Did we mention Ella got a bike for Christmas?

She's been riding it around the living room for a few weeks.  Finally, last Sunday, we took it for a spin in Letna Park.

  ...and a new video is born.

Celebration Time, Come on!

Yeah, you know the song, sing along!   ....stop.

Last Friday we tipped our beer glasses en masse to honour Jeff's 40th.  And the crazy old man actually gave his best shot to keep up with all the youngsters.   And speaking of "best shot," he even had a few shots, too.  Well, he tried to, anyway.

Jeff and Maylia started celebrating early with dinner at one of the few Korean restaurants in Prague.  To really make it a big celebration, we went for samgyopsal - where we cook the pork strips on our grill and fill up the lettuce leaves.  So, so, so good.  And then off for beers...

The pub that we went to was called, appropriately enough, The Pub.  Remember in a previous post we said we'd be doing some competitive drinking?  That's what The Pub is all about.

The Pub is like a sports bar, but the sport is drinking.  Each table seats a group, ~6-8 people.  (We reserved 2 tables.)  Each table has its own draft taps and LCD display which tallies how many liters you've poured.  In fact, at each table, you can monitor up to 10 different drinkers.  That's the drinking part.   Then there's the massive scoreboard at the head of the restaurant that shows each table's standing for that Pub.  And...your table's standing across all Pubs (12) across the Czech Republic.   It took us a few hours as a group just to get on the scoreboard....tough work competing with Czechs!  We think it's an idea that would go over HUGE in the US or Canada.  It was a fun atmosphere and was one of the few times we ever witnessed total strangers here interacting.  Made for a good time.

We had the camera out toward the end, so we'll post a few of the group pics.

Roberto, Jeff, Maylia and Kristen
A pic of Veronica, Matthias and Robert0.  (And some of the scoreboard)
Kristen's husband, Ondrej, runs a screen-printing business and had a sportsy polo made for Jeff: "Jeff 40"
Some of the fine women there ... Ali, Claudia, Maylia and Karen

Yes, We Can (cater food, deliver flowers, ...)


While waiting for my tram to work this morning, I noticed a local catering wagon (Zátiší Catering) rolling up to the nearby traffic light. I wouldn't have given the delivery vehicle a second thought if I hadn't noticed their motto, Yes, We Can, printed on the back window even larger than their company name.

I thought to myself: That sounds familiar...where have I heard that from? {yeah, right}

For the hell of it, I searched for "Yes we can 'our motto' " on Google - and got thousands of hits. Even skipping direct accounts of Obama's speech, the 3 words are still popular as mottos adopted by businesses other than our local catering company. A florist, nursing agency, even Bob the Builder (Can we fix it? Yes, we can!), some claiming to have said it first.


I'll save our family blog from political talk, but I would be happy to see businesses benefit by taking one man's hopeful words as their own. If the catchphrase becomes a self-fulfilling marketing campaign, cranking out a little more home-grown prosperity, all the better.

Obama's Presidential inauguration tomorrow? We'll be watching it online from here. From recent pictures of the growing crowds on Memorial Mall, I don't think we could get any closer anyway.

Birthday - we're half done celebrating

On other, much lesser news, we celebrated my 40th last week, just Maylia and I, dining at the upscale Kampa restaurant, Cowboys. Maylia had filet mignon with delicious sides, while I had their flagship specialty burger. And Maylia saw to it they knew it was my birthday, but we'll write more on our Cowboys night out later.
This Friday, we will celebrate again, this time a planned evening of competitive beer drinking with friends. We'll post more about both places after we recover this weekend.

Thank you all for your super sweet birthday wishes, gifts, and kind words of encouragement for entering the adult world (kicking and screaming).

-Jeff

FIRST UP.... AN ELLA FASHION SHOW...

Ella wearing her awesome Indian outfit from Caesar and Sarita...

And hamming it up in her Malaysian outfit from Daddy...

And finally looking sweet as honey in a dress Maylia once wore...

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy Birthday!

We've been busy celebrating and haven't posted to let you all know about it - other than that video of  "How Responsible Parents Celebrate New Years Eve", of course. 

So here are some photos to summarize the recent festivities.

We were lucky enough to have Grammy with us for the holiday season.  On Christmas Eve we went downtown (in the rain!) to show Grammy the beautiful Prague Christmas Markets.

Here is our tree fully-decorated and awaiting Santa's arrival.

Ella woke up at 4am Christmas Day, saw all the presents, including her bike, but still went back to sleep until 8am!!!! Here she is riding her new bike later that day, wearing nothing but undies and her new rainboots!

On Boxing Day, Grammy, Jeff, and Ella went to see the Nutcracker at the National Theater. Ella absolutely LOVED her first ballet and made Jeff promise that they would go again soon.

Between celebrations, Grammy, Ella, Mattias, and Maylia visited the local "Salt Cave".  It is man-made and reportedly good for your respiratory system. The photo is a bit dark but is more true to the actual setting.

You've already seen what Jeff and Maylia were up on New Years Eve night.  But earlier that same day, we also attended a fun children's party at our friend's toy workshop (you may have something of Mirek's on your toy shelf!). The party included an improvisational fairytale prepared by some of the parents.

On New Years Day, we all enjoyed the official City Fireworks. Here's a 12 second snippet of the nearly 17 minute show.

On January 3rd, Grammy's last day in Prague, we celebrated Mattias' birthday by visiting the aquarium. The birthday boy had a blast!

And of course, he got to try birthday cake for the first time...which he honestly seemed a little overwhelmed by!

And finally, on Mattias' actual birthday, we celebrated again. After all, a man only turns one once!

Next on the agenda...Lordy, Lordy, Look who's 40!!!!!!

(Now you can probably guess who wrote this entry.)

Alcohol and Explosives do Mix (in Prague, at least)

"Only stupid foreigners and psychotic Czechs go to Wenceslas Square on New Years Eve."

That was our friend Radek's opinion when we told him our plans. As a native Praguer, he would know better.
Still, Maylia, Jeff, Paul and Ali decided "Whatever. We're going." Maylia remembers that Jeff and her mom, Beverly had gone the year before...how bad could it be?

Wenceslas Square, the historic centerpiece of downtown Prague is where people bring their personal fireworks to share. Add in that nearly everyone is drunk or earnestly trying to be. And with no police to be found, the result is absolute mayhem, a city block long mix of alcohol and explosives.

We took 3 short videos from our digital camera to make the below video. Seems the volume somehow got clipped or something...because our ears were ringing a lot from those close ones. Though, Maylia's screams and colorful language are loud and clear.

Again, keep in mind, none of the fireworks, rockets, flash-bangs or "sparklers" are official --- all brought in personally, and launched by people in the crowd (meaning some exploded in the crowd!) If it looks crazy to you, take our word for it - it was.



For a bigger screen of the same, click:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8337431662688906469&hl=en