• Summer

    embracing a local christmas

    this is now our fifth christmas in europe. i have to say, you’d think it gets easier but that’s not necessarily true. our first christmas, we had only been in europe for a couple of months and it was all the heart eyes as prague pulled out all the stops and there was nothing but perma-smiles. the next year, my mother visited. the following year, we had a picture-perfect austrian christmas at the wolfgangsee. last year we happened to be in berlin, but a funny thing happened. while i was in my personal “happiest place on earth”, i felt a case of “the sads” as we call them, creeping in…

  • Summer

    melding traditions

    the other day, my student asked me in the middle of a class, “so if you celebrate the holidays here, do you participate in czech or american traditions?” (cut to a dream sequence) hmmmm, that’s an interesting one! it’s now my fourth holiday season here (and my first married christmas!) in the czech republic and i do love adapting to different christmas traditions, much like a sponge. (below, large shoe box full of cookies we were famously gifted in 2013) czech christmas cookies? this is an easy one to adapt to! particularly the linecký and the rohlíčky! it is so common in the czech republic for babičkas and maminkas to…

  • Christmas,  Expat Life,  Prague

    what christmas in europe looks like! we had a wonderful christmas time here in prague.  on christmas eve (which happened to be unseasonably warm) we had an EPIC pancake breakfast with eggs and bacon.  i had NO IDEA it was so dang easy to make pancake batter.  and they turned out amazingly.  it’s just flour, egg, baking powder, a little sugar, milk, and that’s about it people!  i will never purchase another pancake batter mix as long as i live. we rode the tram to namesti miru with the intention to go to the christmas market there and stumbled upon a czech christmas carol session that was just starting up.…