Leaving today for a little vacation...We have a destination but lots of options for side trips...Check back after New Years to see where we went!

Merry Christmas!!!

Guess what we will be doing today...

Opening presents. See the Guitar Hero? Bob carried it back on the airplane from the US! He even made a handle out of packing tape for easy transport. Thank you Santa Bob!

Can you tell the girls got new PJs? Leah even has hers on with her new Uggs.

And of course we had Grandma's CoffeeCake shaped like a tree!

Have a great day!

Surgical Success!

10 months ago, Maria was in a very bad car accident traveling to ski in Germany. She severed her spine at the 2nd Lumbar vertebrae. Maria was the luckiest 17 year old in the world that day because she did no damage to her spinal chord. She was taken to Munich where she had surgery to repair the broken spine with pins and screws. Her recovery was slow but she was very strong. She wore an ugly brace nonstop right up until the day before Prom. Her wonderful doctor, Robert Gunzburg, took over her case here in Brussels and cared for her throughout her recovery. On Wed, Dec. 16, Dr. Gunzburg was confident that Maria was ready to put her injury behind her and have the hardware removed. She checked into Edith Cavell Hospital and prepared for surgery.

She had a beautiful room with a great view of the city. The staff were so kind. The nurses seemed to sense Maria's needs before we could even call them. Although they only spoke French, we had a cheat sheet (from Maria's boyfriend) with all the important sentences written out for us. They even had a coffee cart that traveled up and down the halls.

Maria was scared before the surgery. We had so much anticipation and time to worry.

Maria asked Dr. Gunzburg if she could keep the hardware after he removed it! What a souvenir! Bob put it all back together just the way it was in her back. It is unbelievable to think that those huge screws, bolts and pins were actually in Maria's back. Now she has holes in her bones where the screws had been, but those will fill in quickly.

We are so glad to put all this behind us. But more importantly, we are thankful Maria is well and ready to move forward!

Maria is fine!

Maria came through surgery quite well. She is mending and trying to be a good patient. I will post pictures, etc as soon as I can figure out what is wrong with the set up of the blog. Patience is a virtue.

I just saw a picture on a friend's blog that reminded me of how lucky we are to live in Europe. She had just taken her daughter to the Museum D'Orsay in Paris.

Bob and I first came to Paris in 2003. As tourists we marveled at the 20 ft high paintings and the tiny Mona Lisa in the Louvre. We saw a special display of chalk drawings by Degas in a secret little dark room and his original ballerina girl statue in the Museum D'Orsay. In both locations, school children were on field trips studying the original works of art by the most famous artists in the world. Bob commented on how lucky those kids were to see the actual masterpieces instead of just pictures in books.

And now we live amongst those masterpieces. Belgium is close to everything! Maria, Leah and Jennifer have seen the art, the castles and the history. It's hard to believe that we have experienced so many important places in just 16 months. Paris, London and Rome are some of our well known destinations, but add in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands and it offers a life we can't believe we are living.

We are thankful for what we have seen and excited about what we still get to experience. Check out old posts to see some of our travels or take a look at the pictures on the side of this page.

And don't forget...we welcome visiters. I will accept any excuse to take another tour of Paris or a quick drive to Amsterdam!

Maria

We have to feel sorry for Maria this weekend. She is right in the middle of finals. 2 are finished and she has four more to go...all on Monday and Tuesday. Today she is taking the ACT because her last test was null and void, by no fault of hers, and they requested she sit the test again in Dec. And finally, she will have surgery on Wednesday to remove the pins and screws from her spine that were installed last year after her car accident in Germany. She will be in the hospital for a week. She has approached this very hard time with a smile on her face and really possitive attitude. I am not sure how she does it!

You've always wondered...

What's it like to live in Europe? What are the people like? Do they dress like us? Talk like us? The answers to those questions are... Educational. Different. No. No.

Yesterday we heard a car horn honking outside of our house. We looked out the upstairs windows and saw Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet walking down our street! I couldn't resist the urge to video tape their ramdom visit. For weeks we have watched silly shows on TV about their antics and escapades. Zwarta Piet, Sinterklaas's helper, is always played by an actor in black face paint. (Very politically incorrect in my opinion.) Sinterklaas wears a red bishop like costume and carries a staff. Anyway, I followed them down the street and got a great video of the locals singing the traditional Sinterklaas song and receiving candy from Zwarte Piet.

I wrote about this celebration last year too but if you want to learn even more go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

Road trip to Starbucks at the airport! No we don't have one on every corner. We have to pay to park and walk into the airport. After we get our coffee the barista usually says, "Have a nice flight!"