Snow everywhere we go!

The family that walks together, eats more together!

Kari and Jonathan were with us until Tuesday morning, at which time they returned to France and Glenn and I departed for Czech Republic, but I jump ahead of myself...


Rectangular paper plates

I asked Kari (who writes a terrific blog) what I could do to make my own blog more interesting. She suggested I write about some of the cultural differences or things that are unique in Hungary so in an attempt to do that, I wanted to share with you about our paper plates. Square or rectangular paper plates. Now, that should really interest you!

I don't know if there are particular reasons why America has round paper plates and Hungary has square ones. Square ones probably make more sense if you think about it. Sandwiches are square. Pieces of cake are square. Anyway, it took me a while to get used to it but I think I like it. However, I can't find any colored square plates, only white ones, so if I want to have a pretty table, I'll have to use colored round plates from America.

(By the way, the Pop Tarts are from America and I am in my last box of them. Hint, hint.)




Jonathan works on his memoir

While Kari and Jonathan were with us, we all had work to do. Jonathan worked on his memoir (thesis) for his school. Kari worked on her magazine. I worked on emails (goodness, mine doesn't sound very impressive) and Glenn did some projects around the house.


Glenn did some long overdue projects around the house

For two years, I've been encouraging (a kinder word for nagging) Glenn to replace the picture that hangs in our living room over our safe, left by our landlord. The picture itself isn't bad, but it doesn't go with our style and it doesn't "say anything", and worst of all, it is missing a 2 inch chunk of fake gold gilding on the bottom right corner. (Can you see it?)




I've been asking Glenn to change it ever since we moved in, but he kept giving me "reasons" (a kinder word for excuses) for not swapping it, none of which I agreed with. I finally got to the point that I was going to change it out myself; I didn't tell Glenn, but I was waiting for him to go out of town for 3 days without me so I could change it myself!!!

Well, I lucked upon the way to get him to replace it. BUY A NEW PICTURE!



The Chain Bridge over the Danube River and the safe!

Glenn and I were at Pratiker (think Home Depot) and stumbled upon a woman selling framed pictures in the entrance of the store. Isn't that where everone goes to buy pictures? She had 3 beautiful pictures of Budapest and Glenn and I found ourselves in agreement as to our favorite, which is pretty rare. (Speaking of rare, we've actually had a difficult time even finding pictures of scenes from Budapest!)

Anyway, we bought the picture and Glenn put it up right away and I love it! It makes our living room "pop!"



All work and no play makes for a dull boy (my mother used to say!)

But we didn't work the whole time Kari and Jonathan were here with us. Jonathan often kept us in stitches with his comments and clothes, as you can see.

I showed off my peg leg before making Kolaches

Jonathan kept the walkway clear

During the weekend it started snowing teeny tiny flakes. It snowed for 1 1/2 days but because the flakes were so small, we only had an accumulation of about 2 inches. It was still beautiful though!

Kari packs for the return trip

On Tuesday morning at 8 am, Glenn and I kissed Kari and Jonathan goodbye and we caught a bus, then a tram, then the metro out to the Keleti Palyaudvar (train station) where we caught the 9:30 am train to Prague for meetings. When we were getting on the train, a taxi arrived at our house to take Kari and Jonathan to Ferihegy Airport to catch their plane back to Lyon. We had a GREAT visit with them, and even though they were there for 10 days, we still didn't have enough time to do everything we'd talked about doing. Guess we'll have to go to the Chinese market NEXT TIME they are here!

Wanted to show you a few sights we saw on our train trip. You should be glad I am only showing you 2 photos. It was so beautiful that I took over 125 snow pictures on the way up there and back.

We hopped on a train to Prague

It snowed during the 7 hour trip

I stretched my legs by walking through the train cars

Glenn got a little shut-eye

Our next scheduled trip is not until sometime in April but we will probably makes some 1-2 day trips into other parts of Hungary. We've been all across Europe but not across Hungary!

And now, if I may give a shout out to our daughter Kari who turns 28 on Tuesday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KARI!