Where did the weekend go???

Here it is Sunday night already, and the weekend has flown by!  We slept late on Saturday, had some hot chai tea latte, then did a lot around the house - more laundry(me), cleaning(Tim), and a lot of planning for our American Tailgate Party on Wednesday.  We are hosting the school staff here at our flat for a couple of hours in the early evening, so I planned a menu and wrote out a shopping list.  Then we headed to Kaufland, the store with the best prices and best produce, according to our Slovak friends.  It's a whole new experience, and kind of crazy, filling your cart with an eye for how much can fit in, and not weigh too much for, our four reusable bags - one for each hand to carry on the walk back!  :-)   

One more really fun Saturday task was putting up our Christmas tree!!  Some of the previous teachers left a 2-foot high artificial tree, along with a string of lights and a St. Nickolas (Mikuláš!!) tree topper.  One of Tim's birthday gifts from Katka was a set of straw ornaments, which are absolutely perfect for the tree!!  (For those of you who know our tradition --- it's the first year ever we haven't cut down a fresh tree --- and there isn't snow on the ground either, but we can see snow up on the mountains!!)  

Our tree looks very festive!!  We may have to go cut down an
evergreen sprig somewhere in a ditch, after we get a snowfall!!  ;-) 

Saturday evening we finally went our for Tim's birthday dinner celebration -- date night!!  :-)

This is a restaurant that Carol suggested - her favorite.  It's called
Under the Gallows --- the famous Slovak "Robin Hood", Juraj Jánošik,
who stole from the rich and gave to the poor, was supposedly executed
by hanging here in Liptovsky Mikuláš, according to legend.  Hence the name!

Carol was right - it is an awesome restaurant, and
we had a scrumptious meal, romantic atmosphere,
and wonderful service.  A lovely evening!!  

This morning was church, and on the way back we did some more scouting for a place for some of the kids to stay when they're here.  Then we listened to Mike Householder's sermon from Lutheran Church of Hope.  He just got back from the Holy Land, and it must be amazing to actually walk where Jesus walked!!  I made a big Sunday dinner - practicing menu possibilities for when the kids are here.  Can you tell we are really excited about them coming??  :-)   

Both Saturday and Sunday I had baking to do for my party/Christmas goodies list.  I just wish I had some lovely empty ice cream buckets to store them in!!   :-)    I'm using the balcony off the kitchen as a "freezer/fridge" for the sweets, since it's quite a bit colder here than in Iowa this week.  Zip-lock bags are substituting for the ice cream buckets.  

This afternoon we attended a concert to kick off the advent season here in Liptovsky Mikuláš.  It was at the art gallery next to our church, and we were thankful we arrived 10 minutes early, because we snagged some of the last available seats.  It was definitely "standing room only" as people kept pouring inside!  We really enjoyed the performance!!  

The concert program featured two narrative readings (we have no idea what!),
3 Debussy piano preludes, a women's choral ensemble singing Christmas music
(11 members, one of whom is one of our deputy headmistresses, Janka)
directed by Ivan Mraz (the husband of one of my English students - Ivan also directs
choral ensembles at the university in Ružomberok), and a violinist who played
a Grieg sonata with piano.  Oh, and Ivan also accompanied the singers on accordion
for a few of the numbers!  It was a wonderful concert!

All the performers were really excellent - we were impressed!
The last number on the concert involved all the performers in a
beautiful arrangement of "Tichá noc" ...... Silent Night sung in Slovak.  
It was a perfect way to end the concert and to begin our advent season,
focusing on the blessed birth of our Savior over 2,000 years ago!