New Year’s Eve

This year Tyler and I decided to hang out with friends and have a chilled New Year’s Eve. It turned out to be a great decision. It was a great idea on our part. It was awesome night, filled with food, fun and lots of laughs.

After playing “cards against humanity” which is basically a grown up version of apples to apples, we moved to battle of the sexes which the girls lost. Horribly!

5…4…3…2…1…Happy New Year…and not long after that we were all ready to bed. Haha. Guess this is called getting old.

Happy New Year

It was neat to stay in on a new years and hang out with close friends. Given that we are getting old and loud noisy bars with tons of people more tend to annoy us than anything else it was neat to just relax and hang out. I think going forward we may try to do this more often! That said, it certainly is not as good as being on the beach in South Africa!

Bromance...

It’s no South African Christmas but still…

As the Christmas time approaches in the USA I couldn’t help but think of my Christmas adventure last year. The adventure that involved a lot of travel time, many friends and family members and of course braais, biltong and the sun!

Christmas eve lunch with friends

 Hmm, I almost forgot Tyler's tradition of Merry Kruegers Christmas. We all met up at Kruegers to visit friends and have a free buffet lunch before heading to separate family celebrations. We played darts and shuffle board, it was so great to see friends that we hadn't seen in a while.

Tyler's nephew Hunter

However this year I am in the USA for Christmas which means there will be friends, Tyler’s family and cold freezing weather. We started our Christmas season by visiting Tyler’s maternal gran, where we celebrated with aunts, uncles and cousins from that side of the family.

Next we went to Tyler’s mom, for Christmas Eve. The evening started with a church service which was a small look into what life into the Augustin/Brunner household must have been like growing up. Tyler talked through the service, his sisters argued about stuff and his mom gave them the “you-better-behave” stare. Hopefully everyone listened up long enough to something.

One of Tyler's present from me :D

Then we went over to Tyler’s mom’s house where we opened presents and ate a wonderful dinner.  Unfortunately I had previously told Tyler I was thinking of buying a sewing machine (which I eventually did) but unbeknownst to me, he told his mom…who brought me a sewing machine. It was a wonderful gift, but since I already had one I had the awkward moment of “now what do I do?” Luckily she totally understood, and had the gift receipt so it was easy to exchange.

Kids and Christmas!

I woke up on Christmas morning excited to see the kid’s reactions to the presents. They were as expected, super excited and ready to open up every wrapped gift in sight regardless of whom it belonged to.  I received some very nice gifts courtesy of my host family and their family including a whole filled with scrapbook, stamping and craft accessories, warm winter gear and jewelry.

Cute kids!!!

Later on that day, Tyler and I went to him paternal aunt’s house for Christmas with his dad. It was great to see everyone and celebrate the season with them.

All the girls: Amy (Tyler's sister), Becky, Amanda and Jenny (Tyler's cousins)  me and Jessica (Tyler's cousin's girlfriend) 

So this holiday marks the 1 year mark of my co-blogging with Robyn… I am just excited to have not been kicked off. As for the holiday itself its exactly like the South African holiday that I experienced, tons of food, tons of drinks, tons of gifts, friends, and family. There is just one major difference, it is EXTREMELY cold here. For example it was -34C here just last week, so while that is just one difference it has a BIG effect. Luckily it did snow this year for Christmas so we were able to enjoy a white Christmas. Unfortunately we were unable to make it to South Africa for this Christmas, but I am hoping we can make it back soon!

Eat…Sleep…Repeat…

Tyler and I celebrated more than one Thanksgiving this year. We celebrated (and ate) with Tyler’s dad and step mom in the early afternoon; later that day we embraced a “host family” thanksgiving which was really good. Two days later Tyler attended his mom’s thanksgiving (I worked) and finally we joined some friends for a friend’s thanksgiving/house warming party.

My thanksgiving turkey :)

Thanksgiving is always tons of food and tons of fun. Yah for fattening American holidays!

I think the meaning of Thanksgiving has been lost on most Americans, in fact I would imagine if you asked them what the history of the holiday is and why we had it many of them would not know. Robyn tested me on this and I was able to recite to her the meaning J, that being said I would be curious if folks in other countries feel the same way about some of their holidays, it just seems over the years some people forget why we do things as the actual event that created the holiday becomes dated. 

However the food was great and it is always a good time to gather with family and friends and have a feast!

Induction ceremony

I was recently accepted into two honour societies through MATC. The one is the National Technical Honor Society and the other is Phi Theta Kappa. The school holds a ceremony for all the inductees. Tyler, his Mom (Mary), step dad (Max), Dave and Amanda all came to support me.

We had to light a candle and say the pledge, which of course included someone about America. So, Tyler asked me if I had said South Africa instead. Ugh.

It was a nice ceremony though, and I got some lovely certificates.

It was neat to go and be able to watch the ceremony, I am proud of Robyn for her dedication to her school work and her persistence to keep up with all the work that comes with school. Having finished my degree I know the kind of work that goes into accomplishing something like this, and on top of that she also works full time which is impressive. The even more impressive part is that she has managed to keep her grades at the top of her class, which is something that I never did. 

Quirky Kids...

Kids have the habit of saying some of the funniest things, such as...

Braden was in the bathroom the other day, pants next to him on the floor. Underwear still on...and wet. I asked him if he peed in his pants he told me yes...I asked where (as in where he was when it happened, you have to watch out for puddles, ya know!) He replied it don't matter RaRa, it all melted away... (as in it had dried up...YUCK!)

Another Finn peed in his pants (ah, I love potty training) and when I asked why, he replied "I don't know know, the pee made me do it..."

Finn has a Superman shirt which he LOVES, unfortunately the other day when he went to pee he didn't realize it's kind of a big shirt and he never lifted it up which resulted on him peeing on his own shirt. I told him he had to take it off, and boy did that cause issues...

While at the nature center the one day Finn told me he could see all the ipads...I looked around very confused until I realized he meant lilly pads...technology is corrupting kids!

Braden randomly remarked the other day that "my penis is so old." I have NO idea what this means or why he said it, but it made me laugh.

Finn, "Rara, why are you drinking milk?"
Me, "Er, cos I'm thirsty?"
Finn, "But you should rather drink wine." (Is that permission from a 3 year old?)

Finn's favourite thing to say is "very know" as in "I very know RaRa." So whenever I tell him something that is his reply, and I go through the moral dilemma of correcting him, or leaving it cos it's pretty cute.

Braden while playing with my hair the other day, suddenly started spitting. I asked him what the deal was and he said, "I got close to you, then I bited your hair off..." EW!

While talking about birthdays (AJ just turned 6!) Braden was telling me alll about what type of birthday party he is going to have. I asked if I was invited to his party and he said sure, then asked when my birthday was and if he could come. I replied, "25 January, are you free that day?" He told me, "No, I'm actually five." Even though he is only three.

The other day Braden told me that sometimes it rains when the sun is shining, I told him we call that a monkeys wedding, since monkeys are so silly. Later I walked up the bike rather and Braden turned to me, Rara did you walk up that path. I told him I had, and asked if it was silly, and he said yes that's why we call it a monkey path...HAHA

When I drive the boys home from school I get to hear the cutest things such as...
Braden, "God doesn't need a car."
Finn, "No, cos he can fly."
Braden, "Yeah, but that's cos he has a cape"

Braden, "Oh no Rara."
Me, "What''s wrong Braden?
Braden, "Well that boy lost Anna. he said we are going to lose her."

*While listening to the state song and hearing Louisiana*

Finn, "Why are we gone?"
Me, "What do you mean?"
Finn, " It said are you gone?"

*While listening to the state song and hearing Oregon."

Braden, "Did you know there is a Old York?"
Finn, "Yeah"
Braden, "But this song is about the New New York."

*While listening to 'New York, New York."

Pumpkin Carving

Any time you get 6 “big” kids together, give them knifes and spoons…you know it’s going to get messy! And that is how we spent most our night at Patrick and Jenny’s pumpkin carving party. After going our selecting only the best pumpkins we could find, we all decided on what designs we would aspire to carve into our pumpkins.

Preparing :)

We also saved the seeds, and gave the guys the job of roasting them, since they all finished their designs in about 20 minutes. The guys got creative and we ended up with about 6 different flavours of seeds. Yummy!

Mine is the second to last, and Tyler's is last :)

Patrick and Jenny also hosted a cookie making party. They were so prepared and even made the dough the day before, but when we arrived we found out that refrigerated dough is a lot harder than expected. Plan B was then to send Jenny and I to the shop again to buy more ingredients, and remake a batch of dough. 

The beginning

Tyler was set on warming up the first batch. So, by the time we were done we had way more cookies than expected, since the recipe had already been doubled.  The cookies were meant to be Christmas themed, however I could not help but make a few T-Rex, cowboy boots, and bid foot shaped cookies!

Cookies!!!

The pumpkin carving affair was quite the show, I think the guys finished their pumpkins in about 10-15 minutes, while the girls easily took twice that as they were set on more intricate designs. I guess you can tell who the creative ones are…

Boys "working" hard

As for cookies my job was mainly just to sit and look pretty, something I do VERY well :P … they gave me something simple that I could not screw up even if I tried, which is good because my baking skills are very limited. The good news is that I was able to be a taste tester at the end which is also something I do VERY well. 

Go Pack Go!!!

Tyler promised me that he would arrange a Packers game for him and I to see...it took a year and a half but finally we were able align schedules and find a good game to attend.

I had no Packer gear and since the Packers are basically a religion in Wisconsin, I knew I had to get kitted up. Tyler told me he would arrange something since I had to work the whole week.

Boy did he arrange the perfect Packers outfit. Although it must be said that is is really cold in Green Bay at this time of year, which means you have to not only try represent your team and try to look cute, but you have to bundle up too. So every pee break included a 10 minute undressing period, then a 10 minute redressing period. I had to pull up my stockings, tuck in my tee shirt and long sleeve shirt, pull up my jeans, then tuck in my jacket, my over sized tee shirt, and lastly fasten my overalls.

Me with Amy (Tyler's sister) and Amanda (Tyler's cousin)

Tyler and I at the game

Walking into the game was amazing it there was a SEA of green and gold. So many die hard fans (one was even in a speedo and body paint, he must have been FREEZING!) Once seated in our metal seats (great for the cold...NOT) we prepared ourselves for the opening 'ceremonies'. These involve the American national anthem, a fly over and even a tribute to the veterans. After the anthem we were told to lift up the cardboard that was under our seats, I had a blue one. Each one had a cut out for you to look out of. The whole stadium was bathed in red, white and blue, with stars and stripes and the words 'thank you veterans'. It was pretty amazing to be apart of it.

Thank you veterans

The game was pretty good, I tried to shout at all the appropriate time, not ask too many silly questions and to argue with the refs at crucial times. You know, the important stuff.

Packers won the game so it's safe to say my first experience was pretty amazing!!! The Pack attack is back!!!

Packers vs. Cardinals

Organizing this outing was less about getting our schedules right and more about finding the right game at the right time for the right price. After the Packers won the championship a couple years ago tickets soared through the roof. Face price for one ticket is only $70 (or R 630) which is pricey, but isn't completely ridiculous. The issue with Packers tickets is though that the Packers have sold out every single game since 1960, that is an NFL record. Lambeau Field holds about 73,000 fans for each game, and every single seat in the stadium is owned by a season ticket holder which means that if you want tickets you need to buy from someone who has them, and they NEVER sell them at face price. You’d think the solution is simple, just get season tickets right? Well there is a waiting list of 82,000 people and it would take about 30+ years to get said tickets if you were to sign up today… if that doesn't give you an idea of how popular the Packers are in the state of Wisconsin I don’t know what will. All told once we finally got our tickets we ended up paying $300 for both tickets (or R 2,700.)

Tyler and I with two crazy fans (yes, they are wearing carved pumpkins on their heads)

Now as for the gear I didn't originally intend to come away with such an epic outfit, but I was wandering through a local store trying to find something that Robyn could wear but knowing it was going to be cold I had to find her something she could wear over a heavy winter coat, that is the issue with Packers games, if you just by a regular T-shirt nobody will see it because you will be wearing a winter coat over it, so you have to be creative and I would say these outfits were pretty darn creative!

As for the game itself, there is absolutely no better way to watch American football than to do so in Lambeau Field, the atmosphere is second to none and I get chills every time I walk into that stadium. The salute to the veterans was a special tribute that they did for the game we were there (Veterans day was the day before), it was really neat to see that because it isn't something they do every game. The ceremonies set the tone perfectly for the game, the Packers won in convincing fashion over the Arizona Cardinals, and while it was cold it wasn't entirely unbearable, it could have been MUCH worse. It was a great experience and one I was super excited to share with my girlfriend, now I will begin working on getting to another one!