Happy "Heart" Day from NY!

My husband still has a romantic heart... 

For Valentine's Day he got us tickets for Romeo and Juliet Ballet in NYC and invited me for dinner at the Lincoln Restaurant afterwards. Included was a black, flower printed  dress to wear it for that occasion. 

Of course, we had great time and the ballet was amazing.

During the intermission a very cool exhibition caught our eye.

The artist Dustin Yellin is from Brooklyn.
Definitely worth a visit!

Oh, winter joy...

I guess no comments are necessary here...

One silver lining: Olaf fished his newest masterpiece! Right on time before he've got too busy with snow plowing...

Happy New Year!

Another year... 2015! 

What did we do in the last days of 2014? Celebrate, of course! 

Christmas Eve we spend at home, as usual. And (as usual!) we had our neighbors over for drinks. Olaf's new creation: a raspberry martini. Very yummy!

Santa brought us some nice gifts. My boys especially loved their new pajamas. Yes, we still are in soccer fever.

I think Olaf got his first soccer shoes ever...ha,ha. 

Jakob's gifts are getting bigger and bigger. That's why he still fits in the gift box.

Joey's used the moment of excitement to jump on our sofa, for a short time only...

On Christmas Day we were invited to our friend's house. It was a feast! I can't remember last time I ate so much...

Good thing we went for skiing and snowshoeing to Vermont (the same procedure as every year).  Though there was not much snow, we had fun anyway!

We started the New Year in NYC, with a great concert at the Avery Fisher Hall and a dinner at Jean-Gorges.

I already love 2015!

Christmas in New York

Yesterday we had the opportunity to compare the tree at the Rockefeller Center with our tree at home.

Guess which one won? Our tree, of course! 

Though in New York everything is bigger, including the Christmas deco... Look at the candy cane! And the stars in Time Warner building!

As usual, we had a wonderful day in New York, starting with a lunch at the Lincoln Center and finishing with the "Nutcracker"Ballet!

Watching the Christmas lights in New York belongs to our holiday season like baking cookies at home and enjoying Gluhwein with friends at the Christmas market at our lake.

Even Jakob decided to bake some cookies with me!

A white Thanksgiving...

A winter wonderland! Yeah... Maybe two days later...

The snow storm started the day before Thanksgiving and by noontime we already lost power. 

Good thing we have a generator, otherwise there would be a small dinner table...

Additional, many trees went down and blocked the entrance to our trail. The heavy snow also took our phone wire down.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with our friends anyway!

Even the power came back, just on time for our turkey!

I am dreaming of a GREEN Christmas...

Halloween 2014

 

This year Halloween was different. 

Jakob (as a temple knight) went for" trick or treat" with his friends, but without dad. Afterwards there was even a party...also without dad. 

Though he still brought a lot of candy home, as usual.

Attention! The candy and holiday train just left the station! Next stop: Thanksgiving!

Old European Charm...

I almost forgot how much I like European cities. Until we visited Madrid last week... 

A gorgeous city! 

Everything about this trip was perfect: the hotel, the weather, the food, the amount of tourists in the city...except for the fact that Olaf had to work (for him it was a business trip) and we saw him in the evenings only. Despite of that Jakob and I had a wonderful time. Surprisingly!

First on our agenda: Palacio Real and Catedral de la Almudena. Though the king didn't show up...

I don't know how many miles we walked through Madrid in five days, but somehow we always ended up at Plaza Mayor

 and the the unique marketplace San Miguel, Jakob's favorite spot. 

We tried all kinds of pastries and sweets there each day. The fishes presented there were quite a view...

Of course, we went to the famous Del Prado Museum. But I was much more impressed with the much smaller Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza ( one of my favorite Dali paintings is there and wonderful Rodin sculptures). 

Our absolute favorite was the museum of modern art Reina Sofia!

For Jakob the absolute highlight of the trip was a tour at the Bernabeu stadium, home of Real Madrid.

I bet he still could smell the sweat of his idol Christiano Ronaldo, ha, ha. I learned a lot(!) about football...

For a great view we didn't need to leave our hotel, we had the best view from the roof top bar.

But we always did.
Nothing compares with walking through the small cobbler streets and stopping at the tapas bars.

Did I mention the Spanish wine...!