.caboodle.

although nina was with lea and lotti (her cousins) for less than one day during christmas, they hit it off right away. occasionally we felt we had three sharks circling us, waiting for their prey :)

unfortunately, the lighting wasn't the best for photography, so i had to use the flash on occasion. and when i didn't, well ... see for yourself.

.subotica.

as we said earlier, we are spending christmas with family in serbia, more specifically in (and around) subotica (szabadka in hungarian), the biggest city in the northern serbian province called vojvodina (vajdaság in hungarian).

although it is freezing cold outside, we went for a short stroll last night, giving me just enough time to snap a few photographs of the city call. (this city has the most art nouveau buildings in serbia and the city hall [built between 1908 and 1910] is of outstanding beauty.)

.agreement.

we, the creators of this blog (hereafter referred to as the parties), hereby enter into this agreement on the below place and date upon the following terms and conditions:

1. it is the intention of the parties hereto, that between the dates of december 20th, 2008 and january 5th, 2009 (also known as holiday season) they participate in a competition amongst themselves.
2. the subject of the aforementioned competition is the increase of the body mass of the parties during the aformentioned time period.

now, therefore, the parties have agreed as follows:

1. the parties voluntarily submit to the measuring of their body weight in a 9.08665 m/s² gravitational field (earth, that is) on the aforementioned first day of the contest.
2. the parties will refrain from using substances specifically engineered for weight loss purposes (natural or otherwise) during the aforementioned period.
3. the parties may engage in strenuous physical activities to decrease, or to stop the increase of, their own body weight.
4. neither party may entice the other party to participate in the consumption of substances known to drastically increase body weight, however, parties are free to consume such substances should they choose to do so.
5. the declared winner of the competition is the party with the smallest increase of body weight (where the minuend is a party's body weight on january 5th, 2009 and the subtrahend is the same party's body weight on december 20th, 2008) within the aforementioned time period.
6. the winner of the competition receives a gift of his own choosing, which has to be countersigned by the other party.

the validity, interpretation, construction and performance of this agreement shall be governed by the laws of hungary, excluding any conflict of laws, rule or principle that might refer the governance of the construction of this agreement to the law of another jurisdiction.

 

.unwrapped.and.unboxed.

as we said earlier, we are not going to be home (in vajta) for christmas, so we decided to give nina her christmas gift a week earlier. she got a k's kids baby with activity blanket. she loves changing the diaper on the baby and feeding everyone (including elmo, and us, of course) with the toy bottle.

this has to be good, it is wrapped in shiny paper!

but who needs the paper?

.christmas.cheer.

i just finished making 5 gallons [~20 liters] of eggnog (non-alcoholic, of course) - my contribution to holiday cheer. eggnog is one of the few things i enjoy about christmas. it contributes greatly to the insulin roller coaster of christmas, but hey ... i just cannot (do not want to) resist when it comes to eggnog.

i love eggnog, but this amount is way beyond my digestive capacities, it is for the staff christmas party we will have tomorrow night.

you like?

.outlook.

it is interesting, accorging to folks at princeton, outlook is the act of looking out, but according to wiktionary it does not mean that at all.

anyway, the view from our window was really nice as the sun was rising.

.the.tree.

when I was a kid, one of my favorite things about christmas was the smell / scent of the tree. i loved the way it filled the whole house, and i loved coming home during the christmas season, because you could smell the tree as soon as you opened the door. and I always felt sorry for those people who only bought a fake / plastic tree in the store. i would imagine that when i grow up i would always buy one of those really BIG and TALL beautiful trees that reach up to the ceiling of the room.

when arpi and i got married, for our first christmas together we bought a - what i would call - medium-sized tree, as there were no kids yet to buy a big one for, and our apartment wasn't too big either. ditto for our second christmas together. we spent our third christmas together visiting friends in america, so no tree then. last year, nina was tiny, and we spent the holidays visiting our respective parents, so we decided not to get a tree at all. yes, there were trees at our parents' houses, but that is not the same.

but this year is different. we got a tree! after two years without one, i was so excited to get a real christmas tree. well, to make a long story short, the more we thought about it in the light of having a toddler in the house, the more reasonable it seemed to just get a fake. so i broke down and we did exactly that.

we decorated it today, and when she saw it, nina couldn't get enough of it. mesmerized is not a strong enough expression to describe her reaction. so here they are, nina and her first christmas tree.

.chocolate.lover.

i guess nina inherited my love for a certain processed food produced from the seed of the tropical cacao tree - chocolate, that is :)

our very own inigo montoya :)

.from.all.over.

this past week-end, we were blessed to visit the city of vienna, the capital of austria. coincidentally, a few students from the college decided to do the same, so we met up for a day and spent some time being tourists together. it was great, and also very unique. as we all sat at the dinner table of our hosts - a family originally from bosnia, but now living in vienna - we realized how many nationalities were represented there.

by the way, this is one of the many things we love about serving at the bible college: people come literally from all over the world, and yet, the unity of the body of christ is tangible here. what beauty for the world to see!

here's a picture of our little multi-cultural group, from left to right:

emily (america), andrew (poland / britain), joel (america), claudia (romania), danijela (bosnia / austria), andi and nina (serbia / hungary)

arpi (serbia /hungary), gustavo (puerto rico / america), dunja (croatia)

cool, huh?

.adieu.les.condamnations.

well, before nina was born, we had unspoken parenting agreements concerning what we were going to let nina do (eat) and what would be out of question for her to do.

needless to say, the rest of the world, all you 6710144870 were not included in the decision making and you keep intruding on our plan. thus, from time to time, we need to give up our convictions, say farewell to them (thus the title) and let nina be influenced by other inhabitants of this overpopulated planet.

yes, this outrage was inspired by the fact that someone gave her nutella for breakfast while visiting friends in vienna (austria) last weekend :)