Happy New Year

We will post pictures and our latest events soon. My parents leave to back to Texas tomorrow. We had a great time. We even made it to Alps to ski. Have a safe, and Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas,
Greetings to all from Krakow,Poland. This was lonely holiday for us. We had to wake up Colesie at 8:30, because she still wasn't awake. She said that she didn't want to get up. She was mad at where Santa had kissed her(mom, actually missed and kissed her eye with bright red lipstick.) She was in a bad mood the minute that she woke up. We managed though. We had a great Christmas dinner. We all took naps, and woke up refreshed. My parents are on their way to see us. Hopefully, they will get here tomorrow.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
Andy,Kaycie, and Colesie Taylor

Tesco Testimony

A quick interjection: so how is America perceived in other parts of the world? Here's one perspective based on our Tesco visit today:

So after watching a line of people have live carp thrown into plastic bags (eating carp on Christmas/Christmas Eve is a Polish tradition), and watching them walk away happy as larks (the carp, of course, were not so happy), we finally fought our way to the checkout lane. What started as the usual pleasantries to the check-out lady quickly turned into a full-blown conversation. In the course of the dialogue, she tells me that she's afraid of America. So I think this is another instance of not liking America's foreign policy; however, she then tells me that she's afraid to visit America because everyone there gets shot at. Ummmm...

On the one hand, I'd love to believe that she was joking, but I really don't think that she was. She had already told me that she didn't know much about the States (only Britain), so I think that she was 100% sincere in her fear of getting capped the good ole' fashioned American way! Now since during the course of this dialogue, I was also trying to throw our groceries in bags before everyone in line behind us started to rebel, I wasn't exactly on my A-game. My response was largely based on my grammatical comfort zone, and I proceeded to tell her that we're from Texas and lots of Texans think it's their right to be armed. She took it rather well, but so much for dispelling her view of America!

Colesie's Play

Colesie in her Christmas play, "The Lion,the Witch, and the Wardrobe," Enjoy!!!

tummy

Lately, I have found myself noticing people looking at me. Is it because, I am pregnant? Perhaps, my hair is bad. I just have caught myself being very self-conscious about my protruding belly. Today, I took Colesie to the mall to get Andy's B-day gift. I found myself trying to hide the fact that I am 7 months pregnant. How can one hide that? The women here are just as pregnant as I am. Maybe I don't distribute my weight well. Perhaps, I should start wearing loose fitting shirts and pants. Any suggestions?

Toilets and toilet paper

Please bear with me on this one. I have noticed that many of the toilets that I go into constantly have the lid up. I then find myself going outside to check the door to insure that I am in the right bathroom. After checking, I grab toilet paper( more like sandpaper), and lower the seat. This had become a tradition for me. Recently, the bathrooms have not had any toilet paper. Ugh!!!! What do people wipe with, their hands? I thankfully have Kleenex's when such events arise. All this begs the question, why do I have to pay 1 Zloty to use the bathroom when there is no toilet paper!? Oh, how I miss Charmin!!!

Prague escape

We escaped lovely Krakow to go Prague. We were not disappointed. We loved the area so much, and we look forward to our return there. The hotel was great. We stayed at Andel's. When we showed up we were blown away by its beauty. The staff was friendly, we were told that they had run out of regular rooms, and that we would get a room upgrade for free. I have to say that has never happened to us before. We were able to eat some American food at TGI Friday's. That made the whole Taylor fam happy. We saw some pretty sights, bought some great crystal, and fought our way through the Christmas crowds. Czech airlines were very accommodating to families with children. We benefited from that this morning when we were stuck in the check in line. They fast tracked us through check in and customs. We even were able to enjoy a McDonald's breakfast sandwich. All in all it was a great trip. Enjoy the pictures.

Christmas card ideas

This may be old news for some, but new news for others. While I was sitting and wondering what we were going to do for Christmas cards this year, I thought of a solution. I went to our beloved www.shutterfly.com. I noticed that they will print, create, and mail out Christmas cards for you. What a blessing. I just finished the whole process, and it was painless. I hope that they will make it to everyone before Christmas.

Thankful

This is going to be a strange post, but I wanted to pass along. We put up the Christmas tree and decorations on Saturday. We were all so excited. The excitement was short lived when the power went out for 2 hours, again. The power goes out at least once a week. Anyway, on with the point. We learned that while we were decorating the tree that we did not bring any Christmas ornament hooks. We looked in the new box of decorations to learn that they use pre-cut fishing line. We tied and tied loops, and loops. We finally had to give up. We found some similar plastic hooks at a local hardware store.
The point, embrace the metal or plastic hooks that you can get at your local Wal-Mart or Target.

A first

Hello fellow readers,
Well, today was a first for me. I went to the grocery store, and realized that I did not have the proper coin to get my cart. I went to small kiosk's in the store, and tried to convey what I needed. I finally was able to get my point across that I needed an even exchange of zloty's. Later, at the check out line a Polish women said something wicked fast in Polish to me. I was lost, and said " I don't understand, I speak English." I did say that in Polish which probably confused her. A few moments later, I turned around and saw her opening plastic bags, and she continued to bag some of my groceries for me. I was awe struck by her kindness. This is not something that I have ever encountered before. I felt like I was a broken record saying "thank you" in Polish repeatedly. I even tried to pay her for her help and kindness. I left the store smiling, because we are universally all polite and kind. Anyway, just wanted to share.

Sun already

Okay. We have enjoyed the snow. I have loved seeing Colesie and Saskia run and play, but enough already. I do believe that we are down to 4 inches of snow. We do rejoice that 4 inches have melted away. We were hermits today, but we did venture out tonight to Makro. Makro is a European version of Sam's club. We noticed tonight that in the fish tank that they were trying to sell a fish that was missing a huge chunk of his backside. Perhaps, the other fish in the tank had something against him/her. Colesie was very concerned about his/her appearance.
Tomorrow is a new day and promises to be warmer than it was today.

New Pictures!

...And there was much rejoicing! I've setup the first two photo albums: one from our trip to Greece, and the second from the recent snows. To view larger images, just click on the picture (or maybe double click) and it'll take you to a larger slideshow. Enjoy!

Andy

New Blog

Hey Everyone!

Okay, here's the deal...we tried the webpage thing, but either we're technically incapable of sustaining such a project, or we're too lazy (more likely) to keep up with a webpage. So, we're now entering the world of blogging, like everyone else. We'll try to start putting pics and the like on here so that everyone can still see the Taylors in action.

With that, we're kicking along pretty well here in Krakow. Like Kaycie mentioned, we've got about 8 inches of snow, which truly made the city beautiful...that is, until everything started to melt. Slush now abounds and everything gets wet. But, Colesie and Saskia certainly enjoy the winter sports. Hopefully, we'll get to go to Zakopane in the next few weeks to try the slopes!

I'll break here, but look for more on this blog soon!

Andy

Snowy Days

Well, this is my first official true blog. Thanks to C in Russia. Today it is snowing, again. Being that I am from Texas, I miss the sun. The roads, thankfully are not bad. C didn't want to get out to go to school. The forecast for the next three days is, snow and fog. I think that we need to invest in a tanning booth to let off some UV rays.