XBOX ONE (Germany)

The new XBOX ONE is finally out in Europe but it's not being sold in every country... what did this mean for us... it meant two trips to Germany before actually getting a hold of my husbands Christmas present!  And of course, the trips didn't go flawless, but inevitably worked out.  The first trip to Krefeld was a complete disappoint, we (inc. our daughter & dog) drove around an hour to get to a shop where a friend of ours had managed to get a hold of an XBOX ONE, just to find out they were sold out.  Of course they were sold out, they hadn't even been on the market for a week.  After the unsuccessful trip and couple other incidents with some people in Krefeld my daughter was done with Germany and never wanted to go back (keep in mind she is 4 yrs old, ha-ha!)  My husband claimed he was going to give up on the XBOX ONE until 2014, but considering he had the next week off work and his friend kept calling over Germany to find us one, the mission was far from over.  Out of nowhere on a half day of school we decided to load the family back into the car and return to Germany, this time headed for Monchengladbach (another hour drive).  Our friend swore he had reserved one for us, and since he can speak German we had to trust he made the right arrangements.  When we arrived, my husband picked a shady parking garage to leave his car (and dog).  See my husband does this often, randomly parks and then gets to listen to me complain about for a hour afterward.  The parking garage was clearly not a public lot, but we knew we were just running into the store and would be back in less than 30 minutes.  Everything went great, the XBOX ONE was waiting on us, they had the soccer game and the extra controller, and even our daughter found a Hello Kitty book.  Happily we all take the hilly walk back to the car, we didn't have long to get back home before our groceries would be delivered.  But uh oh, the garage door was now shut and there was no way to get back in the parking garage without a key.  We obviously didn't have key.  We called the number on the side of the building, Wico Modehaus, and the woman basically said it was our problem because she was in Dusseldorf and had no intentions of coming that way.  O.k., no problem, we remembered seeing an entrance to the garage through a shop on the other side.  We walked back along the hilly path and started checking out the shops, none of them looked like what we needed.  We stopped in a store and explained to the German in English of course that our car and dog were locked in a garage and we just needed to cut through the building, as you can imagine, no one was helpful.  Our daughter is starting to panic, I'm talking about calling the police, and my husband is considering breaking into the garage.  We called the Wico Modehaus one more time, and they sent us to voicemail, can you believe that, how rude!  (I really should send her a nasty email!)  We returned to the parking garage a little frazzled and contemplated our options.  My husband had just removed his jacket and was about to scale the wall when someone pulled up and opened the garage with a remote.  We grabbed out things and chased after him, everyone thankful.  I waited at the door holding the emergency stop button so the garage door wouldn't shut again and my husband and daughter rushed to get the car.  In the end, the dog and car were fine, we made it home in time for the delivery, and my husband has spent endless hours on his new XBOX ONE!  And I'm pretty sure our daughter never wants to go to Germany again, oops!

Bye! Dag! Adios! Namaste!

:) Danica

Wordless Wednesday #78

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Bye! Dag! Adios! Namaste!

:) Danica

Kermis (Fair)

A popular thing to do in The Netherlands is to visit the "Kermis" (aka Carnival or Fair) when it rolls in to town.  Luckily for me, there's a "kermis" one town over every year at my birthday.  For some reason quite a few years ago I started the tradition of a b-day bbq followed up by a visit to "kermis".  It must have been because of my nieces or the fact years ago we lived in the center of Best and they literally built the "kermis" around our apartment.  Once our own kid came along it made the "kermis" even more special.  We love watching her face as she gazes up at the large carni-rides or is overwhelmed by the endless lights, music, & food.  This year was one of the first years she was old enough to actually go on multiple rides; and we can only expect even more next year.  If she had her way we would have taken her on all of the roller coasters instead of the tea cups and massive slide.  In order to keep her distracted we kept her busy with all of the games.  Who knows how much we all spent but eventually we won her a jump rope, slinky, & toy guitar, she was over the moon.  I'm sure all of you have been to a carnival or fair, so I thought you might be curious what they look like here.  To be honest not much different, except they are often held in the center of town.  I'm used to where I grew up and we had the Strawberry Festival, it was huge and on a lot of land in a town called Plant City.  (Everything in The States seems to be bigger, there's just more land & space to work with.)  The "kermis" here doesn't have cattle competitions or country music concerts like my part of the woods in Florida.  But I wouldn't say I actually miss that, ha-ha!  Like most fairs, you have cotton candy, baked goods, and of course rides & games.  One thing I missed out on this year was the fun house & house of mirrors, I've loved those since I was a kid.  Maybe next year when our nieces can join!  And yes, my Wordless Wednesday was a pic of amazing waffles served at "kermis"!!!  (Funnily enough, I've never been to the huge "kermis" here in Eindhoven.)

 

Board Games #2

Last summer I mentioned that my husband & I love board games, and now we are trying our best to get our tot interested also.  When buying games for her I try and pick up things from my childhood, like Hungry Hippo & The Fishing Game.  And now that she's older it's time to move on to actual board games.  Again, I thought back to my childhood and the games I played with pleasure and two popped to mind, Chutes & Ladders and Candy Land.  Enthusiastically I hopped online and tried to order them here in The Netherlands.  It was more effort than I realized, I ended up ordering one through the UK and the other from the US!  Waiting for the deliveries it turned out I was way more excited than her, but to be fair she had no idea what was ahead.  The first game to arrive was Chutes & Ladders.  Of course she won first round within minutes, but the next rounds took longer.  I found that the fact we kept constantly landing on the chutes (slides) and getting sent back made the game last longer than her patience.  Plus the new design of the board is so busy that it's hard for a 3yr old to actually understand where the chutes or ladders start.  But with time and repetition she'll figure it out and appreciate it.  I have fond memories of playing this game with my grandma.  When Candy Land arrived she was fascinated with the board design, and loved the candy theme.  And since it's basically just one trail it was easy for her to follow.  Plus she won again quite fast, which obviously keeps her interest.  So far it's been the big hit!  Chutes & Ladders relies on numbers and Candy Land on pictures which is obviously easier for a toddler.  It's also simple enough for us to explain to her Dutch friends, so now they can all play together.  Do you have any recommendations for toddler board games?

Board Games

I'm going to keep this post short; since the puppy entered our lives I've been lacking time for side projects like my blog.  I don't want my readers to think I am just a series of Wordless Wednesdays nowadays. 
I did want to recommend a game though, it's called Settlers of Catan.  You might have heard about it on the tv show Big Bang Theory.  It may seem boring at first glance but it's actually an interesting game that will hook you.  Like Monopoly it takes hours.  Since we don't have the actual board game at home we downloaded a version on the iPad and to be honest I prefer it.  Only because you can stop when you like and resume the game days later if needed.  Lately my husband and I have had a running game, and as soon as it's over we start a new one.  Playing games together has been something we've enjoyed since the beginning our relationship.  Some of our first few dates consisted of playing pool and Trivial Pursuit.  Sometimes we have the tv on, a game going, and all the while talking away... who says it takes a lot to entertain people these days, ha-ha!