Merry Christmas! Frohe Weihnachten!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Frohe Weihnachten!

We had a great Christmas this year.

Our fabulous tree has been reminding us that Christmas was approaching since we put it up at the beginning of December (thanks to a coupon and some friends who helped us schlepp it home in their car! thanks guys!)

During December we had friends over for a Christmas cookie baking session! What did we make, you ask? Well, for starters tons of peanut butter cookies thanks to Caitlin, bunches of sugar cookies (fabulously decorated thanks to Julia and Cait) and also a good amount of rum balls (thanks, Anne!) - whew! Here are some pictures of all that sugary fun we created!
(Notice all the great aprons we have on hand - Lisa, rest assured, these suckers get plenty of use around here!!)




Then in good ol' Zillinger style, the evening evolved into a cozy film night complete with friends, our freshly baked goodies, some hot sandwiches to offset the sugar intake and a great Christmas movie!

The great thing about us both coming from different cultures is that we have twice as many Christmas traditions to share!! I'm really grateful to have a hubby who enjoys my American version of Christmas almost as much as he enjoys his own Austrian customs. Not only do we put up the tree WAAY earlier than Austrians (we opt for ASAP versus waiting til Christmas Eve), but we also choose to celebrate a la Austria on the 24th and then a la America on the 25th! Works out great for both of us.

So on the 24th we went to our church for the afternoon service. I had the honor of pounding out some Christmas carols on the piano and Thomas had 'beamer Dienst' which means 'projector duty.' I still find it funny that they call 'projectors' 'beamers' here, as if we could use a BMW to show slides!! :) Then we had punch and talked to friends and exchanged gifts before everyone scurried off to celebrate in their homes with family. The past few years we've had the privilege of being invited to celebrate with friends - be it with our dear friends the Strunks, or last year with Mex and Iris. But this year we decided to celebrate at home with just the two of us. Together we whipped up a real feast - cornish hens, (or at least the Styrian version), mashed potatoes, cranberry and apple stuffing, gravy... Then we did the Austrian 'Bescherung' which includes lighting up the tree (yes, there is real fire involved and usually a bucket of water on the side, just in case!) and then opening presents. It might be hard to tell from our pics, but there are before, during and after we lit the sparklers on the tree!

Christmas 2011 the 24th (Click to View Album!)

Curious to see what the Christmas midnight mass is like, we wandered down to a big catholic church nearby (Herz Jesu Kirche) and were astounded at the turnout! It was OVERLY packed and though we didn't get a seat, it didn't take long til we decided it was easier that way since we didn't have to worry about when to stand or sit. ;) After the service there was a brass horn group playing Christmas music in front of the church as we exited and made our way to see the Nativity Scene.


Then we had our dessert - baked apples filled with nuts and berries (and before you start thinking we're health nuts...) with a nice side of ice cream! We settled down and watched the movie 'The Nativity Story.' If you haven't seen this movie, WATCH IT!!! We were both really moved by it, and I was particularly impressed to see how Joseph truly shines as an amazing man of character. And it's so incredible to see how God divinely worked out so many details surrounding Jesus' birth. It's a movie that's really worth while and well done.

The morning of the 25th we had Monkey Bread and scrambled eggs for breakfast - yum! Then we got down to business and finished opening up presents!! Thanks to everyone for thinking of us and for your generous gifts! We were thrilled to use my new iPhone to talk to the Perrecas with Face to Face. How fun!! And we were glad to talk to all our nieces and nephews - what cute little kidos!!

Christmas 2011 Morning of the 25th (Click to View Album)

Next big event is New Year's and then my trip to ICELAND!! :)

Henderson - where do you/they come from

Since I am in the hospital right now (nothing too serious so far, but still painful) I find myself with a lot of time. I now use much more time to talk with our God, what a blessing :) I am also so thankful for Rebecca spending so much time in between her teaching duties with me!

However I just googled a bit and found a quite thorough little article about that the name 'Henderson.' As some of you might not know, that's my wife's maiden name. When we visited the States a while ago, we had the opportunity to go to a pretty cool Scottish festival. Rebecca knew that 'Henderson' does have scottish roots. So, she was excited and even got to walk with 'her' clan during the parade. Man, she liked that.

Anyhow, can you guess what Henderson stands for? Think it over a little bit and carry on reading :)

This is an ancient Scottish name, the patronymic (meaning "son of") form of Hendry, a mainly Scottish variant of the personal name "Henry". Some bearers of the name Henderson are descended from Henrysons, the "d" being a common intrusive element in many languages between "n" and "r". Henry is from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements "haim" or "heim", home, and "ric", power. It was introduced into England by the Normans after the Conquest of 1066 as "Henri". In Scotland the Hendersons of Fordell in Fifeshire are the chief Lowland family of the name, and are believed to be descended from an old Dumfriesshire family of Henrysons. A branch of the Clan Gunn bears the name Henderson, and there is another Clan Henderson of Glencoe. An interesting namebearer, recorded in the "Dictionary of National Biography", was John Henderson (1747 - 1785), who was a notable actor of his day, considered second only to David Garrick. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Henrisone, which was dated 1374, in Scottish Papers, in the Public Records Office, during the reign of King Robert 11 of Scotland, 1371 - 1390. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
(quoted from http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/henderson)

Pretty cool stuff! There is a lot of history hidden behind that name, isn't there?

There is also a lot of interesting stuff on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Henderson.

Last Whole Day

On our last whole day we managed to sqeeze in some great stops. Although we had originally planned a few other things, it turned out that some of those places were closed on Sunday. So, we followed a plan B and things turned out alright.

First off, we rode the Metro to the Vatican where we took lots of pictures of fountains and nuns. Then we walked quite a long ways around the grounds, only to end up at a great little cafe where we indulged in some coffee and snacks. Tirimasu, anyone?


Later we purchsed provisions for a Pincio Park picnic! We had a great view of Piazza del Popolo and the city skyline. Did you know there are even parrots in this park AND the world's largest water clock? Well, now you do!



And we finished the off with a visit to our favorite gelato place and an obligitory photo session at the Trevi Fountain.

Day Two - licking our wounds

We slept in until 11, i think - man we were tired. Our feet still hurt, our legs still not wanting to move. We got up, finally, and had breakfast.


We got to the Colosseum again, this time we didn't stop at the lovely café on our way. There we split up. Tom used the second part of his ticket to get into to the Colosseum, Rebecca and Lisa went shopping.

There was a huuuuge line, not as long as it can be in summer, but still long enough. Cute little italian/english signs told people where to queue up - Groups to the left, tickets to buy to the right and - cool - if you already got a ticket, follow the path in the middle! I walked and ... walked, passing lots of people waiting in line on my right, feeling a bit uneasy if that's really the right path, arriving at the audioguide booth - paid 5.50€ - and went right in - no waiting at all. I felt so lucky. So listen everyone: Next time you go to rome, FIRST go to forum romanum, hardly waiting at all for a combined ticket, THEN go to the colosseum, maybe the next day to skip all those long lines :)


The Colosseum is really a sad story. Basically it used to be one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. Everything decorated with marble and also colorful with a huge awning on the top, so nobody got sunburned. But over time, when 'the games' stopped it fell apart and all the marble and the massive amounts of the structure were used for other buildings in the town, really sad.

Parts of 'The games' themselves where really brutal, however there used to also be really good shows, where eg. a huge painted manmade whale appeared out of the wooden floor (the ground is two stories deep) and 50 bears stepped out of its mouth, which totally awestrucked the audience. Besides that the seating was pretty much the same as in every theater today. The closer to the arena you sit the more important the people were. In the ring close to the arena, they even had toilettes built in and stairs were more comfortable to climb.

(few remains of the marble decoration to the left, sewage system in the middle and front rows to the right)

Stairs to the upper parts where *really* steep. Think of the steepest stairs you ever climbed. Those were even steeper!

(stairs, covered with dirt)

There are so many people who ask you to buy glasses, bracelets, guided tours and also these guys, roman guards. Ever wanted to sit next to one. I didn't ask how much it costs to take a picture with them:


They look pretty cool, don't they? I took this picture from the top of the Colosseum :) (gotcha)
From the same platform I took this panorama picture - Doesn't it look just great!

(From left to right: Colosseum, arch of Konstantin, some ancient fontain, forum romanum, arch of titus, temple of venus)

If you are interested in the games and the history

Also to see how big the whole place is, I tried to capture just the dimensions of the outer ring where the entrance is


Outside again, on my way to meet up with Rebecca and Lisa, I past the arch of Constantin with the remains of the fountain in front of it

There is even a part of the old pavement there, which is really fun to walk on, jumping from stone to stone - and not just children like that :)

First day

Our night in the train was reasonably good :) a little uncomfortable, since 5 people tried to squeeze into a 2m by 2m "bed". Nevertheless we slept...

Arriving in Rome we first walked to our B&B - blue rose. Basically a cute little appartment rented out for tourists. We got free breakfast, a three beds room and our own bathroom, what more can you wish for? Oh well the traffic could be quieter, but that makes Rome just more genuine :)

As we made our way into the city, we stopped by a cute family run cafe were we enjoyed cappuccini (or cappucci) and cornetti - amazingly yummy vanille cream filled pasteries. We were off to a great start!


After passing by the Colosseum we split up - Thomas took a tour of the Foro Romano while Lisa and I explored a later part of Roman history. Did you know that Italy as we know it today wasn't united until 1870? We learned that along with other facts in the Monumento Vittorio Emanuele II -the big white building also nicknamed the 'typewriter' or 'wedding cake.'

We also enjoyed ice cream, pizza and coffee. And of course we enjoyed visiting a few churches, people watching and crossing the streets Italian style - the main thing is to be confident, make eye contact with any oncoming drivers and to stick with a large group of pedestrians. There IS power in numbers while crossing any street!

Check out our web album for more pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/thomas.zillinger/RomeI?authkey=Gv1sRgCJfZstjhsMu7eQ

Rome we are coming

Well, here we go, we are in the train, still in austria for another hour or so. Rebecca, me and Lisa S. We are very excited :) Looking forward to our first italian gelato this year! This is the ticket to our joy to come:

I guess the further away the destination, the bigger the tickets get :)

Winter 2010/11

This winter is thankfully almost over - I am not a fan of the cold, but fortunately this year we had lots of interesting ways to spend our time, thereby distracting me from snow and temperatures.

Thomas and I both enjoyed being part of an Alpha course at our church. Tom helped out a lot more (music team, technical team, group leader...you get the picture) than I. In my defense, I did have an English course to teach which overlapped with the Alpha course. It was great to be part of organzing it and getting to see some growth and changes in our team and the participants. Here's one picture during the weekend retreat as part of the course.


Also we did many wintery and Christmasy things. Here's a pic of me getting ready to make Christmas cookies with - no, that's NOT Tom! It's Hans, the son of some friends of ours and since he lives so close, I get to hang out with him occasionally. He's a big fan of dressing up in the right outfit whatever the occasion. (notice the chef's hat). On a side note, I'm making an official request for 'real' American candy canes next year. The ones here are nothing close.
Finally we buckled down and got ourselves an opera subscription (granted we sit in the nose-bleed section, but that's not the point!). This means that we regularly attend operas, muscials and dances. It's nice to enjoy the wonderful cultural opportunities that Graz offers at an affordable price and with friends, too! Tom took this pic of me and Caitlin at the opera.
What winter would be complete without a visit to Vienna? We get to visit friends and family as well as the Christmas markets. Vienna is truely magical at Christmas time. Any volunteers to visit us next Christmas?