TWO CHRISTMAS'S!

Hey Guys, I hope you had a great Christmas and that you have plenty planned for the New Year. We had a great time and have spent the last week or so celebrating (hence why I have not been blogging). This year was slightly different to most as I am spending this year in Czech and we get to celebrate twice as a family for the first time. As you can imagine we were pretty excited.

First Christmas Day

Here we are on the 24th December and it's Christmas day! Well if you are from the Czech Republic or Slovakia it is (I'm sure there are other countries as well but I'm not sure). So we were woken up nice an early by our little snapper and had our hopes high for a snowy Christmas. As I put the kettle on I looked outside only to see darkness....of course it's 5 am! But as the daylight began to appear, so did the sun which obviously meant no snow.

As the morning progressed all three of us went downstairs to spend the day with my family in-law, and first on the menu was "Vanocka". It is a sweet bread and I can only compare it to a hot cross bun.....very delicious. And as we sat there eating our breakfast with a coffee we watched a Czech adaptation of Cinderella. I couldn't understand a word but wanted to stay within the Czech tradition.

So around mid-afternoon we then moved on to our second meal of the day which was "Kuba". This dish is basically rice with forest mushrooms, simple but tasty and tasted even better with a beer next me. After our lunch we then went on our way to visit Jitka's Grandmother and family. 

This then leads us to the amazing dinner we had as a lot of you know is "Kapr a bramborovy salat" which translates to Carp with Potato Salad. This was accompanied with a glass of wine and money under the plate. Yes I said money under the plate! It is meant to bring you luck in the future with finances, and as I am unemployed I need all the luck I can get, so I had extra (hehe).

Now for the best bit...the presents. After the meal at around 6 - 7 pm we exchanged gifts and I couldn't have been happier. Max got spoiled, like most kids on their first Christmas, and wouldn't let go of his new caterpillar toy. Again he didn't really know what was going on but he behaved extremely well and seemed really happy.

After present opening and a few drinks I decided I had to go to bed as the next day was going to be a long day. So Jitka and her family sat up and watched another movie called Pelisky while I was fast asleep with Max.

Second Christmas Day

It's 5 am again and it's Christmas! Well as I am native English, today was my Christmas.... And how about kicking the day off with pre-heating the oven.....yes you heard me, I was about to cook my first Christmas Dinner ever! Over the last twenty six years the only contribution I have made was eating it. 

So I roped Jitka into helping as two heads is better than one! And I can now sympathize with every single one of you who cooks this meal....it really is stressful but rewarding. Well as the Turkey was cooking on a slow heat I thought that it's definitely time for a bit of Buble (Michael Buble) while eating some mince pies (which I will try and burn off during the new year).

Dancing away while opening my first lager, I was in the greatest mood of all year. Max was playing with his new toys while Jitka's other family members visited us as a surprise. It was nice because it felt like I was at home, even though I was missing my family. As we were cooking the meal, we then found out we were catering for two extra persons, no worries.....I started feeling more relaxed as time went on (mainly because of the alcohol) and it was then when I then realized that no body has eaten this meal before, so there fore have nothing to compare it to. All the nerves had then disappeared.

So around three o'clock it was all prepared and served and I have to say that it was the definitely the best Christmas dinner I have cooked! I know it was the first but we have to keep the standard now as everyone is coming back for more next year. We couldn't have been happier.

After dinner things started to get a little wild as we started to play frustration ( the board game) and after a few more drinks, me and Jitka's brother carried on the festivities watching music on YouTube until late in the night (my parents would have been proud). It really was an awesome couple of days.

Wow that was a big blog! My head is frazzled. We had an amazing week or so and as now New Years Eve is approaching, I have decided to tone it down for a few days. I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and will have an amazing new year. Thank you for taking the time to read and the blogging will be back to it's usual timely fashion and enjoy the photos.

Bye Guys!

CRAWLING FOR THE FIRST TIME!

Hey Guys, and welcome to my update. It's going to be just a short one but it's an important blog to record. Here we are again with the second big milestone of Max's life. I blogged a couple of weeks ago when he started to sit unaided but now he's crawling! I must admit, he's not crawling with ease but he is definitely moving forward. It's funny I say forward because over the past few days he has only managed to push himself backwards.

Someone once said to me that if you experience a few rough days with him crying etc, it means that he is ready to unleash a huge milestone in his life. To be honest I think it makes sense as we have always been relating it to teething, but as there is still no teeth, he has learnt a lot.

He is so close to saying his first words as well....he says "hello, dadda and mama" but I'm sure he doesn't understand what he is actually saying, but he definitely has these words down to a tee.

Anyway, we are off to Prague again today and I will update my blog with today's events. We are shopping for Max.....so excited!

I hope you enjoy the video.

Bye Guys

WINTER GRILL!

Hey Guys, and again welcome to my blog update. So here we are again on another Sunday and it just seems that time is flying by extremely quickly. Max is almost seven months and I have been living in Czech now for almost five months! It has been a hectic five months but I wouldn't change it for anything. It really does feel like "years" since I attempted putting up IKEA furniture on our first month here.

Well, we are now finally starting to settle properly and I'm starting to experience living the Czech way, which leads us to today's blog update. 

Today we started the same as usual with Max waking up 6 am and he now does this "cute thing" where he screams his head off until you pick him up from his cot....very cute indeed (you definitely do not get any lye ins with this little munchkin). So, at 8 am I made my way to play 5 a-side football as per usual, which we won 8-5 (*cough* *cough*) and after we went on our way.

After twenty minutes of walking we made it to our destination....if it weren't for Mia the dog, we would have made it in fifteen....she really has to sniff EVERYTHING! Normally we would have walked to the forest but we had a slight scare of rain and decided to set up camp a little closer. To be honest I wasn't bothered, as long as I had my sausage I was happy....haha.

We (Jitka's dad) lit the fire, drank some beer and rum with tea and all gathered round the fire to enjoy our feast. It is a tradition that a lot Czech villagers do and I really do enjoy everything about it. I mean what's not to like? Sitting round a fire, eating meat and drinking beer with no noise or persons in sight...it's pretty amazing.

This time Max was finally awake for an outing and seemed to enjoy what he could understand. The only problem with him being awake was that he kept knocking his hat over his eyes and tended to screech a little. But apart from that he was as good as gold.

After around one hour we made our way home and here I am now, blogging about our day with you all. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this and enjoy the photos. See you next time.

Bye guys.

PRAGUE VISIT!

Hey Guys, and welcome to my blog update. Over the past couple of weeks I have been saying that I will blog about visiting Prague and the Old Town Square and finally, here it is. 

I knew it was going to be a long day but the first planned event of the day was a friendly game of Football with friends and family (we play every Sunday morning). And unfortunately, whilst warming up, I thought I may have broken my thumb! It was then I thought, great, I've ruined another family outing by spending all day in hospital. But the great news is that it started to feel better and maybe I was being a little over dramatic. So I got home and we went on our merry way.

When we arrived we found a parking space right in the center of Prague pretty sharpish and best of all, it was a free space, so we knew we were in for a good day. After five minutes of walking we arrived in the center of the Old Town Square. My first reaction was, wow there is a lot of people! But what was I expecting? It's known to be one of the greatest Christmas Markets in Europe. It was very impressive!

They had a stage for music, which was purposely set for Carol Singers (they sang in English which made it a little easier for me to understand), lots of traditional Czech grub such as Trdelnik, which is similar to a doughnut, Klobasa sausage and lots of meat style skewers etc. They had buskers, tour guides and lots of entertainers. The best bit was the hot mulled wine and warm mead. It couldn't have felt more like Christmas, standing there with a glass of mulled wine, listening to Carol singers under a gigantic Christmas Tree. 

As we made our way to the shopping center we stumbled across all sorts of entertainment. There was a lady blowing huge soap bubbles which caught the eye of children as they tried to burst them as quick as possible. I think she was getting pretty annoyed because they were popping them before she had even finished. And a little further down the road we saw this peculiar act where a man was levitating above another man, it had me thinking for a long time until I decided that they are actually floating. Jitka then burst my little bubble by telling me how it's done.

We then made it to the shopping center where it has six floors and over two hundred stores. It was heaven for Jitka but I knew it was going to be a late afternoon, and what was meant to be shopping for family presents, quickly turned into cloth shopping for Jitka. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty immature and starting moaning like a child (but it worked).

Finally after walking around all of the shops, we made our way back to the Square to see how it looked with all the lights. And it was, as they would say in Czech, Krasny (Beautiful). Again the only down side was the amount of people, you literally couldn't move, but it was Sunday and we didn't expect anything else. It was a shame that Max couldn't understand what was going on but next year I'm sure he will be more aware, and probably sleep less (hehe).

So there you have it! I finally got off my lazy bum to do some Christmas shopping, and its only the 8th December. I usually do my shopping on the 24th (*cough* *cough*). So feeling a little more organized now I'm a family man. Next week we will go food and drink shopping, the best bit!

Thank you for reading and I will update my blog in three days time. And sorry for the bad quality photos as we had to use my phone.....

Bye Guys.

THEY FOUND HIM!

Hey Guys, and welcome to my blog update. Again just a short one but felt I needed to record this. Around three months ago, a cat had kittens in our garden. Little did we know that one would be left behind. Jitka's brother was doing his home duty of feeding the chickens and it was then when he stumbled across this neglected kitten crawling around the pen. It was from there on in that Jitka and her brother took care of this little smasher.

They both decided to keep the kitten but only if the mother didn't come back for him and that he was purely an outdoor cat. So as the weeks went on, the mother never came back and we knew that he was our pet.

Unfortunately around two weeks ago he decided to go his own way and leave his little home. But Jitka couldn't help worry about his safety, so she tried asking all of the neighbor's if they had seen him, posted a comment on the village page through Facebook, asked the local Zoo if they had any kittens handed in and finally asked the pet detective if they had any news. It's fair to say that we just wanted to make sure he was safe.

This morning we received a phone call from the Zoo, a kitten had been spotted which matched the description and was captured for safety. Five minutes later he was returned to us. It was then that the lovely lady told us that he didn't go his own way but was stolen along with many other kittens. The person who stole him is known for his animal cruelty and it literally was a case of them taking the kitten away from him. So we took him to the vet and were assured that he is OK.

We were extremely lucky to be re-united with him and he just needs a little bit of looking after as he was clearly traumatized from where he came from. And from now on in, he will be accompanying Jack as another indoor cat.

Jitka has yet to come up with a name, so he is called Mr X at the moment. This now calculates to six pets which does not include the other collection my parents in law have. We definitely have our hands full! 

Oh and the two parrots downstairs are sitting on two eggs.......

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope to see you again. It's a sad story but with a good ending and it has been a good day.

There will be a Prague update on Monday as we are going on Sunday.

Bye for now.

Mr X playing with Mia

IT'S SNOWING!

Hey Guys, unfortunately we didn't make it to Prague on Sunday because, well, we were basically too lazy to go! So we are going this week sometime instead as we need to get all of our pressies and want to see the Old Town Square. But today it's snowing!! It's not a Blizzard (well in England people may call it a "Blizzard") but I'm sure it will pick up very soon.

Max must be in a very good mood today as he allowed me to stay in bed until 8am, which means he slept for almost eleven hours. It's like he knew something magical was happening outside. As I dragged myself out of bed we immediately noticed the weather had changed for the better.

Before we moved to Czech I was really looking forward to the winter, solely because of the amount of snow they receive. I definitely prefer the cold and icy weather compared to the hot and sticky. With Mia, this is only the second time she has experienced this type of weather and I remember that she absolutely loved it! She was jumping around head first and kept herself busy chasing her own tail. It's a shame she doesn't understand what yellow snow is (hehe).

I think Max is probably too young to appreciate it at the moment, but I seriously can't wait until he is old enough so we can build a snowman together and, of course, have snowball fights. Jitka is also very excited as this means the mountains will be perfect for snowboarding. I for sure will not be going as I do not want a repeat of what happened last time.

For those of you that know me have probably heard this story a thousand times, so I will tell it one last time. I decided to go skiing with Jitka's side of the family, it took us two hours to get there and to be honest I was absolutely terrified. I kept saying to myself, if all these people can do it, so can I.

So after another hour of getting equipped we started to make our way to the top of the mountain, and when we got there, I decided that I needed a drink to calm the nerves. I remember looking down the mountain and saying to Jitka "I'd rather break a limb than ski down there!" Well I wasn't disappointed.

After Jitka connected my ski's her snowboard decided to grow legs and run down the mountain, which then led to Jitka chasing after her snowboard. As I was sitting there I decided it would be a cool and great idea to ski past her while waving. After around two seconds I realized that I have never been skiing and how the hell do I stop!?!? I self-consciously thought of roller blades and tried to break using my heel, which then led to me flying up in the air with my back landing on my wrist. 

And yes, you guessed it I broke my wrist in two places after just eight seconds of skiing. And just to top it off, nobody from Jitka's family had the chance to snowboard or ski because I had to go to hospital. Bearing in mind that myself and Jitka were only dating for under a year and I was just trying to impress her and make a good impression on the family. That literally fell flat on its face. Since then I have never dared to ski again.

I will just stick to sledging down the front door porch.

Can we dare to dream of a white Christmas this year? I hope so as this would be a first for me. Thank you for reading and we are now all going to enjoy the weather and watch a movie. Next time I will be updating about Christmas shopping in Prague, and our visit to the Old Town Square. Don't forget to follow and share with friends.

I hope you enjoy the photos.

Bye for now.

The view of the garden from our window this morning

Moments after leaving the onsite hospital from breaking my wrist

On the way up to the top of the mountain

Mia enjoying her breakfast this morning

The view from our living room window

                                         

A little clip of the garden

HE'S SITTING UP!

Hey Guys, just a short blog today as I did say I would post all milestones Max achieves. And he has sat up for the first time without any help or cushioning. Over the last few weeks he has been trying so hard to crawl, sit up, talk and at the same time he is teething. So I think it's fair to say that he has a lot going on and it has been pretty overwhelming for him. It must be all the spinach we're feeding him.

But after lots of practice he has done it. He still isn't 100% safe to be left alone yet but we're pretty sure in a couple of weeks he can be left to his own accord. We will basically be focusing on getting him comfortably sitting and then moving on to crawling.

With regards to his crawling, he is trying so hard and he definitely gets a little frustrated, mainly because the little progress he does make, I pick him up and put him back in the middle of the play mat. He must hate me (hehe). The reason for this is because we have wooden flooring and he tends to drop his head a lot (so we don't want any injuries).

On Sunday we are going Christmas shopping in Prague, and because of this, it opens up a lot more options for his presents. We are also checking out the Old Town Christmas Market, and it's known to be one of the best Christmas Markets in Europe. We are really looking forward to it, Jitka will take plenty of photos, and I will give you a full blog update on Monday.

Again thank you for reading and see you soon.

Bye Guys!

       

Max being a big boy

P.S. We are currently without a professional camera for three weeks, that's why the quality won't be quite the same

SIX MONTHS TODAY!

Hey Guys, Max is half a year old already. Wow, that has gone quick! Six months ago from today, me and Jitka were sitting in the sun just wandering when will our little boy make an appearance. Little did we know that it would be that same night from 1 am.

I remember being so excited, and it didn't matter how many times we checked our bag that we prepared months before, I couldn't help think that we had forgotten something! Turns out we actually didn't forget anything, and for those who know me, understands that is an achievement for me. So we arrived pretty sharpish and was given our room straight away, and before we knew it, nineteen hours later he was here.

The feeling is indescribable but it was the happiest moment of my life. When the midwife handed my son to me for the first time I couldn't help think "wow, I'm actually a dad". I'm sure people will back me on this, it doesn't actually feel real until you first see your child.

So the following day after great progression we were clear to take him home. And that first day when you take your baby home, trust me you will not get any sleep! Well, I can only speak for me and Jitka but we were too scared to sleep in case anything would happen. But over time that does change and we are now the opposite, we sleep whenever we can. 

For the first eight weeks we set up camp with my parents, and we couldn't have wished for a better start and well behaved baby. He slept through the night and in the day just kept himself occupied with his swinging chair and looking at my father's golden saxophone (I think he loved the shininess of it). We used to take him on daily walks through the park and had to resist the temptation of ice cream, as there was always an ice cream van present.

After the first two months we then made our biggest decision yet and moved abroad to the Czech Republic. We were absolutely dreading the flight but he was amazing. He didn't make one peep, which was great because apparently we had a retired midwife sitting behind us, and she had to let us know that if we needed help she was there (Thank you stranger).

Since then Max has already hit some milestones. He started rolling over about a month ago, and since then, he just constantly rolls around the house. He loves his belly time and is so close to crawling. He can sit up but he does need reassurance and help with balance, so almost there. He is extremely vocal and we are trying to teach him some words, but so far he can only spit and say "ga bla blah boo aaaa".

We couldn't have wished for a better son and it's great that he is progressing well. I want to thank you all for taking the time to read this, and I will update the blog within the next few days. Enjoy the photos and they will be in order from one week to six months. Please feel free to leave any comments.

Bye Guys.

The calm before the storm

Me in the room where it all began

Max at one day old

Max at one to two weeks old

Very sleepy boy

Spending some quality time in the park

Getting ready for Christmas

After a long day out

GETTING IN THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT!

GETTING IN THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT!

Hey Guys, and good afternoon to you all. I know some of you may be sick of the word Christmas by now, but as this is my first time being at home, I can't help but get a little excited. Me and Jitka went decoration shopping yesterday and found some good bargains. I mean three stockings for three pounds is pretty good going.

We decided, as this was our first Christmas together as a family, we will go that extra mile in purchasing fluffy themed jumpers (just to get in the spirit). And it looks like I will be dressing up as Santa for the first time ever.

The best thing about spending Christmas here is that we get two celebrations. In Czech, they celebrate the festive season on the 24th December, so Max will be a lucky boy this year because he gets double the fun! Better make sure we have enough mince pies.

It is slightly different here as they have a lad called Jezisek, which means baby Jesus. So unfortunately (cover your ears kids....) Santa doesn't have a Visa for Czech.

Unlike England where we have one massive amazing Roast Turkey, they have lunch and dinner. In my family the traditional lunch is called Kuba, which consists of rice and wild mushrooms. And for dinner is Carp served with Potato Salad. There are nice little traditions such as placing money under your dish, so it gives you luck in being wealthy, and lighting an aroma stick while you're eating.

Then the best part, the presents! Everybody gathers round the tree after dinner, as you do, and open the pressies. Then it's off to bed. 

Usually that signals the end of Christmas, but wait, I'm English. Were only half way! So 5 am it is and Max has no idea that Santa got a day pass to bring him more presents. I will then be attempting my first ever Christmas dinner. If all fails, beans on toast it is. I actually do feel a little pressure to cook an amazing Roast because my parents in law have never tried this before. So I shall be calling my mum for some secret tips. 

Anyway, as you can see were pretty excited for Max's first Christmas's. It's a shame I won't be spending it with my parents, so I'll have a drink on them. And I'll be sure to keep up the household tradition of cheesy music.

Thanks for reading and again I hope you enjoy the photos (taken by Jitka). More updates to come in the next few days. Please feel free to leave any comments below and don't forget to follow and share with friends. 

Bye Guys.

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PJ DAY!

Hey Guys! Welcome to blog three. Again I want to thank everyone for their support and feedback from the last blog. I know I haven't updated it for a couple of days but we have been mega busy and we believe Max is teething. So finding time has been pretty tough! But here we are, on a very wet cold day, having a PJ Day. 

This morning Max decided to make his grand entry at 6 am and was full of smiles. That's usually a good way to start off the morning. As I was making a coffee I couldn't help notice the rain pouring, and immediately said to myself, "Awesome, a day of Friends and Movies". Or in Jitka's case, reading a book with a nice mug of tea.

So now I think would be a great opportunity to introduce you to some of our pets.

Meet Mia. She is a Lhasa Apso and has also moved abroad for the first time. She is still struggling with the language barrier but progressing well. For those of you that have met her, knows that she is absolutely bonkers! She barks at the tiniest things, which is good for security but also frustrating when a leaf hits the window. She is nuts but we love her!

Meet Jack. Jack is probably the most "camp" cat I have ever met. He tends to prefer the male attention rather to women, and likes to follow only men to the rest room (Creepy). Again he is a native English and has adapted to life in Czech with no problem.

And finally, Meet Boris. Unlike Mia and Jack, his mother tongue is Czech. When Jitka won Boris in a raffle (yes I said won), it only took a few seconds to accept the prize. Boris is a Degu and loves life in the Hirst household.

We do have another eight pets but we will save that for another time. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the photos. Don't forget to follow and share with friends. Next update will be within the next couple of days.