Christmas with the Rossi Family

First, let me start off by saying Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones, my dear readers. Also, Happy New Year 2009! May it be a great year for you! :)

As this is my first time far from home during the holidays, I guess you can say I am lucky I have relatives here. I think of this as a new experience to this adventure I am in and a new road I've found on my travels through life. But enough philosophy for now, here's what happened during Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, it is a big occasion for them. For most of the day, I was in my room because I was feeling really, really exhausted as I did work during the day and so Tita, Robbie and Raffy set up dinner. Uncle Roland was M.I.A. in his office. Probably working on another project for the Canadian Embassy.

Christmas Eve was a bit of a fancy affair as I did have to dress up as did the rest of the family. Tita got out the nice dishes and fancy glasses. Robbie gave me a mimosa, which is champagne and orange juice. Dinner was a nice steak, potatoes, veggies and red wine. Dessert was the German version of a crepe. For me, minus the chocolate.

The boys lit up the candles on the tree and then Uncle Roland read the passage in the Bible about the birth of Jesus. In German of course, but at least I got the gist of what he was saying.

Photo time! Many photos were taking of us eating, opening gifts and doing random things. *Click* Photo of us in front of the tree. *Click* Photo of us opening presents *Click* Raffy looking silly. Let's say there was a never ending amount of flash the whole night.

Among the many gifts I received, I have to admit the boys' gift to me was just awesome. They got me a Burton snowboard with Flow bindings. My very first snowboard! I was really surprised when Robbie went out and then came in the house with my snowboard in hand. Now I REALLY have to go snowboarding.

After resting for a bit, we all went to Midnight mass at St. Martin. The seats were heated (which surprised me) but the rest of the church was so cold I could see my breath. So my butt was warm while the rest of me was cold. I didn't take off my jacket, gloves or scarf while I was in church. Of course, everything was in German and I was too tired to try to translate in my head.

After mass, we followed the other parishioners to the church cellar where there was punsch and dessert. Punsch is basically fruit punch with alcohol and it's warmed up. The punsch I had was REALLY strong so I made sure I ate as many cookies as possible to get rid of the taste. Uncle Roland was talking to as many people as possible and it looked like we weren't going to go home soon so Tita Ruth, the boys and I took the other car and drove home, where for the rest of the evening we relaxed and then went to bed.

December Highlights

I know my last post was last month and so I apologize for the delay. A lot has happened since then and emphasize on A LOT. Including holidays, there has been plenty of happenings so I will highlight them (with photos, of course).

Walking Around Vienna
On one of the IAEA holidays, I decided to walk around the city before meeting up with my friends for coffee. Luckily for me it was a GORGEOUS day and many people were out. Here are the photos I took on my walk to see my friends:

International Bazaar and Ferdl's 60th Birthday Party
Every year, the United Nations Women's Guild holds an International Bazaar to help raise money for children's charities all around the world. Not only did the Bazaar sell cool stuff (in time for Christmas shopping) but also FOOD from around the world. Once I got there, I made a beeline for the Mexico booth because I needed my Mexican food. Yay for tamales! There was also Costa Rico, Argentina, Greece, Iran, Spain and many others that sold their food. I was definitely stuffed. There was also shows such as dances and singing. My favorite was the children of the world fashion show, where adorable kids wore clothes of their culture. So cute! My division also had a booth at the Bazaar, which was taking photos with Santa. My supervisor Giovanni and my colleague Kres played Santa. I stopped by and took a photo with Santa. My friends and I mostly walked around and ate goodies. I did buy one thing and that was a scarf from Palestine. But I did have fun . . .

Later that night, the relatives and I went to the 60th Birthday party of one of Uncle Roland's mountaineering buddies, who's head surgeon at the biggest hospital in Vienna. His name is Ferdl and he's a nice guy. When Raffy and I first came in, Raffy introduced me as his cousin and he teased Raffy saying that Raffy was lying and I was really his girlfriend. Funny guy, huh? First there was drinks and appetizers, music by Raffy and Robbie's Uncle Willy and his quartet of musicians. Then Ferdl's family rented a tram that took all of the guests to the restaurant, where there was a slideshow of the family doing fun stuff together. Then Ferdl's closest friends did their own presentations about him. After that, food. And plenty of it. ;) Following the main course, dessert! Yum! The children then did their own presentation which was music and singing. After that traditional Austrian dancing, which to me, is basically a lot of spinning. Really quickly. Overall, it was fun!

How Austrians celebrate Christmas
Being that Austria is a Catholic country (as many European countries are), Christmas is especially important to the people. And when it comes to celebrating and decorations, it just takes your breath away. I'll let the photos speak for themselves:

MTPI Christmas party at the Canadian Embassy
As I was told, every year Marc and his wife Marie have Christmas dinner at the Canadian Embassy. Marie just so happens to be the Canadian Ambassador and their place is very nice. Huge too! We had drinks first in the parlour and then dinner was buffet style in the dinning room. I sat at the same table as Marie who told us stories about when she was a child in Canada. Al was entertaining as usual as I tried not to get red wine up my nose. Wouldn't be a pretty sight. And dessert was so awesome! I had to skip the chocolate mousse but I did enjoy the apfelstrudel, fruit salad and caramel tarts. Oh so good!

My friend and fellow intern Tobias was our piano man that night and we had a lovely sing-a-long of Christmas songs in German, English and French. It was very chill and relaxing. Afterwards, most of the team wanted to go to a bar but I decided to head home. It was fun overall.