Southern hospitality training

Yaya (Phil's mom) has been doing an excellent job of training Lucy in the fine art of Southern hospitality. This includes:

- baking cookies in case someone drops by











- praciticing the piano














- organizing the silverware














Y'all come back now.

Next, a bowling jacket

One of the big Davis traditions is the annual bowling tournament right after Christmas. We divide up into teams and can get fairly competitive about it, even though we're not very good.

This was Lucy's first year to participate and her first time bowling. She loved it! After one of her balls got stuck in the gutter, they gave us a ramp to use, so that all she had to do was push the ball down the ramp which gave it enough speed to make it all the way.

She's already asked to go bowling again, and fortunately Prague has some legitimate bowling alleys. Look for her soon on the PBA tour.

Jet lagged, but caffeinated

We left snowy Prague on Monday for our big trip to the States to see Phil's family in Richmond. It was a fairly smooth travel day - our only complaint was bad turbulence on the trans-Atlantic flight, but both kids were completely asleep and missed the bumpy part of the ride.

Lucy's favorite part was listening to her Dora songs on Phil's iPod, and Clark liked doing aerobics in his car seat, keeping his muscles loose on the long ride.



Our long layover in London was highlighted by spending time watching planes and getting Phil hooked up with the real thing, his Grande Christmas Blend from Starbucks. It was glorious.

We arrived late Monday evening and all collapsed into our beds.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family! Our Little People nativity scene has been helping us with the advent candles this year.

We hope you have a very special Christmas this year!

Phil, Shanna, Lucy, and Clark

Cut the Carp

Ahhh, the sights and sounds of Christmas. Lights, trees, packages, large fish...?

Yes, the Czechs for centuries have celebrated Christmas with a big dinner of Christmas carp. This week large tanks full of these guys appeared throughout the city. You can buy your carp and have it gutted for you right then and there (I was almost splattered by blood), or you can take it home alive, keep it in your bathtub (not kidding) until Christmas Day, and get a designated family member to be the carp-killer.

Makes you grateful for the pre-packaged grocery store Christmas dinners, doesn't it?

Let it Snow

This weekend was spent enjoying the recent snowfall in Prague. The neighborhood park has a fantastic hill where we brought our new sled, or as I like to call it - "Tree Magnet."

Clark was sporting his new snow suit, and Lucy did some solo sledding, declaring that "I do it myself." And she did.

Clark's 1st Birthday

Clark is now officially ONE year old! It's hard to believe that he's been a part of our lives for a year - he has been such a joyful and enthusiastic little boy, and he makes us laugh all the time. We had a small party for him in the afternoon with cake and presents. There was definitely a theme to all the gifts - of the four gifts he opened, all four were about firemen and fire trucks!


One fire truck was a European version and one was an American version, so he'll now know what each sounds and looks like. Very cool.

He loved his first cake too.

See below for Clark's thoughts on the day and the week building up to his birthday...

The mind of Clark

Yo, wassup? I am way too cool for you...

I need to practice my "I am ONE dance"...

I can't believe these people have been holding out on me with this sugar thing...

Dude, take it easy on the pictures...

I'd like the one on the right

We rented a car for 2 days so that we could do some shopping a bit more easily. We parked it in our garage under our flat.

Guess which car is ours. The one on the right is a BMW 760i, with a MSRP in the States at $111,500. The one on the left is a Skoda Fabia Junior, not the most macho-sounding name. It has words all over the car which say "450 Crowns a Day" - in other words, $18 per day. Good luck with your guess. Needless to say, we try very hard not to "ding" the door of the Beemer when we get out of our car.

Preschool Party

Last night (Monday) was Lucy's preschool's Christmas party. Her preschool, incidentally, is not like one in the States. She goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9 am until 4:30 pm. That's a long day for an adult, not to mention a 3-year-old. We usually pick her up earlier, around 3:00, so that it's not totally dark outside by the time we get home (which it is at about 4:15 nowadays).

But yesterday she stayed until we got there for the party at 5:00. There was singing, presents, cookies, and lots of international food to represent the international makeup of the kids. Her school is connected to the US Embassy, and embassy workers have the ability to buy American goods that most people can't - like Cheerios and Mac & Cheese. So someone brought mac & cheese last night, and we were loving it!

Lucy and her class had been praciticing Rudolph, and they gave an excellent rendition. Lucy played the important role of Donner, one of those reindeer who doesn't get much attention. She really brought out a lot in her portrayal that we hadn't considered before about Donner. Here she is about to take a bow, standing near the end on the right.


The festivities ended around 6:15 and we got home around 6:45 - meaning Lucy was at school for about 10 hours yesterday! We felt like she was in high school already, doing some sort of sport after school, coming home, and collapsing into bed.

Three is a Magic Number

Lucy turned three today! It's amazing to think that we have a three-year-old girl living with us, and Lucy is such a joy and a blessing to us. We had a very special day with her. We opened presents this morning with Papa and Yaya and then took a walk to the park.

After naps some of Lucy's friends came over for a party. The theme? Dora, of course!

Lucy had a Dora cake, Dora hats, Dora cups, Dora stickers, she got a Dora clock, a Dora bubble-maker, and a Dora CD with all of Dora's songs. If Dora were a real person, I think she'd have to issue a restraining order against Lucy.

Her two friends from school, Sara and Suri, were able to be here, along with her little buddy Owen Syvertsen. It was definitely a fun day - let the sugar detox begin!

Family Picture Time

Merry Christmas everyone! We hope you have a very special season of celebrating Jesus' birth.

B is for Brownie

Lucy and Yaya made some yummy brownies yesterday. Lucy spent the rest of the day figuring out how to eat as many as possible.

Old Town

We all went to Old Town last night to find the big Christmas trees and look at the markets. We found lots of big trees, including a huge blue one at the bottom of Wenceslas square.

Lucy got a better view from up top.

Near all the big trees are beautiful wooden nativity scenes. And in Old Town Square were live animals, including sheep, a donkey, and a white pony. Although I don't remember a white pony in the biblical record, it was a big hit with the kids.

Blue Christmas

Lucy's favorite color? Blue. She's in Christmas heaven right here.

Papa and Yaya

Phil's parents arrived on Tuesday for a whole week! We're all very excited that they're here. They brought lots of goodies with them, including some Starbucks coffee, microwave popcorn, and Christmas gifts. So we figured they could stay.

Lucy wasted no time in introducing them to her best friend Dora. Here are the assigned seats for Dora viewing.

Party at the Pub

Sir Toby's dynamic duo of Carrie and Matthias, along with Chris and others, put on a great pre-Christmas party last night at the hostel pub. Chili and cornbread was served, music was played (thanks to Michael), and hearts were warmed by the food and conversation. It was a great start to the Christmas party season, especially since no one dressed up as devils (see below).

St. Mikulas Day

Monday was St. Mikulas (or Nicholas) Day here in Prague, and thus begins some of the foreign hoilday customs. This is the day that people of all ages dress up as either St. Mikulas or his cohorts, an angel and a devil. Little groups of these three walk around Prague, mainly the squares, to scare children into being good until Christmas. Some devils will literally scare children to tears. Then the angel will give them some candy. Sounds fun, doesn't it?

Lucy's preschool teachers tried to rope me into being Mikulas, or the devil. I politely declined. Mikulas still made an appearance, unaccompanied by his 2 friends after several anxious parents asked that their children not be scared by a devil at school.

The square near our house was hopping with residents, and yes, several groups of 3 dressed up - like these three girls I saw on the way. The one in the middle is not the pope - that's St. Mick.

Just Let Your Soul Glo!

Clark goes for a different look when he takes a bath...