PLZEN - NAMESTI REPUBLIKY

There are some angel heads that people who visit the town square touch for luck.

 Some local company decided to dress the angel heads in tiny, colorful hats and scarves this winter.

 I wore the same outfit as the angels...how embarrassing.

Just kidding. It's adorable.

Don't worry - nobody rubbed my head for luck.

Kutná Hora

I went to a small town call Kutna Hora. There is a Sedlec Ossuary (Kostnice v Sedlci) or a small Roman Catholic chapel. This place is listed as one of the twelve World Heritage Sites in the Czech Republic.

Inside the church, it is estimated to have between 40,000 and 70,000 skeletons of people, whose bones have been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel.

 It's not a huge chapel, but all of the bones are kinda interesting.

 There is a giant coat of arms made of bones,

 skull garland lining the place, 

and a giant chandelier in the center that contains at least one of every bone in the human body.

My favorite part was this cool skull on the ground outside of the chapel.

There are other cool buildings in Kutna Hora, but this was my favorite.

TACHOV TOWER

I drove to Tachov recently to check out a cool look out tower and to get a great view of the city. In Czech, it's called Rozhledna na Vysoké u Tachova. I don't speak Czech, but we can have fun and write that out. Anyway, here's the view I discovered:

Tachov is a 1 hour drive from Plzen, but the tower view was totally worth it. There isn't much else to the town. There is a super small center/square, but that's about it. Never stop exploring!

WE MAKE THE MOUNTAIN LOOK GOOD

I probably haven't been on ski slopes for at least 10 years, but when your little "Czech brother" needs to test out his new skis because his school is taking a week long trip, you one-piece suit up!

Ivanka and I were warming up the mountain temps with our matching outfits.

 The guys didn't look too bad either.

First run on the bunny hill to boost my confidence.

Check out the Czech ski lifts in this video. It was like riding a frisbee on a stick.

I appreciate the bum tap at the end from the attendant.

I still don't know what to do with the poles when I go down the mountain so I ditched them.

Tomorrow we are going to try snowboarding in Germany.

I have a feeling that might be more my style.

All I now is we sure made that mountain look good.

SUMAVA GREATNESS

Life is beauty full. My goal this year it to do more things I won't forget. I want to find beauty and greatness everywhere I go and not complain so much. I have found that beautiful thoughts make beautiful people. I am lucky to be where I am and who I am. No more complaining. (I might have to be reminded of this a few times...)

I used to complain about going to the forest house in Borova Lada with my Czech family (I even called it Boring Lada), but now I just look harder for the beauty and fun opportunities I have in the trips. Here is what I have come up with so far:

Every day is a start of something beautiful. Enjoy the heck out of it.

Veselé Vánoce

Veselé Vánoce...That's how they say Merry Christmas in Czech.

That's where I am for Christmas. This is how we do it here:

 We make Christmas cookies.

 We wear ridiculous red and green reindeer antlers and jingle bell all the way.

 We decorate the tree.

 We have family parties.

 We make schnitzel and potato salad.

 We eat. Then we eat and eat...and eat.

Oh, and then we open presents.

I guess it was a pretty normal Christmas celebration...just in another language.

Mikuláš

We were in Prague for Mikuláš this year. St. Nicholas (Mikuláš), the Angel (anděl) who represents the Good, and the Devil (čert) representing the Evil were walking the streets. 

All three characters are supposed to walk the streets, stopping children to ask if they were good in the past year. Most kids say yes and sing a song or recite a short poem and are rewarded with sweet treats handed out by the angel. Bad kids are supposed to be put in the Devil's sack and taken to hell, or would only get a sack of potatoes or coal instead of candy. They are here to scare the kids to behave better.

Sounds a little creepy, eh?! Trust me, it is...but maybe a little like our creepy Halloween traditions.

For some reason, we mostly saw the Devils roaming the streets this year. Uh oh.