And the award goes to...

... Kate!  This Friday, she won an incredible award - Employee of the Year 2011 in John Deere's Product Testing Division!

You may be thinking.... "Kate doesn't work for John Deere.  Brian does.  That's Brian's department in John Deere.  What the heck?"

Well, some of you may have heard that I love to bake.  I love to bake so much, and I like to eat it too.  But if I ate all the food I baked, I'd probably be twice my size, which would be bad.  So, I make all these delicious treats and I send them with Brian to his work for his coworkers to enjoy.

In Spain no one (okay, maybe 1% of the population) makes things like cookies or cakes at home.  They simply don't bake much.  Many apartments don't even have ovens!  So when I would send in something as easy as Tollhouse recipe chocolate chip cookies, the guys were blown away, asking Brian how in the world I could have made them!  It did wonders for this girl's self esteem.

I've been able to get adventuresome with them.  Here are a few of the things I've sent in: Chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter chip/chocolate chip cookies, chocolate walnut baileys biscotti, almond blood orange biscotti, cinnamon rolls, Deb Riek's pumpkin bars, ginger bread cookies, sugar cookies, almond bark dipped pretzels, raspberry scones...

One month, they made me the employee of the month.  I was so honored!

Well, this past Friday, Brian invited me to his office for the first time.  He toured me around the factory, and I got to finally meet most of his coworkers!  They are great guys.  I brought some cinnamon rolls & biscotti, and looked forward to talking to them during the normal 10am coffee break.  When I went to the break room, they were the ones who surprised me!  They had brought in a bunch of food to have a little party for my visit!  A couple of empanadas, spanish tortillas, cured meats and cheeses, bread, and sodas to have a little fiesta :)  

But before we started eating, they said "Wait, wait, we have a gift for you!"  I was handed a small gift wrapped box, and when I opened it, I found this incredibly amazing engraved silver plaque, stating that I had been selected as the Employee of the Year 2011!!!!  I was STUNNED.  

El Equipo PV&V de John Deere Iberica

 otorga el tìtulo de 

EMPLEADA DEL AÑO 2011 

a Kate Thuesen 

por endulzar la vida 

de manera altruista.  

Getafe, abril de 2012

The PV&V team of John Deere Iberica

awards the title of

EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR 2011

to Kate Thuesen

For sweetening life selflessly.

Getafe (factory location), April 2012

 I felt like such a star :)  Pretty much the rest of the day, I couldn't wipe the grin off my face.  Honestly, this award was so unexpected, and that a bunch of guys working in a factory put this together for me with only a day's notice absolutely blew me away. 

Honestly, the thing I have to say makes me even more grateful is to know that Brian has gotten to work with such a group of men for the last 2 years.  They are high-caliber, intelligent, hard working, and a fun loving group.  They've embraced him as one of their own, patiently working with him while he learned spanish in his every day work, hanging out with us on the weekends, giving us recommendations for travel/restaurants/bars to visit... without these group of men, we would not have had as successful experience in Spain.

Thats enough to make a girl feel like she (and her man) are on top of the world.

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January 2012 Review

January was pretty calm for us!  No traveling, no visitors, and simply an easy welcome to the new year.

We re-started hosting a community group at our house (we did all of last school year, but this fall, when we were traveling so much, we couldn't manage it).  Sorry for the blurry photos - but we've averaged between 10-15 people at our place every Monday night to share a meal followed by a discussion.  Currently, we're doing Tim Keller's Gospel in Life - I'd highly recommend it to anyone!  There is so much meat to the study - each weekend, Brian and I have headed to the park to have a coffee and work on the next week's study, and we've had some great discussions with just the two of us as well.

My friend Janelle, a travel agent here, invited me to go with her to a huge travel convention in Madrid.  We collected lots of information on places to visit, and we also tried local foods from various regions.  As I was walking around the Basque region booths, I was stopped by some workers and asked if I wanted to take a pintxos class, which I of course accepted!  It was fun :)

 One thing I really miss having access to is a library - we brought a lot of books over with us (most of which I've hardly cracked) but it's always nice to have access to new and interesting literature.  For that reason, I decided to host a book exchange with some of my girlfriends.  Sorry for the blurry photos.

 There were a lot of books exchanged, but in the end, I think it simply turned into a reason to get together and eat and drink :)

 I know we'll be doing it again in the near future!

Finally, we were part of the annual Skybridge retreat.  This year, it was hosted in Madrid, which was convenient for us!  It was a weekend-long event, with 20+ attendees, many flying in from all around Europe.  Brian and I hosted a session on both loving your city and working with christian distinction, which we used mainly as a vehicle to discuss how these individuals approach each of those ideas in their own cities.

What a random post... but it just goes to show that we do more than travel here :)

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New Years Brunch

We decided that a really nice way to welcome in the new year would be to have a big brunch with our friends on January 1.  Brian decided he wanted to be a short order cook and make everyone's eggs to order, so we had omlettes, fried eggs, scrambled eggs.  

We also had bacon, fresh squeezed OJ, coffee, toast, and bloody marys!  We figured some people might need them as a recovery from the night before...

We invited Catherine over - she taught us how to make a killer Bloody Mary.  I think these will be a staple in the home of b+k for years to come.

I absolutely love our apartment, and I love that we can use it to do stuff like this.

I think if you look at most of these pictures, people were still working on waking up... though we started the brunch at 1 pm in the afternoon :)  Just goes to show that we are a little more laid back here in Madrid than in the states.  Everyone stayed around till about 4.30, then we spent the rest of the day on the couch :)  I'm hoping this will be a tradition for years to come!

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New Years in Madrid

For New Years Eve, we headed down to our church's locale to take advantage of it's perfect location to celebrate!  It overlooks Puerta del Sol, which is Spain's version of Times Square.  

This is around 10.30pm.  By the time we got to the stroke of midnight, the entire plaza was totally full with all the side streets jammed with people.  I didn't take any photos of the inside of our party place, but we had a big potluck and a dance floor set up to welcome in the new year.

At midnight, the tradition is that you are supposed to eat one grape with every stroke/ring of the clock that is in Puerta del Sol.  It's actually pretty difficult to do it, when most grapes you find here are seeded!  If you choke on one of the grapes, you supposedly have bad luck that month of the year.  I can successfully say that I downed mine perfectly!

Our friends Ryan & Jenee from Nebraska.

New Years 2012 in Madrid's Puerta del Sol from kate on Vimeo.

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4 Years

At the end of the month (the 30th to be exact), we went out for a really nice dinner for our anniversary.  I can't believe it's been 4 years!  This was the first anniversary we got to spend together alone, mostly because we're always traveling and with family over the holidays.  Although we've loved spending it with our families, it was nice to get to celebrate by sleeping in, making a big breakfast together, relaxing that afternoon, and dressing up for a romantic dinner together.  But before we left for dinner, our landlady asked us to come over for some champagne to celebrate, and we ate swedish delicacies (caviar, foie gras), and she gave us a big bouquet of flowers too!  I can't tell you how amazingly lucky we are to have her.

But, being with this guy is the very best thing of all.  Seriously, I still wonder to myself often, how did I get so lucky?

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Christmas in Madrid

After 4 months of travel, we were ready to be in one place for a little while.  We decided to stay in Madrid for Christmas, and it ended up being a good decision for us.  We were surrounded by friends and never felt alone during the entire season.  It was also pretty great to not be in airports over the holidays!

 We helped host a Christmas Eve service at our church locale.  There were about 35 people there, which is incredible, as most expats typically head home for the holidays.  I'm just pleased that we've almost finished decorating & furnishing the space, and that it looks more complete than it ever has!

 We sang carols, read the christmas story, and enjoyed eating and drinking together to celebrate Jesus' birth.

 One very cool thing in Madrid is that many of the store owners on the main streets in town decorate their streets with lights.  The streets who participate notice a marked increase in sales because everyone gets out to walk and enjoy the lights during the month of December.

 There are a few of these lighted christmas trees put up around town, though the one in Sol is the biggest!

 You can go inside the tree too.

 Even El Corte Ingles (the biggest Spanish department store) gets into the spirit too - they're in the building on the left in this photo (sorry for the blurriness)  They have huge speakers outside blaring christmas music as well.

 

After the Christmas Eve Service, we walked home from downtown so we could enjoy the lights.  That night, we skyped with family, watched a movie, and enjoyed a quiet night at home.  We also wrapped our presents that night, and five minutes after wrapping them, we sat down and opened them :)  

Christmas Day, we slept in, had another big breakfast, and skyped some more with family.  A family from our church invited several of us over for a Christmas meal for dinner that evening with several other couples in town, which was a nice way to wrap up the Christmas season.  

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The lead up to Christmas

For my final tutoring session of the year, I decided I didn't really feel like doing my homework, so my teacher Cristina & I embraced the holiday spirit.  We made ginger bread cookies and decorated them, and enjoyed hot apple cider and listened and sang along to christmas carols.  It was so much fun!

 Her first ever decorated cookie.  She was pretty proud of herself :)

This picture above illustrates my favorite thing from the entire christmas week.  Because I was making a lot of dishes for various christmas events, I asked Brian if he would be in charge of breakfast for Christmas eve & Christmas day mornings.  He gladly accepted the challenge, and this was what greeted me on that first morning.  Coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice, with eggs cooked into french bread, topped with smoked salmon, creme fraiche, capers, and red onion. Delicious.

Brian ended up taking all of Christmas week off, and I was treated with home made breakfast everyday.  We slept until noon every day, so breakfast was typically consumed around 1pm, but it was still wonderful :)  We spent our days sitting around in our pjs, drinking coffee.  It was a great stay-cation.  We felt a little guilty not taking avantage of time off to go see something new in Europe or Spain, but with our crazy travel schedule from the last year, we gladly welcomed a break.

 I'm so glad Ikea makes gingerbread houses.  My engineer husband was happy leaving it like this, but I decorated it with blue frosting, marshmallows & other candy.  Unfortunately, I forgot to get a finished picture before I ate it last week.  Let's say the best part of the house was the licorice flames that were coming out of the chimney.

A couple days after christmas we went on a hike in the mountains during one of Brian's days off.  The weather is AMAZING here - I was hot in jeans & a sweater.  I really do not miss midwest weather at this time of year!  It's also pretty nice that we can drive into some beautiful mountains in 45 minutes from our house.

Can you see Madrid in the background?  There are the 4 towers in the far background that define the city skyline from near & afar.
We also did some sightseeing in Madrid as well - We checked out the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Museum one day, and tried out some new restaurants too.  You don't have to leave home to still be an annoying tourist :)  In the end, we had such a relaxing end of the month, and we're glad we stuck around home to enjoy one another and the more laid-back style of the Spanish capitol.

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December in Madrid

December was a busy month! We spent the first week in Germany & Vienna - I'm working on those posts right now, sorry to make you wait, but I'm pretty sure no one is holding their breath.  After returning from that 10 day trip, we hit the ground running for the holidays.

My friend Tep, on the left, asked us if we would host a benefit concert at our house.  She invited about 25 of her Spanish & international friends, and we had a great evening drinking hot cider, eating christmas cookies, and listening to some amazing music that she performed!  (btw, we purposely did not dress to match... guess it's just the colors of the season)

I spent a full day preparing, it was great fun.

 We thought it would feel more "cozy" with a fire in the background - see it on our computer?

The next weekend, we had a celebration dinner & white elephant gift exchange with several of our friends from church.

This was the best surprise of the month!  A college friend & sorority sister, Meg, flew into Madrid for the day.  She had some interviews in town, and we got to enjoy lunch together before she flew back to Asturias, en route to Korea.  This girl is a world traveler.

We had a really quick drink with an old family friend, Hellen, who has been studying in Madrid for the semester.  Her dad visited for the week, and it was fun to meet him as well :)  It was an interesting dinner language mix of English, Spanish & Portuguese. I'm sad to see her go, and bummed we didn't get to spend more time together!
During December, I also had a couple of cookie exchanges, brunches with friends, and christmas parties, but no photos from those - just good memories and a few extra pounds...

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