Merry Christmas!

OK, so it was like asking for a miracle on our street to try to get a good Christmas picture of all of us and

the girls, but at least we did get a couple in the end!

Carly was a sweet Mary in the Nativity at the Catholic Church's service on Christmas Eve.  Her only wish was that she could've said more than, "Shh, you'll wake the babe."  Last year everything was so new.  This year, I felt much more comfortable.  It was nice seeing so many people we knew and knowing the German Christmas songs better.  I was feeling pretty good about myself until someone asked me a question I couldn't understand.  When Myles translated, "They're asking if you feel integrated," I felt pretty silly.  Oh, well. 

Here's our Advent's "Circle" with all four candles lit and a very small sampling of the German Christmas cookies we received.  One neighbor made 12 different kinds and shared some of each of them with us!

After everyone was finally better from being sick, we had fun making some American cookies to share.  Here Macy's helping me roll some dough for snowballs, a cookie I remember making when I was a kid.  I also had fun substituting cranberries for raisins and adding orange sugar to our oatmeal raisin cookies to make them more festive.  Although, we did re-discover that Carly must be allergic to orange peels.

Carly found some cute gift ideas online and went to town!

 

We enjoyed acting out the Nativity at home multiple times, one of our favorite traditions.

 

The homemade gift surprises were definitely my favorite.

The girls are so creative and resourceful.  Other gifts included a homemade snow globe, a book with a make your own snowman kit, picture frame...

This is a sculpture Carly made with her class on a field trip to the art museum.

This year, we also enjoyed going to a big Christmas Market (unfortunately, I didn't have our camera with us) and Christmas caroling.  It is fun that we know our neighbors better.  One couple had a sled waiting for the girls when we came to visit.  Now, we're just praying for snow!

So, is it a Hansel or a Gretel?

Um, we're not really sure ourselves.  I guess the baby didn't want us to know quite yet, so you'll have to stay tuned 'til next month.

We were happy to see that the baby is healthy and growing well.  I have been able to start feeling some movement this week, which is exciting.  In just one week, we will have experienced this, Carly's B-day, our 13th Anniversary, and Christmas!  What a busy, but wonderful time of year.  We have much to be grateful for.

9 on the 9th

This year, we had a Kegeln party with Carly's friends. This is German bowling with 9 pins, which was extra fun since she turned 9. It makes it easier for kids that the balls are smaller and the lanes are shorter compared to American bowling. We had the small place all to ourselves for most of the time, which was nice. Since Carly is not a frosting fan (I know, Gram would be sad), she opted for "American" banana muffins, which everyone really liked. Macy and I had fun finishing a book for her that she had started with Grammy when she was visiting. It was Macy's idea to use a brightly colored little ice cream spoon to hold over her illustrations to find hidden pictures. Robyn had fun picking out some books for her on the Kindle. We had fun celebrating our "Christmas" baby. Carly continues to be caring and creative. In her spare time lately, she finds cool crafts on Youtube and then whips them up for us as presents. Thanks to Gram for the supplies. (She has really taken off with German and reading this year and has found some great friends. We are grateful to have her in our family!

Christmas (and baby) Countdown

Advents is really big here.  Here is an advents "circle" we made.  Every Sunday before Christmas, we get to light another candle.  Then, we enjoy something together as a family, like a special dinner, a Christmas poem or song, or playing games.  We also have a quote/scripture a day Advents calendar that Robyn made in her religion class at school, a matchbox house Advents calendar with a little surprise for every day, and a chocolate/coloring Advents calendar.  I think we're set!  Oh, yeah, and the kids all have one in their classrooms at school, too.  We still laugh about Carly coming home last year telling us that we needed to send her with matches to school.  Every kid got to light their own candle on their desk!

Here is a wreath Macy made and gave to her school teacher, which she hung on her classroom door.

Gingerbread house Hansel and Gretel style.

The girls with a couple friends who sang a song about a Christmas bakery for the Christmas party at our church.  They also sang Mele Kalikimaka and Six White Boomers.  (Myles' grandma is from Australia and taught us that one).

The girls are really good about letting me know that I'm getting bigger every day and are sure to document it with pics.  We'll be finding out soon if we'll be having a boy or another girl.  What's your guess?

Robyn caught this moment of pure concentration while we were making some Christmas cards.

The parents got to join the kids in Carly's class for their Christmas party.  It was really nice with the theme of peace and friendship.  They told a story, taught  about the Nobel Peace Prize, and shared what peace meant to each of them.  Hanging above them are socks they each brought for their Advents calendar, which included a friendship bracelet for each of them.

Our First Snow

We were so delighted to wake up to snow!  It was beautiful, and we usually get rain here.  Since it was a Sunday morning, and we were on our way to church, the girls put snow pants on under their dresses and had fun playing while we waited for the train. 

We've already gotten more snow this year than we did all of last year.  So, it's been fun!

 

Thanksgiving--German Style

We had a mini Thanksgiving feast this year with a few friends.  Everything was a little bit different from what we're used to, but still yummy.  We had a duck, mashed (German) potatoes, rolls, and pie. 

We continued our tradition of taking turns sharing what we were thankful for, which is quite a lot this year!

Grammy & Granddad's Visit

We were so glad to get to see Myles' parents again!  Myles' dad actually lived here about 45 years ago as a missionary for our church.  I was amazed how much German he could still understand.  Every time he tried to speak German back to people, though, mostly Spanish came out.  (He and Janell recently returned from a mission together to Panama where they taught youth piano).  Janell had fun picking up some of the language while she was here, and speaking Spanish to our friends from Mexico and Brazil (Spanish being their 2nd language).

We had fun showing them places we already knew, exploring new places together (like Speyer, Ludwigsburg, and the Karl Benz Museum), reading chapter books and picture books with the girls they brought (in English), making American goodies like cinnamon rolls, having sing alongs, trying new foods, visiting the girls' schools (Janell was quite brave dressing up as The Cat and the Hat to read to their English classes, and play her guitar and sing with them), playing at different playgrounds and in the leaves, carving pumpkins, feeding the old jack-o-lanterns to the buffalo, eating Berliners...just being together!

Pumpkins at the Palace

I was glad a friend of mine told me about this cool festival in Ludwigsburg while Myles' parents were in town.

We thought these udders were pretty fun.

This year's theme was Switzerland.

It was amazing how many different kinds of pumpkins and squash they had to see and to taste.  We enjoyed trying pumpkin spaghetti, soup, and quiche.

Behind the palace, they had the cutest Fairytale land where every house told a different story.  This witch from Hansel and Gretel is a little disturbing, don't you think?

Good thing there were lots of cute gnomes, too.

When the kids yelled, "Rapunzel, let down your hair" (in German), then her hair came down.

 

We were blessed with a beautiful fall day until it was time to leave and it began to rain.

Swirl Bread

 

When Myles was a kid, his mom liked to bring this kind of bread to the widows in their neighborhood when they went trick-or-treating.

When she came to visit, she brought the food coloring, etc, so she could make it with the girls.  Robyn had fun taking it to her Halloween party for English class, where they also got a kick out of bobbing for apples.

 

We made these with the extra dough that didn't fit in the loaf pans, and thought they were pretty fun.

It is also fun to make the black coloring on the outside so that people think the bread is burned or moldy...

Halloween Costumes

Macy as The Cat in the Hat

Carly as Spidergirl

And, Robyn as Cowgirl.

 

This year, the girls had fun trick-or-treating (in our neighborhood to people we knew) and trunk-or-treating (with American friends from the military base).  They also went to a few parties.  I guess Halloween just started catching on around here about 5 yrs. ago, lucky for us.

Ah, the Simple Joys in Life

Every Monday night we have what's called Family Home Evening where we have a song, prayer, little lesson, activity, and of course a treat.  We all take turns being in charge of each part, which the girls love.  Tonight, we'd planned on taking a family walk to deliver some invitations for making gingerbread houses, but it was cold...and...dark...and rainy.  I was proud of Carly for not getting upset when we said we needed her to come up with something different.  After talking about how miracles still exist today, like in the time of Jesus, eating German cookies and sipping lemon tea, Carly grabbed Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein and had each of us read our favorite poem.  It was great fun!  After the girls were in bed, Myles and I enjoyed laughing over some of the less read ones.  Which one is your favorite?

Our Pumpkin Patch

 

When we did a special treasure hunt to break the news to the girls, they were SO excited.  Macy screamed, "I always wanted a silly bean!  Or, what is it called?  Oh, yeah, a sib-il-ing."  Soon after I'd found out that it was official, but the girls didn't know yet, I was helping Macy fill out a friend book where she includes her picture and answers some questions about herself.  One of the questions was, "If you had a wish, what would it be?"  She said, "A baby brother or a sister."  The girls worked a long time doing their jobs, etc, to fill a bean jar.  When it was filled, they could each choose a Mommy Daughter or Daddy Daughter Date.  Macy said she wanted her date to be shopping with me for something for the baby.  But, she wants to wait to see if  it's a boy our a girl first, so she knows what we should buy.  She does know that she wants to buy an orange stroller.

Although it was not in our plans to have this big of a gap, it is fun to see how much of an opinion the girls already have on things, and fun that they will be want to help so much and be able to remember when their baby sister or brother was little.

The girls wanted to wait to break our news to others until Myles' parents came for a visit, so that we could tell them face to face.  When I said that we might have to tell some people we see because I'd be showing, Carly said, "That's OK.  They'll just think you've been eating more hamburgers."

People were surprised that we told them before we were starting to tell everyone else.  They thought it was fun to keep the secret.  Then, each of them got to choose one person who they wanted to tell first.

We're excited to see around Christmas time if we'll be continuing our pattern of girls or if we'll have a boy this time.  Of course, we're just grateful this little pumpkin is coming!

Quotable Quotes

My friend from England explaining when we'd get together next:  Don't worry, I'll just give you a ring.
Macy:  What kind of a ring does she have for you?

Carly (singing):  Somebody's watching me.  Somebody IS always watching me...That could be a church song!

Carly:  We miss America, but when we leave Germany, we're going to miss Germany, so we should enjoy it while we're here.

Carly:  If a fairy came to me and gave me three wishes, you know what they'd be?  One, none of us would get car sick because then you could do a lot more things like read.  Two, People like in wheelchairs could walk, and Three, no graffiti!

Macy (while she's rubbing my feet):  You're getting a full foot message, and you don't even have to pay!

Carly:  I saw this trelude for this movie.  (She combined trailer with prelude).

A kid in Macy's class to the teacher during the first week of first grade:  Look. Do you like how pretty my mom colored my homework?

Macy playing the game Guess Who with Myles:  Does your guy have artificial hair?  (She meant facial).

Carly:  Why do you think my lips are so red?
Me:  I don't know.  It could mean you're a little dehydrated and need to drink more water.
Carly:  Or, it could be a sign of beauty.

Macy riding on Myles' shoulders late one night after getting off the train, and looking up into the sky:  Daddy, I can't see the Skinny Dipper tonight!

Macy after school:  We did English today.
Me:  Was it fun?
Macy:  No, I was just bored.  'Point to your pencil.  Point to your gluuuuuue.  Point to your sciiiiiiissors.  I wish I could say it instead of listening to that CD.
Carly:  I know.  That's when I ignore myself.  But, then, she'll ask me a random question, and I'll have to say,  'Sorry, I wasn't listening right then.'

Myles singing:  If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning, I'd hammer in the evening all over this land...
Carly:  If he wanted a hammer so badly, why didn't he just get himself one?    

Evidence

When I was a kid and claimed that I did my job, my parents had to take my word for it, or check up on me, I guess.  No need for that in this day and age.  You know you've got it covered when your six-yr-old brings you your digital camera as evidence of a room well swept ("Look at how big of a pile I got!") just in case there's any further questioning or reason for trial...

Carly sporting her first pair of glasses.

Macy whipping up some Paninis for us, on our typical German rye bread with salami, French cheese, and home grown basil.

I love this picture.

 

Here's Robyn going through part of a really cool Safari-themed obstacle course at a huge free festival for the kids to celebrate starting a new school year.

Why didn't I think of that before?

You know when you have a sinus headache, and a hot washcloth feels good on your head/face, but it doesn't last very long, even with a plastic bag on it?

This morning, Macy gave me a hot water bottle (like you'd use for a backache, or something).  I tried that, and it worked great!  I even took a nap with it on my head, and it helped relieve the pressure.

Now, I'm off to try some German tea.  Welcome fall!

Macy's First day of First Grade

I love these pictures.  She's so happy and so ready to go!

The first day was actually on a Saturday, so all the mamas, papas, omas, and opas could come.  

Here she is with one of her good friends from kindergarten.  The morning's festivities began with a service in the Catholic Church.  We felt dumb that we weren't more dressed up.  We were surprised that people were more dressed up than they were for last year's Christmas service! 

Then, the second graders who had started school the week before, had a whole program prepared for the new first graders with music, pictures, and puppets to teach them about the school.  It was so cute, especially to hear them showing off some of their English.

Every kid got to send off a balloon with a postcard attached.  They see how many they can get back and from how far away. 

Another one of Macy's good friends from kindergarten.  Where there's a German party, there's always lots of cake.

 

Macy got to meet her teacher and spend some time in her new classroom.  She's holding a bunny, her class mascot.  So far, she loves school.  She just comes home pretty tired.  We get the inside scoop.  She tells us things like, "Guess what?  One kid asked the teacher if she liked how pretty his mom colored his homework for him," and "In math, we didn't do any math.  We only counted."  She gets to see Carly at recess, which is fun.