O Tannenbaum

Noah's favorite christmas song has been "Jingle Bells" this year. "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is a close second but he does not have the words down for this one. His favorite German christmas song is "O Tannenbaum" and so we thought we would better buy one this year. The last two years we got by without because we were in Germany and California. For economic and ecological reasons, we decided to buy a little Norfolk pine and it has been a lot of fun.

In preschool Noah made a few ornaments for our tree and they are perfect.













And now that the Christmas season is over, we just take off the decorations and still have a fun tree in the house that we can watch grow. If we don't forget to water to it...

I did not attempt to make any Christmas stockings and I did not buy any either. First, it is not very high on my priority list. I was just fine growing up without stockings. So my kids will be, too. Second, I can't sew. The nice ones in the store are too expensive and the cheap ones too ugly. Third, we don't have a chimney/fireplace anyway.

But then last second on Christmas eve Noah got into the Santa Claus thing. So we came up with some fun socks and I think they look pretty good, considering...


Karl made this beautiful wreath. After I failed to do anything with the branches we got from his mom and they were starting to dry out, Karl took charge, sat down, and in a few minutes had made this wreath. I think he got some talent.


This snowman is another Noah creation from preschool. I love it. So does he. He has been getting more into crafts and such lately. During the summer we are just too busy running around outside and, to be honest, I am NOT a crafty person. Hopefully our kids will get some of Karl's talent.


Ok, time to take the decorations down. It won't take very long in this house.

My new trick

Actually, the trick is not so new anymore. I have been doing it for at least a month now and finally someone (Grandpa) was able to take a good enough picture of me to post it.

I can't believe there still is no picture of me rolling over because by now I am a pro at it. I can pretty much roll anywhere I want to. And I want to go lots of places. All the time. I mighty try crawling soon but the doctor told me I should try sitting up first. Does not sound quite as fun but I guess I will give it a shot. Mama wants me to learn to sleep through the night first of all. Little does she know that I already know how to but I just like to have visitors during the night.


Here I am in my jumperoo. I am exercising my legs while jumping. Sometimes the fat rolls on my thighs get in the way though.
























I am pretty cute if I may say so myself. And just in case you are wondering: my eyes are so big because I always want to see exactly what Noah is up to.

Schneeflöckchen

Nach ein paar Trockenübungen im Haus mit dem Eispickel...



...gab es bei uns endlich Schnee! Noch nicht sehr viel, aber genug. Schneeanzug anziehen, Eispickel schnappen und raus. Papa freut sich mindestens so sehr wie Noah. Leider kann ich euch nicht sagen, was genau sie draußen eine Stunde lang mit ihren Eispickel gemacht haben. Da müsst ihr sie selbst fragen. Meines Wissens nach gab es keine Verletzten.



Dann gab es noch mehr Schnee. Wieder Schneeanzug an und raus.





Dieses Mal musste Papa arbeiten. Doch zum Glück waren auch Nate und sein Papa Jesse draußen. Jesse half den Jungs eine Schneeburg zu bauen. Sie setzen sich rein und Noah sagt: "I am watching a movie". So viel zu meiner Fernseh-freien Erziehung.













Die Burg.










Auf Grund großen Hungers konnte Noah das Endergebnis leider nicht genießen. Wir zogen es vor, reinzugehen und Mittag zu essen, um weitere Tobsuchtsanfälle zu vermeiden.

Merry Christmas

We wish all of our dear friends and family a wonderful Christmas. We hope you are all well and enjoying this beautiful time of year.

Karl wrote this Christmas letter for his family. We want to share it with you also.


Frohe Weihnachten und einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr auch an unsere Deutschen Freunde

We love you all and are so grateful to have you in our lives