New Years Eve is kind of a big deal here in Germany. Last year was our first year here to experience it and I was shocked how everyone had fireworks to shoot off. I'm talking little old grannies out on their doorsteps lighting fireworks! The fireworks in my village started at midnight and solid noise from them carried on for over an hour. It was a little insane. The other thing we noticed about the fireworks here is they apparently are not regulated like they are in the US. The things people were shooting off from their houses were definitely stuff you'd have to have some kind of license for in the States.
Yesterday Colin and I went to the home and garden store to get some supplies to feed the wild birds and I ended up buying us a variety pack of fireworks. I made sure it was all innocent Colin sized entertainment and stuff I'd seen/lit off in the US and knew what to expect. Deployments are always when all the crazy shit happens...if I was ever going to set the house on fire or blow up my car with fireworks, this would be the time, so I'm not taking any chances! I was amazed at the crazy stuff they were selling to any Joe Schmoe that wanted it at the store. I'm talking explosives that looked like paint cans and some the size of my kid!
Tonight after dinner Colin and I went out in the yard and rang in the new year a little early. We enjoyed watching the fireworks and liked the spinner kind that bounced around. He wasn't so sure about those screaming volcano things, he had to hold my hand during those, but overall he was pretty excited about the show. I think his favorite part was when his little friend next door hopped up into his kitchen window, which faces our house/yard and watched the fireworks too. Colin and Christian waved frantically back and forth to one another and then they started yelling to each other through his window. They both thought it was pretty neat. Enjoying a little snow snack while he watches the show, lol. Wierdo!
I'm doubting I will stay up this year to see the clock strike midnight. If I don't I'm guaranteed to be awake shortly after from all the celebrating and noise going on though. As long as it doesn't wake up Colin I'll be happy :) Happy New Year!
are on the way! I know I'm late on the vacation pics and trip story but it's been a busy time! I'm slowly but surely getting the pictures organized and put on here, I made one post about our fist stop today. In a few days Shel will be leaving for his deployment and then I'll have some time to get the rest of the blog posts up. Don't forget to scroll down to check for them, I date them on the dates they actually happened, so if you just look at the post on the top, (which is the most recent according to the date) you will miss the new ones below it which are dated prior to this one. Hope that made sense! Scroll down and check for new posts :) I'll have them up soon (I hope!)
Shelby was up at 5:30 this morning all excited for Christmas. I was able to stifle my excitement a little longer and sleep until about 6:45. Colin, however, was zonked out and didn't wake up until just after 8! We ran upstairs to get him and tell him Santa had come and there were toys all over the place downstairs. We ran downstairs a little ahead of Colin so we could see his face when he came into the living room. We waited, and waited, and coaxed, and waited! LOL Colin came downstairs and then got distracted by the sleds sitting at the bottom of the staircase and wanted to play with those instead. We finally got him to run into the living room and he looked totally confused and surprised to see all the goodies under the tree.
He headed to the tool bench from Santa first thing and then went over to jump on the trampoline Santa also brought. Then he noticed the presents and started digging in! It was tough getting each gift away from him without taking it out of the packaging and letting him play with it. He wanted everything opened and out of the box, but we knew he would stop opening presents if we started letting him play with stuff. He did pretty well with setting all the new toys aside until we got to a box full of cars and a horse trailer with a horse inside from my parents. He was very excited about the horse and trailer and he wanted it open, NOW! When we told him to wait he took it over to the tool bench and proceeded to attempt to saw it open with his saw. When that didn't work he tried the drill, and lastly he gave the pliers a try. We got the horse trailer away from him and then he went to open another present with the pliers and we had to take them away. That caused quite a fit, lol, but thankfully it was short lived with all the other toys still under the tree. He racked up all kinds of goodies and played all morning with Daddy. I snuck off to the kitchen to make a few things for dinner tonight.
After digging out my car and shoveling the sidewalk we bundled up to head to the sledding hill in the village. Colin got a new wooden sled for Christmas too, but he got it early since we went to Garmisch last week and knew we'd need it there. We got about 5-6" of snow yesterday afternoon/last night, so it was beautiful and there was a nice layer of snow up on the hill. We played in the snow for a while before coming back to the house for some lunch and to warm up. Colin was excited to be back home and to get play with his toys again. We spent the afternoon playing and watching movies with Colin. Colin didn't take a nap, but Daddy did and I wished I could have! Instead I took advantage of a tired baby on the couch to spend a few minutes blogging. We have a turkey on the smoker and all kinds of yummies for dinner, can't wait! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! Frohe Weihnachten!
Tuesday was kind of a laid back, family day. We took our time getting ready and did a little sightseeing in Oberammagau and tossed around the idea of getting a cuckoo clock. We decided against it because they are made in the Black Forest, which is one place we've yet to visit, so we thought we should go down there and see what they have where they are actually made and then decide where to buy one. After that we headed back to the hotel for some lunch. We ended up eating at the buffet in the hotel and Colin got reacquainted with Jello. We don't eat it at the house all that much, but apparently I need to make it more often, lol.
The next day, our last full day of vacation, was a busy one. We got up and played in the snow outside with Colin. More snowball fights and playground time, we also noticed that since it had warmed up a little bit that day the light, powdery snow that had fallen a few days before had now become wet and heavy, just right for building a snowman. I was very excited about this because in all my 30 years I have never actually built a real snowman! I know, I know! You have to remember I'm a Florida girl, I was in my teens before I ever even saw snow. The one time I did see enough snow to make anything out of, well it was the wrong kind of snow for snowman construction, so instead my family and I had to settle for a snow-turtle. So I was pretty excited to make a big, tall, proper snowman! He turned out to be a little fruity though due to lack of supplies in our hotel room. We gave him an orange peel smile and buttons made out of grapes, I'm sure the birds appreciated it after we were gone.
That afternoon we had a sitter come watch Colin again so we could go do some "adult sledding." The plan was to buy a lift ticket on the ski lift and sled down the mountain, we'd seen other people doing it while we were on the kiddie hill with Colin all week long. When we got there to buy a ticket I asked the lady if they had a sled ticket rate or what the deal was if I just wanted to sled down. She explained to me that she can't refuse to sell me a ticket, but that the slopes were pretty icy that day and they'd already had a few skiers get hurt, so she did not recommend sledding at all. She then told me I was free to decide what I wanted to do, but I wouldn't want to end up like that guy, as she points to a guy on a stretcher a few meters away being loaded into an ambulance. Ooops. Needless to say we didn't sled down the hill, though the very tempting thought of giving it a try in hopes of Shelby "accidentally" breaking an arm or something and not being able to deploy did cross both our minds. Just kidding. Not totally. LOL So instead we paid for a sightseeing ticket to just ride the lift up and wander around up there and take a look. It was beautiful up there and I had no idea how much more there was to do up on top. There were several more chair lifts once you got up there taking you to different trails and areas, it really made us want to ski! Next winter for sure!!
We got back to the hotel just before dinner time and headed over to Colan's one last time. Shelby ordered an octopus steak that was incredible and made me wish I had ordered it too. So tender and sautéed in butter and garlic and served over marinated peppers...mmmm! I ordered a beef dish with red wine sauce and this heavenly layered potato gratin type thing with cheese and a thin pastry crust between the layers. I was glad we ordered Colin his own kids schnitzel because neither one of us wanted to share our meal with him. The sweet owners also sent us home with a small loaf of homemade nut rumcake for Christmas, yea that didn't even come close to lasting until Christmas. Love that place! Once we got back to the hotel it was time to pack up and get ready for check out in the morning. We tried one last attempt at getting some good Christmas pictures of Colin, I even let him wear his PJs this time, but apparently comfort wasn't going to coax him to cooperate either. I guess we just have to settle for "I'm two and you know it" style Christmas pictures this year. Another fabulous time in Garmisch must come to an end. Next vacation here planned for next Christmas, until then we'll try to think of ways to get stationed and retire here.
Today was the best day of vacation. It started off with me waking up and going downstairs to get a surprise massage that Shelby had scheduled me for. Definitely a good start to the day! When I got back we all got suited up and went outside to play on the playground in the snow. Colin got a huge kick out of the playground equipment being covered in snow. Then Colin and Daddy had a little snowball fight. Colin would throw snow at Shelby and Shel would fall down, apparently this is the funniest thing Colin has ever seen.
They spent a good 20 minutes throwing snow at one another and then falling down as they were hit and laughing. I loved every minute of it and had to flop down in the snow a few times myself when Colin came to see if snowballs had the same affect on Mommy. Then we showed Colin how to make snow angels. He thought that was pretty fun but quickly decided it was better for Daddy to lay in the snow and Colin to help move his arms and legs.
After some lunch and a BX run we went back to the ski slopes for some more sledding. Colin was really insistant on joining ski school this time, he would just stand at the fence and stare and attempt to sneak over the fence when he thought we weren't watching. We had fun and the hill was a lot less crowded today than it was yesterday.
On the way back to the hotel (all of 5 minutes from the slopes!) we got a beautiful view of the sunset. The sky was lit up like fire and the snowy backdrop made it look amazing. We changed clothes and attempted another photo in Santa's chair with Colin...it did not end well of course, so off to dinner we went. We ate in the hotel again so we could get back to the room in time to meet the babysitter. OH YES I said babysitter!! I'm liking this hotel more and more now that I have discovered that several of the staff members are also trained and certified by the base as babysitters. And they come right to your room to entertain your kiddo so you can have a child free dinner or tour trip. SCORE!
The ONE thing I was dying to do on this trip was the torchlight gorge tour of Partnachklamm. You might remember how incrediblybeautifulit was on our last visit? Well imagine all the walls covered with ice and lit up at night by fire light. Now you know why I was dying to go! The only problem was they do not allow kids under 8 on the tour and the nights that the tour was offered did not coordinate with nights that the base daycare was open at night. So discovering this little in house babysitting gem totally made my day, and this trip possible. Colin got to have a blast swimming and playing with Genna, the fabulous babysitter (she works in the gift shop if you go and need a sitter....highly recommend her!) and I got to take my torchlight tour.
The gorge tour was all I knew it would be, breathtaking! Normally water runs down the gorge walls into the stream below, but when it freezes you get ice everywhere and giant icicles that are easily 2-3 stories tall! My camera did not do it justice AT ALL and most of the pictures did not turn out. It's so dark you have to use the flash, but all the moisture in the air lights up with the flash on and creates blurs all over the photo. Sorry folks...you have to come see it in person. Trust me, it's worth it! After the hike through the klamm the tour had us stop at a small gasthaus near the entrance for a hot drink before boarding the bus back to the hotel. The owner of the gasthaus showed off for all the Americans and gave a little impromtu yodeling performance. After that is was back to the hotel where we found Colin sound asleep for the babysitter. She said he didn't even make it 10 minutes into Finding Nemo before he passed out, without his bottle even...he must have been wiped out! One of the best days ever for sure!
Yesterday after leaving Nürnberg we made our way down to Garmisch and got checked in at the hotel. We had time to take Colin for a quick dip in the pool and then went over to the best restaurant in the area and our favorite place, Conlan's Cafe. Shelby had a Conlan's special cordon bleu and I had a deer gulasch plate that was fantastic.
This morning we got up and headed to the ski slopes to take Colin sledding. He got a new wooden sled as part of his Christmas gifts, but we had to give it to him early of course so we could get good use out of it here in the big snow. He had a blast sledding down the hill with us and watching the other kids. He was very intrigued by the other little kids learning how to ski. After sledding for a while we got in the car to warm up and drove over to Oberammagau to check out their little village Christmas market. It was smaller than we expected, but had some very tasty food.
Later on we came back to the hotel and did a little swimming. Colin is becoming quite the fish and was swimming pretty good with his vest on in the pool. After that we dressed Colin in his Christmas outfit and attempted some pictures in the gorgeous hotel decorations/displays. The whole hotel is decorated so beautifully and they make up several spots that are perfect for picture taking. Colin of course HATES having his picture taken and so I knew this would be a challenge. Not even bribing him with Santa watching was working out. He did ok in the pictures with one of us in them...but forget a good shot of him by himself...wiggle butt can't sit still long enough! Once we gave up on picture taking we had a nice dinner at the hotel and then relaxed for the rest of the evening.
About 6" of snow fell during the course of yesterday and last night canceling schools on base and allowing us to kick of Christmas vacation early. I was actually hoping this would happen so I could get us packed up and on the road earlier than if I had gone to work. We decided to head to Nürnberg to spend the night before heading on to Garmisch for our stay there. Nürnberg hosts the original Weihnachtsmarkt. Yep, the whole Christmas market tradition was believed to have started here with the Nürnberg Weihnachtsmarkt! The first mention of the market in writing is 1628, and in 1737 a list showed that 140 craftsman had been granted a spot in the market to sell their goods. It is still going strong today as one of the most beautiful and largest markets in Germany. It's was a must see for us, since we have been to so many Christmas markets, it only made sense that we visit the most popular and historic one in Germany! We got to Nürnberg a little later than planned and had to quickly check into the hotel and head over to the market. We of course stopped for some Starbucks first thing. They don't do eggnog lattes over here in Germany, but they do have their own special Christmas coffees and my new favorite is the toffee nut latte....a more than adequate stand in for my beloved eggnog latte. Delicious!
The market was HUGE and was actually several markets within the large market. There was an international market with booths representing different countries, a kids market with kid themed goods at the booths and rides for the little ones, and a general market with just about every kind of gifty goody imaginable and all kinds of food. Smelling all the heavenly scents from the market was not good for us starving travelers. We browsed and ate and then headed back to the hotel to warm up. One might wonder what exactly you do to entertain a two year old in a tiny European hotel room barely big enough to walk around the bed. Well you unplug the phone and let him play with that of course. As you can see, he was highly entertained!
Then he realized Daddy was filming, you know how much he loves the camera!
He eventually gave up shooing off Daddy and went back to playing...
The next morning we got up and walked back into the old towne for some more Starbucks and market fun. We browsed one last time before heading out on the road for Garmisch, off to the Alps!
Saturday we were looking forward to going to a Christmas market in Oppenheim, a town about 90 minutes from us. It wasn't supposed to be the usual Christmas market stuff, instead it is a medieval Christmas market. When we got there we were kind of disappointed, as it was really, really small and there wasn't a whole lot of anything too interesting there (unless you count the oddly dressed "medieval" people). It appeared to be more of an organized excuse for the medieval lovers to get dressed up, hang out together and make a little money at the same time. The booths were all selling medieval goodies, but nothing we hadn't seen before or that really interested us. There wasn't much to choose from in the food department either. The town has a really neat underground "city" that we thought about checking out, but the tour was an hour long and the only way to see the underground stuff was on the tour. Since Colin was in full on terrible two mode that day we decided we better try that another day. The market was so small it didn't take us long to go through it and wonder what we should do next. We decided to head north about 30 minutes to Wiesbaden, a much larger city that was supposed to have a nice market. That market turned out to be a nice surprise, one of the best ones we've been to yet! Beautiful scenery, loads of booths to browse, great food choices and lots of kiddie rides! We spent a couple hours there and loved it.
Last minute schedule changes at work got Colin a day with Daddy today. I had to work (Finally! Darn snow had me home all week!) so I didn't get to see Colin all excited when he woke up to Daddy, but I know how happy he is when he knows Shelby is home in the mornings. The snow was already starting to melt some since our temperature got up to 34 today, so Shelby decided to try taking Colin sledding before the snow is gone. Colin got a new wooden sled for Christmas, but since the snow came before Christmas he gets to have it a little early. They headed out to the big hill in our village and Colin had lots of fun trying out his new sled. The snow wasn't as deep or packed down as it usually is when we go out there, but it was good enough for Colin to have a good time on. I'm sure he was good and tired whhen they got home.
Yesterday we had crazy weather. It snowed Tuesday all day and night and then Wednesday morning it POURED rain all day long. Early evening Wednesday it turned to sleet and then all of a sudden, blizzard! It came down hard for a while and it didn't take long for us to have 4+ inches on the ground. We woke up this morning to lots and lots of snow and of course, another snow day! I haven't worked at all this week because of the weather, every day I've been scheduled to sub it has turned into a snow day. I like a day off every now and again, but I'm ready to go to work! My paycheck is going to be pitiful! I had to get out of the house today so Colin and i bundled up and went out to enjoy the snow. We took our road down to the end where it turns into a dirt road leading to pastures. I brought along a couple carrots in case any of the animals were out. Sure enough we got to see a couple horses and they were pretty excited to have carrots. Colin did pretty good on the walk, it was really long for him. He was really interested in breaking through the ice to get to the mud and slush underneath on all the potholes we came across. The walk was gorgeous, I got some good pictures and Colin was sufficiently worn out when we got home...mission accomplished!
During dinner tonight we were watching The Amazing Race. At one of the challenges the contestants visited an Army base close to the North Korea/South Korea border while the US soldiers were practicing Tae Kwon Do in formation. Colin was glued to the TV and was sitting in his chair karate chopping away. He was cracking us up so of course we had to get the camera. He stopped briefly when we turned the camera on, but he started back up again and we were able to catch a little of it.
Here he was all about hamming it up once he saw I thought he was funny...
Each year, on December 6, Nikolaustag is celebrated in Germany. It literally means St. Nicholas Day in English. On the night of the 5th children put a boot or shoe outside their door and, according to tradition, Nikolaus will come during the night and fill it for them. If the children have been good all year he will leave apples, oranges or special candy, and if children have been naughty they get birch twigs in their shoe. Colin doesn't quite understand all this Santa stuff yet but I thought it would be fun to do it anyway. We put Colin's boot by his door and told him Santa would visit him that night. When he woke up he found his boot stuffed with an orange, a chocolate Santa and a some gummi candy. He was excited and a little confused to find a shoe full of goodies outside his door.
We've also been doing an Advent calendar and counting down the days unitl Christmas. Again, I don't think he really understands the concept other than that every day he gets another piece of chocolate out of it, lol.
Today at the BX mall we stumbled across Santa Claus and there was no line to visit him. We pointed him out to Colin all excited and asked him who he was. Colin was very excited to SEE Nikolaus (he calls Santa by the German name, hey at least he's not calling him clown anymore!) but getting within 5 feet of Santa was a whole different feeling. We tried to coax him into sitting on his lap but that was just NOT happening. He only showed a slight interest in going over to him when Santa tried to bribe him with a candycane. Colin did reluctantly go over to him and quickly snatch the candycane out of Santa's hand, but then he literally leaped backward into Daddy's arms after he had hold of his treat. The part he got most excited about was telling Santa "tschüss" (ciao in German) when it was time to leave, lol.
Each year in Luxembourg they hold a huge international festival where booths representing various countries set up and sell the food and other items their countries are most famous for. We got Colin a babysitter, went with a group of friends and had a fantastic time. We ate all kinds of amazing foods from various countries and shopped a little too. We had Hoegaarden Rosé beer in Belgium, yum! Chicken samosas from Pakistan, French crêpes, paella and sangria in Spain, shortbread and tarts in the UK, and I can't remember what all else! It was very neat to go around to all the booths and see what each one had to offer for sale and the things they are most popular for. We bought a cheese wheel from Holland and a handpainted ornament from Russia. We saw Russian, Pakistani and Spanish performers doing their thing to entertain the crowds too. The USA booth had lots of Christmas craft type things and at their food table they were selling popcorn, hotdogs, nachos and then they had a grocery/pantry section. It had all kinds of American grocery items like macaroni and cheese, cake mix and famous brand name cookies. I had to laugh at how people were going crazy for the stuff too, I guess they just don't make it outside the US. I know my German friends are always asking me to bring them macaroni and cheese, instant mashed potatoes and drop and bake cookie dough. So I guess they know about this stuff but just can't get it here. LOL
After the festival we headed to downtown Luxembourg city to check out the views of the city covered in snow. We had been there this spring and fell in love with the town, it's gorgeous, so we were excited to see it covered in snow too. It was beautiful, though VERY cold! We ate dinner at a French restaurant and the food was amazing! I had escargo for an appetizer that was scrumptious, then creamed spinach soup and a steak with ratatouille on the side for dinner. Shelby had lamb chops for dinner that were also delicious. After dinner we headed outside to wander the Christmas market and just as we headed outside the snow started falling. It was very cold, but wandering the market with all the lights, the snow falling and a chorus singing carols was magical. After about 30 minutes at the festival the snow started really coming down and we decided we'd better start heading back to the parking garage and start towards home. By the time we made it to the autobahn it seemed like a blizzard had blown in. We were stuck going 50 kph on the highway in snow that was the closest thing to whiteout we've ever seen. The trucks were out salting and plowing but the roads were still a mess, the drive home felt like it took forever and an hour a half drive turned into twice that long. Of course, once we got about 40minutes from home all the snow stopped completely and never did make it down south enough to us here at the house. Aside from a long drive home the day was great and the bazaar will be something we probably check out again next year too.
As you can see, he really loves my "picture" (aka camera) and having the camera aimed at him, haha!
Here he is playing with the rabbit one night, waaaay past his bedtime. You can see he's tired in the video. He loves his rabbit though!
Such a little actor! ALL FAKE!
We were parked in a park and ride lot waiting on some friends to follow up to a Christmas market and Colin was watching the airplane fly by...
After dinner one night Colin was having grapes for dessert and he didn't want to share at all. He would hold one finger up and wave it at us, all serious, with his eyebrows scrunched and say "no, no, no. no touch grapes." It was hilarious! We tried to film it but he wouldn't do it again. He's still cute here though :) As you can see he knows all about MINE! already.
I'm a mom to three boys, a furry Boxer kid and two crazy black cats. I'm caring, loving, stubborn and passionate. I'm a Capricorn and a Florida Gator. I have a Bachelors in Elementary Education and a Masters in Early Childhood Education. I'm a born teacher. I've traveled the world and lived in 8 different cities in 4 different countries over the last 13 years. Germany stole my heart and I can't wait to move back. Now living on the island of Guam in the Pacific, I get to call an island paradise where most people only vacation my home.
