Happy New Year!

Sylvester

Sylvester (New Years Eve in Germany) is kind of a big deal. I know I say it every year, but I am totally amazed at the crazy explosives they sell to anyone over 18 that wants them, no experience or license required. To us it's just wierd because buying anything half that size would not even be close to legal in the US. I was talking with my neighbor about it and he thougt it was pretty bizarre/funny that in the States we cannot buy big fireworks to shoot off, but they will sell guns and pistols without hesitation. I guess he has a point, lol.
Anyway, we were prepared this year! We bought lots of stuff that was bigger than what we could buy in the US, but not so huge we were afraid we'd blow ourselves up with it. Colin was SO excited to be buying fireworks. He wanted to hold them in the car on the way home from the store and Shelby told him no, they were going in the back because they were for Sylvester. Bad move Daddy! Colin FREAKED OUT and started sobbing hysterically because he thought they were for him and he had no idea who this Sylvester character was, but he was pissed he had to give him his fireworks! LOL We had to explain to him that Sylvester was a holiday, not a person, it was like Christmas or Easter or Halloween. Then he calmed down, once we assured him that those were Colin's fireworks and we'd be shooting them off the next night.
We made plans to go next door to our neighbor's house and have dinner and celebrate with them. Colin could hardly wait to see his friend after being on vacation for almost 2 weeks. He asked all day long if it was time to go do fireworks at Christian's house yet. I really didn't expect Colin to make it to midnight, but both boys hung in there and were awake to see the countdown on the TV, and for the insanity that breaks loose here in Germany at the stroke of midnight. Everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE, buys those big fireworks and they all shoot them off at 12:00. The whole sky lights up and you have fireworks going off as far as your eyes can see in every direction. The ground shakes and it sounds like a war zone from all the booming and bangs. It is totally awesome.
Here are two quick videos I took:




Colin wasn't a bit scared and was begging us to light the rockets faster. Christian has not been a fan of loud noises since he was a little baby, so it's a pretty scary time for him, but he did come out to see a few. We kept the fireworks show going for over a half hour and then went down the street so watch some of the neighbors that still had some going. About 1am it started winding down and we came inside for some more champagne and cake. Colin was still wide awake and he hung in there until I tucked him into bed at 1:45! Happy New Year!

Christmas all over again!

Merry Christmas (again!)

My child is going to be seriously confused if and when we ever start leading a normal life and stop traveling like nomads. Last year we had two or three different parts to Christmas where we opened gifts. Colin had three birthday's this year due to our month long August vacation, and today we find ourselves celebrating Christmas for a second time this season. We had Christmas on Christmas day and then after vacation we came home to more presents at the post office that arrived while we were gone. Colin has been one lucky (or spoiled, however you want to look at it) little boy this year! When Colin noticed I was bringing gifts into the living room his eyes lit up and of course "these presents are for Colin?!"
First thing he dug into were some race cars from Uncle Ryan. He was thoroughly delighted with more to add to his collection. Then he started opening Auntie Melissa's doctor kit, doctor book and real stethoscope, he immediately brought the syringe over and gave me a shot!

Next he opened a package from Auntie Doo Dah that didn't excite him too much. It was small and he didn't know what it was, so he flung it at Mommy to examine and when I read the label and told him it was a robot bug he couldn't snatch that thing back from my hands fast enough. He was excited to have a robot. He got walkie talkies for Christmas also and the first thing he did when he got a hold of them was ask for "Cookie Robots!" Shelby and I were totally confused until we remembered that in the movie Despicable Me (one of my favorite kid movies, if you have not seen it, you MUST...with or without the kids!) Gru uses what looks like a walkie talkie to request two dozen cookie robots for his next evil plan. How Colin remembered this of all things, I will never know, but for days on end we've been listening to him order cookie robots over those walkie talkies. So to get a real bug robot was pretty darn cool he thought. Then he opened a game from Auntie Doo Dah and a reindeer Webkinz from Cousin Charlotte. Cousin Charlotte also got him some super cool Rudolph slippers, he thought it was hilarious to walk around in them making the nose blink with each step he took. Another big hit was a Toy Story watch from Auntie Doo Dah. Once Colin got the watch on I asked him what time it was, he looked at his watch and said "20 hours until Christian's house!" (Christian is the little boy next door and Colin knew we were going to his house later that night to ring in the New Year. He'd been busting all day waiting for it to be time to go over there.) He was so cute the rest of the night telling us the time and the time was always however many hours to Christian's house. I mentioned to Colin that Christmas was officially over, no more presents would be coming, Santa and Tinsel were back at the North Pole and we'd be putting away our Christmas tree and decorations soon. He was not too thrilled about that idea and told me that we need to leave the tree up a little longer and get it ready for next Christmas. It's going to be a looooong year wait! LOL

Austria & Liechtenstein

A/CH/FL

Thursday morning we woke up to pretty snow falling in Garmisch and we did not want to leave. Much to our dismay the hotel was booked solid that night and couldn't extend us another night, so we had no choice but to pack up and move along. We tossed around a few ideas and then decided on driving south into the Austrian Alps a bit and then heading west towards Switzerland. Switzerland is crazy expensive (we know from experience) and they don't use Euro, they use Swiss Francs, so we wanted to avoid staying there. We found a hotel in Feldkirch, Austria, which is right on the border of Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It was a perfect spot because it allowed us to get a fabulous scenic drive through the Alps, and let us hop over into Liechtenstein, which has been on our list of places to see for a while. The drive was amazing, breathtaking beauty. After checking into our hotel and dropping off out bag we got back into the car to go to Liechtenstein. It is the 6th smallest country in the world, and the 4th smallest country in Europe. We've now been to three of smallest countries in the world: Monaco, Vatican City & Liechtenstein. We accidentally discovered a winery there and of course we had to go in so I could sample and buy some Liechtenstein wine. They make a pinot noir right there using the royal family's vineyards, so I had to buy a bottle of that! We got to Liechtenstein late in the afternoon, with just a tiny bit of daylight left. We quickly snapped a few pictures of some sights around Vaduz, the capital city, and then headed south so we could say we drove through the entire country from top to bottom. After exiting we crossed the border into Switzerland and took the autobahn back up to the top of Liechtenstein and crossed back in. We wanted to find a place to eat dinner and have local, traditional food. That proved harder than expected! The GPS didn't like Liechtenstein and refused to pull up several addresses for places we'd picked out of a guide we'd grabbed in the tourism office. Then when we would find a place that the GPS liked, we'd drive there only to discover they were closed for the holiday season. I'm not kidding, we tried at least 10 different places before we finally stumbled across one that was actually open! The food was absolutely delicious, but the prices were outrageous and it wasn't exactly our kind of place. We spent twice as much on dinner as we had really wanted to, but it happens...when you are exploring new places sometimes you don't always get lucky or find exactly what you are looking for. At least the food was delicious considering what we had to pay! After dinner we were beat, and Colin was WOUND, a full day in the car had done him NO good at all! We made our way back to the hotel to unwind a little and relax. We woke up Friday morning, had breakfast at the hotel and then reluctantly started the journey home. Shelby has to work on the 31st, so there was absolutely no more stalling, we had to go home! The drive felt like it took forever thanks to some snow and traffic jams. We finally did make it home though and sadly, the snow didn't follow us home.

Scenic Route

Drive to Italy

Today we got up and drove through the Alps to check out the scenery. Shelby, Colin and I made the drive south from Garmisch, through Innsbruck, Austria and on down into Italy through the Alps and Dolomites this summer on our vacation. The drive was gorgeous then and we knew it would be beautiful in the winter too. We thought Shelby's parents would enjoy the drive straight through the Alps and a visit to Italy since we were here and so close. We went to Bolzano, Italy which is a mountain town in northern Italy that is kind of a combination of the German/Austrian/Tirol/Italian cultures. It's a pretty little place and we checked out an old monastery from the 1200's, the big Dom Cathedral and some of the markets and village sites. We ate at an Italian/German restaurant that was decent, but wasn't quite like the Italian food Shelby and I became accustomed to our on summer vacation this year. After a little eating and sightseeing it was time to head back to the hotel so we could start packing up and preparing to take Shelby's parents to the airport the following morning.

Ski Day

Skiing Hausberg

Today Shelby and I took advantage of having Grandma and Grandpa in town to babysit for us, and let them watch Colin while we took ski lessons all day. I was not so sure how well this was going to go over, and in my opinion, snowboarding looks much easier. According to everyone I talk to it is much more difficult to snowboard than to ski, so we decided to ski instead. It just seems more logical that controlling both feet strapped to one board would be easier than controlling separate feet strapped to separate boards....but what do I know?
We got up there and learned how to put our skis on and how to maneuver around some. I felt pretty confident in my ability on flat ground and when the instructor thought we were good there he moved us up to the kiddie learning slope. I was one of the first people down the big (big to us, barely a hill in reality) hill and still feeling confident, I overestimated my skills a tad and went sailing down the slope. I learned that skiing is a lot like driving on ice, once you realize you are going too fast, it's probably too late to try to slow down and stop. I went from "I like this speed, I'm doing great, I can handle this speed" to "OH. SHIT. STOP. NOW!" pretty quickly and then I panicked just a little. All my training went right out the window and instead of attempting a wedge to slow down I stuck my poles in the ground to try to slow me down. Big mistake. Poles are NOT for stopping in case you didn't know. That just made a bad situation worse and I don't remember too much after that because I lost all control, feet in the air and flat on my back. I laughed the entire time (as did the rest of the class I am sure...many of them had already had their spill). I was seriously disappointed that I was the first to fall between Shelby and I, I was really hoping to beat him in that contest. So my first run down the bunny slope I ate it, but I learned from my mistakes and managed not to fall again on that hill. I got pretty comfy with myself and was anxious to move to the next area. After lunch we headed up to a steeper, bigger hill to practice. I did very well on my first run down that hill and got to the bottom just in time to turn around and see Shelby eat it. YES! Now we were even on the fall count! He had a good fall on that hill, and then another, and possibly even a third fall on that hill...I can't remember exactly. We had fun practicing controlling our speed and making turns and a little while after that the lesson was over.
Shelby was determined to get on a big slope and do more than just the beginner slopes, so when our lessons were over we drug our tired, beat up bodies to the next set of tow bars to go up a little higher. The hill looked semi intimidating from the bottom, the view from the top looked like a disaster waiting to happen! I got up there and asked myself what in the heck had I gotten myself into. Shelby, ever confident in his skills, started down first. He got a small part of the way down before deciding perhaps this was in fact NOT a good idea after all. Lucky for us, we are apparently not the only overachievers to climb this hill and then realize our mistakes. There was a nice path off to the side of the nightmare hill that was a much easier grade and it cut over to another hill which was slightly less intimidating. Shelby started down first and it didn't take him long to wind up on his butt. I attempted down, being cautious of my speed, and got another lesson not taught by the instructor. He taught us how to wedge our skis to stop, but he failed to mention that on some slopes that technique just doesn't work. I got going and calmly tried to wedge my skis. Not stopping. I dug in a little deeper on my wedge. Not stopping. Dug in deeper still. Ah screw it I'm going to fall soon enough, I may as well head over to the fluffy snow bank on the side instead of the hard packed stuff in the middle. I was proud of my turning skills and I did in fact make it to the deep soft snow before crashing. I failed to think about climbing out of deep snow with skis on, but I managed. Shelby and I made it to the bottom of that hill and then worked our way back down the smaller slopes to the lift that took us down to the very bottom. We called the day a success considering neither one of us was injured and we'd managed to ski more than the bunny slope. I'll need a day or two to recover from the pains of today, but I think I'd like to ski again someday.

Santa Claus Has Come to Town!

Christmas Day 2011

Colin woke up this morning and didn't remember it was Christmas right away. He layed in his bed chatting to us across the room in our bed for a bit. Then he asked me to turn on The Polar Express movie for him and I told him to wait a couple minutes so that maybe he would remember it was Christmas. A few more minutes went by before he looked over at the desk and realized that the cookies for Santa were half eaten. He sat up in bed and said "Hey Santa didn't finish the cookies!" Then it was like the lightbulb went off in his head and you could see it just clicked and he said "Santa came, Santa came!" Then he flew to the end of his bed to peek over the edge by the tree and see what Santa brought him. He was so cute opening all his stuff and he was delighted to see Santa fulfilled his request for race cars and fighter jets.
After opening gifts we went down to breakfast and then suited up to head over to the ski slopes for some sledding. We've had some warmer temps and a little rain/snow mix the last couple of days, so the 16" of snow we got our first day here had dwindled down to just a thin layer outside. It looked like the ski lodge had blown some snow last night though so we got some good sled runs in. After sledding we headed back to the hotel and ate lunch, and hung around. Colin played with his new toys, rested some and then we hit the pool. It's funny to be suited up for sledding and snow play and then a few hours later walking around the hotel in a bathing suit and swimming in the pool. Frohe Weihnachten!

Merry Christmas Eve

We took some pictures today after Colin sat with Santa. He was actually great this year, not scared at all and went right to Santa and sat on his lap. He asked Santa for fighter jets and racecars and then asked Santa what kind of cookies he wanted tonight. So cute!

Salzburg, Austria

Salzburg Christmas Market

This morning we woke up early and headed out to Salzburg, Austria for their Christmas market and to take in some sights. It is a beautiful place that really needs a long weekend to explore. We got the short tour though and enjoyed it a lot. The market was lovely with lots of fun stuff to see and good food. After strolling the market for a bit we took a horse and carriage ride around the old town and it was the highlight of the day for Colin. Very pretty place but we were in a hurry to get back because Shelby's parents had to be back in time to go on a night time gorge tour. Shelby and I were also supposed to go but we couldn't get a babysitter at all. We tried for 2 days and even had hotel staff going above and beyond to help find us one so we could go too, no luck though. The hotel is super busy right now and then some of the staff has family in town and stuff so sitters were in very short supply this time.

Snow Fun!

Snow Fun

Lots of fresh snow calls for lots of fun playing in it. We went out in it Wednesday night and built a snowman (there were an army of snowmen outside our room in the open area, kids had been out there all day!), rolled around and threw snowballs at each other. Colin was in heaven! Thursday after breakfast we bundled up and headed over to the ski slopes to sled. Colin has been talking about sledding pretty much since the snow melted off last spring. Today when we got to the hill to sled all Colin wanted to do was make and throw snowballs. Of course. We were there for over and hour and everyone was sledding but Colin. We played in the snow, tossed Colin in and watched him sink. Then as we all went down the hill one last time and started walking to leave guess who wanted to sled? Yep. Lucky for Colin Grandma was here to spoil him and put up with his games. She took him down on the sled twice more before we ended up leaving.

After sledding we drove over to the ice rink in Garmisch for public skating time to take Colin skating. He has been DYING to go ice skating every market we go to and he sees people ice skating. At the markets the rink is usually small and super crowded and sometimes a little wet. Not good for Colin trying to learn on, so we'd been promising him when we went on vacation he would get to ice skate. He was super excited and I was super nervous. I haven't ice skated in a good while and I've only done it a handful of times anyway. It was much harder than he thought and he got quite the surprise when he stepped onto the ice and realized you couldn't just jump on and go. He got scared then and didn't want to go, wanted to hold our hands and refused to push the little learner bear thing on his own. Once Shelby and I got the hang of skating again pulling Colin around was not so bad. He learned how to keep his balance and at least stand upright while Shelby had one hand and I had the other. We got to going at a pretty decent speed around the rink and he thought that was a blast. When we were all done he said he liked it and would want to come again...we'll see what happens with that!

Getting Grandma & Grandpa

Getting Grandma & Grandpa

We arrived in Garmisch on Tuesday and got all checked in. After unpacking some Shelby took us out and we found a Christmas tree stand and picked out a tree for our room. I was thinking small, table top Charlie Brown type thing. Shelby had other plans! LOL He chose a 5' tree that we had no stand for, but man was it pretty! We hauled it to our room and discovered that if we turned the patio table upside down it made a perfect tree stand. Then I was able to MacGyver the small little coffee pot carafe in the room underneath the trunk so it can have water. (Shelby insisted we bring our big coffee pot because the little 4 cup one in the room just doesn't get the job done for him, talk about high maintenance!) So we have a beautiful tree in our room now and Colin loves it. The maids probably think we are nuts! (Would they be wrong?! LOL)

Garmisch had snow all day and ended up getting 12-18"! It was truely a winter wonderland when we woke up Wednesday morning. We were up bright and early to head up to Munich to pick up Shelby's parents and Colin was super excited. All he talked about was going to get them and going back to the hotel so they could swim with him. Crazy kid. We found them with no troubles and then wasted no time bundling them up in winter gear and dragging them to Munich city center for the Christmas market. Yes, I was enjoying glühwein at 10 in the morning, I'm on vacation! After the market and some sightseeing we headed back to the hotel to get them settled in. Colin insisted Dad take him straight to the pool while Grandma and Grandpa got settled in their room and Mommy decorated the Christmas tree a little bit. We'll all sleep good tonight!

Wordless Wednesday

Rothenburg ob Der Tauber Christmas Market

Rothenburg ob Der Tauber Christmas Market

Today’s stop was a place I’ve wanted to go for years, the medieval town of Rothenburg Ob der Tauber. It is an ancient city that has fought very hard to keep the old town inside the city walls as preserved as possible. Beautiful cobble stone streets are lined with half timbered houses and the quiet, rustic town is just breathtaking. Rothenburg is well known for its Christmas market too and many people will tell you it’s their favorite market of all the ones they’ve been to. I have to agree, it is quite charming. Driving in to our hotel was interested since it was inside the city wall. You enter the wall through a large gate that is just big enough for a single car to pass at a time and the tiny roads make driving my big SUV interesting. It was much colder in Rothenburg than it was the night before in Köln and we had to layer up a little more. There are several Christmas shops in the town with decorations and ornaments for your home. I could have browsed those all night, but Colin had other ideas. After touring the town and the Christmas market we grabbed some brats and a couple different kinds of crêpes and walked a few blocks to our hotel. Tonight we got pflaumenmus (plum sauce) in one crêpe and I got honey and almonds in the other one. Both were delicious. I also got a jug of homemade plum wine from a booth at the Christmas market. When we got back to the hotel we starting peeling off the layers and Shelby commented to Colin that his feet were freezing. Colin dropped everything and ran to the bathroom for some toilet paper, which he brought out and tore off a couple strips. The whole time he was chattering on about warming up Daddy to himself. He placed strips of toilet paper over Shelby’s feet to keep them warm and told Daddy it would make them better. We tried our best not to fall out laughing at him but we failed miserable. Then I said my feet were cold too and he came to my rescue with more strips of toilet paper. By this time I was down to my sweater and underwear attempting to put on my PJ pants when, without thinking, I commented to Shelby that my butt was frozen numb. Colin didn’t miss that comment and began tearing off strips of paper to tuck into my underwear and soon I was wearing a full on toilet paper hula skirt. Shelby and I were dying laughing and Colin was so proud of himself. The next morning we woke up and did a little wandering around in the falling snow before leaving. I had to hit a shop or two to find a magnet from Rothenburg and I also wanted a Christmas ornament. I fell in love with this little romantic town and would love to come back and explore some more. Once the shopping was taken care of we got back on the road to head to the Alps and Garmisch. The forecast is calling for 4-5” of snow there Tuesday and another 4-5” Wednesday, I can’t wait!!

Köln Christmas Market

Köln Christmas Market

We woke up Sunday morning, finished loading the last bag or two and headed off to Köln. We arrived in the afternoon, got a map and started wandering. Köln is a big city with lots to see and seven different Christmas markets scattered around the city. Each one has its own theme and the first one we came to was an Angel Market. It was very pretty and rustic with lots of white lights and a hand carved Christmas crib (nativity scene). Colin found a carousel to ride and we got a smoked salmon sandwich from a booth there that was delicious. The salmon was smoked on planks right up next to an open fire and you could watch it being cooked. We all three ate it up pretty fast and I couldn’t shovel it into Colin’s mouth fast enough! Every Christmas market you go to has its own ceramic mug with a unique design and the name of the town. Whenever you buy a glass of glühwein (hot mulled wine) it always comes in the mug and you can either keep the mug, or return it for the deposit you paid on it when you got it. We have a tradition of collecting these mugs from each market that we go to, but I discovered that each of the seven markets in Köln has its own mug design. I didn’t need to get seven mugs, so I had to decide which market’s mugs were the best and I ended up with just two. It started snowing while we were there, which made it even more beautiful. There is just something magical about strolling through a Christmas market, booths all decorated with evergreen branches and lights, musicians playing carols, and snow falling. One of the markets was right on the Rhine and had a nautical theme. Docked there in the water was a giant ark and you could pay to go inside and tour the art exhibit on the ship which housed thousands of wood carved animals. We decided not to go in but it sure looked awesome.

Colin decided to start singing Christmas carols on Shelby's shoulders as we were walking around. His movie of choice lately has been How the Grinch Stole Christmas and as Colin would say "the nice Grinch, not the scary Grinch" (meaning the cartoon, not the Jim Carey version). He started singing "welcome welcome Christmas is here" over and over (from the cartoon Grinch movie) and I had to take video. He was doing it much better until I whipped out the camera, of course, but you get the idea.


After closing down the markets and a stop at Starbucks we walked back to our hotel to relax and get some rest. About 1:45am Colin decided to get out of bed and walk around in the dark. Shelby heard him and was just about to tell him to get back in bed when we heard a “thump” and then cries. I flew out of bed to check him over and he had fallen into an end table/nightstand and taken it right to his eye. The skin was not broken and his eyesight appeared to be ok, so after some cuddling he went back to bed. Momma however was too worried to sleep and spent the next two hours lying in bed listening to him breathing to make sure there was no concussion or injury. The next morning poor kiddo awoke with a nice black eye, just as I expected. We ate breakfast at the hotel, stopped in for one last cup of Starbucks and then hit the road for our next stop.

Wordless Wednesday

Awesome Day!

We got word Saturday evening that on Sunday at 10am Tom Cruise would be flying in and possibly coming by the tower. We didn't know what he was coming for, just that he would be in. I went to the BX to see if they had any of his movies on DVD and of course...nothing. We have some of his movies, but none of our movies have the case for him to sign. So I got some postcards from Germany instead and had to settle for that. Colin and I got to the tower just as he got in and made it off his plane.
When his plane was coming in they called the tower for weather and Shelby gave it to them, then they replied thanks and they were about 17 minutes out and Shelby came back with "Roger, you've got the ball." (movie quote) A bit later Tom himself called up to the tower and talked to Shel on the frequency (copy of the audio from the tower tapes coming soon!).



There were a handful of Shelby's coworkers up there on the catwalk with binoculars stalking the building that Tom had gone into, watching and waiting for him to come out so they could see if he would be heading over to the tower or not. He did come out, and when he did they all started whistling and hollering and Tom looked up and gave us a wave and hopped in his DV bus and it pulled away. Poop!

Not too long after he left we got a call that four members of his flight crew wanted to come up for a tower tour. It was the pilot (and longtime personal friend of Tom's), the co pilot, Tom's personal assistant and the flight stewardess. They were excited to come up to the tower and see the stuff and brought some food and goodies from the plane up to us. We talked to them for a bit and the pilot took some stuff to be signed for us just in case Tom didn't get a chance to come back to the tower before flying out. He had to meet some wounded troops and he was also here for a special premiere screening of his new Mission Impossible movie on base.

We knew his plane was scheduled to leave out at 5pm so we were back up at the tower and hopeful by 4ish. We saw his bus pull back up and he got out and went into the building for his debrief. When it looked like he might be coming back out soon we all went back out on the catwalk to watch and whistle in case he didn't make it over. The pilot, who was in the plane, saw us and called up the tower and told us to just come on over to the plane! We all ran over there and hung out and waited for him to come to the plane. While we were waiting we got to talk to the pilot and copilot again for a while, so super nice and they totally hooked us up!


They took Colin on the plane and gave him a Pez candy dispenser and showed him the cockpit. Colin was in heaven! When Tom came out he stopped and signed a bunch of stuff for us and posed for pictures.



When his plane left he got back on the frequency again and talked to the tower and said thanks and Merry Christmas. We made sure to key up and play some of the Top Gun music for the plane as they rolled out and took off. I'm sure they get so tired of that! LOL

Strasbourg Christmas Market

Strasbourg/Karlsruhe Christmas Markets

Shelby had the day off so we headed over to Strasbourg, France which is supposed to be one of the biggest Christmas markets in the country. It was huge with several small market areas spread out all over the city. It was beautifully lit but very, very crowded. We thought there would be more rides for the kids, but poor Colin didn't get to ride anything. There was one carousel there and we passed it up thinking there would be a lot more in the kids Christmas village area. Turns out there was just toys and crafts and things for the kids to do in that area, so poor guy didn't get to ride anything at all at the market. It is definitely a market to hit during the week so you can enjoy the booths and food, Saturday was just a little too crazy. After Strasbourg we decided we had time to hit another market up and try to get Colin a ride or two, so we drove back into Germany and went to Karlsruhe. We stuck out again there as they had no rides for the kiddos either. Colin did enjoy watching the ice skaters and checking out the huge Christmas pyramid there.

Boys boys boys!

Tonight at dinner Shelby finished a can of Heineken and opened up another. The empty can was still on the dining table and Colin insisted he pour his juice from his cup into the empty can so he could drink like Daddy. He wouldn't give up so we gave in and he was SO proud of that can of "Heineken." As soon as we poured it in he giggled uncontrollably because he knew it was wrong for him to have the can. He laughed and said "that's not funny" in a sarcastic tone and then cracked up laughing at himself again.



He and Daddy made a few "prosts" and then drank and Colin was just as pleased as could be with his new cup.

Crafty

A little fun craft time this evening. Half glue, half shaving cream, a few shakes of glitter = puffy, 3D snow that dries solid. We painted a Christmas tree and then decorated it with foam stickers and then used our cream/glue concoction to make snow. So cute!!! If I haven't mentioned it before, I love pinterest!

Wordless Wednesday

Nikolaustag

Today was Nikolaustag (St. Nick's day) here in Germany. German children place a boot on their doorstep before going to bed on December 5th. As soon as the clock strikes midnight on December 6th St. Nikolaus begins visiting the homes of little boys and girls and filling their boots with goodies if they have been good, or with birch switches if they have been bad. Colin found his boot full of chocolate coins, a tangerine and some gummi bears. He was quite excited this morning.
I tried telling him he didn't need shoes on, but he insisted on carrying them to the door.

Still concerned about putting his own shoes on, but the treats in the boot are starting to tempt him.

Notice we only got one shoe on before digging into the treats!

"oooooh chocolate!"

Hmmm, what else is in here?

"Mmmmm orangen!"

The 12 days of Christmas

Weekend car trips = time on hands and silliness.

My 12 days of Christmas.

On the first day of Christmas my family gave to me, a mind that has gone crazy.
On the second day of Christmas my family gave to me, two muddy shoes and a mind that has gone crazy.
One the third day of Christmas my family gave to me, three time outs, two muddy shoes and a mind that has gone crazy.
On the fourth day of Christmas my family gave to me, four potty breaks, three time outs, two muddy shoes and a mind that has gone crazy.
On the fifth day of Christmas my family gave to me, five graying hairs! Four potty breaks, three time outs, two muddy shoes and a mind that has gone crazy.
On the sixth day of Christmas my family gave to me, six goodies baking, five graying hairs! Four potty breaks, three time outs, two muddy shoes and a mind that has gone crazy.
On the seventh day of Christmas my family gave to me, seven bottles of wine, six goodies baking, five graying hairs! Four potty breaks, three time outs, two muddy shoes and a mind that has gone crazy.
On the eighth day of Christmas my family gave to me, eight "are we there yets," seven bottles of wine, six goodies baking, five graying hairs! Four potty breaks, three time outs, two muddy shoes and a mind that has gone crazy.
On the ninth day of Christmas my family gave to me, nine dogs a barking, eight "are we there yets," seven bottles of wine, six goodies baking, five graying hairs! Four potty breaks, three time outs, two muddy shoes and a mind that has gone crazy.
On the tenth day of Christmas my family gave to me, ten loads of laundry, nine dogs a barking, eight "are we there yets," seven bottles of wine, six goodies baking, five graying hairs! Four potty breaks, three time outs, two muddy shoes and a mind that has gone crazy.
On the eleventh day of Christmas my family gave to me, eleven early mornings, ten loads of laundry, nine dogs a barking, eight "are we there yets," seven bottles of wine, six goodies baking, five graying hairs! Four potty breaks, three time outs, two muddy shoes and a mind that has gone crazy.
On the twelfth day of Christmas my family gave to me, twelve "please stop talkings," eleven early mornings, ten loads of laundry, nine dogs a barking, eight "are we there yets," seven bottles of wine, six goodies baking, five graying hairs! Four potty breaks, three time outs, two muddy shoes and a mind that has gone crazy.

Brussels & Maastricht Christmas Markets

Brussels/Maastricht Xmas Markets

This weekend we headed to Belgium to visit the market in Brussels. We've never been to Belgium before so it was fun to check another country off our list of places visited. Belgium is very pretty and the houses are nice, different looking from German homes. They have three official languages: Dutch, French and German...but I found that German is not nearly as prevalent and English seemed to be more common than German there. It was mostly Dutch, which I know nothing of, and French, which I hate! LOL Driving up there I was concerned about how the weather would treat us because most of Saturday it was VERY windy, like tropical storm kind of winds, rainy and cold. By the time we got to the market though the rain had blown through and all that was left was wind and cold, which was totally doable.

The market was huge and there was a giant ferris wheel, lots of booths and a big ice skating rink. It wasn't really cold enough for the ice to stay solid, so it was pretty wet on top of the ice and when people fell they got soaked. It made for some good laughs though! We ate Belgian waffles and a variety of other goodies purchased from booths at the market. They had two of the coolest carousel rides I've ever seen there. Hand carved from wood and made of metals and leather, old timey but whimsical at the same time...just amazing! I found the website for the two carousels, designed by the same people. It has some other photos of the carousels on it. That night after we were all marketed out we headed to the hotel. Colin went to bed late and woke up early the next morning and started talking immediately upon opening his eyes. We decided to head over to Holland and visit Maastricht. It is close by and somewhat on our way home, so we decided to go ahead and add another country to the list this weekend. We haven't been to the Netherlands before either, so it was fun to check out a new place. The market was much smaller but still beautiful. Another fun weekend down!

Wordless Wednesday

Luxembourg/Saarbrücken Weihnachtsmarkt

Luxembourg/Saarbrücken Xmas Markets

(In my best Andy Williams voice of course) It's the most wonderful tiiiiime of the year! This weekend started the Advent season and that means Christmas market season is now in full swing. We kicked it off with a weekend in Luxembourg, one of our favorite cities. Friends of ours that have a 10 month old baby girl went with us and Colin loved visiting with Baby Addison. At the expo center in Luxembourg is a large international bazaar and we didn't want to miss that this year. It's a fun place where you eat and drink your way around the world. Belgian beer in Belgium, amazing food in Greece, Korean bulgogi, sangria and paella from Spain, maple desserts from Canada, Thai noodles and beef from Thailand, the list goes on and on. After we were done there we headed over to our hotel to check in and get bundled up for the cold outdoor Christmas market. Colin had a blast riding the rides, we wandered and warmed up with some glühwein. Last year it snowed on us at this market and it was absolutely beautiful. This year we were not lucky enough to get snow, but it was still very pretty. At the end of the night we walked back to the hotel to warm up and rest. Sunday morning we had breakfast with our friends and then got back on the road to head out. We decided to stop in Saarbrücken to visit their market on the way home. We had not been to this one before even though it is only 40 minutes or so from our house. It was a nice, decent size market with lots of food and rides for Colin. It was pretty cold and windy, but the rain held off long enough for us to make it through the market and have a nice afternoon. It was a fun weekend and I can't wait for this week to fly by so we can do it all again next weekend!

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving 2011

This year Shelby had to work on Thanksgiving. He claims this is the first Thanksgiving he's had to work in all 12 years in the Air Force...how he managed that one I have no idea. I was all set to send him off to work and then head over to a friend's house for dinner so I didn't have to cook or clean anything. Shelby decided it would be nice if we did Thanksgiving in the tower and Colin and I came up and we are there together. Colin was over the moon excited to be going to work with Daddy and the thought of eating Thanksgiving there and watching movies had him so wound up he could hardly be contained this morning. I cooked all morning and had a big cooler ready to put all the hot food in to keep it warm when I took it to the tower. Colin asked me what it was for and I told him to take food to the tower and he wasted no time gathering food like a squirrel. He filled it full of Thanksgiving necessities like Goldfish crackers, string cheese, Girl Scout cookies and God knows what else. Then he packed some clementines and a plum in his lunchbox and said the picnic was ready to go.

We got to the tower and he was thrilled to be there and into everything. He had a blast though and it was probably the highlight of his week to go and hang out at work with Dad all day. We did watch movies and hung out and ate a lot. Colin had a hold of my camera several times throughout the day, so I figured I'd just let him document our Thanksgiving at the tower this year. Enjoy!

Colin and the camera

Colin LOVES taking pictures of things lately. He's always asking for my camera and I cringe as I hand it over and then hover nervously as he snaps a few pictures. Yesterday when we came home from work/school he was very excited to see Tinsel, our Elf On the Shelf, had returned from the North Pole and chosen a spot in the Christmas tree to settle on. He laughed and laughed about Tinsel in the tree and then asked for my camera right away because he wanted to "cheese Tinsel". I gave it to him and here are the pictures from his photo shoot. LOL

Colin's pictures

Wordless Wednesday