A Very German Christmas

I feel like our Christmas experience here can't be given enough credit through a few blog stories and photos. It has been simply amazing. I'll be honest, I did get homesick a few times (like when I tried to make my mom's pecan pie and it tasted different and I almost cried at the table in front of everyone). But having our good friends Chad and Suzanne here with us truly made our holiday. The awesome Christmas Markets and roast goose helped too. And so for your viewing pleasure, here are a few photos from our holiday. And by a "few" I mean you should go ahead and take a bathroom break and get a snack before you go any further.

Mr. Chad and Miss Suzanne have arrived!!!

Market food. We have NO idea what this was. All we know is that it was delicious.

Frauenkirche and a Gluhwein Pyramid. A gorgeous photo from Chad!

Chris and I in front of the famous Sachsen Rulers Mural.

Me: "Is that a whole cow on a spit?"

Chris: "Yes. And it's fantastic."

Chris took the ride of death this time.

    

     

Suzanne and I got saucy Santa hats.

 Gluhbier. Who knew Gluhwein had a cousin?

Suzanne and I procured little Pflaumentoffel men.

That takes skill.

We three in front of the Frauenkirche.

( In 8 layers of clothes while Austin is screaming.)

Twas the night before Christmas...

And all through the house...

Not a creature was stirring... Except for Austin seeing if the garland beads were candy.

A traditional Dresden Christmas Stollen.

 It looked yummy. Until I cut it and saw the raisins. Eww.

 Christmas Eve toy assembly.

Success at 1 am!

Austin was THRILLED with his new train table from the Grandparents.

Quite fancy!

And then Austin sat on a bow.

And we all laughed and let him walk around like that all morning.

I believe this is the "I Love Presents" dance.

This is the first year he's really been able to open presents on his own.

In fact, earlier in the week he actually smuggled a present from Chad and Suzanne's room upstairs and hid while opening it. Fortunately I heard the paper tearing and intervened before he got it all the way open. Cheeky monkey!

I made two pies in my easy bake oven.

It took forever. But SO worth it.

  

Gertrude the Christmas goose! She barely fit.

  

Dinner all ready to go! 

Roast Goose, Gramie's Filling, Gravy, Sweet Potato Casserole, Cranberry Sauce, and Green Beans (because apparently we needed a real vegetable)

Some post Christmas festivities football with Mr. Chad.

It snowed ALL week. I am kind of beginning to hate the snow.

And they lived happily ever after.

The End.

Ende.

Here's your homework. Head on over to check out ALL of our photos and Chad and Suzanne's photos on Flickr (theirs are SO much better).

Chris and Brandi's Pictures

Chad and Suzanne's Pictures

Frohe Weihnachten

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Love,

Chris, Brandi and Austin

East German Christmas Tree Stand

What do you do when it's Christmas Eve and you can't find a tree stand ANYWHERE?

You use what you have around.

Like a case of beer.

 Nothing says class like a plastic beer case holding your tree in place.

 I think secretly Chris and Chad are THRILLED with the outcome.

Frohe Weihnachten!

Dear Landlord,

Fred Flintstone called. And he wants his snow shovel back.

Yes. It's ALL made of wood.

Snow and Sickness

Now that winter is in full swing here (in other words the weather stinks) we're all fighting the inevitable illness that follows. The other night, Austin had a low grade fever and wasn't feeling well. Chris was reading his bedtime stories when he looked over and realized that the little guy had fallen asleep as he was reading. Now, if you have ever been present for our nighttime routine, you know that Austin is typically bouncing off the walls right up until you put him into his own bed. And sometimes he bounces some more in there. We felt so bad that we let him sleep. In the middle of our queen sized bed. While the two adults who usually sleep there stood staring wondering where WE were going to sleep. Ahhh, the things we do for our kids. Eventually we all found an acceptable place to sleep, and Austin woke up at 2 am ready for his own bed. Hopefully we'll all be on the track to better health soon, cause we have visitors coming our way!

 Poor little feller.

 The snow fall was pretty the first three times. Now it's getting old. 

AND that snow pile is dangerously close to my only child's window.

 Igloo.

And on the plus side- I can make ice outside!

They have these compartmentalized plastic bags that you fill with water and then lay flat until they are frozen. I am not 100% on HOW you get the cubes out, because the instructions were in German. But I'l be having iced tea soon enough! 

Weekend Update

Yikes! I am just now realizing how close we are to Christmas, and how much I need to do, AND how little time I have to do it in. So here's your weekend update as to what we have been up to the last week or so at Villa Taylor. And please excuse my blogging absences while I am running around like Clark Griswold on Christmas Eve.

 Snow.

 Lots and lots of snow.

 Saint Nicholas visited Austin at Kita.
For the Grandmothers, Austin's are the blue boots second from the left.

from Wikipedia:

In Germany, Nikolaus is usually celebrated on a small scale. Many children put a boot called Nikolaus-Stiefel (Nikolaus boot) outside the front door on the night of 5 December. St. Nicholas fills the boot with gifts and sweets overnight, and at the same time checks up on the children to see if they were good, polite and helpful the last year. If they were not, they will have a tree branch (Rute) in their boots instead. Sometimes a disguised Nikolaus also visits the children at school or in their homes and asks them if they have been good (sometimes ostensibly checking his golden book for their record), handing out presents on a per-behavior basis. This has become more lenient in recent decades. But for some children, Nikolaus also elicited fear, as he was often accompanied by Knecht Ruprecht (Servant Ruprecht), who would threaten to beat the children for misbehavior as using this myth to 'bring up cheek children' for a better, good behavior. Any kind of punishment isn't really following and just an antic legend. Knecht Ruprecht furthermore was equipped with eight deer legs. In Switzerland, where he is called Schmutzli, he would threaten to put bad children in a sack and take them back to the dark forest. In other accounts he would throw the sack into the river, drowning the naughty children. These traditions were implemented more rigidly in Catholic countries and regions such as Austria or Bavaria.

 Austin got a haircut. And by that I mean Chris held him down screaming while I shaved him like an Army recruit.

 I got my Christmas Star. And I love it.

We bought Austin a sled. For fun? No way. It is so we can get to school. A kid in 8 layers of warm clothing takes 3.5 hours to walk to the tram stop. The same child on a sled being pulled over 5 inches of ice and snow can make it in 11 minutes.

Now Mommy knows how a sled dog feels.

A borrowed photo from one of the other Kita Mommies. 

The sled parking at school.

 Austin made fingerprint snowflakes at school!

And he is learning to cut with scissors!

 Mommy takes pictures of the notes from the teachers so she can translate them at home. 

You do what you gotta do.