It's starting to look a lot like Christmas

December is in full swing and we are enjoying the holiday season. On the weekend, we finally finished decorating our home, inside and out. This year it feels much more christmassy in our house than past years as the kids, especially Amelia, are truly in to the Christmas spirit and enjoy all what this season has to offer.

In Germany on December 6th, we celebrate St. Nikolaus. He was a historic 4th-century Christian saint and Greek Bishop of Myra, who had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him. Thus on December 5th, many children put a boot called Nikolausstiefel outside the front door and overnight St. Nikolaus fills the boot with gifts and sweets, and at the same time checks up on the children to see if they were good, polite and helpful the last year. So Amelia cleaned her (rain) boots on Friday night and on Saturday morning, the kids woke up to some little gifts and a book from Nikolaus.

 And for breakfast I made some delicious Nikolaus pancakes.

Afterwards all four of us went to purchase the Christmas tree and compared to last years, it only took one try and I found "the one". We decided that a shorter tree would be better since there is less of a chance of it falling down when someone little is pulling on it. Since this is Elliot's first "real" Christmas season, we weren't sure how he will do with the tree but so far he has been very good and all the ornaments are still in place and so is the train and its tracks below the tree.

Amelia helped me decorate the tree this year and she did a fabulous job. I decided to use only shatterproof ornaments and put my few special (read: breakable ones) on top. I must say, I do love our tree and the 500 colorful mini lights it took to light it up.

In the afternoon, we all went to our town's annual Snow Fest. But since it was super crowded and very hot (90 F and sunny), the two pathetic looking piles of icy snow there had super long waiting lines, so unfortunately the kids were not able to play in the snow. However, there were other activities we enjoyed such as a Frozen show on the main stage, some yummy snowballs, raffles, arts and crafts, and other games. They also had a carousel and some bounce houses but since the lines were long there too, we didn't do them either.

On Sunday afternoon, Amelia's friend Sofia invited us (only Amelia and I went while the boys relaxed at home) to join them for a family-friendly Christmas play at their church. The play "When it Snows in Miami" was written and directed by their Rev. Dr. Walton and was set in 1942. It was a fantastic production including a great set and fabulous singing and acting. While the adults enjoyed the play, the kids were playing at the church's nursery and so we all had a fun afternoon.

For sure we had a packed and fun-filled weekend but I am so glad to be able to share the joys of this season with my family and to make lasting memories.