Christmas 2018

Christmas Eve I woke up before the children and the noise and enjoyed a cozy view with my morning tea. I'm savoring those few minutes I get for myself here and there before the chaos of the day starts.

It's Christmas Eve and the excitement was thru the roof in our house. Seeing them so excited makes Christmas even more magical. That morning, they hugged their elves goodbye until next December, when they will return.

Followed by Rudolph pancakes for breakfast:

Santa's helper ran to the pet store and picked up two guinea pigs. While the kids napped, Mommy got to cuddle them:

We got dressed and went to the Christmas Eve service at church. The children were thrilled to be able to hold the candles during the last song of the service: Silent Night.

After church we ate cookies in the car while watching the Christmas Light displays. 

Before bed, we fed the reindeer, put out milk and cookies for Santa and read T'was the Night Before Christmas.

Santa came:

Both kids can't wait to see what Santa brought:

A new stuffed animal for each as well as two guinea pigs!

Opening gifts and some blurry family pictures:

Everyone loved their gifts but the two new guinea pigs, named now Lucy and Linus (both male though), were definitely the most popular gift.

 For lunch, I made a traditional German Christmas dinner: duck, red cabbage and some other trimmings. It was delicious!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing in our pajamas and playing with the new toys. It surely was the perfect Christmas day. We hope your Christmas was as merry and bright as ours!

Merry Christmas!

It’s the last month of the year and then 2018 will be over…unbelievable how fast this one went by. Every year, time passes quicker and quicker. I’m a bit sad to say goodbye to 2018 as this was truly a great year for our family. Nothing too exciting or crazy happened (no move or new job), just living life and enjoying it as much as we could, and we are more than thankful to be healthy.

Our youngest, Elliot, turned 5 this month and this is his last year in preschool before starting Kindergarten at the elementary school next August. He grew so much over these past 12 months, not only in height but also in spirit and mind. This is his first year we signed him up for a sport: Basketball and he loves it. Actually, any sport involving a ball is his kind of thing. It was quickly discovered that he is ahead of his age and now plays with the 5/6-year-old group. His favorite thing to watch is the show Battlebots and afterwards he builds his own robots out of Lego. Elliot is very creative and definitely has an engineer’s mind. He also excels at reading (one lesson a day at home and some at preschool too) and writing his name. Looking forward to see how he does at school next year and if his hobbies will change because of that.

Our little girl might be small in size but definitely not her personality. She loves being in second grade (and her awesome teacher) and anything that involves drawing, painting, writing or reading is her favorite subject. She writes a story almost every single day and we have a hard time keeping up with all the papers of this future artist. Amelia also joined a dance studio, per recommendation of her pediatrician, where once a week she has a tap/ ballet lesson. She really enjoys it and we love watching her become more confident while performing in front of people.

Our furry child, Indy, just turned 10 in the beginning of the month and is loving life. When she isn’t squeezed or chased by Amelia, she relaxes in front of the fire or watches the birds on the birdfeeder thru the window.

While Derrick’s year started off with lots of rest and healing after a hernia surgery, by spring time he was out and about working hard in our yard. Old decking and an overgrown pool has been removed and lots and lots of dirt has been added to even out and re-sow the grass in the front and the back of our house. When he is not busy traveling for work or working around the house, he jumps in to play Mr. Mom while I’m on business trips.

For me, 2018 has been a fast-paced and busy year mainly due to the many changes at work because of acquisitions, but I do enjoy the work. I also traveled twice to Europe this year:  in February to France for a week and then two weeks in September to Holland with weekend visits to Berlin to see my family. While in France, I enjoyed spending 36 hours with my brother, Lennard, exploring Paris and catching up with a friend for dinner. To balance life, I try to go running at least 3 times a week and help at least once week in Amelia’s classroom (from copying to testing children) and anytime there are special events. So far, I have organized the fall class party, dressed up as a witch for a mystery reading sessions and decorated cookies and made clay mats with the children. I feel blessed that I’m able to work but also to be there for my children’s carnivals, class parties, and weekly lunch meetings.

This year, we were delighted to have Grandma and Grandpa Martin as well as Derrick’s brother Lee and family visit us here in Nashville. We spent a fun couple of days with them, boating an entire day on the lake and barbequing in the backyard. In October, Oma Doris came to visit for 3 weeks and next to visits to their schools, going to the pool, spending a day at the farm in record heat, some honky tonking in downtown, we also spent a few days in Chattanooga exploring the underground waterfall, riding a truck in the river, and visiting the aquarium. Tony, Derrick’s oldest brother, and his grandson also stopped by for a brief visit just a few weeks ago.

For our family vacation this year, we headed up North to Columbus, Ohio, where we visited the famous zoo, watched the Memorial Golf Tournament, explored Germantown and had fun at the Children’s Science Museum. Unfortunately, our camping trip had to be cancelled due to a sick child, but Derrick and I explored a great State Park to go camping to next year on our weekend getaway in October while Oma watched the children for us. It has been 3 years since the last time we had a couple’s weekend and we truly enjoyed it. We went hiking, discovered waterfalls, chatted uninterrupted and relaxed during a way overdue massage.

By Christmas morning, our family will grow by two...guinea pigs, that is. The children, mainly Amelia, have asked for their “own” pet for over a year now and we are finally ready to add more furry friends to our house.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM  OUR FAMILY TO YOURS

Christmas Parties

We are in full swing with all things Christmas over here. In the past week, there were 5 Christmas parties between all of us, of which I planned and attended 3. Despite the extra work and less sleep, I really enjoyed those parties. The first one was a girls' Christmas Get-Together at my friend's house. She always does the best decorations and I just helped out with the food and organization. We had so much fun that night that the only picture we took is of the food and part of my crafts. We ate, laughed, drank and crafted till way past midnight. 

As little teacher gifts this year, I made some Santa and Mrs. Claus sets and a gift card tree for Mrs. Ingham. I also made this beautiful Nutcracker peg doll set for Amelia's Ballet teacher. 

Derrick had his Christmas luncheon at work and then Amelia had a Christmas party at her dance class. The girls performed a dance from the Nutcracker before enjoying their Christmas picnic dinner. 

 

The next day, I had organized a Christmas Potluck at work, including a Dirty Santa gift exchange. Again, we had lots of delicious food and fun exchanging gifts that no one took a picture. On Wednesday, the elementary school children had Pajama day at school. They brought in their stuffed animals, blankets and then watched the Polar Express while drinking hot cocoa. This is one of their favorite days of the year and I can't blame them. 

We saw the Vice Principal directing traffic in the morning in his Santa suit and after a quick phone call to his office, he stopped by their classroom for a picture. So fun!

Thursday was the last day of school (a half day) and both children had their Christmas parties that morning. As room mom, I had planned Amelia's party, including organizing the food, prepping the games and making sure everything goes smoothly. Mrs. Ingham and her 2nd graders: 

She is the best teacher we had so far. This gift card tree was a big hit: 

The children decorated their lockers earlier in the month: 

Pin the Nose on Santa and photo booth fun with the props I made last year and an easy backdrop made from wrapping paper and some Christmas lights. 

Elliot also had his gift exchange and Christmas luncheon but I was told the parents don't have to come. Thus, I went back to work but still received these pictures from the teacher. The preschoolers enjoyed their gifts from each other and loved the pizza and treats. 

While we were busy this month recovering from being sick and working and taking in all the advent activities, our elves, Eli and Sparkle, entertained us at home with their shenanigans. 

Only a couple more days and Christmas day is here. The gifts are wrapped and the Hallmark Christmas movies are playing non-stop on tv. While it is cold and wet outside, we are enjoying a well deserved and relaxing weekend at home by the fire, watching movies, playing monopoly and cuddling our children. In case you are curious, here is a sneak peek of what each child will get this year - 3 gifts from Santa as usual: 

I think we are fully prepared for our two new guinea pig friends to join us on Christmas morning.

Next to the guinea pigs, the family will also receive a board game and an overdue upgrade for a tablet. It looks like the children have been good and there will be plenty of presents to go around. 

HOHoHo

Birthday Celebration and Breakfast with Santa

Our little boy was so delighted to wake up as a 5 year old.

The table was filled with gifts and birthday decorations were put up. Even our elves joined in on the fun to make Elliot's 5th birthday extra special. His big gift was a remote control car, which will be a good learning experience for him (together with Daddy) when he builds his Battlebots. Those things are not easy to maneuver and this remote car is big and fancy and definitely will take some skills to maneuver.

His sister purchased a gift for him and wrapped it all by herself. She was so excited about it and the best was that he really, really loved the finger doll she gave him.

Then it was off to preschool and work. But not too long as I showed up for lunch with my buddy and to bring cupcakes for his class. He asked for dinosaur cupcakes and I was considering making a dinosaur-shaped cake but given that I was sick all week with the flu and bronchitis, I opted to buy the cupcakes and stack little plastic dinos on top of it. It was a big hit. 

Happy Birthday, Elliot!

Instead of treat bags, there was a chocolate lolly to take home for each child and a dinosaur tattoo.

So glad I was able to stop by his preschool for this special occasion. But the best part of the day was, when he fell asleep in my arms while laying down for his nap. Still my baby!

After a good nap, the celebration continued with cake and opening the rest of the gifts.

 The look on their faces:

Elliot's birthday ended with a special event: That night was also the Family Sing-Along in Amelia's school and so with hot cocoa and pizza, we saw a Charlie Brown performance by the 5th graders and sang some Christmas songs with their friends. The birthday boy loved it!

On Saturday, our elves delivered a message from Santa, who invited Amelia and Elliot for breakfast at the Aquarium Restaurant. Both children couldn't wait to hand the jolly old guy their wish lists: 

Annual Santa Picture:

This is our second year attending this event and we love it: the breakfast buffet is plentiful and delicious, the children love watching the fish and Santa Diver and there is even a raffle to win some cool prices.

Santa Diver and his Elf - Merry Fishmas:

Only two more weekends and then it is already Christmas Day. The excitement in our house is rapidly increasing; especially now since Santa got their wish lists.