Happy New Year!!!!

Here are the brave souls who hosted this big crowd for New Year's.

( I love this pic of you Jenny)

It was a funfilled night of Bunko, various other games and lots of food. 15 mins before midnight we poured 29 little cups of sparkling wine to toast a precisely midnight!!! We counted down and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! No fireworks like we've had in Germany the last three years but being with family was very very, nice!!!

Mary turns 17!

where does the time go?????

Christmas in Indiana

We arrived in Indiana just in time to freshen up a little (after 11 hrs in the car) before all the cousins, aunts and uncles would gather for a Christmas gift exchange. All the cousins had exchanged names and it was a secret who had who's names. It was very fun and exciting to see everyone! We have not been in Indiana for a Christmas holiday in many years so it was a treat! Also Natasha had not yet met any of my siblings and their kids. Although the numbers were overwhelming, she survived the week and can almost remember all of their names and who belongs to whom now!

Merry Christmas everyone!

celebrating His Birth!

Christmas Eve Candlelight Service

...anticipating the birth of the holy child, Jesus.

Silent Night

2 plus ft of snow

takes a long time to shovel!!! But the kids REALLY enjoyed it... and the hot cocoa!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

...so we woke up to this much snow... and it snowed all day long. Beautiful big flakes!! We didn't go anywhere but finished decorating for Christmas and made cookies and watched a Christmas movie. It was absolutely wonderful!

J's gingerbread

J's class had a gingerbread making fun time at school on this day... which happened to be the last day of school as it started snowing this evening ....

Clara and Mary's gingerbread house

Clara watched her older siblings do theirs and longed to do one too... so she and I and Mary put this cute little gingerbread together.

so the chip is...

-when you know that apple sauce for lunch boxes to school might be without sugar

-when you know what juice every kid likes

-when you know how to find the right milk,eggs and even sour cream

-when you go around the shop with 2-3 full carts and you still smile, answer the cell phone, plan weekends and dinners

-when you know how to make your Au pair happy with tomato juice and pickles

-when you try to find fun during an exhausting trip to Comisary

-when even sushi can't help in the end of shopping...

this list is endless...

but 5.5 months ago i'd say that it was miracle

now I can just admire how my host mom deal with all this

c/o The Hickox Family

Natasha Parfeniuk

+PS or may be she has a real chip...

St Nicolaas Day

St Nicolaas Day. He brought us all a pair of flannel pajamas and a kinderegg! Very nice. There are alot of big feet in this house, wouldn't you say?

Snow Saturday

It started as rain but by noon turned to snow.

A beautiful heavy snow that made wonderful snowballs and snowmen!

Everyone but Mary and I went out in it! We spent the day watching Christmas movies and writing Christmas cards. We also went and to buy our Christmas tree, which was really fun to do in the snow too! Hot cocoa, grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch. It doesn't get any better for a Saturday in my book!

Weinacht Markt

Here are the kids at a local German Christmas Market put together by the German army stationed here in the area. We were so excited!!! Although, John broke our hearts as we were approaching the market and he said "I hope Katrin is here!!!" It's a small world son... but not that small... our dear Katrin is very far away right now. But she is very close in our hearts. We miss you all back in Germany!!

Ginger Bread Houses of all kinds

The German teacher at the High School holds a Gingerbread contest every year. Mary and Seth teamed up and had a really good time creating this Good Ship Lollipop attacked by the Candy Kracken (from Pirates of the Carribean) complete with Christmas Island and a life boat.

Fall of the Berlin Wall (above)

They didn't win anything but as you can see the competition was kinda tough, and they all had a great time creating these masterworks of art.

Puzzle done- all 1000 pieces.

Natasha found this puzzle on sale at the library and knowing our love for puzzles brought it home for us to do. I broke it open Sunday before Thanksgiving while expecting my folks and Aunt to come and had the edge put together before they got here. I then restrained myself and waited. We worked on it Thanksgiving week while they were here, and got over half done but didn't quite get it finished until tonight. Looks pretty simple eh?? It was fun and very interesting to put together but it was not easy or simple by all means.

After Granny Jo and Aunt Clara left these were my faithful helpers below. They are getting really good at puzzles!! I have to say Joey really got us over the hump near the end... and was even kind enough to step back when he saw we could finish on our own.
(nothing more rude when someone who hasn't worked on a puzzle comes in and wants to help at the end when it is easiest!) But take a good look at these pieces... every piece was a small picture in itself. We took the picture to a copy machine and enlarged it so we could see the tiny pictures and find the pieces. There was no other way to do it.
Thanks Granny and Aunt Clara.
It would not have been as much fun without you!

glad it is done though...so now I can get serious and finish preparing for Christmas!!