Christmas Morning

Cologne Christmas Markets

One of my favorite things about Germany is the Christmas markets.  Almost every village has some kind of market for at least one day, but the bigger cities have markets that go from Thanksgiving up to Christmas.  Every year we try to get to a few new cities.  This year we went to Mannheim and Cologne.  Mannheim was really kind of a bust.  It was so crowded you couldn't move and so cold that all the kids were in their snowsuits.  Porter decided he had to go to the bathroom about 5 minutes after I had asked him if he needed to as we passed a McDonalds.  We made the treck back and went through a 10 minute ordeal to peel off all 20 layers in a very small and very hot bathroom stall because he couldn't pee otherwise.  Of course then it took almost as long to redress.  Then we made it literally 6 paces outside the bathrooms when he stopped and said, "Mom!  I need to go poop!"  and we did it all again.  It was killing me.  The highlight was the entertainment though.  Some dude with a thick German accent singing Garth Brooks.  I'm sure you just had to be there!

Cologne was the exact opposite however.  It was probably one of the best we've been too.  The Cathedral and Chocolate Museum were definite bonuses, but the market itself was fantastic!  They actually have about 6 different areas in the city with stalls and sometimes little rides set up.  It was open enough to move freely and the food was awesome.  And this is probably more info than most people care about, but I'm always trying to entice people to visit if I can!  We have Rudesheim and Strasbourg, France planned for next year if anyone is in!

Christmas Markets

So the atmosphere, the stalls of toys, decorations, jewelry etc., and the little rides are all really fun, but we really go to the Christmas markets for the food!  It's so much fun.  We walk around getting one or two of all kinds of things to try and then share them.  We had bratwurst, chocolate covered strawberries, crepes, waffles, dampfnoodeln - my favorite - and the best pork kabob I have ever had in my entire life.  We started with one and then had to sent Tyler back to fight the mob outside the stall for another they were so good.  And did I mention the chocolate museum?  Worlds best cup of hot chocolate hands down!

Girly Lips

I overheard Porter playing with a couple of dolls the other day. Not his usual toys, he's more into cars, playmobil knights, and swords, but still the conversation between the two dolls was pretty funny. I grabbed my grocery list and scribbled a snippet on the back. Here it is...

Doll #1 - Don't kiss me! You're all girly! And you have girly lips!

Doll #2 - What the heck?

Doll #1 - And you have girly pajamas!

Doll #2 - What the?

I believe that there was some kind of kissing between the dolls taking place shortly after, but it was hard to see as I was hiding behind the dining room table trying to listen.

Porter is at my favorite age right now. He says some pretty funny things and has kind of been on an anti-kissing campaign lately. Not sure where it came from, but he has also informed us that he doesn't like people to 'dance him'.

Sawyer's First Birthday

I can't believe how fast a year can fly by! Where did it go? Seriously! How did my baby get so big? I was reading an article on 12-month-olds recently where they kept calling my 12 month old a "toddler"! Hold on there. He is still my baby! I don't know that he's our last, but I'm hanging on to him being my baby as long as I can!

Obviously not a big fan of messy hands. I was so disappointed. I was really hoping for a good mess!

He's a pretty sweet little boy. He still twirls his feet and big toes simultaneously when he sits on the floor or gets excited about something. He loves Baby Einstein - yes, I sit him in front of the TV sometimes - and looking through books. His favorite toys are nesting cups and he loves to wrestle. He still tries to bite my face every now and then, but I still believe he's just trying to give me a kiss. He laughs at Porter more than anyone else and loves eating ice cream with a passion. The worst tantrum he ever threw was after I ran out of dessert to share one night. He sleeps in bed with me almost every morning from 5:30 to 7:00 and he would rather play with SOMEONE than SOMETHING any day. He keeps me from getting anything at all done when he's awake unless I let him empty out a cupboard, but he still takes two naps, so that's alright. He loves his blanket and started taking a binki again recently after having wanted nothing to do with it 4 months ago. Not sure if it was good to let him have it at this point, but it's nice to have for those naps! He's super ticklish and still laughs when you reach under his arms to take his shirt off or when you wipe the creases above his thighs during a diaper change. He loves the Eensy Weensy Spider and can crawl at lightning speeds, although he prefers to have someone hold his hands so that he can walk. He has a light brown patch on the right side of his stomach about the size of a silver dollar called a Cafe Ole patch. I can't hold him without kissing his cheeks. I still swaddle him in his blanket when I rock him to sleep. I'm just really in no hurry for this one to grow up too soon. It's not like they get tidier as they get older anyway.

Incrimination

It's interesting to see yourself from your child's perspective. Humbling. But funny too. So I'm going to go ahead and incriminate myself by sharing a story Sophie wrote at school. Please note that while there is a good deal of truth...there's also some exaggeration! Now having said that, I admit that I'm trying to loosen up!

My Favorite Holiday Tradition

by Sophie Jensen

"Mom?" Sophie asked. "Does this apple have enough caramel on it?" The Jensens were making gourmet carameled apples for Halloween caroling. When Mrs. Jensen {that would be me} saw Sophie with the apple she said, "Yes Sophie. That's enough caramel." "Can I do another one?" Sophie asked. "No Sophie, let Briggs do one," her mom said very strictly. Sophie sighed. Why did her mom have to be so strict? {Am I really?}

Briggs came down wearing his Superman cape with Porter. "Briggs, do you want to dip an apple?" Mrs. Jensen asked. "Sure! Why wouldn't I?" Briggs asked. Then he pretended to fly to the kitchen to get an apple to dip. Sophie had always thought that Briggs was annoying.

Next Porter asked, "Mommy, can I watch a movie?" "No," Mrs. Jensen said. Then as we were least expecting it, Porter starts screaming! "Oh my gosh! {She nailed me there!} Porter stop screaming right this instant! Sawyer is taking his nap!" Mrs. Jensen scolded (well, she was sort of screaming) {Did not! Although if Sawyer had woken up...}. Then she put him on the toilet lid and put some hot sauce on his tongue. After that she sent him to his room. {I admit to having been known to use all three punishments, but never all at the same time!}

Sophie decided to go write in her journal. But what would she write about? Then she remembered that her second grade teacher had always said, "When you need to think and nothing comes to mind, brainstorm." So Sophie did just that and so she started writing about her favorite holiday tradition. Here's what she wrote: My favorite tradition is when me and my mom and dad and Briggs and Porter make carameled apples to take to people and sing songs. We call it Halloween Caroling. It's really fun. You dip apples in caramel...

Halloween Costumes

I really tried to get a theme going this year, but no one could agree and they're getting harder to manipulate, though I tried. So no theme sadly. Sophie went as Lucy from Narnia and Porter went as Edmund. Sawyer would have been Azlan if I hadn't hesitated and had bought the lion costume before it sold out in September! Instead he was a bat {which saved me $30 - yes, the lion costume was $45, hence the hesitation} and I was the witch. I had a great pair of black and purple tights which sadly were not photographed. And Briggs was not going as anything other than Harry Potter and has loved every minute he's had with his costume.

I really love to dress up and therefor to dress up my kids. So yeah, we went the whole 9 yards and actually dyed his hair brown! He also wouldn't let me cut it for almost 2 months and that's been killing me! He pulled it off pretty well though!

Porter really was not wearing parachute pants. I don't know what was going on with his pants in this picture.

I loved Sawyer's teeth with his costume! They're perfect little bat teeth! He was actually cutting four more and I was praying they wouldn't come in before we took Halloween pictures. Now I'm praying that the two that aren't through yet will hurry up already and get it over with so my baby can sleep through the night again!

So now that I've posted all the cute pictures...here's the one I would normally hide! This is the end of the photo shoot. Sophie is in tears because she claims Tyler has just elbowed her in the head. Tyler says that he was gently guiding her away from Sawyer with his forearm since she wouldn't quit trying to put my witch hat on him while we were trying to get his picture. Sawyer is crying because he's just done had enough. Porter is yawning because he couldn't care less about the photos. It's all about the candy as far as he's concerned. But Briggs is still smiling away because he has his Harry Potter costume on and couldn't be happier!

The Freaky Feast

So I really love Halloween. It's one of my favorite holidays! But for some reason it's also one of the most chaotic. For some reason I had blocked past Halloween mayhem when I decided swap the usual Taco Soup for a "Freaky Feast" and actually invited friends over for it. The kids were home all day which for some reason I thought would be helpful. Hellooooooooo! What was I thinking? I had all these great ideas, but in the end the food was totally thrown together. The drinks and cupcakes were fun, but the Severed Mummy Fingers needed some help and I didn't even put in a picture of the Deviled Egg Eyeballs. And did I mention we ate 40 minutes late? Which was only a big deal because Germans don't do Halloween. So we trick or teat on base and you only get from 6:00-8:00p.m. and the candy is GONE by 7:00. Ah well. The loot was still good and it was fun. And I'm sure I'll forget how crazy it was by next year and I'll try it all again!

Halloween Caroling

This is one of my all-time favorite traditions! Every year before Halloween we make gourmet carameled apples, get all dressed up in our costumes, and go caroling! We drive around to friends' homes with a plate of the apples and sing one of our Halloween songs. It's so much fun and a much warmer time of year to carol than December is!

Carving Pumpkins

Usually Tyler spends hours on his pumpkin in an attempt to out do me {although he'd never admit to it}! But this year, he completed his in record time so that he could help the kids with theirs. Or so he said...

This is Porter's and he actually did most of the carving on his! I helped him draw it, but he went to work with that little saw thing and stuck with it until he was done! He didn't want much to do with what was inside the pumpkin though!

This is Briggs pumpkin, but I'm not sure how much of it Briggs actually did. I think he pretty much just directed the production of his pumpkin and Tyler did all the work. Once it was finished, he decided the carving did look pretty fun after all and walked around with a knife, trying to cut everyone else's pumpkins the rest of the night.

I helped Sophie a little bit with putting her pattern on the pumpkin, but she carved this work of art herself! She did a pretty fantastic job!

And here is my cute pumpkin. I went the old fashioned way {no pattern} and was my own creative genius. The teeth were inspired by Sawyer!

Fall Fest

Germans seem to love any excuse for a party. So every village - no matter how small - seems to have a 'fest' for one thing or another several times a year. This was a 'Fall Fest' with craft booths, a corn maze, pumpkins, local wine, and lots of food! Tyler was in heaven! I was way excited about it though because I found some local grape juice! For some reason they seem to make nothing but wine with all those grapes and grape juice is kind of hard to come by. Why can't they do grape juice and cheese tasting along with their wine? I think I could get into that.