Chocolates & Gingerbread Houses

Bernkastel-Kues Christmas Market

It was literally only 1 or 2 degrees above zero the day we went to the Bernkastel Market.  Tyler didn't really want to go, but I made him, and as luck would have it...he packed all of the kids coats and then forgot his own!  He must really love me, and I must really be cruel because we got out of the car and spent a good hour at the market anyway.  The kids were in snow suits, but our faces still froze and Sawyer finally decided that he was DONE!  We got lots of good things to eat before we left though and really, that's the reason we go!  This is also one of my favorite German towns!  It's so cute!  It's in the middle of a narrow valley covered in vinyards and there is a river along side of it with a castle on the hill above.  The house in the picture below has been decorated as an advent calendar and they open a new window each day.

Strasbourg Christkindl Markt

 This time of year Christmas Markets start popping up all over Europe.  We try to hit a few new ones every year.  Over Thanksgiving weekend we went down with some friends to Strasbourg where they have one of the oldest and largest markets in France.  It was a lot of fun and the shops had some really cool and different things!  What looks like pictures of a pastry shop below are actually different soaps and hand-towels!  They smelled as good as they look too!  Sadly though, the food wasn't as good as it is in the German markets!  No Damphnodeln or Fleish on a stick to be found!
Scary French clowns.  I tried to get my kids to stand by them for a picture, but they were frozen with fear.  Briggs talked about them the rest of the night.
The streets and ally ways were all decorated and very, very crowded!
The Cathedral in Strasbourg is really very cool.  Unfortunately there are shops all around the square that make it impossible to back up far enough to get a good photo of the whole thing!


Wash clothes wrapped up with a little strawberry soap bar.  So cute!
This is the soap!  I wanted to buy some just for the smell!  They smelled sooooo good!

Bob's Your Uncle

For several months now, Sophie has been asking to have her hair cut short.  I made her wait to make sure that she really wanted to, but she kept asking!  So we finally did it.  Chopped it all off.  I was remarkably composed through it all.  It was good that I was taking pictures and couldn't think about it too much because I may have cried!  Sophie didn't flinch!  She had 12 inches cut off and has donated it to "Locks of Love".  At least all that pretty hair went to a good cause!  And she really does look so darling!  The lady didn't give her as much of an A-line as I'd wanted, but she did a great job!  I'm just not sure that I like how much older it makes Sophie look!

The Freaky Feast

~MENU~

Eyeball & Bloody Chunk Salad

Ribs with Schneken (Slug) Sauce

Severed Mummy Fingers

Deviled Eggs

Newt Eye Jello with Mashed Toenail Topping

Squirrel Brains

To Drink: Hulk Spit

Dessert: Graveyard Surprise

Halloween Costumes

I'm not entirely sure what made MAKING the kids' costumes sound like a good idea, but I won't be doing it again!  I really thought that throwing a few patches and some raffia on Briggs' existing clothing and sticking Porter through an old box with some spray paint would be a matter of minutes.  I planned to spend a little more time on Sophie's, but I told Tyler he was on his own and thanks to Old Navy, Sawyer was covered, so I thought I was good to go.  Not so.  I'm sure I spent the better part of a day each on Sophie's, Briggs', and Porter's costumes - although I did have a lot of fun with the spray paint and couldn't help even spraying his shoes. Then of course Halloween day came around and Tyler hadn't done a thing - claiming to have had no time (apparently the fact that he has had time to read most of The Lost Symbol this past week isn't relevant because it was almost entirely done in the bathroom.  Hmmmm).  But aside from the fact that I put many things I needed to get done on hold, it turned out great.  They were so cute in their costumes!  I'm so glad that they'll still let me dress them up!  It's just a shame that I don't have footage of them singing and acting out their parts!  Oh, and next year...we'll be buying!

Halloween BOOing

This is our Halloween kick-off!  

We started out several years ago with the simple "knock and run" technique, but it has evolved over the years.  Now it's full-up black clothing and camo!  We just need to get some ear-pieces so that someone can run the operations with satellite imagery from the computer at home next year.  Maybe then no one will turn and flatten Porter as they run from the house.  If it weren't for the camo we would have been totally busted!