Wow, December has gone by so quickly. It was so busy and we had so much fun that it just flew by! First, we want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy New Year. We were not on the ball this year with Christmas cards. My excuse is that we live in Germany and that is far away and takes advanced planning. However, we did receive many Christmas card/pictures from our friends and family and it made us feel like we weren't so far away. You are all now placed nicely on our fridge in the kitchen, Peyton and Micah usually steal one picture a day and hide it somewhere, but we haven't managed to lose any yet.
We had a wonderful month, as you know my parents arrived on December 8th and we had a great time together. The girls were so excited when they got here, I wish I had it on video. Peyton knew they were coming and understood, but Micah of course was surprised. She kept walking back and fourth to everyone in the room hugging them and yelling her usual babble. The first week we went to some Christmas markets, the Zoo in Frankfurt, and basically showed them around the city and did what we normally do. My mom took the bus with me to our play group Christmas party and she was formally welcomed to Germany by being pushed on the bus while holding Peyton, though I think all of her other encounters were much friendlier. Peyton was very excited that they were able to come and watch her ballet class. We even went out one night with my parents and used our first babysitter a student from Robb's class (she is fabulous). We went for a traditional German meal in a restaurant under City Hall called Ratskeller. I was not as adventurous to try something a little more out there, but I had Schnitzel and it was excellent. It was a fun night.
After a week of being here my parents travelled on to Berlin and then on to Amsterdam and were back about a week later. That week Peyton had a little "dance recital" aka, parents were allowed into the studio to watch a class. We thought Peyton would be shy and hold back, but she was the opposite. She was beaming and kept looking over at us with a huge smile on her face. She basically runs in circles around the ballet studio and moves her arms, it is adorable. Peyton also has many ballet performances at home and Micah joins in. The only thing is that they can't dance until they have their dresses on. Some how without their dresses on it is literally impossible for them to dance. Then they run and get their "fancy" shoes on and it is like Swan Lake in our home, but much better. Micah has the eyes of a hawk and ensures everything that Peyton does or receives is replicated by her. Micah is starting to say more words and understands everything we say to her. She is very funny in everything she does.
We spent Christmas here in Wiesbaden. We got this little tree for the house and bought a few ornaments for the tree. It was nice. It didn't feel as Christmasy here, except for the Christmas markets. The rest of the area didn't decorate a lot and we didn't see many Christmas lights. So, when we did see some lights Peyton would get really excited because at home we would always take drives to look at all the lights on houses. We knew it was going to be a different Christmas though. It was actually nice not to have a lot of Christmas commitments and functions to go to. The down side is everyone of us got sick. Robb got sick for a week, then better for a week then was sick for his entire break. The girls kept their colds for almost a month and appear to have just caught something again today. Santa somehow knew we moved to Germany though, so the girls were ecstatic. Peyton keep saying on Christmas morning, "What happened in the world":-) Before Christmas my mom, Robb and I went to the larger grocery store (kind of like a Walmart) to get things for our Christmas dinner, we came out three hours later exhausted. It can be super time consuming shopping for traditional Canadian ingredients in a German grocery store where the traditions are not the same. We did manage to make a pretty good turkey dinner, even with only one rack in our oven. It was so nice to have my parents here for Christmas.
After Christmas we continued to relax and visit. Robb and I got away for an entire day and drove to Luxembourg. We of course drove on the day (only day) it snowed. The roads were pretty sketchy and we didn't see any snow ploughs until the drive home. It's crazy to drive 2-4 hours in any direction and make it to different countries. We had no plan and did no research before. Luxembourg was a very clean country and we enjoyed visiting. One of the main languages is French and we realized how much better we could have communicated in a French speaking country. All of my KCS French classes paid off;-) We could read menus and signs and use little phrases to get around. I felt a little more competent and less ignorant. It has been hard to function long term with a language barrier. We can definitely get by in Germany with only speaking English, but I would like to learn more German. However, after long days with the girls, the last thing I want to do at night is study a new language. Robb's German; however, continues to improve. He is my security blanket in restaurants and in general public functioning! Oh yes, so over the break Robb had three weeks off. The German school system goes until the end of July, so for summer they only have August off. Therefore, there are a few more breaks throughout the year.
On December 29th was my Dad's birthday, so he, my mom, and I went to Heidelberg for the day. We went up to the Castle and shopped around, went out for lunch. I always love Heidelberg and they seemed to like it too. Instead of a birthday cake, my dad chose to try these odd dough balls, no idea what the real name is for them. Anyways, you can see in the pictures below. So, we celebrated Dad with 4 dough balls and a candle.
New years came and went. Robb and I went to our church for a New Years evening of food and games. We had a good time, but left early as we were leaving first thing for Paris in the morning. We left for Paris at 7am and walked to the train station through the aftermath of a German New Years Eve, we were quite surprised to see all of the bottles, firecrackers and fireworks debris everywhere. I think we heard fireworks and firecrackers going off from 11:30pm to 2 am straight, as well as randomly throughout the night. Robb and I walked home from the church on New Years Eve and were laughing about how people were standing outside of their apartments throwing fire crackers alone, having a swell time. Some people were literally standing alone on the street lighting fire crackers and throwing them onto the sidewalks. We could definitely see the appeal:-) Anyway, back to the next day, we walked to the train station ready for our Paris adventure. Robb is the type who would like to get to a train 10 minutes before departure and my dad is the type who would like to get there 3 hours before departure, thus their travel styles together were a delight for the rest of the family to enjoy:-) Robb also stresses everyone out by running to get a coffee before every train just a few minutes before it leaves, as we are all on the train waiting. I am pretty sure he does that on purpose to mess with us. We are all still close believe it or not. The girls enjoyed the train, it was going 300km/hr, which was pretty cool to watch things zoom by at that speed. Paris was about a 4 hour train ride. We were quite the sight walking around and navigating the subway system with ton of back packs, a travel crib, and our stroller. We rented an apartment near the Eiffel Tower and walked to it the first afternoon. The weather was really nice and mild. We took a billion Eiffel Tower pictures and walked around Paris. It is a beautiful city.
Our second day was more sight seeing. We went to City Hall, the Church of Notre Dame, the Louvre, and Robb's fave, Pont Neuf. We geared up for Paris by watching Bourne Identity, thus we felt like Jason Bourne was with us ;-) It was a fun day, Micah napped in the Ergo Carrier every day and our kids were champs again in these big trips of sightseeing. Robb and I got out in the evening for a great date. We hung out around the Eiffel Tower, which of course is even more beautiful at night. We went out for some french food, which was a billion dollars. I also need to mention we are officially broke after 5 days in Paris:) I actually had a pizza and asked for goat cheese to be added to it, but the server said he thought I said no cheese. So I had a pizza with no cheese, as he had no intention to fixing this. It was surprisingly still good. Everyone warned us that France and the French were the least friendly and unhelpful. So many people said this. However, we arrived and we found people very friendly. People walking by would say Bonjour, or smile. We were able to get around easily and mastered the subway system. People were helpful, besides our one server, we really enjoyed the people!
Our third day we planned to go to Disneyland, however, we woke up to pouring rain. We walked out to the subway and we were all getting wet with our umbrellas, so we decided to go the next day. Peyton took it surprisingly well and said okay, we'll go tomorrow. She even had her Minnie Mouse ears on ready to enjoy a day at Disney! Instead we went to the Arc De Triumph. While we were walking around the four sides of it, we left our stroller on one side. My dad went back for it and two French police were around it looking a little worried. My dad explained it was ours, but they still kind of looked skeptical. When they later saw us pushing Peyton in it, they were pointing at it, obviously a little relieved it was actually for a child. Throughout this weekend, we saw police everywhere, there was a huge presence at all of the major tourist attractions. There were also soldiers with machine guns walking around at every site. We assumed maybe this was normal to watch out for huge tourist attractions. However, after reading into the Paris attacks, it seems that they had some idea something was coming, but obviously not exactly what or where. We were very close to the Charlie Hebdo office, as well as the Jewish grocery store when we were sight seeing only a few blocks away. We were thankful we made it home safely two days before the attacks and are praying for the families of those affected. As the rain continued we decided to take the girls to the Paris Aquarium, so we could get out of the rain. My parents split from us and took the elevator up the Eiffel Tower. Micah and Peyton enjoyed the Aquarium, although I think Vancouver Aquarium was better. However, they had a good time and we stayed dry. Micah got her fingers sucked up by a koi fish:) There was an open pond where kids could put their hands in and one fish just came up and enclosed two of her little fingers in its mouth. Micah pulled her hand away fast and kept looking at it for like 2 minutes trying to figure out if she should be upset or not and if she was hurt. Peyton yelled at the fish for Micah and told them not to bite.
On Sunday, we went to Disneyland. It was a perfect day, partly sunny and no rain. We totally hyped Peyton up that we could go get a picture with Anna and Elsa from Frozen, as they were kind of the theme for the season and no other princess were available to actually meet. Peyton is obsessed with Frozen. So as soon as we get there, we head to the Princess Pavilion only to find the line up was already 4 hours long. So, we obviously did not want to spend our day at Disney that way and went to meet Mickey instead. Peyton and Micah were so cute, Micah kept giving him high fives and grabbing on to his face. I think she said goodbye to him 40 times. Peyton was a little more quiet, but you could see in her face how excited she was, she even let him hold her hand for a picture, which is a big thing for Peyton. She is only mascot/character friendly from afar! Paris Disney was actually quite different from California. My parents would get some fast passes for all of us and then we would take turns watching the girls. We really hyped up Space Mountain saying how fun and tame it was for my parents. They had never been on it. They went first and came out a little dizzy. Lol, the Space Mountain in Paris has full on out inverted loops and corkscrews. I was wondering what was going on when we had to have those shoulder straps on. It was a little scary, California's is much more tame and no loops. Then I told them I would like to go on Indiana Jones ride because I love the California one. Silly me, bad advice for my parents again. They went first, again and my mom said she was almost at the front of the line when she sees Indiana Jones is very different from Disney California. It is a roller coaster, with a loop again! I was surprised she stayed in the line, but they did it, two intense roller coasters! It was actually fun, but just a roller coaster with Indiana Jones decorations. The girls favourite ride was It's a Small World, the whole time Micah was jumping up and down on my mom's lap screaming and laughing. Peyton had a huge smile on her face the whole time, so when we got off, we went right back on. Micah is going to be our fearless child, she loved all the rides, Peyton was a little more cautious. She did go on lots of rides though and had a great time. She did end up being able to wave at Anna and Elsa in a parade, but was sad saying she wanted them to come back. We stayed until 10pm watching the show over the castle. Micah passed out at 7pm. I always thought I would never take my kids to Disneyland until they could appreciate it more; however, it was so special watching Peyton and Micah with Mickey and then later waving at Anna and Elsa. It is truly a fairy tale come alive for them. Peyton loses it every time she sees the Disney castle in pictures or at the beginning of a movie now. She constantly reminds us she was there. We almost forget, so we are thankful for the reminders!
We left Paris the next day. Then we had five days with my parents before they left. My mom and I got out for an afternoon of shopping which was so nice. I miss those times being away from home. It was hard to say goodbye, knowing it would be about 7 months until we see them again. Its hard on the girls to say goodbye, but thankful we have FaceTime and can keep in touch closely with home. December was a great month, we did lots of things, and had a great Christmas. Robb returns to school tomorrow and life will go on as normal, or normal for Canadians with two wild toddlers living in Germany;-) I am so looking forward to the spring and hope the weather will be nicer. This month has been better with the sun coming out a little more. It is just crazy how quick the weather changes. I am liking the mild temperatures though, most days have been around 6-10 degrees Celsius. We had one big snow day and nothing since. Now it just rains a lot. We are enjoying our church here and continue to meet more people and form more relationships. We are excited to see everyone in the summer and enjoy hearing from home as always.
They arrived!
Santa giving Micah her present at our play group party.
Peyton got her present and after said, I can't believe Santa came to play group.
Micah missing the action at the Rudesheim Market.
These crazy people.
Decorating the tree.
We stood at first then realized we couldn't see the tree.
Best picture we could get at the time.
These two constantly rearranging the tree. Eventually the tree had most ornaments on the top.
My parents at the Ratskeller.
Robb's interesting meal.
The protestant church from the Christmas Market.
On our night out with my parents. The markets are much more magical at night.
Waiting for our train to Frankfurt.
Watching some seals fighting at the zoo.
Micah giving daddy a kiss.
Love this picture.
I love this picture of my mom with the flamingos.
They were enthralled with this odd looking bird.
Hanging out watching the Gorillas.
Face to face with the lions.
Walking back to the train.
Peyton's ballet performance!
We definitely use our umbrellas now.
FaceTime with our beloved and missed Samson.
Warming up at Mainz Christmas Market, Peyton was not enjoying the smoke.
Helping Grandma make Nanaimo Bars.
On our way to the Christmas Eve Service, the tree is back there somewhere.
Opening their Christmas Eve jammies.
The little drummer girls. This went on for quite awhile, equipped with little boy drummer boy song by Grandma and Papa, Robb enjoyed it;-)
Our Christmas dinner.
At the Fasanerie.
Feeding the deer.
Luxembourg
Heidelberg
At the bottom of the stair case surrounding the huge wine vat.
These two cuties wandering through the Heidelberg streets.
Bive (aka Bev) and I enjoyed a good Starbucks coffee.
Birthday Dough Balls celebration. Doesn't he look excited?
Heading out for New Years Eve.
On the train to Paris.
Finding their way around.
Get ready for a million Eiffel Tower pictures.
City Hall
Church of Notre Dame
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Church of Notre Dame
Pont des Arts.
Can you feel the love?
Unfortunately, the bridge is actually crumbling due to the weight of the locks.
Le Pont Neuf
Palais du Louvre
In love with these two.
Micah being fed cheesecake.
Packing these two around Paris.
Fabulous date night.
Arc de Triomphe
These two cuties at the Arc de Triomphe.
Our awesome tour guide.
Doing some sweet moves in front of the Aquarium.
The koi fish pond. Micah staring down her nemesis.
Pictures my parents took from the Eiffel Tower.
Admiring the sharks.
Gotta love these family selfies, especially when Micah joins in now.
Only in Paris would they serve Macaroons at McDonalds.
Disneyland!!!!!
Micah was not into wearing the ears.
Our first ride with the girls.
Buzz Lightyear Ride.
The snow suit twins.
One last Dumbo ride.
I'm pumped that I look like I am loving this ride and Robb looks scared, since the last one in California was the opposite.
We love Mickey.
Waiting for the parade to start.
Showing our excitement about getting to see Anna and Elsa.
Here they are waving to us.
Peyton telling me they needed to come back.
The Castle in all its glory. Peyton thought all the princesses were sleeping in the castle and that's why she didn't see them. Could be true.
Micah getting a little snuggly and sleepy.
It's a Small World after all.
Micah's new ears that can't be ripped off.
Canadian part of Small World.
Peter Pan ride.
And... she's out.
Look how excited we are about Pirates.
The fireworks and evening show.
The aftermath of New Years Eve over a week later.
A coffe date before they left.
Peyton wanted to build a tower that reached the ceiling.
Helping Grandma get her makeup on.
New twin sweaters.
Got some new glasses and loving them.
This morning she said she was ready to get up and go eat some oatmeal, but maybe not.
Sleeping party, my favourite kind of party!
