Merry Christmas!

I am exhausted! We've had a pretty busy Christmas (so far). Poor Jay and Nils are a little sickly too. I know Nils is sick if he sleeps longer than 20 minutes- today he slept over an hour.

On Christmas Eve and the 25th, we had dim sum. Andi (Nils' godfather) came over Christmas Eve and the Hirschbergs on Christmas. Tonight we'll have raclette http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/raclette.htm with our friends Gregor & Michaela, so a lot less work for me! My dim sum work lineup: shop for ingredients, marinate the pork, chop and prepare the fillings for steamed dumplings, veggie spring rolls and banana leaf rice packets. Soak and steam the sticky rice. Roast the marinated pork, make the steamed bun dough and chop the pork and fill the dough. Fill the banana leaves with sticky rice and meat. Fill the dumplings and spring rolls with their fillings. Make green tea crepes and the plum sauce stir fry for it. Whew! No wonder I gave up on dessert! Michael was great and helped out with the kids a lot.

In Germany, the Christkind (baby Jesus) brings the kids their gifts. He brought Jay a new bike (with tiger stripes!) and helmet and Nils a magnet board for his ABCs. We went out bike riding right after breakfast yesterday. This morning, Nils asked to play ABCs as soon as he woke up and Jay rode his bike to the bakery with me to buy our breakfast rolls. Santa brought sweets and small gifts for the stockings. With all that, the kids don't need any gifts from us.

All in all, it's been a wonderful Christmas. Even though the kids are a little off, and they're not as energetic as usual (this might have been good considering all the work I've had to do!), they're still happy and we're all together. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cookies

Every Friday, our friends Alexander and Katarina come over for a sushi lunch with their mom, Susanne. I think I mentioned that my kids only eat sticky rice and udon noodles with broth. However, over the past two weeks, they have taken some pretty big strides. Both of them eat tamago, Jay now likes inari, and Nils ate some ebi tempura. Nils also tried to eat a tuna roll, but gave up before I could cut it for him and make it more manageable. So the weekly exposure is beginning to pay off!

This week, after our sushi lunch, we decorated cookies. Susanne baked gingerbread cookies and I made the icing. She also brought over a huge decorating kit with pens, different sprinkles, and sugar toppings. Katarina decorated a ton of cookies, Jay just one, and Nils was the smartest and only ate what we decorated.

This was also the first year that I actually made it to baking cookies for our neighbors. Every year I mean to, and every year, I never get a chance. Rather, I never make the time to bake them. I made brownies, buttercream filled cookies and decorated sugar cookies. If I only get around to doing it once every four years, then I hope they don't expect them again next year!

Of course we have more photos of Nils on various carousels, I'll have to attach them in another entry. We're going to the Wiehnachtsmarkt again today, so we'll probably have more. Today is actually the last day before they shut down and pack up until next year. December 23rd- the longest day of the year!

Just Stuff (and a bunch of photos & videos too)

Emma comes over every Thursday to play while her mom gives violin lessons to kids. This week, she's been a bit under the weather, so I let the kids watch TV so she could chill and relax. At first, they were so excited to watch TV that it didn't seem like any of them would relax (see the video I posted). During the program (Little Einsteins), Jay had his head in Emma's lap and she was stroking his head. I took the photo a little too late- darn!

Today we went to (another) local castle. The castle had about four moats to go through, so a lot of bridges, water and ducks. There was a Christmas market there with crafts and food and also a sort of re-enactment through the woods of the first Christmas. At the end, the kids got a piece of chocolate and we sang a Christmas carol. Of course, the highlights for the kids were the carousel and the mud puddles.

Today was the first time that Nils has ever ridden on a carousel all alone. He sat still the whole time, laughing each time he passed us.

Last of all, I have a video of Nils playing by himself. He was playing so well that I didn't want to interrupt. But there was a glass of water that was waiting to get knocked over....

Jane's

Today is Nils' first day at his English language preschool. His teacher, Jane called me last month to offer him a spot on Wednesdays and Fridays as soon as he turned two. So he has Tuesdays and Thursdays in German and Wednesdays and Fridays in English. I never thought I'd be the mum who sends her (barely) two year old out to school four days a week, but here we are!

Jay went there too and Nils always wanted to stay when we did drop off or pickup, so hopefully it will go well.

Nilsa is Two!

Yesterday was Nils' second birthday. Oma and Kurt were here for the weekend and we had a party for him. He had three friends over and the rest were godparents (and their families) and the Hirschbergs. So, basically, our family over here. It was a full house with eight kids and thirteen adults total. His godmother, Marijo, even brought balloons and was making animals and hats with them. Go Marijo! She always thinks of the best stuff for kids.

It was definitely chaotic here, not even organized chaos. Jay, Katarina and Emma (the three big kids) went upstairs to play and the smaller kids stayed down with us. We had lots of cake and cookies and a very good time.

I've posted a video of the balloon chaos. Marijo can really mesmerize children. She's amazing. A bunch of the photos are all the kids clamoring around Marijo for balloons. There's also a photo of Jay, Emma & Nils by the tent where Jay and Emma look like they're laughing over something. There's also one of Nils and his godfather Andi in the kitchen, looking like Andi is sharing some godfatherly advice (should we trust it?)....