UNICEF

Every year, my club decorates a Christmas tree for UNICEF on behalf of the American Consulate. This year, I had the honor of heading the project. I love how that sounds so big and important! It's not at all- it was only me because no one else volunteered to help. Which was fine- I am a control freak. The day after decorating, there was an official opening, with UNICEF performers from all over the world. My in-laws came and I brought Nils since I couldn't find anyone who could pick him up from school.

The performances were fantastic. There was a five year-old pianist from Japan, two thirteen year-olds from Vietnam and Japan who performed a piano duet, some opera singers from the Met, a steel drum band, and so on. Of course, what was the absolute best for Nils? The breakdancers from Magdeburg! He loved the head spins and leaps. Now if you pretend to rap, or even make beat-box noises, he starts to (try to) breakdance and tries to spin on his head. That I have to get on video for you.

Jay's School

Jacob does judo at school every Friday afternoon. By then, he is pretty tired from the week and it is nearly impossible to get him out of the house and back to school. And every week he has a great time and tells me likes judo. He just forgets by the time it's Friday, 3 pm, one week later! Here are some photos from the judo session. There's one of Jay, waiting to start his "fight" and a couple of Nils entertaining himself and the baby brother of another judo student.

Last week, all on the same day, Nils had two preschool Christmas parties and Jay had a performance (that was not a performance, according to the teacher, but the kids sharing what they do in class) at school. Unfortunately, we could not do all three. I volunteered at one of Nils' parties, skipped the other, and Michael went to Jay's school. The kids do yoga in their music & Movement class, so they demonstrated a couple of positions. Jay is in the dark red shirt in the back. And then they sang "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," complete with choreography, and did the "Macarena" with their own words. The parents participated too. If you're on Facebook, there's a video..... And which party did I choose for Nils? the one with Santa coming, of course!

The Christmas Market

I love Christmastime in Germany. The markets (Weihnachtsmaerkte) are amazing. We are lucky to have one right at our feet here since we live in the historical district. And since it's not such a busy area, like the downtown, the market is only open on weekends. We like to go when it gets dark (about 4:00) and let the kids ride the carousel, get them some sausages for dinner and maybe even drink a Gluehwein (mulled wine). After Nils' birthday party on Sunday, we went out to the market. I have a photo each of Jay, Emma, and Nils on the carousel.

Nils' Birthday Parties

Nils had two parties this year. We usually do it this way so we have one, small party (family only) and a party with friends. Since we returned from the US only two days before his birthday, it worked out perfectly. His birthday (Tuesday) was his first day back to school. Michael took the day off and Oma and Kurt came down for the day. On Sunday we had a party with his godparents and a friend of his from school (Olivia). Olivia's older brother, Max, is in Jay's class at school and the kids all play pretty well together. Emma brought her face painting kit and went to work on the boys.

Oops! I almost forgot to title this! More Vacation Photos

Here are Jay and Nils with their grandparents the day we arrived in the US. I also have the kids at Krispy Kreme (donuts are their new favorite, thanks to Grandma). No Krispy Kreme here, but Dunkin Donuts did the trick. Also a photo of me! with Nils, of course.

The bottom photos are of Jay and Nils with their cousin Karolina. She's four, so right between them in age. We went to a lake (fake) and playground by some outdoor mall nearby and they watched the ducks and played together.

Photos from our Holiday

We were at my parents' home for Thanksgiving- the first Thanksgiving the kids ever had in the US. I'm not sure Nils really gets it yet, but Jay is familiar with it. All the grandkids were there, so we got a photo of them together. It wasn't easy to get all six of them to look at the camera at the same time, this was the best photo we could get. The first photo is of my nephew Soffian and my dad entertaining him.

We also went to the new Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum. The Space Shuttle Enterprise is there. Of course the kids loved it, but they also have the "mom, please don't make me take another picture again."

Chinese Blogger

Why is my Blogger in Chinese? It took forever to figure it out so I could change it! Maybe if I blogged more often, I would have the menu memorized. Or I should have gone to Chinese school, like my parents tried (unsucsessfully, I regret to say). Anyway, I will get more up this weekend. A lot. Really. But only if I can get the 5000000000000 circles for Jay's school's snowman project cut out in time. I'm not even going to try to put the commas in there. Are they called commas when they're in numbers?