Christmas Eve 2009

We celebrated Christmas Eve with our German Family -- the Kuhnen/Krebs Familie! We didn't realize until we arrived that in Germany, Christmas Eve is when all the big gifts are opened! Needless to say, their darling girls were just a little excited -- poor things had to wait all day and for dinner to be over before they were visited by their version of "Santa" and they could open their gifts. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures on our camera while there -- but here are some of us before we left :-) JP is starting to get the idea of Santa Claus -- however, I think it won't be until next year when he truly grasps the excitement of tomorrow!

Our Winter Wonderland...

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas!!! Matt took these pictures around our village and on his way to work yesterday. (Most of them were taken while he was driving with his hand sticking out the window to snap the shot -- not very safe, yes...but not bad pictures either!) We are loving the snow and enjoying what will most likely be our last truly "White Christmas" for a while!

Chamonix 2009!

Another week in Chamonix...and it definitely didn't disappoint! Our week was filled with sledding, walks in the snow, runs, crepes (lots of them!), great food and wine, train rides, shopping, lounging around the cabin, making fires with Daddy, fierce games of Scrabble, and even a date night for Matt and me...it couldn't have been better! If only there was a service that we could hire to put the kiddos in all their snow gear, we would have been set!!! We'll definitely miss Chamonix next year -- however, we know this year won't be our last time there! (just a warning...there are more pics than normal -- sorry about that!)

Trier Christmas Market...

We took the train down to Trier for the Christmas market a few weeks ago. It was the perfect family afternoon outing! JP loved riding the merry-go-round and of course getting a big blue helicopter balloon! It's times like these that we realize how much we are going to miss living in Europe!

Visiting Matt's roots in Holland...

What a great trip!!! We had a great time going back to the towns that Matt's great-grandparents were born in...visiting Matt's Grandpa's first cousins and families, Uncle Jo, Paula, Wilfred, Brent, Toon and Ellen and Willem and Marianne.

As you can see -- the little house we stayed at for the first couple of nights was so funky it was fun! The beds were in the closets and it was completely surrounded by water -- but we loved it!!! We celebrated Thanksgiving eating pancakes -- truly a Thanksgiving that we'll never forget :-) We also had a chance to tour Holland's "Venice" -- the canals and bridges were so quaint -- we felt like we were walking on a movie set.

We really enjoyed our time with everyone and look forward to hopefully getting up there for the tulips this Spring before heading back to the states!

(The darker picture of Matt is him standing in front of the land where his great-grandmother was born...the first older picture is of Matt's Mom, Judy, and Aunt Sue when they studied in Holland nearly 40 years ago...and the last picture is of Matt's Grandpa -- second from the right in the back row -- with his parents and siblings in the 40s.)

Aviodrome...

On our drive out to Amsterdam, we stopped at Holland's version of the U.S. Air and Space Museum...the Aviodrome. We were quite impressed with the airplanes they had on display and JP was in heaven! His favorite part was getting to walk around an old KLM 747 -- sitting up in first class (enjoy that one boys...it will be a while before you see that again!) and also sitting in the cockpit. Walking on the jetway, I was very relieved that this was just for play and that we weren't embarking on another long trans-Atlantic flight :-)

Holland's Avifauna (Bird Park)

Matt's family recommended a great hotel that is connected to a huge bird park. We had a great time walking around -- and an even better time flying down the 3-story tall slides :-) JP apparently isn't afraid of heights! Matt and JP walked right by the flamingo -- and as if on cue, the flamingo squawked. Needless to say, I got a good laugh as I watched Matt nearly jump out of his shoes!