German Christmas Market!

What a Wonderful day! So Allison had her practice again this morning for the Christmas pageant she will participate in on Christmas Eve. While Allison was off practicing being an Angel (like she needed any practice with that!)Joslyn and I were out and about, shopping at different stores and running a couple errands.
We picked Allison up and continued with some shopping, came home, had lunch and then Allison and I laid down for a 30 minute nap. Joslyn played a game on the computer. When Allison and I woke up we put on all our winter gear...hats, gloves, sweaters and jackets! We got in the car and headed downtown to the Schweinfurt Christmas Market. Joslyn and Allison brought their own money (Euro) and we began to walk around and admire the different booths. There were carousel's, pony rides, (neither of which the girls wanted to ride) lots of food, hot chocolate, wine, music, carriage rides and lots of cute things to buy! The girls had a few people in mind whom they wanted to buy for, but didn't really find anything interesting enough. I found a booth that had sooo many different cookie cutters so I let the girls pick out a few. Joslyn had a white chocolate covered banana and Allison had chocolate covered strawberries. After about an hour and a half the girls and I were ready to go home and defrost! Our feet and noses were frozen! It was a fun little experience and now we can say we've been to a German Christmas Market!

Let it Snow!

This morning we woke up to a white blanket of snow! I was not able to download the pictures I took of the girls before they left for school, standing in the fresh fallen snow. I'm soo disappointed. Hopefully I will be able to take more pictures when we have our next snow fall. So the pictures I do have were taken from our balcony and at the playground behind our building. So much of the snow had already melted by the time the girls came home from school, but they made the most with what snow was left! You can tell we're from the south and didn't grow up with snow in the winter...we were the only people outside playing in the freezing cold!



Making SNOW ANGELS!!


Writing Messages to our Loved Ones:
"We Love You and Miss You"!

Picture for Philip (written in snow by Allison):
Allison, Denise, Philip, Joslyn

A Special Message from Me to Philip:

Reading Star!

Joslyn is moving up on the reading chart at her school! She has 100 points (every book is worth points, depending on the reading level of the book the points can be as high as 22)! Joslyn made it into the Bronze Star Club since she now has 100 points! Her next goal will be to make it into the Silver Star Club.

My Girls Are Growing-Up So Fast!

Joslyn and Allison wrapped the gifts they bought at the Santa Workshop. Joslyn also typed a letter to a couple of people back home. It's amazing to see the girls spend their very own money they have earned from chores on gifts for family and friends, then wrap the gifts, use the computer to type letters and address envelopes all by themselves, with very little help from Momma! Where have the last 8 and 9 years gone?!

Just A Little Sweetness

Joslyn's teacher gave each of the students in her class a big German chocolate letter. Joslyn was given "J" for the first letter of her name. How sweet!
Joslyn went shopping today at the annual "Santa Christmas Shop" at school. I am volunteering at this event all week since it is sponsored by the PTA (I now hold the position of secretary) When Joslyn came in the shop to do her Christmas shopping I left the room. This evening Joslyn wrapped my gift, along with the other presents she bought. We don't have any ribbon at home so she curled a few strips of construction paper and placed the bow in the middle of the curled paper! How cute, creative and sweet is that!

Crazy Daisey

Had to capture these few moments on camera! Our Crazy dog, Daisey making herself comfy on Allison and a few minutes later after Joslyn lays down to watch TV, Dasiey makes herself a nice little seat on Joslyn's tummy! The video shows Daisey playing with her favorite squeaky toy. She loves it!

Saturday and cookies!

What a day! Allison and I woke up early this morning and had cinnamon rolls for breakfast. At 10am I had to drop Allison off at the Chapel for rehearsal (Allison is going to be an angel in the Christmas Eve pageant at our chapel). Then I had to pick Joslyn up from her sleep-over at her friend's house. After a wonderful visit, Joslyn and I had to pick Allison up from the Chapel. We then made our way to the school to browse the craft fair and flea market. There were a lot of cute items, but nothing I really, really wanted, so we left empty-handed. I needed to make a quick run to the grocery store where we picked up a few essentials. We came home, had hot dogs for lunch and did some usual Saturday cleaning around the house. I decided it would be a good idea to let the girls make Gingerbread cookies. I bought some frosting for the girls to use for decorating their gingerbread cookies. However when it was finally time for us to make the cookies I realized that I don't know where my cookie cutters are. They could be downstairs in any one of the boxes in our storage room. I really didn't feel like going through boxes tonight. I did find one cookie cutter in my kitchen drawer- its a bear. So the girls made Christmas bears out of gingerbread cookie dough! Oh and on the last picture I posted of Allison, she is holding her Hello Kitty creation, that is what the H and K stand for on the cookie! Now we are going to top the night off with a movie Philip bought the girls before he left, "Ariel's Beginning"!