Christmas Markets and a Party

I have lots of pictures again, so give them time to load up. :)

This first set is of our recent Christmas Market excursion in Stuttgart. Some of you probably have seen these already, this is for the benefit of those of you who have not. Skip on through to the newer Christmas party pictures if you've already seen these. :)

The weekend before last we took a quick trip downtown to do some Christmas shopping. It was SOOOOOOO crowded!

But at least we got a quick taste of som Kinderpunch... which is the main reason we went. HAHA!

Elizabeth enjoyed her Pommes (French Fries).

CHRISTMAS PARTY!!

On Friday, we had our Church Christmas Party. As usual, it was a blast!! The pastor and Mrs Thornsley had the "Busnauer" cater for us so all we had to do is bring in dessert. The food was yummy!!!

After dinner we did our gift exchange. First the Children!
Here the Pastor is telling the children about the true meaning of Christmas while they wait anxiously to be given their gifts.

Elizabeth receiving her gift.

All the children piled around while each one unwrapped their gift.

The dads had the job of de-packaging the toys. LOL

Then we had the adult's White Elephant gift exchange. The fun begins!!
Dennis was the first by pulling the number 1 out of the basket!

Showing off his gift in case anyone wanted to "steal" it. haha!

The first gag gift of the night... notice the toilet paper and plunger! HAHA!

We had a whole lot of fun this year. There was no limit on how many times gifts could be stolen, so several items passed through many hands!

The infamous "duck"!
This gift is in the exchange every year and it's the gift you "dont want!"

While the adults were playing... the little ones kept themselves company playing with their new toys!

Merry Christmas from all of us!!!

Thanksgiving into December..

I've fallen horribly behind on posting, I'm sorry. To make up for it, there are a TON of pictures here for you all to enjoy!!

Tree Decorating:

The week of Thanksgiving, I gave the boys off school so they could help me prepare for possible guests in our house. Unfortunately we never did get the guests but they house was nice and clean... AND we got up our Christmas decorations!

This was Elizabeth's first year helping to decorate. She just loved all the ornaments!

They all did a really good job!

THANKSGIVING:

This was taken just before we were leaving to go to church to celebrate Thanksgiving.

The turkey I prepared... it turned out!! LOL
No turkey hassles this year, thankfully!

Everyone seated and enjoying the feast. We sat in the front right table there but I couldnt squeeze Dennis and Elizabeth in, who were sitting there.

But here they are.... I love this picture!

After dinner the children entertained us with a song. This was real fun trying to get a picture. Since they all had their balloons and were playing with them too. HAHA!

Pastor and Mrs Thornsley were presented with their gift. :)

We sure do love them!!

Mass chaos in the auditorium after dinner!
Every year a missionary from Romania brings his balloons and makes much anticipated balloon animals for all the children.

For the most part all the boys (and some of the girls) get swords....

and they have some pretty wild sword fights. haha

The little ones stay out of the way. :)

Snow

We've gotten a WHOLE bunch of snow these past few days! It's amazing! It's only just December.

Today I gave the boys a 1/2 day, snow day so we could go out in play in it. HAHAH!!
I would say there was a good 6-8 in for us to play in.

Hey! We did some science too, we looked at the different snowflakes. ;)

It was hard for her to walk, the snow was up to her knees. haha!

Entering the holiday season

We've had an easier time this year doing cub scouts with the boys. Mainly because the meetings are held within walking distance of the house and they do all the dens on the same night, at the same place. SOOO much easier!! :)

This month, Ryan's den had to sing My Country Tis of Thee. Each one of them having to solo sing their verse. I was so proud of Ryan. He sang loud and clear for everyone to hear. He did a great job - all of them did!

Then of course came all the silly song where they get to wiggle and move around. All the boys love those! Can you spot Sean? He's having a great time! Haha!

Even Elizabeth got in on the fun!

Ryan having a good time!

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The boys have off school this week for Thanksgiving. We are supposed to have some missionary guests at our house too so we're doing a big fall clean up.

I figured we might as well start putting up the Christmas decorations while we're at it.

This is Elizabeth's first year to be able to participate in this. She just ooh'd and ahh'd over all the decorations!

She did really well helping put the ornaments on the tree....

Daddy trying to untangle all the hooks. LOL

Though it is not pictured, Elizabeth did well until she decided to take one of the glass balls and spike it onto the wood floor. She learned real quick that Christmas ornaments don't bounce.