Our First Christmas in Germany

Hey, Kev's here. Christmas is something I keep in my heart all the year. I can listen to Christmas music at anytime and love it (unlike Heather). Christmas is Germany though is an all time new level, and as you can see from the festive Christmas Markets, the joy of this season truly prevails. This year was going to be something special in that we had a surprise for the kids, making sure that instead of doing lots of presents we simplify and invest in a memory!

So our Christmas always starts the night before with the nativity and ornaments. As we try to keep Christ central in our Christmas season, and after studying the miracle of the Master's birth, we dove into our ornaments, which was super fun given the variety of options available here. The kids reluctantly were sent to bed in order to dream of sugar plums, and we finished setting it all up. One of these days we won't be up until midnight doing this.

Christmas day began early as always - with laughter and happiness. It is probably the only day where the kids won't fight with each other. With giggles and pitter patter of feet (from Big sis even) the kids know we can't be disturbed until 7am. They all woke up at a ghastly hours, some of which were awake all night so excited for it (Big Sis!) they tackled their stockings.

Of course you can't start the day without rocking this years Christmas jammies!

We tackled the rest of the stockings and moved on to the little gifts.  The kids didn't get any gifts from us this year, but were blessed to get gifts from their grandparents, Krista Deguelle and their Aunt Adrienne and Uncle Paris Cluff.   The Cluffs got the kids some super awesome coloring stuff.  Monster and Little A were so excited about them.

So shopping for Zac now is so much fun because I simply just ask myself: would I want to play with this? If the answer is yes, then its good enough for him! Cue the trucks and car carriers! We didn't get the kids gifts, but they for sure still had a visit from Santa.  All their Santa Bags were filled and ready for opening in the morning. Monster had trucks and cars, of course. and Little A got some fairy garden creatures.  She has a cement well that is filled with soil in the backyard that she has cleaned as her garden, so it was fun seeing how excited she was about the fairy garden possibilities.

Big Sis got a Sunday outfit, with shoes and tights and all.  She was so happy to have an awesome church outfit.  M&M got some amazing art supplies which included brushes, paints and canvases.

Now came the time where the kids got a curve ball. The kids found a small box on the tree and inside as a small slip of paper.  We had planned out a scavenger hunt that intentionally made them go and up down the stairs every other clue (messed up right?) which was so funny. They had to listen to the clue and go to the room and try to find the next clue!

The clues all had to do objects that they would need or see on our trip.  It included finding the hot chocolate, a snow flake in the living room, gloves, helmets, and scarves to name a few.  By the fourth clue, Big Sis was guessing we were going someplace cold.

Finally they made it to the last clue, which told them to go back to the beginning, which was the Christmas Tree.  Under the Christmas Tree they found a big box wrapped up, and opened it to see where our First Christmas Adventure Memory would be. This year we had a trip to Austria planned and we were leaving in a couple of days to go and make the memory. We not only had never been skiing or snowboarding as a family, but we had never been Austria, so this was going to be a super fun adventure to have.  All the kids were super excited about the trip and wanted to start packing for it right away.

I know that Jesus Christ lives and this season reflects everyone that was perfectly embodied by Him: Love, civility, happiness, joy, peace, and I carry in my heart his sacred name that brings me the same!

The Many Adventures of our Christmas Elf, Angelina

Hello! This is M&M and I want to tell you about the adventures of our Christmas Elf, Angelina. Even though we all know now the secret of Santa and his elf, Monster doesn't. So it was still fun being able to help move her every night and have somebody/Monster have a blast trying to find her. 

We always try to never hide her in the same place twice. We had a fun time making her have a snowball fight with the avengers and DC characters, hide in the tree, get her tooth pulled under IV sedation with a real IV bag (Dad you are such a nerd!) bungle jumping, riding the animals, zip lining, and so much more! It is always fun getting Angelina out on November 30th and hiding her for the start of December. We always do some kind of "I'm Back" thing for the 1st of December. We drew on the windows for the first saying " I'm back!" with her on it. 

We always got our heads together to find the next place. Mom and Dad sometimes forget so us kids have to remind them, just do it ourselves, or ask them to help (which they do). One of our most favorite spot that we did for our elf was the snowball fight. We set them all up and when Zac woke up the next morning, he was so excited to see it! He was saying " Their having snowball fight! WOW! Look at Spiderman, he is upside down!" It was so cute! We hid her in different places all through out December 1 - 24. When Christmas Eve came, we did the goodbye thing. We wrote stuff like " I was so happy to see you again! I can't wait to come back next year!" It was sad putting her back in her box but we will be able to get her out again next year and find yet another 25 days worth of hiding places. 

Mosel-Wein Nachts Christmas Markt

Hi there. This is Big sis and I'm going to tell you all about me and my families adventure to the Mosel-Weinhachts Markt. In German, Frohe Weihnachten means Merry Christmas. And so if you put the two and two together, the Mosel-weihnacht market is the Mosel Christmas Market. 

So in school, my German teacher gives us the project of having to go out and do individual field trips to German locations to practice our German. Last quarter, I had to go to a fall festival, and that was a total flop. But, this quarter, we had to go to a Christmas market to practice our German in different types of conversation. I hated it at the time, but now that I look back, these field trips were super helpful. 

Anyways, mom was in the states, and dad really wanted to help me with this project, so we drove an hour to this super awesome Christmas market that had a whole bunch of really good reviews. So we went to the market for my project plus to go Christmas shopping for mom and just for fun. 

When we got to the city, we parked the car and walked across this big bridge to the other side of the river. The market was in an underground cellar, and was split into 4 different sections. We went to section 1-3. 

Inside there were shoppers selling all kinds of super cute German trinkets and another section had all kinds of fun foods. We stopped at this wood stand that had a very large variety of nativity scenes and cute German decorations. 

I did my little project at this stand and spoke in German to ask how much certain items were, and also bought a cute little creche for mom. As we walked around a little more, we came by an ornament store. The old lady that ran the stand was super nice and I talked with her and we bought 6 small ornaments and an old man painted our names onto the ornaments. This was another one of the gifts that we were going to give to mom. 

After walking around that particular part of the market, we walked out of the cellar and went into another one. We got kinder punch. The cup was super cute and is one of the very few mugs that we have that we actually really enjoy. 

We walk around a bit longer to explore around the city square and see all the cute and tiny German houses. I don't know if I've already said this, but German houses always look like they're from a fairy tale. I love Germany so much. 

It started to get a little late, so we headed back over the bridge, up to the car, and headed back home. This Christmas market was so much fun and it was a triple win because I finished my project, we got mom Christmas presents, and we had lots of fun in a new and amazing Christmas market. 

A Child Again at Disneyland

I had a chance to go to Disneyland with Lori and my parents, the happiest place on Earth. Lori and Lisa needed to get to Long Beach to catch their flights home, so we drove Lisa and dropped her off at the airport, since Lori wasn't leaving until the next morning, we spent the day at Disneyland, and it was TOTALLY my dad's idea, which really blew me away.  I loved that he suggested we go to Disneyland.  I didn't feel like it was the happiest place on Earth a few days before Christmas though, it was a mad house.  There were so many people and it was so busy that it was difficult to even walk from one ride to the next.  Another issue I have is that I am significantly older than the last time my parents took me to Disneyland and my equilibrium won't let me ride any rides without getting a bit of a headache. However, even in our old age, all of us were a little giddy as the tickets were bought and we were walking down Main Street.

Since it was Christmas in just a few days, all of Disneyland was decked to the halls in wreaths, trees, ornaments, presents and all things Christmas.  Other than the decorations of a million people everywhere, it was really pretty. 

We decided to try to use our time wisely and hit up the rides with the littlest lines first and run to get the fast passes while we waited for the rides.  We had to pick the rides very carefully because Dad and I can't handle the motion of most rides.  I just have a weird head but my dad has a legit reason for not being able to ride any rides since he has Meniere's disease and the sudden motions will send him into a dizzy spell from down under (and I'm not talking about Australia). We decided that Pirates of the Caribbean should be Ok for us all since it is just a boat ride to see the moving scenes. Oh geez, we were so wrong, that ride is jerky, and the lights and the loud sounds sent dad into a really bad dizzy spell.  He closed his eyes and could barely get out of the boat.  Here we are right before the ride started.

We got off the ride and found a seat for us all to sit, dad was hoping it would pass, but it became a full fledge attack, so we called the Disneyland EMT, and they came with a wheelchair and took us to their small clinic down Main Street.  Dad said he just needed to sleep it off and for us to go have fun without him.  So after giving the nurse our phone numbers, and making sure he was asleep, we left to continue our adventures feeling a little less excited and awful bad for dad.

We had fast passes for the haunted mansion, so we went straight to the mansion and waited only about 20 minutes to get on the ride.  The entire ride has completely changed since I last went years ago.  The ride is now completely centred around The Nightmare Before Christmas and Jack Skeleton.  It is significantly less scary (or I am much older and it doesn't scare me).  The decorations were really rad, and I enjoyed the change, because I don't do well with scary.  

After the Haunted Mansion, we wanted to check out the new Star Wars section of the park.  The Star Wars part actually just opened, and it was so fun to see it all fresh and clean.  Since the rides were not open yet and maybe people didn't know it was open, it was not busy with a million people so I super enjoyed walking through this land.  I am not a huge Star Wars fan, I actually haven't even seen all the movies, but I could defiantly appreciate the attention to detail.

At one point, as we were walking between buildings it sounded as though one of the Star Wars ships flew right over our head, we all ducked and looked around trying to find where the plane was, only to laugh and realise it was just a really good sound effect.  The Falcon ship was really impressive, it looked as if they got the real one from the set, maybe they did.

We left Star Wars Land and decided it wasn't a true trip to Disneyland without a ride on It's a Small World.  The line was still about 30 minutes long, so we got in line and just talked and laughed.  I have never had to wait in line for Small World, so this just proves how crazy busy it was.  

As we were about to depart the boats, the lights of It's a Small World suddenly turned on in all their colourful glory.  It was fun to see it all lite up and crazy bright.

Mom got a call from dad letting us know he was good as new and he was able to sleep the attack off. We ran back to the clinic to check dad out.  We were all starving by this time, especially dad, so we decided to grab some food to go and try to get the battling piano show at the Golden Horseshoe.  Dad didn't want to go in the room with all the loud people and music echoing off all the walls, so he took up a bench right outside and we were able to find a balcony seat.  Mom, Lori and I were super excited because this is usually my favourite show.  Let's just say that even though we were right on the balcony, we left after only a few minutes.  Gosh, it was boring and nothing compared to their old show, Bill Hill and the Hill Billy's.  I miss that show, it was my favourite, and sadly the battling pianos just didn't live up to Bill Hill and his battling fiddles.

Our next stop was at the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride.  Dad insisted that he would be OK and that this is one ride he really enjoyed, so we got in line and waited about a half hour to get on.  This is really a fun ride!  You go around trying to shoot all the aliens and creatures with the gun on your ride.  Dad ended up beating us all by at least six times, it was crazy.

By the time the Buzz ride was done, the castle was all lit up and the Christmas Parade was to start within the hour.  We wanted decent seats, so decided to stake out seats and eat food while we waited.
The castle was super bright and so pretty. It looked like Elsa's castle, and I'm not sure if the was on purpose or not.

Our parade waiting paid off because we had fabulous seats for the parade.  We enjoyed the floats, music, dancing and singing.  I love parades, so I was in my happy place, and I loved every second of it.  It was fun being here with my oldest sister, Lori and my parents.  It made me feel like a kid again.  

Before we headed for the exit, Lori and Dad came with me to check out Mickey's Toon Town.  Sadly, we were too late and it was closed.  I was really hoping to get a picture with all of us and Mickey or Minnie, but I'll take a memory of running to Toon town instead and finding it closed.  I loved that they went along with my wish to get together with Mickey.  I sure love that I had this experience with Lori and my Mom and Dad!  It is a memory I will treasure, even with the millions of people and Dad's attack, it was a great day.  Thanks Mom and Dad, I love you!