Weihnachtsmarkt - Part 2

Our kids are good sports and braved the chilly weather twice to go to the Weihnachtsmarkt. So we bundled them up and headed downtown. Milayla gets pretty excited to get dressed up to go into the wrap.

The kids were not quite as excited once we got outside into the cold, rainy weather and put them into the bakfiets....

The plan was to head downtown, wander Weihnachtsmarkt, find our 2011 Christmas ornament and soak in the ambience before grabbing a bite to eat and heading home. It was a great plan, but we should have switched the order and eaten first. Our bag of snacks and a few Weihnachtsmarkt treats did not seem to be enough to tide Atticus over so subsequently we wandered the market to the tune of "eat, eat, eat" on repeat from our joyful little toddler. We will certainly have to remember this lesson for next year!

Before we caved to our musical toddler (sooner than we had planned), we did manage to snap a few photos...

The boys. 

The girls.

 Some of the stalls had some incredibly ornate, handcrafted Christmas decorations. Some other stalls had decorations that left you wondering who might buy them (a wooden elf with the face of Mr. Bean, anyone?). One of our absolute favorites was this hand-carved Nativity Scene; wish we could have caught a better photo of it as this photo does not do it justice. 

The ambiance of the market was lovely and we were very happy that the rain and clouds cleared while we looked around.

And we even successfully found our 2011 Christmas Ornament!

It's the handblown (and hand-painted!) one on the left.

While we did enjoy our time at Weihnachtsmarkt we were all pretty grateful when we finally sat down to dinner.

Weihnachtsmarkt - Part I

The kids and I were rather spoiled this year as we got to go to the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) on two occasions together. First up was a trip downtown with Constanza to visit the year-round Christmas Store and to sneak a peek at the Weihnachtsmarkt.

We checked out Böttcherstrasse first. 

This street feels reminiscent of a movie backdrop...

Then enjoyed a walk through the trendy neighbourhood that the Christmas store is in before we browsed the color-coordinated ornaments inside the store.

Then it was off to the Weihnachtsmarkt.

Constanza even submitted herself to pose for a picture with the Bremen Town Musicians all dressed up for winter. 

It was a really nice way to spend a Friday morning at the end of a rather busy week and we were all pretty happy about having Constanza join us!

Protective

Future boyfriends beware....this little girl of ours has one protective big brother!

U5 - Milayla's latest stats

Milayla finally had her appointment for her U5 at the Kinderarzt. We have one strong, healthy baby girl who handled her vaccination very well (last one until she's a year old).

First up, her stats.

Weight: 7050 grams

Length: 68cm

Head Circumference: 42.8cm

Her development is moving along as expected. She has begun pushing herself up on her knees, but doesn't seem to realize the benefits of it yet. She is alert, attentive and loves singing her little heart out. And the tooth that has been keeping her up the last week has finally pushed its' way through - her first tooth! (front, bottom left tooth)

"Look Mama!"

"Now what do I do?"

"whoops!"

Still smiling!

General Conference Weekend

Crazy that General Conference weekend was already two months ago. Our Conference issue of the Ensign arrived this morning which got me thinking back to that weekend and realizing that we never posted a thing about it. It is always filled with so many great lessons and motivations to be better. It still feels a little strange to watch it at such different times than we did growing up (due to living in a different country) but we're adjusting. 

We went into conference stocked up on related activities for Atticus to do while watching conference, but in the end we did not need a single one of them. Atticus loved conference - or perhaps he loved that we had picnics on the floor while we watched conference. In any case, it was fun to see his eyes glued to the various speakers, cheering when the new temples were announced and smiling as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang.

One talk that we loved was in the General Relief Society broadcast and was actually the inspiration for our new blog name. You can watch or read that talk given by President Uchtdorf here.

As per tradition, fall General Conference goes hand-in-hand with home made apple pie which we invite others over to enjoy and talk about our favorite messages. This year we had the missionaries and a lovely lady from our congregation over to join us. Sure wish we remembered to snap a picture of those fantastic people! We did snap a couple pictures of the pie....

it helps that I was able to take a picture of the pie before the guests came and the kids were still napping... after that things just got busy and the camera sat on the shelf.

We did this on Monday, which coincided with 3 October (Leiden Ontzet. Which also happens to coincide with German Unity Day), so we decided to have a lovely Dutch meal and share some dutch culture and history with our guests. We cooked up some vegetarian hustpot for dinner and enjoyed some Dutch apple pie with Stroopwafel for dessert. Then our guests joined us for a Family Home Evening about gratitude in preparation for Thanksgiving. It was great having Conference fall on a long weekend as it really helped us to relax and soak in the messages that were being shared with us from apostles of the Lord. It's definitely time to go back and review those conference notes, assess goals that were made as a result and formulate new ones.

It was one fantastic weekend and we loved being able to share it with others.

December Eve

When to set up the Christmas Tree and decorations is a little bit of a sticking point around here. One of us is always a little bit eager to start the Christmas holidays. The other always wants to hold off just a "little bit longer", perhaps in hopes that some eggnog will magically appear for the decorating festivities (the alcohol free, full-of-fat stuff you buy in the grocery store in North America). Since we would be waiting around a long time for eggnog (and not for a lack of trying, unsuccessfully, to make our own) we decided to compromise this year of doing what we called 'December Eve'.

December Eve was to be celebrated on the last eve of November. We would put up the tree, decorate the apartment, eat special Christmas treats, maybe even sing a few carols, the kids would leave out their shoes (Sinterklaas style) and wake up to receive their advent calendars. And with that glorious First of December morning would come endless holiday cheer and music - lots and lots of music.

It was certainly a good goal, but it didn't quite work out that way. Schedules conflicted and despite December Eve being planned a month in advance, we needed to move the date ahead just a few days before its' arrival. Since the new date was sooner than we had planned that meant no time to bake special treats, some decorations were not yet purchased and advent calendars would have to wait. Despite a little bit of disappointment from the perfectionist in the family (any guesses who that may be?) we went full steam ahead and it was still a pretty special way to welcome the holiday season.

There was music. There was chocolate. There were decorations. There was laughter and storytelling. Most importantly, there was a whole lot of time together as a family. 

The boys fixed up our family advent calendar with crazy glue (it worked so well, we joked about how we should have used it in the first place).

Atticus snuck in for some cuddles with Mommy and Milayla.

Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus were carefully unpacked.

The tree was trimmed as we recalled the stories behind our yearly Christmas ornaments.

Then it was time for hot chocolate, speculoos and games before heading to bed full of excitement and anticipation for the season ahead.

While the evening didn't play out as planned, and the pictures weren't perfectly crisp and clear it was still a wonderful evening full of the Christmas Spirit. 

Fall

Love the changing seasons...