Jer's Family Visit

Jeremy's sister Jennifer got married over Christmas break, so we were fortunate to get to spend quite a bit of time with his family. His dad, Terry and twin, Jessica arrived a few days after Christmas. They came home with us for a few days and then we took them to see some sites before going back to Jen's for the wedding. Our first stop was Bastogne to see the museum and war memorial. The museum was interesting and the memorial is beautiful. Zane climbed to the top of it so he could have his picture taken above Oklahoma. From there we took them to Trier, where we met up with Jan for the day. We were very disappointed that our favorite restaurant was no longer there, but the sights were great anyway. There are amazing Roman ruins. We did find a authentic German restaurant to have lunch in and were thankful to have Jan there to help us with the menu. Later that evening we put Jan back on the train to head home (with his new microwave full of goodies!!) and stayed in the lodging at Landsthul AFB. The next day we headed back to Jen's where we were joined by their exchange family from Denmark. Hanne, Anders and the rest of us went to stretch our legs in Idstein later that evening. It is a really neat old town with an old tower that was used for witch trials a few centuries back. On a plaque below the tower are the names of the 30-something witches that were held and executed there. I will never cease to be amazed by the beauty of the architecture here. All of the houses and buildings have so much character. After walking in the freezing weather for awhile we warmed up with some great coffees and German pastries at a local coffee shop. Over the next few days we were joined by Adams family and all celebrated New Years Eve at their hotel. We had awesome and giant pizzas for dinner, watched some football and enjoyed the most spectacular fireworks display from the roof of the hotel. There were literally fireworks being set off 360 degrees around us and it lasted for over 2 hours. These German's know how to bring in a new year with flare!! By the way, I didn't manage to get the pics in order for this one, but I'm not re-doing it b/c I have to go make the beasts breakfast and clean my house!!

Christmas 2009

We were blessed to spend Christmas with family this year. Being so far from home, I hadn't been expecting to originally. We stayed in Germany with Jennifer and Adam, and Bev (Jeremy's mom) was there also. We attended at wonderful candlelight Christmas Eve service that Jen took part in and Zane got to light one of the Advent candles. The next morning they were happy to see that Santa was able to find them even though they were not at home. They both got scooters and lots of other fun stuff. Logan got Alligator golf, but generally uses his clubs to sword fight with Zane. Zane was very excited about the clue game he got until he realized that he cannot be me at it. I could have let one of the guys win at least once, but what fun would that have been?? They were very good sports about being on the road for Christmas and agreed to leave most of their gifts at home to open later, but they did bring some and loved seeing what was inside. He also got some new Lego sets and had them both put together by the end of the day. I didn't get a non-blurry picture of Logan opening presents b/c his hands were ripping the paper so fast it was all a blur. He got quite a few new books that he insisted on reading at least 2 at a time and often upside down!! They took their scooters out for a spin while we were preparing Christmas dinner and had a great time. We enjoyed a great Christmas dinner with many family favorites and made and ate way to much, of course!! Logan found after dinner that pumpkin pie tastes better than it looks. Jen makes it from fresh pumpkin and it is awesome!! A few days later we headed back home and the boys got to finish opening their presents here. Zane was very relieved that Santa had not forgotten to stop and fill up their stocking. They loved opening all of the gifts from their grandparents and aunts, uncles and cousins. And of course they refused to take off their new boots from Meem and Poppy for a good week!!

Christmas Markets 2009

Ok, I realize that these were taken months ago. I have vowed to get my blog caught up so that I won't put off doing it anymore b/c it is so far behind. These pics are from some of the Christmas markets that we went to around the area. Markets are great. There are really cool gifts to buy, but more importantly lots of awesome food!! The first pics were taken on Thanksgiving weekend. We loaded up with our friends John and Brianne, Jen and Adam and Edith and Thom with their family to drive to the Neatherlands. The Caves Christmas markets are located in caves beneath the town. They are ancient and there are really cool cave paintings on the walls. Jeremy got lost 5 feet into the cave an we didn't find him until we were over half way to the end!! The next weekend we went to stay with Jen and John and Brianne took us to the Christmas market in Nuremberg, Germany. It is a beautiful old city with great cathedrals and shopping. One of the churches has a clock on the top that has carvings that parade around it every 15 minutes (I think?). It was very cool to watch. We ate and shopped and ate some more....yum, German food!! Zane and Logan did not go with us, but we brought them a giant lebkuchen cookie (like ginger bread and beautiful!) to share. They loved it!! The last pics are from our local Christmas market. It is only about a 5 minute walk from the house and had about 30 booths and an ice skating rink. The rink was always to busy to get out on, but I did take Zane ice skating in Brugge. Our market was lit up beautifully at night and had some really amazing art pieces made form evergreen trees. It was a great place to go stroll in the evening. We really enjoyed our first Christmas season here and look forward to visiting more markets in more cities next year!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I have decided that by far the hardest thing about being over here is (no, not having Braums is not the answer) missing out on holidays with my family. I was truly not looking forward to the holiday season this year as I normally do, but thankfully I am blessed with wonderful friends and family on this side of the pond and ended up having a wonderful time. We had 13 people total at our house for Thanksgiving. My house is not at all large crowd friendly, but with a little creativity we managed to configure the tables so that we could all eat together. My sister-in-law and her husband Adam came in from Germany, as did John and Brianne (or friends from college). We were also joined by Brian, Tina and Hannah Davis; who we met in the hotel when we got here and Hannah babysits the boys (she is one of their very favorite people!!) We also had the pleasure of hosting Jeremy's boss Daniel and his fiance Charlotte. They are from Germany and were very excited to see what our holiday was all about. Of course we had way more food than we could possibly eat, but it was a truly blessed day.
As a side note, when Aunt Jenny and Uncle Adam came they brought Zane his birthday present.....a new set of golf clubs (because he has gotten to tall for his original clubs). He was only slightly thrilled and loved them even more because they are black and orange. Gotta love that kid!!!
At the end of the weekend, as always, we started putting up our Christmas tree. I was pleasantly surprised that Logan did not take the ornaments off faster then I could put them on and really enjoyed the quality time of decorating with them....even though we got interrupted and it took up over a week to get it finished!!

Zane's Birthday

I know it has been a long time since I've posted, but believe me it is not because there was nothing to post (but, maybe because there was too much to post) So, I'm going to try to get back on track this weekend.
Here are some pics from Zane's birthday in November. Sadly his party had to be put off because he and Logan took turns being sick for over 2 weeks, but I think he enjoyed himself anyway. He started off the morning scarfing down chocolate chip pancakes shaped into 8s and managed to blow all of the candles out on the first try. He and Logan both enjoyed them immensely!!! Feeling guilty about the lack of a party I offered to make anything or take him anywhere for his birthday dinner (I was assuming the answer would be Steak on a Rock, but I was wrong). After deliberating over this for a few minutes he decided he wanted his favorite meal of pot roast, carrots, and potatoes. And opted for chocolate chip cookies in lieu of a cake, so I spent most of the day in the kitchen, but he's worth it. He loved opening his presents and even let Logs help. After that we spent the rest of the day building Lego sets, watching movies and he got his very large birthday cookie. I just cannot believe he is 8!! (and I do now realize that the last pic is sideways, but am unsure how to fix it, so just turn your head sideways!!!)=)