Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone reading this has had a wonderful Christmas and has felt blessed this holiday season. This year was non-eventful yet filled with lots of Christmas cheer. We enjoyed continuing favorite traditions as well as starting some new ones. Here are a few pictures to show you what we've been up to.


These first two pictures I had to put in because they just make me laugh. We had brought out Tristan's baby swing for our friends the Kuhls, but Tristan obviously thought it was for him.



This little guy lounged in the swing like it was his own little lazy-boy.

Here's a picture of the boy on our way out to get our Christmas tree.

This picture is for my parents. After years of selecting the perfect tree and cutting it down ourselves at Wilberts (Paul and I both grew up with this tradition) , we are on to different pastures-or for that matter tree farms. We weren't able to cut down a tree this year, but after a little searching we found beautiful little tree in our neighboring town of Hochspeyer. Here's what it looks like from the road.

Please excuse the following pictures (I'm aware of how blurry they are, I've been told a tripod helps remedy this problem-obviously we have yet to get one). Despite the bad pictures hopefully you can still see how beautiful these Christmas Markets are. This carousel is from the Metz (France) Christmas market.

Along with roasted chestnuts, crepes, beignets (french donuts-similar to Berliners), and an assortment of other local confections, the Metz market sold an astounding amount of chocolate. Take a look at this picture. That's right-what you see in mounds on the table is chocolate!

Here's the little guy on Christmas morning. I think he was oblivious as to what was going on, but had a good time. Here you can see Tristan playing with the tin of hot chocolate-this of course was more amusing than his presents.

The day after Christmas we took the train to nearby Strasbourg (France) with some friends. Despite the cold, the city was charming as usual and was decorated beautifully for the holidays. I just had to get a picture of this cake shop- as it decorated with beautiful wedding cake garland.

The streets were lined with white birch branches and beautiful evergreen wreaths.

Here's Paul and Tristan in front of their brightly lit tree. If you blow up the picture you'll notice that Tristan is barely visable under his hat, hood and stroller cocoon. Despite the bitter cold Tristan stayed toasty warm in his stroller.

The above pictures were more streets in Strasbourg, as they were decorated for the holiday season.

As the new year approaches my mind is turned toward new resolves (once again I'm rededicating myself to more work outs and less late night eating...). I'm thinking of new and exciting prospects for the future (church starting at 1pm is absolutely thrilling -Tristan may actually have a chance at being well rested), and most of all as this season comes to a close I reflect upon my blessings. Our family is truly blessed and we feel grateful for the love of family and friends to keep us warm during our first year in Germany!