AJ's Winter Concert

At RES the second graders have been practicing for their winter performance for weeks. On Thursday it was finally the time for them to perform for the parents.
They all did a great job performing 6 different songs for us. As usual, Jackson is a little singer and loved being on stage with the other kids. He did a fantastic job!

Jason's 37th Birthday

We celebrated Jason's birthday with a yummy breakfast, a day of relaxing and going out with friends that night. It was a special day!

Jackson is Eight Years Old!

Hard to believe that 8 years ago we welcomed our baby boy into this world. We have been blessed every day with this sweet, athletic, musical, comedian of a boy!

Jackson has been counting down the days until his big day. He could not wait for his birthday! 

I made him a big cookie cake to take to school to share with the class. I had to work that morning so I couldn't be there to celebrate when he shared his special snack with this classmates. Thankfully I was able to skip out of work early and picked him up his favorite (Subway) to have lunch with him. 

He woke up to breakfast on the special plate.

He invited a few friends, Luke and Aeden, to celebrate with him.

We headed down to the ice skating rink in the downtown area for a few hours. Luke and Aeden had never been ice skating before, so they were excited to try it out. 

Jackson went right out to the ice and remembered right away. On the other hand, the other kids were best friends with the railing for a while until they felt a little more comfortable.

Jason was good about getting the kids out in the rink to try.

Not much longer after they were off and "skating" their way around the rink.

(Jackson is in the orange, Grace in the pink)
Grace more like shuffled on the ice...but at least it got here around. It was pretty darn cute!

After a few hours at the rink when it started to get pretty crowded we headed to our house for pizza and a movie. Since he had his cookie cake earlier in the day, we improvised and put a candle in his pizza to sing Happy Birthday to him.

The kids watched "Elf Man." It was a funny movie that the kids had many good belly laughs over.

By the time the movie was over they played in the loft for a while and were able to get more energy out goofing off up there. I don't think the boys went to bed until around 11:30...and were up at 6:00 in the morning. I couldn't believe it! Thankfully they kept to themselves and played until I got up around 7:30 to make them breakfast. As you can imagine Jackson was exhausted the next day!

Because we got home later than we figured the night before we ended up opening gifts the next morning. Luke got him an Angry Birds DS game.

Aeden gave him a fun game where you knock down a tower with shooting balls. (I can't remember the name.)

He also got a camera, a Nintendo DS (which he helped contribute to), and a great marble maze that is fun to build.

It was a great celebration time for Jackson. I love seeing him truly happy celebrating with friends and enjoying the little things in life. What a true blessing he is!

Decorating Gingerbread Men

 Last weekend we had some friends over to decorate gingerbread men. The kids had so much fun with the icing, sprinkles and other goodies to decorate with. Thankfully since our garage is heated so we had them get to work in there. After they were done I was happy that mess wasn't in my house!     

St. Nikolaus Day

I love this time of year when Christmas celebrations and traditions are in full bloom all around. Germany is big on St. Nikolaus Day which is celebrated on December 6th. 

St. Nikolaus (who the Germans call Weihnachtsmann or Father Christmas) is a way to remember the death of the bishop Nicholas. He was a Greek Christian bishop known for miracles and giving gifts secretly. The custom of putting out boots began because St. Nikolaus had a reputation for leaving secret gifts in people shoes overnight. So, going along with tradition, Jackson and Grace put one boot outside the front door in hopes of waking up the next morning to see if St. Nikolaus had filled their boots. If the children had been naughty then he fills their boots with sticks instead of candy or other treats. Luckily our kids are always good...just kidding...but they are great kids!

After the boots were brought in from the cold, this is what they found.

We even had a special treat of more boots (in the middle) for the kids from our sweet german neighbors. With a note saying, "Nikolaus brought some sweets fro the good kids, Grace and Jackson." Shhh...don't tell the kids!

 For dinner that night we went to a restaurant with a few people that Jason works with for a yummy buffet and a visit from the man himself, Santa. The kids were so excited! This Santa looked like the real deal! I know our days are numbered as Jackson gets older so we are enjoying seeing that joy come out. Although there have been a few times that I have been asked, "Is Santa real?" And I don't say anything else but, "What do you think?" And just leave it at that. I know our years...months...days are numbered...

It is a great tradition that have started in our family that will continue for years and hopefully the kids will continue with their children one day.

First Christmas Market of the Year

On Saturday we went to Saabrücken with the Sechrist's for their market. As usual there was lots of good food and yummy glüewein. I just love this time of year!