We went to our first Christmas market today in Diedersheim Germany. It was only 45 minutes away and we got there with no problem. However, we got lost going home and it took us over 2 hours. We tried Gluhwein which is a warm and spicy wine. It was okay tasting and it was something we "had" to do. Everyone else was doing it. :-) It was a pretty crowded place for a Sunday. Kelly took the kids up on a ferris wheel to see the sights.

Here is Ronan enjoying the ride. He seemed to have a good time at the market and the ride was the best part.

Emma also enjoyed the ride. The stick she is holding she found on the ground and she would not get rid of it. We had to keep telling her not to poke everyone in the crowd with it. All in all it was a fun family day. Even with the getting lost the kids didn't complain.. MUCH!

Friday we received 2 out of 3 packages from Grandma and Grandpa and my sister in South Carolina. The big box weighed in at 18.1 lbs. I felt sorry for the folks at the post office. Actually it was student volunteers from the high school handing out packages that day. Under our tree is full and I am asked daily if the kids can open up just one present. I can't wait for the 3rd box to arrive. I hope everyone gets what they want for Christmas. I know my kids will not be wanting anything for sometime.

Peace!

Gingerbread Houses

Okay they weren't really gingerbread houses but graham cracker houses. On Thursday myself and 2 other Moms had the "honor" of putting together 20 graham cracker houses. I am not a builder so as you can imagine some did not turn out as we had hoped. If you use too much of the icing cement then it took forever to dry and your house would fall. Gravity stinks. However, if you did not use enough cement the houses would fall. Did I mention gravity stinks? So it took us over 3 hours to put these houses together for Emma's 2nd grade class. We let them dry overnight and the kids got to decorate them on Friday. I mixed up another batch of cement for the kids to use and they turned out to be much better builders that I am. Here is the end result.

All cookied out!!

So I thought I would save some money ($16) and bake cookies as my fee for the spouses lunch. 10 DOZEN cookies is all I had to make. I thought how hard can that be. Well 3 days later I finally finished making my cookies. As you may be able to tell I started out fancy and ended up with M&M cookies. I became the cookie Czar. The freezer was full and my family did not understand why they couldn't have any cookies. Oh well, it is for a good cause but I think I might pay the money next year. I hope nobody askes me to make anymore cookies this year. Happy Baking!

Its a family tradition

It has been a tradition in my family to decorate the house for Christmas right after Thanksgiving. Well this year the kids could not wait so while we were waiting for the turkey to cook we decorated the house and the tree. The kids did a fantastic job with the tree and I think it looks beautiful. Even the dog tried to help by taking the tissue paper that the oranments were wrapped in and began running around with it throughout the livingroom. He's such the helper. Daddy helped by taking pictures and basically staying out of the way. We all know how much he loves to help with decorating and wrapping gifts. (I cannot wait to wrap all the presents by myself.) I guess I should finish buying all the gifts so I have some to wrap.
After the decorating we went over to our friends house for a wonderful Thanksgiving meal. We ate way to much and needless to say we will be starting our diets next week. We brought the bird, stuffing, gravy and rolls. Our friend made the rest to include 2 delicious pies. I enjoyed going over to their house for many reasons to include friendship, good food and of course no dishes at my house to wash. I think I might be onto something. So who wants us over for Christmas dinner?

Our Honor Roll Student

At Ronan's school they have an Honor Roll. It consists of 3 levels; Gold (all A's), Silver (A's and B's and Bronze (all B's). They had an assembly last week and handed out certificates and coupons to the BX to all who made the honor roll. We are please to tell you that Ronan made the silver honor roll. We are pleased and very proud of our boy. He's shooting for Gold next quarter. Keep those fingers crossed. :-)

One of those....

Okay so I have now become one of "those" dog owners. Let me explain. Everyday I take the kids and the neighbor kids to school. The dog always goes with us. It has been cold here in the upper 20's. Ice scrapping weather. Well needless to say the dog gets cold when I leave him in the van to walk the kids to their classes. One day I got back to the car and he was shivering. I felt horrible. But I would feel even more horrible if I had to put him in his kennel each morning. So I bought him a shirt. Yes a cute little t-shirt that says " Who's Your Doggie." Pathetic I know. But as you can tell from the pictures he is rather cute. Don't cha think.