It's Cold Out There

But you'll keep warm on Daddy's arm.

Merry Christmas

We hope you all had a great time so far!



We started the whole Christmas Eve thing without the youngest member, because he was still napping, but Karl and Andrian just couldn't wait anymore. Cookies! Gifts! We even put our open fire infinite loop DVD in our player and sang a couple of Christmas carols.



After a week of misery Henri finally seems to be getting better. Apparently he got two infections on top of each other, the first being a throat infection, the second an otitis. And even though he still got a fever, he's in much better spirits now and we're hoping that he's fit enough to travel to Bensheim to meet the whole family clan tomorrow and the day after. Yay!

A Sick Child

...for a full week is not exactly what I had envisioned for the last days before Christmas. Humpf. Lets hope he gets better soon!

It's on!

Yup, it is officially on - the Christmas season smackdown. To be started with the unbeatable trifecta of glowing childrens' eyes, self-baked cookies and Christmas tree decorating.

Fred took the boys to the new posh market hall where they offered cookie baking for children. Somehow neither Karl nor Henri were taken by the ambitious, well-coiffed Munich girls stenciling perfect little stars and trees out of the dough. They preferred watching some commercials for a luxury travel agent on some jumbotron thingy. can't blame them. You gotta put your education before some pointless competitive arts and crafts endeavor.

Baking cookies with mom on the other hand - intense concentration was displayed. And some great seasonal fare created.



Also today on our way to the playground we decided it's much too frosty for swings and things, so we went and got our traditional early Christmas tree. Germans are kinda anal about having the tree decorated by parental units on Christmas day and not allowing the children to see it before they are led into the chamber of presents. What is this? Some kinda arranged marriage ritual in the nether regions of medieval culture?

It's of course much more fun to have a tree the week before and have it decorated by the boys. Henri was very proud of being part of this and kept on pointing out, which ornaments he had placed on the branches. Even the upper branches with the help of a stool. Go Henri! In the words of Paula Abdul - you sure made this holiday season your own.

Star No. 1

For the kindergarten parents-and-kids breakfast this morning the Sonnengruppe had rehearsed a little Christmas ballad. Karl and his buddy Daniele were the first ones to go as they were star No. 1 and 2. We were amazed and proud to see how confidently Karl performed and are now convinced that there's an acting career in his future.



I think he was proud, too.



Henri was examining the whole action carefully for future reference.



Daddy trying to get some attention from the star. Henri trying to get the camera (with a mouth full of cookies).

In Full Gear

Better safe than sorry – you never know what might hit you when you brush our teeth.

If you heard any noise ...

... it was just us boys. Fred had to attend a very festive birthday event to celebrate her best friend Maria in her old hometown Frankfurt. So Karl and Henri and I - partied hard, had some vaguely nutritional foods, went out to the country to see Opa Paul, Maria and Milena, baked some cookies, ate some cookies and generated more decibel than legally allowed by Bavarian zoning codes for residential areas.

Going For A Ride

While Karl was on a playdate with his BFF Ludwig, I secretly took Henri to the Christmas market at the Chinese Tower in the English Garden. Karl has been there many times before, but not this year and I know he really wants to go. The weather was about to get miserable (and I got totally soaked on my bike later) so there were very few kids and they let the carrousel just run for about ten rounds!



Of course Henri loved it – don't be fooled by his facial expression. Especially the Playmobil playroom where we went later on.

Even Monsters Need Haircuts

As you might have noticed especially in this post, both boys have been in desparate need of a hair cut. So on a very task oriented afternoon last week (we also got Karl his winter boots) we rode over to La Forbice where Francesco gave Henri his first real cut. Lots of Smarties and other sweets were involved.



Karl of course got one, too. After he had explained to us during breakfast how he wanted a haircut just like one of his Playmobil figures, Francesco actually put some zigzag action in his bangs (Andrian was not amused). He also wanted to shave out a ring all around his head, just like the Playmos have in order to put their hats on. We saved that for next time when Karl – as he already told us – also wants curls and a different color.



The title by the way refers to this really cute book.

Adventskalender

Even though I'm totally going to design jail some time soon for not finishing my work tasks, I'm still proud to have managed completing this design award worthy Advent calendar.



After a thorough inspection we started day one with some chocolate. Just to set the tone. Which means I'm not only going to design jail, but also to children's nutrition jail. At least I'll have good company there.



In other news: Karl had his big 4 year check-up today. Just like us, the doctor is convinced that we have some major genius material on our hands here. The most important thing of course is that he's as healthy as he is, weighing in at 15.9 kg (35 lbs) and measuring 103 cm (40.5 in) in height. He was so adorable during all those tests that I would have stolen him if he wasn't already mine.