White Christmas

I always thought that a White Christmas would be great, but now experiencing it I think that it is totally overrated. For 10 days we have been pretty much trapped in and around the house due to snow and ice. The news reported that the last time there was 1 foot of snow on the ground here in Seattle on Christmas was in 1861! The snow started with a bit on Sunday the 14th, but every time we thought it would ease up, there was more to come. Gas stations have been running out of gas because the deliveries can't get through and even some grocery stores are running low on some things. Thank god for Trader Joe's. The major roads are open, but the side streets are difficult, a mix of compact snow, ice, or slush. In a true Seattle fashion the paper summed it up today; the problem is not the streets or the weather, the problem is Seattle itself, all the hills and steep streets.

School was cancelled the last 3 days before vacation started so we have been spending quality family time together. Things you do when you have time to burn: reading Christmas books (both German and English) with Omi, watching Christmas specials on TV including the new Heat Miser/Snow Miser special with the throwback puppets (awesome!), and we filled water balloons so that they could freeze in the high teens temperature (14 degrees a few mornings ago). This is the result of one of our balloon experiments...pretty cool.

We have been sledding at various places in the neighborhood including our backyard, at John Rogers, the beaver pond and even city streets! Our backyard is populated by hordes of snow people (2) and for the first time in history of our families, we built an igloo! We packed the snow into a small cooler (i.e., Igloo) and made snow bricks, dozens of them. I thought we would never finish the job, but fortunately Jay came home early from work and took over the job of ice brick forming. The girls love it. The parents love it. Even Omi loves it. Who would of thought that igloo making is in our DNA.

With all that we had two very special Christmas moments. On Saturday night, when it was snowing like crazy, all of a sudden we heart loud music. We thought a neighbour had a party. But when we went outside, we heart that it was Christmas music and that it was coming from further away. We walked around in the falling snow, accompanied by music. It was very cool. On Sunday, then, we had carollers come to our house. It was a group of parents friends from Marlene's school. I never had carollers before. I thought that only existed in Martha Stewart's mind/world. It was really great.

December

The first quarter is coming to an end. Amelia's preschool ended 2 weeks ago and I have been trying to stay busy with her, which was quite difficult, because it was raining a lot this first part of December (not so the second part, but to that later). We had the last lesson in Amelia's dance class. She loves her ballet. And I drove with her to Bellingham to visit Jen and Zoey.

We got our Christmas tree and decorated the house. And we have been making a lot of cookies. German school has ended, too, with the Nikolausfeier. The kids performed skids in German and then Nikolaus handed out little presents.

Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving down in San Jose again with Jason's family. I had to go to the German Consulate in San Francisco to renew my passport. I was able to get an appointment the day before Thanksgiving, which saved me an extra trip to the bay area. The girls and I flew down Tuesday night and Wednesday was supposed my day alone in San Francisco. I had looked forward to wandering around all day and shopping, but everything turned out quite different. The night before the flu, that the girls had had the week before had caught up with me and besides all signs of a cold I was very achy. It did nor help that it was pouring rain in the city. I did not carry an umbrella, because no one had anticipated that type of rain. So there I was: wet, cold and sick. That kind of took the fun out and I returned after lunch back to San Jose.

Unlike previous years we stayed with Jason's sister Pam and her family. Jason's parents have ongoing plumbing problems in their house, which would have made it difficult to accommodate four more people. We had a lot of fun at Pam's house and the kids had 100% playtime with their cousin's Katie and Sam. Katie was so nice to give up her room for us. They played with their DS a lot and even Amelia got to play with an old gameboy. She tried very hard to be a big kid. The Craigs have various musical instruments, so we were treated to impromptu concerts from time to time.

Jason drove down with our car on Wednesday, so the whole family was together for Thanksgiving on Thursday. While Jason helped Pam, John and I took the kids to Castle Rock in Saratoga for hiking on Thursday morning. Marlene enjoyed climbing on the rocks, but Amelia was afraid and even John's help did not make her feel comfortable on the rocks.

Meanwhile Pam, Teri and Marlene prepared a perfect Thanksgiving dinner. It was a fabulous feast. We had a great time sitting together and talking.

Jason's parents had just returned from a Mediterranean Cruise. So on Friday we got to see videos and photos from the trip. Since we would not come back down for Christmas the children got some early Christmas presents, which made them very happy.

Saturday we started our drive back home. The whole week had been very dark and rainy, but Saturday dawned with beautiful sunshine. It is just my luck, that it always rains while I am in California.

November

It has been a while since I wrote, so time to catch up! November was the month of book fairs. First we had the book fair at German school, which is always very exciting for me. This year I found a DVD of my favorite childhood movies: "Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella/Drei Haselnuesse fuer Aschenbroedel". Then we had the scholastic and used book fair at Marlene's school. We stocked up on several used American Girl books and bought some interesting new books. On open house night we met Geronimo Stilton. And last but not least we got to order books through Amelia's preschool. Here I found Marlene's new favorite Christmas book "When Santa fell to Earth" by Cornelia Funke.

On November 11th was St. Martin's Day. In German school they made lanterns and then we had a parade through the classrooms.

This year I took the girls to the Yuletide Festival at the Nordic Heritage Museum. We ate apple skivers and learnt how to make Danish Christmas Hearts. We had an early encounter with Santa Claus as well. We talked to him in the hallway, where the girls could not escape. Marlene is still very much in aw and does not want to take pictures with Santa.