Frohe Weihnachten! (Merry Christmas!)

Christmas Day!

Our Advent candles

Well, Lea was so excited this morning that she woke up at 4 am!  She was good, didn't wake us up, didn't open her presents.  I wonder if maybe she heard Santa?  Since her bedroom is the living room, maybe she heard him.  :)

Although it looks like he was quiet...only had half their gifts to deliver and he didn't even spread them out

We had fun, as usual, opening presents.  We are feeling very blessed!  Here are the highlights:

Both girls got plenty of dairy free chocolate!

Lea was SO excited to give her gifts!  She went to the mall with her class and picked out and purchased our gifts with her own money!

New jammies for Christmas eve

A DS game

2nd book in a great series

Tried this one 5 times, Lea always had her eyes closed!

After presents, I made a nice big American breakfast.

We relaxed for a bit and then took a walk.  We went to the little chapel down the street and found there is now a homemade nativity scene there.  The figures were made of felted wool and I knew my friend Amy would want to see them :)

Leaving for our walk

Very cool

On our street

We had lots of fun walking!  And saw some cool stuff.

Don't ask.

Carrying the Princess

Lea cracking up!

Mossy Butt Bench

Tree chair?

Lainie found a bow shaped stick

Showing us her Tai Chi moves

I like that house behind them

Our neighborhood has fairy tale street names.  This is Snow White Way.  I played Schneewitthcen in high school in the German play, LOL!

So Brad decided that driving to Oberammergau ( a city in the Alps, about 1.5 hours away) would be a good idea.  We can see the mountains, the charming town and have lunch out.  Along the way we saw someone parachuting in the mountains!  Brad would love to do this.  Not me.

We found a hotel with a restaurant that looked good.  It was nice, not too expensive, and, of course, quaint. Brad ordered Kaesespaetzle, Lea got Frankfurters, Lainie got roast pork.  (I skipped lunch...not hungry which is a bummer.)  They all enjoyed their meals very much.

Brad had a tiny red pepper on his plate and we dared him to take a bite.  It made him sweat and cry immediately!  We laughed.

hee hee

We saw many, many dogs.  Including in the restaurant which is totally normal over here!  We like it.  There were many dogs all around town and signs about dogs.  It is a very dog-friendly town.  We walked around for just a few minutes then drove back home.  We plan on coming back when the stores are open.  There were many we would have loved to have gone into.

Where we ate lunch

We got home and relaxed with Netflix, DS games, reading, computers.  It was a very nice Christmas!  A little homesickness kicking in, but today was really very nice.