Arriving at Gate C, Terminal 1....

...it's Jeffrey!!!! This was his first time flying all by himself and he doesn't mess around taking little hops...no way, he is flying ALL the way across the world alone! He arrived safe and sound from his flight from Omaha to Dallas to Frankfurt. We were all wondering how switching planes in Dallas would be but he handled it like the travel pro he is. Luckily the bad weather skipped over any of the places affecting his flights....lots of people are still sitting around in Denver wondering if they will get home for Christmas. We don't have any firm plans for our time together..just lots of hanging out and enjoying each others company for starters. Now let me get off of here and spend some time with my boy!

(not so) Little Drummer Boy

Last night was the intermediate band Christmas Concert at Colin's school. We were treated to several Christmas songs played by the band, sung by the chorus and also a number of solos by members of the band. Colin is a percussionist in the band and usually plays the tympani. He calls himself "a specialist". He is definately easy to spot amongst the others! After the band concert we all went to the bowling alley for dinner (our usual Tuesday routine) since I bowl on my league and Colin has Boy Scouts at 7:00. I think tonight was the first night we all ate at home since last Thursday!

God Bless Us...Everyone!

What a wonderful day we had yesterday! I picked up Colin from school and we mailed our Christmas packages to our family and friends in the States...lots of other people were in the Post Office doing the same thing so we stood there awhile, but the line kept moving and soon we were on our way. We headed to downtown Heidelberg to visit the Christmas Market. This is probably my FAVORITE thing about Christmas in Germany. All the lights, the people, the smells of the good food and drinks, the booths selling all sorts of gifts and decorations. It is a truly special and unique thing to behold. Colin enjoyed petting and feeding the donkeys and sheep that were there in a stall. He was a bit concerned about their big teeth reaching out for the carrots we were feeding them though! After we fed the donkeys he enjoyed a mug of warm milk and honey. We had never tried this before and it was DELICIOUS! One of the stalls we stopped at had all sorts of mechanical puzzles for sale. They let you try to figure them out and Colin amazed the salespeople and customers as he got the first one solved like it was nothing and then proceeded to show them how to do another one. The saleslady finally found one that stumped him, but I am sure if we had stood there long enough he would have mastered it as well. Fun!


Soon it was time to go pick up Bill from work and continue on to the main event of the evening....we had tickets to see a special production of The American Drama Group Europe performing A Christmas Carol in the Kings Hall of the Castle in Heidelberg. What a treat! It was very interesting how they managed to do the play with only 8 players depicting 32 different characters and a minimal amount of staging and props. They did a great job and we all enjoyed ourselves. I only wish Jeffrey had been able to join us for this. He will be here in only 2 days!! We can hardly wait to see him.

Another dream come true....

You know how there are certain things you always dreamed of having but never really thought that you would actually get? Well for Bill one of them has been a Grandfather clock. Lots of people who live in Germany through the military buy new ones while they are here, but none of them really appealed to us..in the price AND the style department. Since we moved here this time Bill has become quite the eBay Germany shopper. He likes to browse through the antiques and furniture auctions and has won some very nice pieces for our home, including our bedroom set, several large cabinets and a secretary. This past week he won an old Grandfather clock! He has a friend who has a little pickup and helped us to pick it up tonight. The people who had it were very nice and we saw it running in their living room...what a beautiful chime it has! They said it had been in that particular spot for 20 years and they are selling it because they bought all new furniture and it was a much darker wood than their new things. We carefully removed the weights and pendulum and the door and drove slowly home with it. It is set up in our dining room now. We will level it tomorrow (it is late and Bill has to go to work tomorrow!) and soon we will be enjoying those lovely chimes!

In the meadow we can build a snowman....

I just love snowmen! They are so round and happy and bright! I finally brought my collection out of hiding today. I have all sorts of them, soft, ceramic, wooden, metal and even a "Florida Snowman" (he is a nose,eyes and hat in a snowglobe). They are now in their winter home sitting on or around my bench in the entryway. I let them stay out until Spring comes because we all know snowmen aren't just for Christmas...they are WINTER decorations!

A little something for the teachers...

I almost decided to be cheesy and get Colin's teachers storebought gifts this year. (The horror!) But Colin was set on us making something together for each one and I couldn't say no to that so we stuck with our original plan and put together sets of Marble Magnets for them. I had bought the supplies a while ago and let him use some of the marbles to make game pieces for a project he had so he was all set to do that. We ended up making 5 sets of 6 magnets and I altered some mint tins to put them in. We found those at a flea market...a huge case of empty mint tins, if Bill hadn't been there to keep me in line I might have bought the whole lot! It was a fun project and Colin and I like how they turned out. Hope the teachers like them too!!

We've come a long way baby!

It doesn't seem possible...but we hit a major milestone with our Jeep today. We knew it would probably be this weekend so we had our camera ready to capture the moment....we turned it over. No....we didn't roll it, but the odometer turned over past 100,000 miles! It doesn't seem possible that our 'new' Jeep has been driven that far, but I suppose it has. We bought it, our first brand new vehicle ever right after Bill retired from the Army back in 2000. Since then it has been all over Germany, into France, Switzerland, Belgium, Lichtenstein, Holland and Luxemburg. It just seems odd to me...it is still very much our 'new' car!

Catching up with friends

It is so nice to keep in touch with friends who don't live nearby...and even more fun when you get a chance to catch up in person once in awhile. We met our friends Andrew and Wendy several years ago when we were planning a trip to England. Bill searched Ebay for people renting vacation flats and found one that Wendy and Andrew had available nearby where we were going. In communicating with them about the rental we just hit it off and continued to correspond back and forth through email. We have since stayed in their home once, they have visited our home once, we have stayed in their vacation flat twice and met for dinner a number of times. Last night we had dinner together and it was such a nice time. They are in Germany for a short trip and we drove down to the Gasthaus they are staying in to share dinner. We exchanged Christmas gifts, hugs and laughter and then it was time to head back to Heidelberg since Colin has school today and Bill had work. I wonder when the next time we will get together will be??

Oh Christmas Tree

Colin and I set up the Christmas tree Monday evening. We usually do that on the weekend after Thanksgiving but we were so busy running around that it had to wait until Monday. Bill had to work Monday evening since some soldiers were returning from the desert so it was just Colin and I. One of our traditions is that the first ornament to go on the tree, and that last to come off it when it comes down is the ornament named "Pierre" that Bill made when he was 5 or 6. Colin was worried about "breaking tradition" since it is Bill who places Pierre on the tree, but Bill entrusted him with this important job and assured him that it would be OK to do it this way so Colin finally accepted this.


Colin also suggested we try putting the tree in front of the window, we didn't think we had room for it to be there but we gave it a try and surprisingly it is workable. Whoever sits on the far end of the couch won't be able to see the TV but Colin pointed out that people sitting there are usually reading or doing something else so it doesn't matter. True!

It's Parade Week at STM!

If you haven't visited the gallery at Scrap That Moment the first week of the month is ALWAYS the best time to pop in. The designers all parade their creations showcasing the sponsor of the month and this month we have all had the pleasure of working with SAKURA pens and markers! What fun! Instead of having all the design team share their work on one day we spread it out all week long...so don't forget to check back each day and see what has been added. Here's a peek at some of the projects I have been working on this month...if you wanna see the whole thing you gotta come see them in the gallery!