Christmas Eve

24 DEC 2013 - With no snow on the ground and great sunny weather outside, we ended up spending our day enjoying some of our favorite local parks. The park near Patch Barracks has a great man-sized hamster wheel. We had a great time spinning the kids back and forth until they nearly fell on top of each other.

Then we enjoyed a great park in Boblingen that has a rubber-band type merry go round. You wind it up and let it go and it spinns the kids around pretty fast for about three or four rotations. This is Eli's personal favorite.

 Then we decided to go check out some castle ruins about 30 minutes south of our home in Rotweil. The castle was, as usual, perched atop a hill with a spectacular view of the surrounding area. There wasn't much of these ruins left aside from the re-constructed front gate and a nearby town that was closed on Christmas Eve (can you believe it?!?). ;)

When we got home, we figured it was time to light the reindeer candles our German neighbors gave us. Melting reindeer on Christmas Eve... what a great tradition!

We opened a few gifts on Christmas Eve. Grandma Johnson's gift was one of them. She gave all the kids awesome PJ's with matching PJs for the girls dolls and Eli's Build-a-Bear. What a blast!

Away in a Manger

23 DEC 2013 - Eli: And so it was on the night of our Savior's birth. The end.
Kjersti: That was so fun! Let's keep Eve all wrapped in swaddling clothes all night!

Eve: Kjersti, that would make me sad.
Kjersti: I'm just kidding Eve (kisses her on the forehead).

Kjersti: Instead, let's have Eli wear his taped-on beard until Christmas day.
Eli: That would be awesome! I'm keeping the bow staff too!

Esslingen Medieval Christmas Market

21 DEC 2013 - One of our favorite Christmas markets is the Esslingen Medieval Christmas Market. Part of the market is a regular Christmas market, then the other half is has a Medieval theme to it. The food they cook, the smells, the folks dressed as though they're from the middle ages all combine to make for a truly unique experience.

Heidi and Kjersti love the half meter brats while Cody, Eve and Eli prefer the bread baked on a stick! Soooo tasty!

The games the kids can play are really medieval. Eli threw axes!

 Kjersti threw daggers!

Eve launched balls from a catapult into castle!

And finally the kids dipped their own candles. So much fun!

The Advent Beer Calendar

9 DEC 2013 - Cody works in a great office at United States European Command (EUCOM).  From left to right, Sandra Shurman, Jan Paul, Cody, Anton Kemps, and Chris Sabatini. His co-workers are wonderful and he loves going to work everyday. This year, the Christmas season became a little bit more interesting when Anton brought in a beer advent calendar. Yes, that's right, a different bottle of German beer for 24 straight days. Since Cody didn't drink any of them, he was designated as the guy who pulled the beer from the advent calendar daily and pronounced its German name. A task he loved. What a wonderful cultural experience!

FHE

9 DEC 2013 - Family Home Evening at our house isn't usually this peaceful and wonderful. But it was on this particular Monday night. Heidi planned a FHE that centered on playing Bingo with the First Presidency Christmas message. It was perfect! The kids were helping each other, being good and feeling the spirit. A beautiful thing.

You've Come A Long Way Baby!

8 DEC 2013 - A Sunday that will live in infamy! Eli had long held a strong belief that white, button up, collared shirts were some kind of torture device designed solely to cause him grief and anguish. On 8 DEC 2013, Eli not only put on a white, button up, collared shirt, but wore a tie and a suit coat to boot! He looked so good, Cody decided to throw on a matching outfit as a symbolic gesture of appreciation and unity. Well done Eli... you've come a long way baby!

Tubingen International Chocolate Festival

7 DEC 2013 - Every December, Tubingen hosts their international chocolate festival. Last year, we just couldn't make it but this year, we made sure to get it on the calendar! Let's just say it was pretty sweet. Some of the tastiest chocolate ever! It was so fun to watch people making all kinds of different things out of chocolate and buying plenty of it. Unfortunately, we didn't try enough of it while we were there and realized only after we got home what we wished we would have stocked up on. Oh well... there's always next year.

Tubingen, Germany