Frohe Weihnachten!!!!

Another Christmas morning has come and gone just like magic! I love seeing the excitement as the kids (and myself) anticipate what's under the wrapping paper. We were blessed with another wonderful Christmas. Here are some of the highlights that made us smile.

I was the designated present hander outer.
New clothes...just what Brilee wanted. And her Josephina American girl doll.
The stash after all had been opened. Everyone is very happy!
This is after the traditional pj's are opened the night before Christmas. Mike said he felt like the "Better off Dead" movie where his father gets an ardvark jacket. Hee hee! I was dying laughing when everyone opened their pajamas, he had no idea what they looked like. :-) But, they are cozy! This picture bugs because it shows how lazy I was when I hung the tapestry up. Mike finally fixed it for me, you can see in the photo's above. :-)
The letters and treats for Santa with some egg nog.
These pictures are from our Christmas Eve dinner at our house. We invited 3 families over to share some yummy food, good company and lots of laughs.
The Abbott's brought their bells just like last year. And, like last year...they were a HIT! We had a lot of fun playing the songs.
We ended the evening with delicious treats! What a great evening spent with special friends. I get sad thinking next year we won't be with these people, but I'm sure we'll surround ourselves with others that will help us remember our Savior Jesus Christ and all the wonderful blessings we can count because of Him! Merry Christmas all...we LOVE YOU!
Here are a series of videos from our events. The first is one of the kids opening up a stash of candy inside a gift. The second video contains scenes from the party.It shows what everyone was up to. The 3rd video shows what happened when we did NOT listen to the conductor. The 4th shows a successful song! Enjoy

Dufus the Snowman

Last night (Monday) we got another big snowstorm. I think this is the most snow we've seen here. We played outside for hours in it knowing that Today (Tuesday) it would finally warm up and melt.
Here's the group building "Dufus" the Snowman.

Dufus looks just like his dad. :-)
And his sisters, but shhhh...don't tell them!

The Spirit of Christmas

Watch this video, it only takes about 4 minutes. The message is sweet!

Winter Wonderland

This is what Dallin and Lauryn looked like early this morning. They were the first to wake up and run outside. Notice Dallin wearing just his large jammies shirt and my boots?

Here are some shots from a nice path behind our house.

Our house is tucked back behind the pine trees to the far right.

Day at Sea

I know many of these pictures are on Facebook. BUT, for those who aren't on that site, these are for you. Here we are preparing for our Gala dinner. The best part of the night was when we arrived back to our room and the housekeeper had cleaned our mess up. He even folded our dirty clothes and nicely put them on our bed. What huge pigs we are!


There were 53 people in our group. We were able to arrange a time for a group picture. It turned out pretty well considering the number of little ones present.
Just the girls
The "teens"
Dallin just plain tired after swimming and playing all day long.
I miss my rolls and olive oil with balsamic vinegar which we enjoyed before each meal.
The fun party after dinner. This gal served our drinks.
We asked Marlin if he wanted to come and serve our dinner to us back in Germany. He was a great server. We miss being waited on!

Santorini

Santorini is another beautiful cluster of Greek Island's we visited. These pictures are all taken from the most popular of them, Oia ( E- UH) Many of the homes are built into the mountain like in the pictures above and below.
T This picture shows what their grape vines look like. The growers shape their vines to look like a bird nest. It's very cool to see these on the ground. When it's harvest time in August, everything will be picked by hand. The grapes will grow on the inside of the clusters to be protected by the harsh wind and birds. The other amazing thing is the soil is not your typical plant growing soil. It's mainly lava pebbles, volcanic ash and pumice. Crazy that stuff actually grows. They are also known for a very yummy variety of tomato and a white eggplant or melitzana that is more sweet and "fruit" like.
Santorini is well known for it's white washed architecture. The streets are narrow and donkeys are used to transport things into the cave homes. As we were walking through the narrow streets, the donkeys passed in front of us. They leave quite a stinky mess all over the ground. It was quite the unusual sight to see them being led through the village.

We found an old ruin that made for some fun props during picture time. Here's Brille
Maddi
Lauryn
All three Chica's

We had to order a gyro because of course we were in .... GREECE!
The gyro was the best one I've had. They even put french fries inside...YUMMY!
This town is also known for it's blue domed churches which can be found on most post cards.
This is also where small portions of the movie The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was filmed. We didn't see the exact door but it was somewhere down in the cluster of homes.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Dubrovnik Croatia was our final port we headed to. I thought I'd document the trip in reverse order because I have less pictures of the end. :-)
To be honest, I wasn't too thrilled about Croatia because I didn't know anything about the city. I was surprised at how BEAUTIFUL it was. This city sits on the Adriatic Sea.
We walked this walled city which is 600 years old. It's about a 1.5 mile walk in all. You over look the sea to your right as you are walking, it's GORGEOUS! There are ruins that are scattered in between houses. I'm not sure if they're ruined from the Serbian attack during the early 1990's or if they're just old. This picture just shows the wall we're walking.
Dallin posing on one of the cannons.


An opportunity to pose while shooting..exciting!

The kids are sitting on the Big Onofrio Fountain with fresh water coming from it. This is one of Dubrovnik's famous landmarks built in 1438. I filled my water bottles up from the water but our camera died before we could capture the moment. I did not get sick from the water. :-)

The final picture of the wall and sea. I wish we had more to share from Croatia, we forgot to charge the battery before we headed out off the boat. In all, Dubrovnik proved to be a fun little city. There are many resorts that sit on the banks of the water. What amazing views they have!