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An unexpected Christmas "gift"

We were spending Christmas evening with friends and the kids were supposedly watching a video.  Somehow, Jillian tripped and broke her arm.  So we got to spend Christmas night in a German emergency room.  The x-ray showed a small fracture.  This was presented to me as, "I have good news... she won't need surgery."  This was before he even told me that it had actually been broken.   European doctors don't sugar coat anything - it's all very direct!  So now Jillian is sporting a soft cast (splint with a bandage) until next week when we see the orthopedist.  Merry Christmas!

Our newest "family member"

We have to start off with an explaination that Marisa names everything.  My minivan is Percy. 

So, when we got a new car for Mike, it had to have a name.  Meet Inga... she's from Sweden.   Inga is a S60 Volvo and she's all that and more!   Since we needed a car quickly, we had to get one off the lot and ended up with features that we wouldn't have selected on our own... leather interiors, heated front seats, moonroof, fancy headlights, turbo engine.  It's pretty cool to drive a car with a little get-up and go!

The Velveeta Santa

When you live overseas, there are limited opportunities to do some things that are very ordinary in the U.S.  One of these is visiting Santa at Christmastime.  We missed out on Santa at the community tree lighting ceremony because Marisa wasn't feeling well.  So, yesterday, we were very excited to find out that he was visiting the commissary.  In the civilian world the commissary is known as the grocery store.  When we arrived, Marisa rushed right over to tell him everything on her list.  I took pictures while Mike and Jillian cracked up over Santa's throne.  Check it out....

December is always nuts...

So, cut me some slack for not being very updated. Thanks! 

Here's what we've been up to this month:

We've visited the Christmas markets in Heidelberg and Wiesbaden.  We plan to hit at least two more, because I LOVE Christmas markets.  The treats, the atmosphere, the browsing through beautiful booths.  It's all so wonderful!

Jillian rocked on her first report card with grades.  (no one seems to give grades until 4th grade these days)  She got straight A's!

St. Nicklaus visited our house and left lots of candy in the girls shoes.  Isn't it great to live in another country and celebrate their customs?!

We bought our tree when we were in Heidelberg.  The boy scouts had set up a lot at the commissary and with the horrible exchange rate, it was the best price around.  We had an intense young Cub Scout as our sales person, and he led us right to the perfect tree for us.  Then he happily posed for pictures with Marisa.  He was the highlight of that day!

What else...?  Oh, yeah...  We're moving to Belgium.  We found out last Friday and Mike has to be there at the beginning of January.  We're still working out the details of when we'll join him.  This was completely unexpected, but we're not upset.  A new adventure!