Here we are in 2007!

We hope you all had good holidays and a great start into the new year! We certainly did and even still have internet, although our current connection is so slow that I won’t even try and post any photos for now. I’ll do that as soon as things are working properly.

Our Christmas holidays were fun. My parents and grandma came here on the 23rd, my sister on the 24th. They all stayed for almost a week. Finn had the time of his life with so many people to play with. The days with my family were spent eating (I look about twice as pregnant as two weeks ago and it is NOT all baby), playing games, going for walks and just generally enjoying each other’s company. We also had a four-generations-picture taken at a photo studio.

On the 24th we set up our tree, which was waiting on our patio. We had planned to cut it ourselves, but ended up just plain buying it. In Germany your tree is not usually up before Christmas and the gifts are either brought by Santa Claus himself on Christmas Eve or put under the tree just before you open them. So after church on Christmas Eve we started with putting Finn’s gifts under the tree first, lit some candles, put on Christmas music and took Finn into the living room. He got really nice toys, his favourite being a little wooden wagon from my parents. As soon as he spotted the wagon he walked up to it and started pushing it around. He LOVES to push things, so it is the perfect gift. There is a little seat in the front where he can put a stuffed animal or even sit down himself, and it has room for toys to transport. We take it for walks and Finn also plays with it inside. The rest of us received really nice presents, too.

Neil, Finn and I spent New Year’s Eve at friends’ from church. They live on the edge of our little town and we figured it would be more quiet there than at our place. We live right across the school, where the kids like to hang out. Since anyone can buy fireworks here (not like in nice, quiet Canada J), New Year’s is a LOUD and colorful night in Germany. Our friends have 3 kids, and their two sons (10 and 16 years old) were home. We had a delicious, lengthy “Raclette” supper together, which even Finn enjoyed. Raclette is originally a French meal of boiled potatoes and melted flavourful cheese. The popular German version consists of those plus all kinds of thinly sliced meats, mushrooms, onions, peppers, corn and so on. There is a hot grill in the middle of the table (for cooking your meat on) and underneath the grill there is room for little pans you can fill with potatoes, cheese and whatever else you like. One usually ends up filling those little pans over and over and needing a schnapps in the end… So we all just ate away and had a good time. After we put Finn to bed upstairs we played board games and talked until midnight, when we had champagne and went outside to start some fireworks. Most of the stuff we had wasn’t too loud and the neighbourhood was relatively quiet, too, so Finn just slept on until 8:30am the next morning. (Except for when his mommy wanted to check on him after all the banging outside and snuck into his room quiet as a mouse. UP went his little head immediately, but he fell right back asleep. Go figure!) After breakfast the next morning our little family went home.

We really enjoyed Neil’s days off (3 weeks to be exact). We took Finn outside every day to walk to the rabbits and ducks and chickens down the street. Winter somehow hasn’t arrived yet, so temperatures are relatively high. (Around 10°C most days.) We also went to the mall and took Finn swimming twice. He absolutely loves to be in the water, especially with his Papa. Finn has water wings and they work great for him. Neil and Finn even went down the big slide together a few times. Neil also went wall-climbing with friends one afternoon, which he much enjoyed, although his arms hurt a bit the next day. All in all, we had great holidays at home. It is nice to spend time together in our own home, where we can work around Finn’s schedule and still do lots of fun stuff. Finn really, really enjoys having his Papa home with him. He is just a happy little boy most of the time, eats well and sleeps great. When Neil is working I can really tell the difference. Finn sometimes has a harder time letting go of us at night and often doesn’t nap well. So we really cherish the time we can spend as a family, but we can’t live on air and love alone. I am thankful that we can afford that I stay home!