What we've been up to..

Happy Holidays to everyone! We miss you all and wish we could be with you. I thought I'd share some of what we've been up to over the Christmas break. The boys each painted one of the nutcrackers to the left and I love them. From left to right they were made by Jacob, Sam, Mason and Joe. Each year I have them make an ornament for our tree and someday when we have enough I'm going to make an "Island of Misfits" tree with just their ornaments. They are truly my favorites.

For Christmas Eve we had cheese fondue which was so delicious and we're going to make this our new tradition every year. We were sure to eat German pickles with it because, as all good Germans know, Pickles help you digest the cheese. We decided that we would get up at 7:30 on Christmas to open presents, but the kids weren't allowed to come upstairs, so from 7:30 until 7:45 we got a minute by minute update for what time it was until Garrett and I pulled ourselves out of bed. We started the German pickle tradition--you hide a pickle ornament on the tree on Christmas morning and the first one to find it get to open the first present. Jacob was the lucky winner, however, the tree was roughed up enough by the extensive search and seizure that it later fell over and broke nearly every glass ball on our tree. Maybe I'll have to make the pickle super-obvious next year to avoid catastrophe. The boys got cameras this year and are excited to go later today on their first personal photo shoot. Jacob and Mason got scooters and Sam got a skateboard and Joseph got 2 clone trooper costumes and blasters as well as all of them getting alot of legos. They had a great Christmas! Garrett is sporting the rag-quilt that his boys made him, which may explain the chagrinned look on his face. If you look up at the fondue picture you'll notice we are drinking hot chocolate out of real teacups--between the painting, the tea parties, and the sewing I've heard Garrett say many times, under his breath something like "What a bunch of Faeries!" I'm as pleased as punch--who needs girls anyway? Come on, they are saudering and carving wood at school and watching Jaws, light sabering and playing air guitar non-stop at home, so it's got to be a little therapeutic to have a tea party once in awhile, right?

The day after Christmas we went to some hot mineral pools with the kids. I'd include pictures, but they were nude pools. O.K. I'm just kidding, but lucky for us we did get to see alot of old men in banana hammocks and old women with hairy armpits in bikinis. Other than that it was so fun to relax in the hot tubs. I had to include this pix of my kids in their super-cool duds before we went to the pool. We're stylin'! On the way there I was giving my usual lecture about how we were going to a German place and they're not used to alot of noise or kids so we need to be quiet and behave and then Joe put in his two cents worth, "And if a German talks to you, you just stare at him until he goes away!" We were cracking up--this tactic must have worked for him before!
We've had fun putting a Lord of the Rings 1000 piece puzzle together. Of course, our usual luck is holding and if you look at Gandolf's beard you'll notice we are missing a piece--must be business as usual at the Wood's house.

Mostly we've just hung out together and eaten junk food and watched movies. Here's a picture of our glasses club. Jacob has them, but never wears them anymore, he says he sees better without them. Last night we went to our first German New Year's Eve party and had so much fun. A little before midnight everyone goes outside and lights fireworks--not just sparklers, but the rockets that you see at the big fireworks displays in the States. You can turn in any direction and watch an amazing firework display light up the sky from Germans' houses all over the valley. Other than Mason almost getting his foot blown off by a firework, we all had a great time.

We hope you all have a great New Year and spend some quality time doing the important things!