Even though it's winter, we try to go for a family walk whenever we have a day off so we can get outdoors and see what's around our house. Here's a few pictures of our last 3.
I know we didn't get as much snow as those of you that live in New England, but we had a pretty cool ice effect where we woke up and everything had ice crystals on it, shaped like little leaves. It was nice looking and everything was covered in white. The only thing was that it flaked right off like soft snow if you touched it...it was pretty cool...not hard like the iced-over branches I always knew in Massachusetts.
Collin and I...leaving our street in Obereichenbach.
Gorgeous trees...
This one makes a cool desktop background...
Collin had a "moment" and had some big elephant tears. He actually got so bad that we had to go home and let him take a nap which he doesn't usually do these days. No clue what was wrong with that boy.
After his nap, we tried going for a walk again....it was much better this time and he had a blast. I told him he could lick the snow off the plants, so he did...and I think he licked EVERY plant in the field until we told him we needed to pick up the pace a bit.
There was a cool treestand built along the edge of the field and the woods. I assume it was to shoot deer during hunting season...but not sure. It seems like there's one of these along every field.
Our next walk was halfway between here and the town that we lived in temporarily, Bruckberg. There's a cute little village up on a hill, so we parked and walked up there. I forget the name of it, but I think it's Reckersdorf or something like that...it's only got about 12 houses in it and reminds me of a medieval town.
My girl Gunner Mae, still as beautiful as ever
Collin was proud he climbed his little hill
On New Years Eve, we went for a walk down by a lake towards Munich. We were on our way to an early dinner so we were dressed up and decided to try to take a family picture (minus Gunner).
This one had a questionable background...
Collin....cute no matter what.
Collin and Mommy
Finally...one that we think came out pretty good.
Thanks for reading and happy New Year!
We arrived back in Germany and I started to get settled in to my normal work routine at the clinic. It's basically an 8-4 job, but I end up staying late every night to catch up on my charts and do extra stuff for the unit that I don't have time to do during the day. Overall, it's pretty enjoyable though and it's good to be back into day-to-day medicine.
We did a little bit of shopping for the house when we got back, trying to get ready for Christmas. One place we went to was IKEA, the Swedish furniture place which is only like 20 minutes away in Nuremberg. We stopped in a little town just outside of Nuremberg for lunch on our way and they had this nice little nativity themed windmill thing.
Collin and Mommy after lunch...
The IKEA in Nuremberg is enormous. It takes a couple hours to walk through the whole store which is like a maze leading you from section to section. There's a cafeteria halfway through the store and a coffee shop at the beginning and end. Collin seems to like going there though...they have hopscotch painted on the floors scattered throughout and of course, he likes to touch everything.
I started taking the guitar more seriously and I'm beginning to take lessons after the holidays. Here's Collin and I unwinding after work one evening.
We had a Christmas party for the clinic and did the secret Santa thing and brought a present for Santa to hand out to the kids too. Collin was really cute and brought a hat for Santa. He was the first kid to walk up to him and talked his ear off, he was really surprised to find out that Santa knew he wanted airplanes.
Even I got to sit on Santa's lap..
We spent Christmas Eve with our neighbors Luis and Gloriana and their daughter Sofia. Here's Collin and Sofia. Collin had Fifth Disease (Erythema Infectiosum, a parvovirus B19 infection) which presented the "slapped-cheek" appearance on the 23rd and he had a rash all over his body on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. He was fine...just looked a little funny with the bright red cheeks.
We were playing a card game called Dos Trios, it's pretty fun. I don't know if it was beginner's luck..but I emerged the champion. I also did some damage to a bottle of vodka and made some delicious martinis.
Here's Collin coming downstairs on Christmas morning. He found a few gifts that Santa must have left by his bed, as you can tell by the lollipop in his mouth first thing in the morning.
The approach to the living room in anticipation....
And.....the tree...Santa came...
Collin helped hand out presents...he was struggling with Gunner's bone though...
Here he is opening a few gifts...oddly, he kept asking for a vacuum cleaner for Christmas, oh, and "toy beer". We found the vacuum cleaner, but didn't get him any beer.
Mimi and Poppa got him a Dora the Explorer world globe that lets him learn about different countries. He really liked it..
The next night, the neighbors came over our place for dinner and round two of Dos Trios. We didn't finish the game, largely due to disinterest after I took a commanding lead early on, but I did manage to introduce them to Guitar Hero, haha...
Here's Collin and Sofia, chillaxing in Collin's room.
Gloriana trying her hand at becoming a Goddess of Rock
And lastly, Luis and I getting ready to play as a team. It was our first Christmas as a family in Germany and we really had a nice one. We missed our families, but hopefully they can come visit us here. The Christmas Markets in Germany are really beautiful (I have pictures, I just forgot to put them up and I'm being lazy right now).
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