Christmas Joy

Christmas has come and gone and the memories remain fresh.

We started our Christmas eve with some silly selfies while getting all dolled up. Its hilarious to me how much kids love seeing their picture being taken.

Before we went to Oma and Opa's house, I asked the kids to pose for a picture in their specially chosen Christmas outfits. PJ chose both his outfit and his sister's dress. Bean heavily and proudly accessorized.

Both kids wanted their baby doll in the picture, so we got a special chair for him and then posed. Hilariously, when I posed this adorable picture online, more than a handful of people thought it was a pregnancy announcement.

That would be one big fat nope.

Later in the evening, Bean got another accessory.

Thanks to the wonders of a selfie-stick, we managed to get a picture of the entire Steinbach clan on Christmas eve. Good looking family.
 

The next day, we celebrated American Christmas.


Bean got a doll she can dress, feed, and cuddle. She was thrilled and still sleeps with "mein Baby!" almost every night. She and PJ take turns caring for Baby and take their responsibilities seriously.
 

 

Little man got a horrifically un-photogenic Transformer as well as an extremely complex Lego set he put together patiently over a couple of hours with some help from me. I am fascinated how removing him from a negative, stressful situation has freed him up to concentrate on more complex, challenging tasks. Another sign that we made the right decision for him.

 

 

Then we took a walk in the surprisingly warm Christmas Day.

Like my sweater? Bean chose it for me at H&M. Someone please invite me to an Ugly Sweater Party.
 

 

We wrapped up our day with a fun puzzle from Granny and Granpa.

What a wonderful Christmas celebration.
 

XO

Christmas Cookies with Friends

Today we made Christmas cookies with our friend from Eritrea. It was her first time making sugar cookies. PJ and Bean ensured the experience was messy, loud, and wildly chaotic. 

So, fun. 

The final result was fabulous! Colorful iced cookies that were far too yummy for our own good. 

I'd share pictures but well, most of them are already gone. 

XO

A Merry Christmas!

XO

Christmas Day 2014

Christmas Day - finally! Also called American Christmas in our house. Santa made it to our house:

Jelly Bean got up at her usual time. So she and I went downstairs and enjoyed some play time together while the boys slept.

 

PJ slept in his suit until almost 9am! Partying makes you pay at some point. ;)

But he finally got up and remembered Santa Claus was suppose to come. It took a lot of persuasion to get him out of his suit and into his sleeping clothes.

 

But we finally did it. And then we had to wait for papa to get into his sleeping clothes as well. So we made Christmas faces.

This is the Grinch.

This is Santa Claus.

Finally we were all ready and PJ and Jelly Bean were allowed to charge the tree.

We took it really slow opening the gifts. We took play breaks and even stopped to eat breakfast. The kids didn't mind, in fact, they seemed a little overwhelmed by the newness and excitement a few times. I can't pick which pictures to post, so here are too many.

We started with the gifts from Granny and Grandpe. Both kids loved their new kindergarten bags.

 

Then we opened the gifts from mommy and daddy. I made the kids superhero caps. They were a hit.

 

We took a play break and opened the parent gifts. Building up on my birthday gift, the Mr. got me a lovely pendant with all of our names and birthstones. I was really touched. 

And I gifted him a piece of writing.

 The kids were still happy with the gifts they had opened, so we ate some yummy breakfast.

 

After breakfast, we opened the gifts from Santa Claus. We had just managed to meet Santa the Friday before Christmas. Thank goodness we did! PJ had been telling us for weeks he wanted a SpiderMan but when we met Santa, he clarified: he wanted a SpiderMan costume.

Santa, that professional, really pulled through.

 

I'm pretty sure Santa has connections with AmazonPrime.

Our music lover, Jelly Bean, got a walkable piano. This thing is pretty fantastic.

I may have been caught a few times playing on it myself.

Afterwards, I'm pretty sure we all took a nap and then enjoyed an excellent goose dinner lovingly and excellently prepared by the Mr.

 

Slowly a joyful, kid-filled Christmas came to an end. I'm realizing how much more fun and inspiring Christmas is with the wonder of a child. And ribbons, of course.

XO

Christmas Eve 2014

Christmas this year was ever more magical than last year. Per tradition, we spent Christmas eve with the Mr.'s family where glorious things were prepared in the kitchen.

 

You wish you could have eaten with us.

While the rest of us played and goofed.

Jelly Bean practiced her hide-and-seek skills with her brother, papa, uncle, and aunt.

Then she discovered some accessories that she insisted we wear.

 

So I insisted on a picture of the handsome girls.

 

We tried to get a picture of our handsome boys as well but...

My handsome husband.

PJ was way too busy playing with his uncle.

 

And leading his uncle and his sister around the house on some sort of complicated march.

Finally, after we had eaten dinner and were (impatiently) waiting to open gifts, I managed to snag a picture of my handsome fellows.

We even got a somewhat fun picture of the whole family!

Once the gift giving got going, pictures become scarce. I did manage to get this picture of my ridiculously beautiful sister-in-law.

This year PJ made star decorations for his family. Opa and Tante got necklaces. Uncle got a bowtie. And Oma got an apron so she can "stay cooking" (told you the food is good).

Then we managed to snap some of the family pictures.

Our clan with the gift of the year:
a talking Lightning McQueen.

The super handsome siblings.

The almost-entire family, just missing
my newest sister-in-law and baby-to-be.

After the food was eaten, gifts were opened, and the kitchen somewhat cleaned up, we headed over to the Mr's grandmother's house to meet up with the rest of the family.

Jelly Bean was all over the "prost"ing
with her sippy cup.

Together, we sang songs, enjoyed some beer or wine, and made another set of memories.

Jelly Bean was impressed with the singing; PJ was pretty bored.

After the singing ends, the younger generation (meaning my husband, his siblings, and all his cousins) tends to drift upstairs to play board games and drink schnapps. Most years there is also arm wrestling.

This year, however, "younger generation" meant my three-year-old, dressed in his full suit, proudly playing Looping Louie, drinking milk schnapps (just milk, I checked) while the others drank the harder stuff and showing no signs of being tried at 11:30pm.

If he can party this well at three years old, I'm pretty sure we are in for a major ride in just a few short years.




xo