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

PJ'sS 2nd Birthday Party

Due to PJ and I being a bit sick on his actual birthday, we rescheduled his party. It finally took place and thankfully a handful of kids could come and the entire experience was what a kid's birthday party should be: relaxed, loud, and fun.

We started with the second cake I've ever made from scratch. This time I also made the icing from scratch. Talk about make-your-teeth-ache-sweet!

The whole Steinbach clan blowing out the candles.

PJ wasn't that impressed with the candles.

He took them out as soon as possible to get to the cake.



PJ with his cake, ready to chow down.

After the cake - and props to the Germans that managed to eat a full (small) piece of that American sweetness - more friends arrived and one of them brought water balloons! PJ only needed to be shown once what to do with them and then he was OFF.

PJ aiming for his daddy.

Zoom in and check out PJ's face: this was serious business.

Sadly, but as can be expected with three men and four boys, the balloons were gone far too quickly. But PJ learned a lesson for life....that he keeps trying to repeat.

I have no idea why this is funny but the Mr. wanted a picture.

After the balloon fight, the boys took off. I'm telling you: the more kids, the less work. They took off, climbing on things, jumping off of said things, chasing each other, and only coming around the adults for food and drink.

Boys climbing.

Boys jumping (in the background).

This is why older friends are important:
they teach you things.

Far too quickly the sun began to sink and little boys started to yawn and get a little tired-grumpy. But it was a lovely afternoon full of noise and people who like and enjoy. Win-win-win.


xo

Christmas Fun 2012

Christmas 2012 has come and gone. PJ's second Christmas; for him, this time it was a lot more fun and about one million times more active. For me? I was mostly in bed - except when I dragged my sick self to my in-laws - with strep throat. Blah.

Anywho - turns out that we need to start a little earlier than Christmas itself because I forgot to share the pictures and story of when we got our Christmas tree. We drove to a Christmas farm close to our small town. There were a lot of pre-cut trees, but the largest sign said "Cut Your Own!". As soon as he saw that, the Mr. said to me, "Did you bring your saw?"

As in, there is no way that my husband would have a saw or - you know - use it.

Well, me either but I totally took advantage of the silliness the entire time we were there. My saw. Hilarious.

I was the only person impressed by the Santa. 

PJ LOVED playing "where's PJ?" among the maze of Christmas trees. 

Can this child be any more beautiful. Really.

He wasn't a big fan on the snow. 

The Mr. and I are pragmatic and we played "Where's PJ?" far longer than it took us to pick out our tree. When PJ got sick of the game, the cold, and the snow, we threw the tree into the car and went home to put it together. You'll see it later in the pictures.

Yeah, so back to Christmas. Just like last year, we first had Christmas Eve, aka "German Christmas" at my in-laws. To be frank, I had no voice, was on antibotics for strep throat, and my body hurt almost every time I moved - I just wanted to be at home in my bed with tea and soup. But it was Christmas so I sucked it up and ventured out of the house. Considering how awful I felt, it was an overall nice evening.

As usual the evening started with a shared dinner and then we opened gifts together. PJ made out like a bandit as to be expected for the first grandchild, right?

My father-in-law

Uncle Handsome

Me! That's me! Back in red. 

A ridiculously handsome group of Steinbachs.

PJ wasn't too thrilled with dinner - who wants to sit still when there are rooms to explore? - but he was all over gift opening. Especially nice, big ones:

"For me? Sweet. How do I open this thing?"

"What could it be? What could it be?"

"A bike!!! I've got wheels!!!"

 The bike came from S-Squared and Uncle Handsome. PJ loves it.

The bike is a pedal-less bike that is rather common over here. They essentially make training-wheels pointless since the children learn to balance before they get a bike with pedals. To see the other kids riding around on these things, they can really fly.  PJ is still a tiny tick too small for his bike, so he graciously permitted his uncle to roll him around the living room.

The gifts just kept coming; PJ even got a cooking apron from Oma. 

Since I was so sick, we skipped the arm wrestling tradition at the Mr's house and went home early. Boy was I grateful to climb into my bed. What one doesn't do for her family?

The next day was American Christmas and we enjoyed a slow, gentle day, just the three of us. It was wonderful. I still felt bad but at least I had something of a voice. While PJ is more or less sleeping through the night these days, he is waking up very early. On Christmas he was up at 5 am and we were eating an early snack by 5:30.

Yes, we all ate cookies for our early snack. Go ahead and judge.
They were awesome.

Then a diaper change was in order so the boys went upstairs while I got the gifts, music, candles and lights ready. I have to say, it was beautiful. The candles were on the shelves around the walls of the room and the light was beautiful.

Our little tree.

The Steinbach clan. I personally think PJ is rocking that
chocolate mustache.

All in all it took us about three hours to open and put together all the gifts. Santa brought PJ a wooden train track system. It has bridges and tunnels and the whole 9 yards. We had to simplify it a bit and he played with it for a long time.

For the record: I got books and was stoked.

After real breakfast and a shared nap time, we needed to get out of the house. This year Christmas day was about 50 some degrees Fahrenheit - so we played football (soccer) in front of our home.

Then seasame crusted salmon with sweet potatoes and a salad for dinner - which I made and it. was. awesome. - and a slow wrap up to a wonderful day.

Merry Christmas readers - did you make it this far? If you did, may I please ask you to take a moment and be grateful for your life and send up a prayer/thought for the families in Newtown? Thanks.



xx