Christmas lights

We have outside lights for the first time ever! So sparkly and shiny :)

Wir haben zum allerersten Mal Lichter an unserem Haus! So glitzernd und leuchtend :)

Happy 2nd Birthday Lily Sophia!

Wir waren bei Chuck E. Cheese (Restaurant fuer Kinder mit verschiedenen Spielen, Pizza, Chicken Wings etc.) fuer Lily's Geburtstag. Um ein Spiel zu spielen, kauft man Chuck E. Cheese Muenzen (Chuck E. ist uebrigens eine Maus) und am Ende des Spiels bekommt man Tickets, die dann fuer einen Gewinn eingeloest werden koennen. Lily liebt es, die Muenzen einzuwerfen und laeuft dann weg. Fuer die meisten Spiele ist sie ein bisschen zu klein, aber wenn wir dort sind, rennt sie die ganze Zeit rum und mag gar nicht mehr gehen!


We went to Chuck E. Cheese for Lily's birthday. Lily loves to put in the coins and then walks away. She is a bit to little for most games, but when we go to Chuck E. there is no stopping her and she doesn't want to leave anymore!

Christmas and what comes afterwards...?

(photo: My parents and me)
So, I spent Christmas Eve (24th) with my parents. We ate, talked, laughed and unwrapped gifts. It was relaxed and nice. I spent the night and stayed until after lunch the next day. When I got home, I called my stepkids in WI, my new family in WA and a friend in WI :) My stepkids were not very talkative on the phone, I guess they were tired from getting up too early ;) They liked all the gifts they got and wanted to spend a relaxed day at home. I 'spread' Christmas spirit over email and will do so on myspace probably. Today I will meet my aunt and her family for lunch and tomorrow will be the ultimate family reunion for dinner! Everybody is supposed to come that lives in Germany :) it's going to be loud!
For everybody who doesn't know, Greeks are mostly orthodox. They follow a different church calender for their fests and holidays. The Greeks usually give presents on January 6th. But the way it is, I guess a lot of them start doing it on December 24th now too. I am not too familiar with the orthodox church. My parents weren't really interested and when I visited German schools here I learned more about being catholic than orthodox. Oh yeah, in German schools you have to go to either catholic or protestant class. Once you are older you can switch to "ethics" which is basically studying also other religions like Buddhism or Islam.
Anyways, Christmas had a good timing this year. The 25th and 26th are German holidays and this year a weekend follows! Because my boss gives us the 24th off too, that meant a 5-day-weekend for me! Yeah! I have to go to work on the 29th and 30th, but then again have 2 days off :) I needed vacation time anyways ;)