Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas! I knew we'd be missing Germany and the beautiful Christmas markets and crazy New Year's Eve fireworks this year, so we planned a lot of fun stuff to do throughout the past month here in Utah.

 
Of course we baked cookies.

 
We have also been enjoying snowy days off and on.  
We've had more snow here by the end of December than we had all last winter in Germany!

 
We spent several fun evenings at Grandma and Grandpas playing with cousins.  

It's great to get to know this side of our family a little better.

 
Cha-Cha performed in Frozen Jr.

 
It was difficult at times with practices every week, but she ended the season with some new friends and loving the experience.  She's looking forward to rehearsals for the Spring production starting next week.

 
We shared a little taste of German Christmas at the Cub Scouts' Christmas around the World celebration.

 
We visited Temple Square in Salt Lake City to enjoy the Christmas lights there.

 
It was beautiful but could be improved with some Kinderpunsch stands.  I'm just sayin'.

 
I didn't do a lot of homemade gifts this year, but I did sew some new clothes for Sissy's Barbies. 

 
Our biggest undertaking was to host a Christmas Market party at home with our favorite German treats.  The kiddos also made crafts to sell at their stands in the garage.

Some friends joined us in the fun!  All of the money raised was donated to Safe Harbor which helps victims of domestic violence.

 
We decorated gingerbread houses...





... And played oh so many board games!

 
We decorated sugar cookies for Santa...



... And enjoyed our quiet Christmas day at home with new toys.

 

After Christmas I took the kiddos to the Children's Museum in Salt Lake to get out of the house and get some wiggles out.

 
Cha-Cha made this cute goal sheet for herself and we all liked it so much that I made copies for all of us.

 
For New Year's Eve dinner we had our traditional raclette dinner.  Raclette cheese was available at a large grocery store's cheese counter but the price tag gave us pause.  We supplemented with gouda, and had to make do with bratwursts since no Nurenburger sausages were to be found.  But it was fun and tasty just the same.  

Over dinner we discussed the highlights of 2019. We had an amazing year with trips to Paris, Garmisch, Israel,  Tenerife, Ghent, Holland, Legoland, Pennsylvania, and our mega-Disney road trip. Tenerife was unanimously the favorite experience of the past year.

 
I made homemade cinnamon rolls for our first breakfast of 2020 and we stayed up to welcome in the new year!  We have much more modest plans for 2020 and plan to stay quite local in our travels, but we look forward to exploring more of the American West and its beautiful parks.  

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


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