McNay Christmas

Before we drove up to Knoxville we had our family Christmas time together. It was tons of fun. We got up early and I made cinnamon coffee cake, and then we opened presents together. Hadleigh was hilarious about them. Dave cooked dinner for us which is tradition, roast duck with raspberry sauce, and butternut squash ravioli (which he made from scratch) with a tomato avocado cream sauce. To top it all off, we had a wonderful bottle of Italian wine.

Here is Hadleigh opening her present from Uncle Jim and Aunt KC. They sent her a little camo outfit that says "Old Ironside" which is Baumholder's nickname.

Hadleigh attacks a present.

Wow! Stacking blocks from Papa Froggy and Nana Patti! She was shaking these all day long.

She loves her new hat and mittens from cousin Matt. We found her later crawling around the house with the mittens in her mouth.

Her star cones from Papa and Nana made lots of fun noises that she enjoyed.

Great-Grandma Gladys Claire had a beautiful sweater made for Hadleigh. She played with that for a long while.

And, of course, we could not keep her away from the bubble wrap and tissue paper.

Christmas in Knoxville

For Christmas we were able to drive up to Knoxville and spend time with Dave's family. We had a good time celebrating with family and Hadleigh raked in some serious presents.Here is Hadleigh with Aunt Angie. Angie has dubbed Hadleigh "Princess", so that was the theme of our Christmas with them...everything Princess. Angie has three boys, so Hadleigh is the only girl in the fam.
Hadleigh enjoys having Grandpa give her bottle to her. Whenever she finishes eating she always looks a little drunk.

HC and Aunt KC

Yesterday Hadleigh Claire received a package from her Aunt KC. All of our presents have been sitting under the tree because HC doesn't seem too interested in harming or playing with the presents. This afternoon while we were playing in the living room, HC crawled over to the tree and picked up the present she received from Aunt KC and started playing with it and chewing on it. I thought it was so sweet, like she knew the present was from her special aunt.

The picture below is from our going away party in Germany, this was one of the last times HC saw Aunt KC.

Thinking about Germany

It is now a few days before Christmas, and now more than ever my thoughts are in Germany. I miss life there!

Here are just a few things that I miss.

1. All of our friends.

2. Reformation Sunday

3. Our small chapel service

4. Being able to drive to France just for kicks

5. Christmas markets

6. Slower paced life

7. Snow

I know that if we were back in Baumholder I would probably wish to here, the grass is always greener. But I so enjoyed spending Christmas in Germany, it was simpler over there. There is so much hub-bub over here regarding Christmas...can you find the right gift and the best gift, and the right sale. It is kind of irritating. I enjoy being able to focus on the season of advent, and it seems here in America all that is faded to nothing. Life during advent here is all busyness...life during advent in Germany is quiet and peaceful.

I am posting a couple of pictures of our friends Jon, Sara and Ellie, and Grant and Jessica. Jon and Grant were both in Iraq for Christmas last year and just returned home before Thanksgiving. Both Sara and Jess were part of the women's ministry that I led this past year. As well, they were in our community group. We are so thrilled to know that so many of our friends will be able to spend this Christmas as a complete family.

Making Cookies

These pics are a couple of weeks old. My good buds Bif and Kris were moving, so I had their 2 older children, Alex and Zack over to make cookies one afternoon. I lived with them a couple of different times. The first time I moved in I was in the room across the hall from Alex. She was so excited that I was living there that she sat in her doorway (she was supposed to be sleeping) and watched me unpack boxes.

Alex was the flowergirl at our wedding three years ago. Here is a pic.

Anyway, we had a great time cutting out and decorating the sugar cookies. Alex and Zack are so creative, we made up all sorts of stories about the cookies we decorated. After decorating we played cards.

Here is Zack playing with Hadleigh.

Ode to My Washer and Dryer

Last Friday my life changed dramatically. After living for 139 weeks without my own washer and dryer, and because of the good will of our buds Bif and Kris we are now the proud owners of a WD.

Ever since we moved to Germany I have been doing our wash at the laundromat. This was a relatively good set-up because I could get 8 loads all washed, dried and folded in a 2 hour time period. However, once Hadleigh came into the picture the laundromat was far from ideal. I would have a bucket full of Borax sitting around the house so that I could soak her poop stained clothes buying me precious time to get to the L.

Monday morning Hadleigh woke up from a good night's rest and when I went to get her I found she was soaked. Her diaper had leaked all over the place. Have no fear! I was able to strip her and the bed, wash and dry everything and have her all set-up before her mid-morning nap. Yea!!!!!

I am throwing away my rolls of quarters, this is the best thing that has happened to me since we unpacked our kitchenaid mixer.

Photo Shoot

A few days ago we met up with John, Brea and Brennan at Henderson Park to take some Christmas pictures. We had great fun trying to get the babes to pay attention to the camera. We brought Hadleigh's favorite little bear with us. The best part of the time was seeing John waving bear in a million different directions trying to Hadleigh's attention.

Miss Hadleigh Claire Meets Santa

Christmas Trees in Georgia

For the last two years we have purchased our Christmas tree at a local tree farm about a mile from our house. The farmer charged 5 euro ($6) for you to come and chop down one of his trees. If he wasn't out at the farm you would just drop the money in his mailbox.

The first year we went was a beautiful day, but freezing cold. Last year it had just snowed 18 inches and it was sleeting when we picked out our tree. You can read about that story in the December 2005 archive.

Today we went up near the Mall of Georgia to a tree farm. They have some nice trees, and provide saws and free hot cider! We had a good time, but it just didn't feel like we should be cutting down a Christmas tree since we were wearing short sleeves. I guess it doesn't usually snow 18 inches over Thanksgiving in Georgia. So, maybe this year we traded snow for price because our tree cost a bit more than $6.

Thanksgiving

We were able to spend Thanksgiving with Dave's family in Knoxville. We all had a good time visiting everyone. Dave was able to get some fishing in, we were able to go out to dinner minus Hadleigh, and I worked on a sewing project.

The Worm

Before Thanksgiving Hadleigh entered into the world of crawling. She had been training really hard with Dave for a couple of weeks and finally began to get the hang of it. The funny thing is that her crawling looks like the breakdance move "The Worm". I am sure most of you are familiar with that move, the whole body is on the ground and moving around like a worm would. She is SO hilarious when she does this. I wish I could capture it on film, but alas, the camera doesn't seem to do this justice.