Christmas 2014

It's been a year since we said goodbye to Munich.  I didn't want to say goodbye and that truth still stings from time to time.  The surprise hello we got at the Portland airport a year ago from some of our favorite people definitely triggered not only a guttural knee bending emotional response in a public place that I will never live down by my friends but also made us feel like we're home with a simple hug.  And we are home.  We love the Beast even if it demands us to empty our wallets more than we'd like and I have to be fully clothed under the sheets on cold nights.  We love our neighborhood community even with the city nuisances like late night loud noises, homeless people going through our recycling, and having to lock our front porch patio furniture to a railing.  We love our friends.  Don't even get me started on our Portland friends.  I get sappy fast.  And the icing on the cake on all this?  My parents moved into our first floor apartment and we're not killing each other.  We're actually rocking it.  

There's this quote "The only time you should look back is to see how far you've come." I'm not at that point yet when it comes to Munich but I'll get there.  I look back a bit too much still thinking - what could've been.  Regardless, it was such a full 2014 with a crazy amount of firsts and also an eerie amount of like we never even left moments.  Life goes on - damn it and thank God.

Christmas 2014 will be remembered for old and new family traditions (Eric - thank Nate that I didn't post the Skype video of you playing Drummer boy), first Christmas in the Beast, Oma and Opa's strong and loving presence, and our dead 8 foot Christmas tree after only 3 days.  Guess you can't even skip a day of watering.  Whoops.  

Nate took the last two weeks off and we kept it pretty low key but did some new fun things like ice skating - Paul loves it, Elise eventually tolerated it, Lily managed to regain her old form after some tears - the science museum, and Lily skied for the first time.  We had a ton of dedicated play time upstairs. The playroom turned into Paul's construction site race class, Elise's ballet class and performance stage, Lily's drawing class, fire station, a race course, you name it.  Here's a video of the state of our playroom after a normal day at home.

Ballerinas coloring by the advent wreath

Putting up our Christmas tree.  Go big or go home.  Only shot of the tree healthy.

 Making Christmas cookies in Oma's kitchen.

 Christmas Eve dinner at Oma and Opa's, same menu as always.   The only tradition we forgot was lighting the candles on their tree.

 Oma and Lolo made sure Paul was dressed to match his Opa - bow tie and red sweater vest.  Sorry Buddy, this will be your outfit for every Christmas eve while you don't put up too much of a fuss.

 Christkind (baby Jesus) visited and brought the kids a train table during dinner on Christmas Eve.

 Girls are loving their Frozen night gowns.  Thanks Aunt Jill

 The ladies

 Cutting down the Christmas tree pretty much right after Santa left.All the needles on the ground are from Paul sneezing near it.  Only a slight exaggeration.

 Bye Tree.  We'll do better next year.