Merry Christmas!

Munich

We took a day trip down to Munich this week. We wanted to make it to the Christmas market but also take the kids to a couple of other places as well.

First stop was lunch at the Hofbraeu.

This picture doesn't do it justice, but every time the band would start playing Maggie would start dancing.  She loved it.

Cadel in front of the Neues Rathaus (new town hall).  For some reason he loved this building.  So much so that at one of the Christmas market stalls he found a picture of it that he had to have.

We also stopped at BMW Welt.  Everyone loved climbing on the motorcycles.

This is the picture that Cadel had to have.  He is very proud of it.

Bamberger Weihnachtsmarkt

Saturday we went to Bamberg for the Christmas market and a stop at Pizza Thomas.  We also made a lunch stop at our favorite Asian restaurant for lunch on the way in.  It is called Lily and she has moved to a town outside of Bamberg.

Checking out the miniature map.

Cadel in front of the Rathaus on the Obererbruecke.

"It's over there."

This was a new type of street art.  The guy brought his own sand and molded and carved it to look like sleepy dogs.  Awesome.  Notice Cormac giving a Euro to him.

Christmas wishes.

Maggie's First Day

Maggie started preschool on Tuesday.  This has been in the works for a little while.  Back in September we went to a family retreat in Garmisch.  During some of the workshops Maggie and Cadel went to child care at the CDC there.  Maggie loved going to "school" so when we got back home I put her on the waiting list here.  A spot in the class finally opened up a few weeks ago.  She is in Cadel's class so they go together 2 days a week.  She had a great first day and I think she loves going to school with Cadel.

Birthday boys

We had our final birthdays of the year at the end of last week.  Cormac turned 6 on Friday and Gus turned 8 on Saturday.  We had two separate parties on Saturday.  Cormac had a Star Wars party in the morning and Gus had a Wild Kratts party in the afternoon.  Because of the busy weekend I didn't get many pictures but here are a few.

Cormac had to wait ALL DAY on Friday to open his presents from family (Pat had been down in Italy all week so we waited for him to get home that night).  Cormac was ready to go the second Pat walked through the door.

Christkindlmarkt time is here!

We have finally reached Christmas market season.  Pat and I have been so excited for it.  On Thanksgiving we had our turkey early and then headed to Regensburg for the Christmas market.

Cormac, Cadel and Maggie rode both of the little carousel rides they had at the market.

Friday we took the train to Nuernberg.  It didn't go as well as planned.  It was cold and Cadel was diabolically opposed to cold that day.  So we walked about half of it and then trudged back to the train station. Here are Cormac and Cadel sharing a hot chocolate.

Here is the only moment during the trip that Cadel was pleasant.

Saturday we went to Parsberg (the town right next to us, 1 km away) for their little market.  Cadel was really into the cold then because it had snowed and he played in all of the snow.  Cormac tried a lebkuchen (German gingerbread cookies specially for Christmas) and loved it.  The others had some also and liked it, but Mr. Sweets Cormac had two enormous ones.

First snow of the season

It happened Saturday night/Sunday morning. The kids were thrilled to wake up to some white on the ground.  It wasn't much but enough to need playing in.  They were dressed and ready to go by 8 a.m. (I'm certain the neighbors really love us now).

It didn't take long for the boys to figure out it was the best kind of packing snow to make snow balls.

Which led to the construction of a snowman.

Maggie thought the snow was "yummy."

Cadel's job was to make sure the snowman had a carrot for his nose.

Final Flag Football

Gus' final flag football was last week.  He really seemed to enjoy this one and it was fun to watch him.

They all received medals from Coach at the end. Coach called Gus his "speed demon" when Gus got his medal.

Team picture.