Mannheim Christmas Market

On Tuesday, we loaded up the kids and drove in the rain to a town about 45 minutes away, Mannheim. Many of the villages and cities here have had wonderful Christmas markets throughout the month of December which have booths displaying and selling traditional German food, goodies, clothing, decorations, and gifts. Mannheim's Christmas market was really great because it had a lot of fun rides for the kids. Even though it was raining, we arrived in high spirits and started off with a ride for the kids. Mason, Ella and Colton rode around a track in different vehicles while listening to Christmas music.








We went on a ferris wheel next. At first, Mason wanted nothing to do with the ferris wheel, he just wanted to be an observer. But as he watched his siblings going around and around, he decided it looked pretty fun so I went with him on the ride the next time and we got to see the whole Christmas market from up above.


Next we went on the German's version of the Polar Express, a little train that took us around in circles and instead of showing scenes of winter wonderlands, we saw big beer barrels and unidentifiable sausage products: Christmas German Style.




By now the boys were getting hungry, so we sought out a bratwurst stand and Jaxon and Sean found some good 'brats'.


We tried to pose for a family picture in front of the water tower, and almost everyone was looking happy:

We bought crepes: (zucker and zift: sugar and cinnamon ones)

The kids rode ponies:



I gotta tell you what happened when the kids were getting ready to ride the ponies. A German lady approached me and started talking to me in German. I had no clue what she was saying, but I could tell she was upset. Her tone of voice let me know that if I could understand her, I probably would be getting in a fighting stance and putting up my dukes for her to meet "thunder" and "lightning". But, since I had no idea what she was saying, I just smiled and kept saying, No Clue. I was worried at first that she was Anti-American and was criticizing us for something. When we lived here before, every once in a blue moon we would run into someone who didn't like Americans. I know, crazy, but true. So, I feared this lady could just sense my red, white, and blue blood and was giving me an earful. But no, I finally figured out what the deal was: she was ticked off that the animals were being used as a ride. She thought it was cruel to let the kids ride on ponies. She started yelling at the people who worked at the ride, and I just stepped back and thought that a German Jerry Springer would probably pay big bucks if I was recording this on my I phone. Oh well. The kids didn't notice and had fun. We went on a merry go round to end our Christmas market experience:


By then, Mason was cold and couldn't feel his toes very well, so we figured we would call it a day and go back home. We had our first 'schneeballs': a German pastry consisting of pie crust rolled in a ball and dipped in sugar or chocolate. Yum. Double yum. We ate them on the way home, making a huge mess but enjoying every minute.

Let It Snow Let It Snow Let It Snow

We have been having a Winter Wonderland here the past three weeks. It has snowed A TON, literally, over the past few days. School was delayed twice three weeks ago, cancelled twice two weeks ago, cancelled on their last day before Christmas break, and even Church was cancelled on Sunday. We were literally snowed in. We had the necessities: food, water, and fudge, so we were fine. We've been playing lots of games, shoveling loads and loads of snow, and watching lots of movies. The kids have had numerous snowman building competitions, snowball fights, and sledding expeditions. Sean has shoveled more snow than he ever imagined was possible. There is now a new P90X workout: the snow shovel. He is more sore from all the shoveling than from Tony's pull ups. The main roads get plowed, but we live off of the main road, so we are on our own. The Germans, once again, are amazing and such hard workers, so everyone is out there morning, noon, and night shoveling snow. The only problem is, there is sooooo much snow, there is no where to shovel it!! You are supposed to shovel your sidewalks and driveways, but the piles on the side of the road are HUGE!! There is no where to put all the snow.
This is the view out my kitchen window:

Here's Sean pushing Ella for a ride:

Here's Jaxon and Ella going for a ride down our street:

And here's Colton with the awesome cake he made for his class but never got to give them because the last day of school was cancelled due to the snow! So, we 'took one for the team' and ate it ourselves. We are so SELFLESS!!

Decorating the Tree

There has been a whirlwind of fun and business since Sean has been home. The first order of business was decorating the Christmas tree. We had gone the night before he came back to pick one out. It was freezing outside, literally below freezing, and the kids were tired, so it didn't take us long to find one. Most of the trees were still wrapped in the netting, so we found one, uncut the netting to see if it was ok, looked at it for .2 seconds in the freezing cold, deemed it 'acceptable' and quickly bought it so we could head home. Mason had slipped and fell in some ice, so he had already headed back to the car with Jaxon to take off his wet shirt and watch a movie. Colton has 1% body fat, so he needed to hurry home too. Our church Cub Scout troop was selling the trees that night, so nice Bro. Jensen tied the tree to our car roof and we were off! On Monday night we decorated the tree as part of Family Home Evening. Mason and Ella had been waiting so long for this to happen, they each took a section of the tree and hung every ornament they could find in that one section. The tree fairy came later that night when they were asleep and magically rearranged the ornaments in a more aesthetically pleasing lay out. Sorry, the tree fairy can be kinda 'Type A' when it comes to ornament-hanging.

Ice Skating

Ella has been asking to go ice skating for a while. That was the one thing she really wanted to do when Sean got back, so things worked out nicely last Saturday when we were invited to Kaitlyn Turner's birthday party at the ice skating rink. The last time we lived here the rink was a temporary structure set up under a tent: translation: COLD. This year they built a rink inside a building that is right by our church and the infamous Dino Park, so we were happy to be inside and not super cold. I had gone a few days before with the Young Women and Young Men in our church for an activity, and Jaxon went ice skating that night for the first time. He fell 12 times and loved it. He kept getting back up and trying again, and by the end of the night, a possible future ice hockey player was born. On Saturday, he and his buddy Spencer had fun skating around the rink. Remember Colton's first time roller skating a few months ago? Ice skating for Colton was a similar experience: lots of arm flapping and waving to try to keep himself upright. A few falls, but lots of laughs. He had a great time too. Ella went around one time and said she was done. Really? No way, she had been waiting MONTHS for this moment! She took a little break and told Sean she was ready to try again! That's my girl!! She ended up loving it too and doing great. And what about Mason? He was found playing with Aedan most of the time, not really excited about trying out the ice. Maybe next time. He did play with the little penguin guy that beginner skaters can rent to hold onto, so that's a start. Here are some pictures of the ice skating adventure:

Mason with his beloved juicy cup and new found friend, the Penguin.

SEAN IS HOME!!! OH HAPPY DAY!!

I know I am a week behind, but Sean is back so we have been so happy and busy that blogging hasn't been a priority, sorry. Sean called last Friday night and told me he was on his way to the airport in Georgia to fly to Frankfurt. He had left Camp Shindand in Afghanistan on Monday, the 6th and caught the first flight out of every place he had to go to, so he ended up coming home earlier than we had expected. I dropped the younger three kids off at Christy's on Saturday and told them I was going caroling with the Young Women. I drove up to the airport and figured out where to park and where his flight was coming in. That alone was a feat in itself. Then I saw the bad news: his flight was delayed. First it was delayed an hour, then two hours. Yuck. I waited and waited, hoping that if I kept staring at the flight information screen the news would somehow change. It didn't. His flight finally reached "APPROACHING" the runway status. Then "LANDING" status. It told me which gate he would be arriving at, and I quickly ran over there. Silly me. It still took another 40 minutes before he came through the doors and I was rewarded with the sight of my best friend and eternal companion that I've been missing for the past 182 days. Oh happy day!! We hugged, kissed, and cried. No pictures of the actual reunion, some things are private, sorry. It took another half an hour to get to our car and drive home. I called Christy and asked her to bring the kids to our house for a little surprise. I had rented a Santa suit so that he could surprise the kids as Santa when he came back. I thought he would arrive when they were at school, so I thought it would be fun for Santa to come into Ella and Colton's classrooms and pass out some candy canes, then pull down the beard in front of our kids and expose his true self. Reality was slightly different but just as fun. Sean was dressed as Santa, sitting downstairs next to our tree as the kids came down the stairs. I told the kids I had brought Santa home with me from caroling. Sean gave some good "ho ho ho"s, then pulled the kids on his lap and asked them what they wanted for Christmas. After Ella recited her list, he asked her, "How about your Dad? Don't you want your Dad for Christmas?" Then he pulled down the beard, took off the wig, and showed his true self. YEA!!! The kids were so happy and we all stayed up late talking to Sean and telling him about our last 6 months.
Here's Sean as Santa:





For Jaxon, we did something different. I came in the house first, telling him that the caroling took forever. Sean was outside on my cell phone calling our home phone. I told Jaxon that the phone was probably dad, so could he please answer it for me? Jaxon started talking to Sean, and a minute later, in walks Sean with the cell phone, still talking to Jaxon, and then Jaxon realizes it's his Dad walking towards him, talking to him at the same time. Don't have a picture of it, but I have it on video, give me some time to figure out how to download the video, and I'll post it, it was great.
Here's Jaxon with Santa Sean:

Snow Days

So, last week the kids had late starts for school on Tuesday and Thursday. This week, they had school cancelled completely on Tuesday and Thursday because of the snow. It is cold, but it is absolutely beautiful, and truth be told, I am enjoying having everyone at home for some extra time together. Cookies have been baked, Christmas movies have been watched, and lots of snowballs have been thrown. It snowed all day Monday. I don't remember it stopping once. So, of course they cancelled school on Tuesday and we had a good day. Ella and I ventured out for a while to deliver some movies to some friends that were in need of Frosty, Rudolph, and some chocolate chip cookies. The roads were fine, just slushy. Then Wednesday night, it started again. Lots of snow. I sleep horribly so I checked the road conditions and school reports at 3 am, and the roads were condition red, but the schools were listed as being open. Then at 5, the roads switched to amber, but the schools were closed. Now, the boys were excited on Tuesday when there was no school. I was under strict orders from Jaxon to check the weather report before waking him up at 7 to see if there was indeed school that day. The funny thing is he woke up on his own. Jaxon and Colton were a bit too optimistic on Wednesday that school would be cancelled again, or at least delayed. I tried to prepare them that they would most likely have school again, but they didn't believe me. Then again they woke up early to ask, "Is there school?" to which I had to bust their bubbles and say, "Yes". They were super excited as the snow fell last night. Colton started asking around 7, "So, will school be cancelled?" I tried to tell him we wouldn't know for sure til the morning, but he wanted answers right then and there. My door opened around 6:45 with Mason coming in first, asking if he could sleep with me. Then in came Colton. "Is there school?" I said, "Jump on in bed with us, cuddle up, and enjoy the day. NO SCHOOL!! Let's do some baking and movie watching!!" Well, I could have been Santa with all the good news I was delivering today. Jaxon was upstairs a minute later: "No school? YES!!!" Then they all went downstairs and watched A Christmas Carol. I started the second round of snowball fighting last night as I went outside to move my car into the garage. I brought in a few snowballs, and went around saying "Hee Hee: SNOWBALL!" and pummeling the kids with snow. Mason and Ella were in the bath and squealed with delight as the snowballs melted right away in the warm water. Jaxon tried to protect himself with his notebook, but even throwing left handed, I got him. Colton was an easy target. But then, so was I. They retaliated, and we all got a little wet. It was fun. Here are pictures from the past few days. I finally broke down and got a cheap little digital camera since I am STILL WAITING for my nice new camera to come in the mail, and if you can keep a secret, I'll let you know that I need a camera REALLY SOON to take some wonderful pictures of a happy reunion. More details on that later as they become available, back to the pictures:






Here's our budding Picaso with one of his latest masterpieces:



And here is our new reward system in the Burke Household: THE MARBLE JARS. The kids each have a marble jar and are rewarded at the end of the day with a certain number of marbles, depending upon their attitude for the day and whether or not they completed their daily chores. Extra jobs earn extra marbles. When the jar is full, they get a reward that we agreed upon earlier. Colton already filled his once, and earned two new Lego figures. Ella is working on hers to get a trip to the ice skating rink. And Mason just likes playing with the marbles. Jaxon is still working off his computer.