Week of Jan. 20th, 2013

Sunday Sean had RE and then we had church.  I don't know what it is about the snow and RE class, but every  RE class he has had since the end of November it has either snowed that Sat. night or is snowing Sunday morning.  It is crazy since Lux doesn't normally get that much snow.  So it had snowed over the night and it was now raining when we were standing outside waiting for someone to get to the church with the key. 
After church we hurried home and had lunch and got things ready for Jacob's b'day party!  He had invited some friends and we were having it at the indoor pool/water play area near us.  So it worked out perfect.  It wasn't too crowded and the boys had to listen to my rules, but other then that they were free to play for 2 hours in the water.  This pool has a wave pool, indoor/outdoor pool (the boys enjoyed taking snow into the pool with them!), 2 big tube body water slides, and another pool with 2 diving boards.  So it isn't that big of an area.  All the boys seemed to enjoy it, except one boy didn't want to go anywhere but the wave pool.  He seemed afraid of the other things.  So someone was always with him. You can't take pictures inside the pool so I only have pictures from when we were eating in the snack area.
After swimming they had a table set up for us in their snack area upstairs.  Everyone got individual pizzas.

I had asked if I could bring in a cake, but I couldn't bring any food in here.  So we got stuck with eating their dry bland cake.

 It is the exact same cake no matter where you have a b'day party around town.  Well all of like 5 places that have parties!  And they taste horrible.  I can't believe it.  Jason sees it coming and he said it looks like a bread loave- ugh!  Even the kids were like this is so dry!  I told them sorry, but I tried to bring in a good cake but they wouldn't let me.  So everyone picked at it.  Then Jason and boys went back down to the locker room and everyone got dressed to go.  It all worked out well and Jacob had a great time! 
Before the party we had dropped Amber off at one of her boy friend's houses to play.  She had a great time so we just picked her up after the party.  A lot easier then having to try and watch her at the pool with the boys too.
Jason cooked some chicken legs on the grill and the kids ate them up, even the boys after just eating a pizza!   Jacob opened his presents at home and got a lot of legos so he went to work building!

Tonight I got his coffee cake baked for his b'day breakfast and then finished up his b'day cake too.

Monday morning Jacob got breakfast in bed.

I told him he had to stay in bed until 7 or no breakfast in bed and he was actually still asleep until then.  That is late for him.   He has bunk beds and so he can't really sit up all the way, so he ate some of his breakfast kind of laying on his side and then he said, "Mom I can't digest this very well!"  So I picked up his tray and he finished his breakfast downstairs with the rest of us.  He got to open all his presents this morning and was very happy with everything, even thought there was no x-box! (: 

At school I read again for story time.  I do it twice a month and then I got some stuff done at home and then after lunch my friend and I drove to France to hit sales at a sports store there.  I had never been to this store before and it is huge.  They have everything there and a lot better prices then around here.  I think their prices are pretty good probably even without the sales.  So I found a ski jacket and then my friend and I ended up liking the same black snow pants, pretty common, so we both got those and then I got ski socks and a few things for a kids.  Like I had said before we had borrowed some things this year, so this way I won't need to borrow some things again except maybe the car rack!  I really like the jacket and pants, so as long as they keep me warm it will be good!
From France we drove back and went to the Woman's Club and picked up some American necessities, syrup, peanut butter, brownie mixes, cool whip for cake tonight, etc.  Then over to school.
Jacob had a good day at school.  Sean went home with a friend.  So before dinner we had to drive out heading toward Belgium to pick up Sean at his friend's house.  Then we had Jacob's dinner which was the enchilada leftovers that he enjoyed.  Then on to the chocolate cake.

Everyone loved it, of course!

Tuesday I ran some errands in the morning and then parked the car in the garage around 10am.  I had French and felt like taking a nap after that.  But I didn't.  I worked out instead.  When it was time to go back and pickup the kids I got in the car and there was a crack in my windshield!  I am not sure how this happened.  It wasn't there this morning and the car was in the garage.  So I am annoyed!  I can only imagine how much this will cost me here! 
Amber had a friend over after school.  I think this friend will come over on Tuesdays now and then when I go back to pick up Jacob from Bball her mom is there too so I just drop her off and then she doesn't have to wait at school with her mom and she can play for awhile with Amber.  Then the boys had tennis and homework. 
Tonight was the first night in awhile it didn't snow at night.

Wednesday morning I had coffee with my friend who is the only person I know that spells her name just like mine!  Today I tried out a new mall.  It is about 20 min. away via expressway.  It was really nice.  It is kind of two malls linked together by a walkway, but all new.  About 4 years old, new for here!  Not too many stores, but the one jewelry store I like they have here.  They don't sell real diamonds but they look good and have very colorful jewelry.  Kind of like Lia Sophia jewelry.  It is a small store.  So I got a pair of earrings and a bracelet for a Gala event we are going to go too.  I grabbed a sandwich just at a little place and then headed home.  Today Amber went home with her friend after school and then had ballet.  After the boys were done with their after school activities we took one of Sean's friends with us and the kids had their hair cut.  My hairdresser was wondering what happened to the front of Sean's hair from his hair cutting incident!  Then once Sean's friends mom was home we dropped him off.   Jacob lost his lunch box at school today and I got the usual, "I looked all over for it and couldn't find it!"  You seriously believe that Jacob!  Ugh!
Tonight I took the car mats out of my car to see if that would help the smell.  When we bought the car there was food all over the floor for probably 2 months before we bought it.  So once we bought it we had it cleaned.  It looked like someone had bought a big size fry and just scattered it all over the car, among many other things.  So then the car always has had a little bit of an odor.  When it rains the car starts to smell worse, but when the snow came this year, holy car it stinks!  So I looked all around the car to see if there was some food, something from the grocery bag left, etc.  It smells like spoiled milk!  I had Jason look in the car earlier in the week to see if something had died under the hood.  Nothing.  So I am back to searching the car and as I get close to the floor mats the smell gets stronger.  I think there must be something there that is causing it to smell when they get wet.  So I pulled them out and we will see how it smells in the morning.

Thursday morning we did a smell test in the car, and voila!  The smell was just about gone.  So it is definitely the floor mats.  Great, add that to the list now of new windshield and floor mats! 
It is getting colder out here and this morning we get to school and realize Amber only has one mitten.  So I give her mine but tell her she can't put that hand in the snow b/c it is just a cloth glove and the snow will go right through to her hand.  I ran to the grocery store then home and picked up her other glove and ran it back to school.  She was already out at recess with the mixed matched gloves and she was so cute.  When she saw me she got off the swing and got her mitten and had to give hugs and kisses, just like the boys do when they see me at school, ha!  From here I went to the paper store here.  Amber is going to have a few friends over for a little Valentines party.  No where can I find Valentines plates, crazy.  I got some heart napkins, but no place I have seen have plates.  What are people suppose to eat off of?  They have Valentine's Day here too.  I got a few decorations too. 
At school pickup Sean comes up to me and says he found Jacob's lunch box!  Glad one of them is looking for it!  He said it was outside against the fence of the soccer field.   So instead of putting his lunch in his classroom locker outside of the lunch room Jacob took it outside and then couldn't seem to find it again!  So way to go Sean!
We drove one of Amber's friends home whose brother is around 13 months and came down with the flu, sore throat, ear infection and eye infection, poor thing.  So this way her mom wouldn't have to leave the house with him. 
One of my friends brought Jacob home after bball and that was helpful to me not to have to go back out.  Then we froze when we went back out for guitar.

Friday morning I had coffee with a friend at school today.    I had tennis and then we were having 2 kids over after school that were staying for dinner, so I just got big snacks ready and the prep work for tacos done.  The one boy is Norwegian and I asked his mom if there was anything he couldn't have and that we were having tacos for dinner.  She said he likes red pepper and pineapple on his tacos.  Too funny.  I have never heard of this.  Sure enough at dinner he put those on his taco, no lettuce, tomato or cheese!  One boy got picked up after the moving truck left his new house, as he was moving locally today.  The other boy I had to drive home as his mom can't drive b/c of her shoulder surgery.  So Amber and Sean enjoyed having their friends over for a longer playdate.  Tonight my friend let me borrow one of her Ipads to watch the Magic Mike movie on it.  I hadn't seen it yet.  It wasn't bad! 

Sat. morning Amber started swimming lessons.  It is with 5 other kids she knows and it is on the other side of town in a big facility with some pools.  There were 2 teachers with them that spoke English.  She enjoyed it, but the water was very cold for all of them.  It was in a small pool, but next week he said he will try and get the smaller pool and it should be warmer.  The other moms said if the other pool wasn't warmer their kids weren't going to do it as they were all purple when they got out of the pool!  After lunch Amber was very excited as it was one of her best friend's b'day parties!  She had a jewelry party at her house.  Which is so funny b/c Amber is doing the same thing for her party.  We booked the jewelry lady around the same time and didn't even know it until we started talking about the girl's parties!  So Amber loved it!  She made a necklace and a bracelet and carried them around in the box the rest of the day!
During the day the boys worked on their projects for school as both of them have a big project to do.  Sat. evening Sean had a friend come over and we had a BBQ and they had a sleepover.

Week of Jan. 13th, 2012

Sunday Sean had his RE class.  I am not teaching it this month so I took him and then did some reading in the church while they had class and then we had mass.  Over break someone tried to break into the church.  So one of the stain glass windows is shattered.  They weren't able to get in, thank goodness.  We just hung out in the afternoon.  The boys rented a movie and we grilled out.

Monday Jason's alarm went off at 4 am so he could get up and catch the 6:20 flight out.  Then his phone's alarm started going off when he got in the bathroom.  I got up and took the phone and threw it in the bathroom.  I am not a very happy person at 4 am!  He flew back to MI for the week. 
After drop off I got to the other mall with the grocery store to get some things that they only sell.  I had a bunch of things to mail out at the post office, and got some things done at home.  Monday is always the worst day for the house.  After having everyone home all weekend it is normally a mess!  After school Jacob had a boy over from his class.  He is very nice, and so are both his parents.  They are from Holland.  Jacob said tonight that he thought of one other thing he would like for his b'day, so I say "ok what is it?"  He proceeds to tell me that he would like an X-box for his birthday!  Me, "Ok well shopping is now closed for your birthday and that gift is a bit more then just a b'day gift for one person.  Maybe you boys can put it on your Christmas list next year."  Jacob said, "Yeah I thought you might say that"

Tuesday we woke up to snow!  Driving today was a mess.  Thank goodness for my big car!  Those little cars with those wimpy tires drive me crazy and don't handle the snow very well.  I had coffee with some friends at school this morning.  I ended up shoveling the driveway 4 times today!  Jacob had bball after school and then tennis.  Amber had a friend over.  Tonight Sean tried Jacob's tennis class and the teacher approved his level to let him stay in the class.  The class he was in the kids were a bit younger and it was too easy for him even the coach told him that.  So thank goodness someone dropped out of Jacob's class and I asked if he could be moved and they told me that if the teacher approved his level right for the class he could stay.  So Sean is much happier about tennis now.  Before dinner Jacob measured the snow and we had 5 in!  Crazy!   You can see how much snow is on the table.

Wednesday we didn't get any more snow, but there is still all the snow on the ground.  On the way to school there was a car going the other direction that couldn't get up the hill.  It had people all backed up.  Thank goodness it was the other direction.  The school lot and area were you have to walk up the steps and into the common area out front were not even shoveled!  Ok that would seem kind of important for people to not slip and fall!  The parking lot is a mess full of snow.
My maid came back today after being on vacation last month, she had a friend come and clean here last month, so I was glad she was back.  But she now wants to come around lunch and then she is here until dinner time when the kids are home and around.  So we will see how this works out.  She normally comes right away in the morning and then she is gone after lunch.
Amber had her half day today so I picked up her and 2 friends and we came back here for lunch and a little playdate before we had to be back for ballet.  After ballet she went sledding with one of her friends and the boys and I went to the chiropractor.  She had a blast sledding down a nice little hill in the park by school.  As we were driving home from the chiropractor tonight this guy pulls in front of me and sticks his arm out the window to totally flip someone off.  I didn't think it was for me that I had done something wrong, but you never know.  So he does that and then we drive through the tunnel.  As we come out of the tunnel the lanes come together with another lane of traffic that had just gone above the tunnel through an intersection.  So then the bird guy pulls into the lane on the right and all of sudden a car comes cruising up and pulls in front of me and rolls down his window and starts yelling at the bird guy.  Well now they have stopped their cars and are out shoving each other in the middle of the street.  There is a ton of traffic behind me.  So I start honking at them and telling them to break it up, from inside my car of course!  I couldn't believe it.  Then they just get back in their cars and pull around the corner.  I can only imagine what happened then!  The boys were like what just happened.  I said that is a clear case of road rage! 
Tonight Jacob baked his cupcakes that he will bring into school on Friday to celebrate his b'day! 
I think my eyes are starting to go, Jacob got invited to a party and when I looked on my date book I thought the 18th looked like it was Sat. so I said he could go. Then she sent out a reminder today saying it was the 18th on Friday, ugh!  In my date book the nine looks very similar to an 8, rats now he can't go b/c he is in student council and they run the movie night that will be on Friday after school the same time as the party.

Thursday I went in the morning and read to kids in Amber's classes for story time.  I had French this morning for the first time in like 6 weeks.  I though about cancelling b/c I am sick again.  I have come down with a cold and also lost part of my voice, as usual!
After lunch I went to one of the sport stores here to check out their skiing stuff on sale.  I saw my friend in the parking lot, too funny.  So we walked around together in there.  I got Jacob a new ski helmet and then Sean can take his and Amber can take Sean's.  I got Amber a ski coat and some ski gloves.  It was still a bit more expensive then home, but at least on sale and then we don't have to try and lug it back!  Jason wasn't too happy with the boxes that were waiting for him at work this week in the states.  It really wasn't that many and it wasn't that bad.  I think he is just complaining.  But as I had said before, YOU moved us here, when YOU want to move us home, the boxes will stop (:  At least at his office, but I didn't add that part (:
Jacob had bball after school and the rest of us went to a friend's house with another one of Amber's friends for a playdate.  Now that Sean joined the tennis group on Tuesday we didn't have to rush around as much after bball and before guitar, so that was nice.
Jacob told me that today one of his friends was playing tag and he tripped over someone and broke off part of his permanent front tooth!  Yikes I hope the dentist can fix it!
Tonight after dinner Jacob got up and cleared the table and emptied all the plates in the trash, they don't have garbage disposals here.  He did that without even being asked so I thought that was very nice.  Then we frosted and decorated his cupcakes with the help of the other 2 as well of course! 

Friday Jacob had to be at school early to sell tickets for the movie night tonight. Then we had Sean buy his ticket from Jacob!  This morning we brought in Jacob's guitar cupcakes to share with his class today.

I had coffee with a few preschool moms and then went to the store to get food for Jacob's b'day dinner I will fix on Sat. night.  We will do enchiladas with some other things.  He wanted to go see the Transylvania movie, but here it isn't in English.  So maybe we can just buy it online and then watch it.  Jason will be really tired anyway from flying back.
I had tennis today and didn't get hit in the back with the ball by my partner so that was good.  The ball did come at me really fast today when I was playing up front by the net and I closed my eyes as I swung at it.  The teacher told me I shouldn't be closing my eyes!  Ha  After lunch I went to another sports store a bit out of town and checked out their ski sales.  I got Amber a snow suit and Jacob some gloves.  As usual most of the stuff is picked over or they are like 400 Euro ski jackets for adults.  Even with 50% off I am still not paying that much for it!  The boys had movie night at school after school.  Jacob was in charge of the concession stand.  So I didn't pick them up until 5:30.  Then Amber had a friend come over and then we dropped her off on the way back to school.  So everyone had something to do today!

Sat. morning Amber came in and woke me up at 6:50 to tell me it was snowing out.  Ok so every day for school I have to wake her up between 7-7:10 and she doesn't want to get up.  Today she decides to get up early- ugh!  I told her I didn't need to know that right now and I was going to stay in bed for a bit more. So she went out to the stairs with her bunny and looked out the window and played for about an hour and then she came back in and woke me up again.  I couldn't believe it that she never even went downstairs to see what the boys were doing she just stayed upstairs.  Today Amber was suppose to start swimming lessons but it got canceled due to a swim competition at the pool.  So we had our big breakfast of pancakes and fruit slushies today.  Jason flew back in this morning.  So everyone was excited to see him and all the stuff!  One bag weight in at 49 lbs and one at 50 lbs.  Because of his status he can go to priority check in and after she weight the bag in at 50 lbs she told him he could add my cookbook, which is huge!  It weights like 7 lbs!  I knew it was thick but I didn't realize it was that thick when I ordered it!  I am very excited to go through it.
After lunch Amber had a b'day party to go to.  It was at the indoor climby place.  I am pretty sure this is her 4 b'day party here for this school year!  There are no places to have a party for younger children.
I stayed for a bit and then came home, Jason was napping and the boys were playing in the snow.  Then a bit later Jason and Jacob went to pick her up and Sean and I left for church.  This afternoon Sean had his reconciliation for his first communion class.  So we did that.  After that I came home and started getting Jacob's big birthday dinner ready.  We started with little cocktail wieners wrapped in bacon with a sauce for an appetizer.  I made fresh salsa and we had that with chips.  Then I made enchiladas 2 trays so we can have left overs on Monday for his b'day.  And a tomato avocado salad.  So everything was good.  After dinner I got his cakes baked.
He had wanted to go to see Hotel Transylvania, but it has only been out in French and German.  So we just ended up buying it and downloading it to the Ipad and then we all watched it.  It was cute.

Back to school in 2013

Sunday was the last day of Christmas break so Jason took the boys and they went out to lunch and to see the Hobbit movie.  They like it, but it was long.
I was going to have Amber help me take down the Christmas tree but she didn't want it to come down yet, so guess I will be doing that one day while they are at school!
So we colored, baked some cookies for the 2 families who we borrowed some ski things from, watched our own movie.  We had borrowed some things from one of our neighbors so I saw they were home so we brought back their stuff and some cookies for them. 

Monday morning- ugh have to get up early!
Jacob was the only one up and we had the yummy blueberry coffee cake to get everyone happy to start their day!
After drop off I ran to Germany and hit the 2 stores and the toy store since Jacob and Amber's b'days and parties will be coming up soon.  Since I had only run to the store briefly a week ago and being gone a week we needed a lot of stuff.  The car was loaded down!  I saw my friend out there too!
The kids had a good day at school but there were still a few kids missing from each of their classes that must not have been back from break yet.
The boys had a lot of homework tonight and weren't that excited about getting on that tonight.  One of the boys in Jacob's class his mom called tonight to see if the boys could get together and with their schedules only one day works for both boys.  So that will be nice for Jacob, as I think he misses his friend from here who he did everything with.

Tuesday I got my errands done at the mall.  I had emailed my French teacher the other day to see if she could start back up today but she couldn't and didn't email me back until close to the time she would have come so I was already back at home.  Then I tried to work out on the tread mill but it seems to have broken, rats!  So after lunch I went to the China outlet store to see if they had any of their neat Christmas dishes on sale that I got a few of, but the whole section of the store that had the Christmas stuff was closed.  They only had a few things on the shelf in the store, rats again.  So I stopped by the Woman's club to see if I could pick up some more vanilla for baking and they didn't have any, triple rats!
After school Jacob had bball and tennis.  At the store I had bought the Happy New Year cake here.  It is a pastry flaky cake that has a trinket inside it and whoevers piece gets it you are suppose to have good luck all year.  Jason got it last year.  So I guess all the kids had done this in French class yesterday or today as well.  So we waited until Jason got home and cut into it and Sean got the piece this year and was excited!

He even went to bed wearing the crown!


Wednesday morning I went over to check out the place where I am going to rent a room for Amber's party.  I am excited for it.  So I got that organized.   This place has 2 rooms they rent out, and they have a cafeteria and a playground out back.  So I am going to have a lady come and we are going to make jewelry and the boys bookmarks and then I have some other things planned for it as well.  Then I went on some errands and Jason and I met for lunch out by where I was.  We hadn't been there before.  It was a nice restaurant but I got the salmon and it was prepared by only lightly cooking the top of it so underneath it was pretty much raw.  I didn't care for it.  But Jason liked his dish.
Amber had ballet today but went home with her friend so I picked her up after that and then we waited for the boys and then off to the orthodontist.  She said Sean's retainer and everything is looking good.  So that was good to hear.

Thursday I was just going to stay at home in the morning since I was suppose to have French class.  Well about 5 min. after French was suppose to start I get a call from the teacher saying she was sleeping and just woke up! It was almost 11am at this point!  Ok so we just scheduled for next week.  I think I only had class once in Dec. due to company and being sick, and then holiday break.   So I ended up getting my Christmas stuff finally taken down.  After school Jacob had bball and Sean tennis and then Jacob had guitar. I think this was his first guitar lesson in about 6 weeks, b/c of Thanksgiving, and then Jacob had a musical, then the guy wasn't there the next week and didn't tell us, and then he cancelled right before Christmas plus break!

Friday morning I got my errands done, then had tennis.  We were playing doubles tennis and my partner hit the ball right into my back - painful!  Then my friend who plays at the same time as me, we changed and went to the import store to pick up a few things and joined a few friends there for lunch.  They have a tiny little restaurant attached to the shop.  Maybe 10 tables or so.  And Fridays they have a fish and chips, like the British Fish and chips.  This was so good, and reminded me of WI Friday night fish frys!  So that was fun.
After school Jacob stayed and the bball games started.  He had one game and then we were housing 2 boys from Germany.  So I made a big dinner.  They seemed very nice.  One was American but living in Germany for about 5 years, and the other one was Irish/Italian.  So it was neat to chat with them.     After dinner all the boys played Wii and watched a movie.  They had a good time all playing together, even Amber.


Sat. morning Amber woke up a bit after 7am and spotted that it had snowed a bit and had to come in and tell us, lucky us!
I got all the boys breakfast and then Jason dropped off Jacob and the 2 boys at the bball gym since they had to be there at 9am but their game wasn't until 10am.  So for that first game I went back and watched it, but Jacob didn't play and they lost.  I hung out with him for awhile after the game and he had lunch at the concession stand.  Then I went home and the next game was at 1pm so then Jason went back a bit before and Jacob played in that game and they won.  So then they got home a bit after 2pm.  We had a nice afternoon with some down time.  Amber started coming down with a cold so since we were going out tonight I put her down for a nap and she slept for 2 hours!  Jason figured out that a button on the side of the treadmill was stuck down and that's why it wasn't working so I got a little workout in and then we got ready to go out to dinner with friends. 
It was a new place for us.  It is a steakhouse where you cook your food on a hot stone that they serve you.  It was cool.  The kids loved it, but only Jacob got to cook plus us.  We went with another family that Sean and their son are good friends.   We were there for 3 hours and the kids did well.  We brought things to keep them busy of course!
Then the boy ended up coming home with us and spending the night.  It was a nice night! 

Christmas break/Austria skiing 2012

Sat. morning we were leaving for Christmas vacation.  We decided to go skiing in the Austrian Alps this year.  So I borrowed some ski stuff from friends for Amber and I and a ski rack for the car.  Friday night Jason spent about 5 hours trying to put it on the car.  It wasn't pretty.  I guess the brackets that go on the car were assembled wrong so he had to fix those and he had a hard time getting them back together after he disassembled them, they just wouldn't go back together.  And of course by the time he was ready to put everything on the car it was dark outside and misting.  Thank goodness it all went on ok and we loaded up the car Sat. morning and we were loaded down!  We left about a little after 8am.  It was suppose to be a 7 hour drive but as the day went on our time on the GPS kept saying longer and longer.  It ended up being 9 hours due to the traffic.  The kids did good and we only made 3 quick stops along the way. 
After we passed through Munich, Germany we started seeing more snow.  We didn't have any snow in Lux or the drive until now.  Then soon after we started to see the Alps and snow on those.

By the time we arrived at the hotel it was about 5:30 and everything was dark.  It seemed to be a very small cute town and they had a little Christmas market in town with bonfires around it.  The chalet looking houses had christmas lights on them and the town looked cute. 
We checked in no problem and found a spot in their small parking lot.  We were happy us and the car carrier made it!  We chose this hotel b/c friends had stayed here in Feb. for the winter break last year and liked it.  So we unpacked our load and moved in for the week.  It is a small hotel with 132 rooms.  We got 2 adjoining rooms on a small wing of the hotel. 
Everything was very convenient from the hotel.  We did half board so every morning is a big buffet breakfast, more American style then European, and then a big dinner every night and snack time in the afternoon.  We were able to buy our lift tickets at the front desk and on Sat. they have someone from the ski school at a desk in the lobby so we bought ski school for the kids all week. 
When dinner opened at 6:30 we went and they have a table all set aside for us and this table we stay at all week and eat breakfast and dinner here so that is neat you never have to worry about trying to find a table for all of us.  Tonight it was buffet.  They had 2 soups, big salad bar, some meat dishes, fish, potatoes, a lot of cold cuts/appetizers for all those Europeans, loaves of break, ice cream station and desserts.  We will be eating well this week! 
After dinner we walked down to the center of town where we saw the market but it was already closing down.  It was mostly just people selling drinks now.  So we just walked around it and then back up to the hotel.

Sunday we got up early and got the good breakfast at 7:30.  They had 4 types of eggs, french toast, a nice fruit buffet, crepe like pancakes, sausages, a bunch of breads, rolls and the rest of a European breakfast.  We went back to our room and got ourselves in all our snow gear!

I had borrowed a friend's snow suit and I loved it!  I was toasty but I did look a little bit like a flying Elvis!
Once all bundled up we went down to the basement to the hotel's ski shop and the guy down there got us fitted for skis, boots, poles and Jason didn't have a helmet so he rented that too.

This hotel is great!  This is so much better the the places we have been in the states where it is high school kid behind the ski counter just handing you stuff and you see if it fits and mess around with it.  Here they took all our measurements and tried on boots and then he helped us get the boots on and fit them to the skis.  We were the only ones in his shop so this was great.  We then just store our shoes in the ski store room and there is a staircase that goes out to their parking lot and then you walk across the street to the gondola.  Here are 2 gondolas that go up, one halfway and the other all the way to the top.  So the boys all got on the one that goes to the top, about a 15 min. beautiful ride!  Up at the top of the hill is a big flat area and by the big snowman is where the boys meet their ski school every day.

Today it started at 9:30, but every other day was 10am.  Today there were 7 kids in their group and the instructor spoke English for my boys.  After today the group went down and was around 4 kids, pretty good!  So they ski for 3 hours in the morning today and then take the gondola back down and eat with other classes and the instructors at the restaurant by Amber's ski school.  Then they go back up and ski for 1 1/2- 2 hours then Jason picked them up at the top of the mountain and they took the gondola back down. 
Today Amber got to ski for the very first time!  Her skis were so little!  So for her classes we walked past the gondolas and then a block over to her ski hill.  There were 6 kids in her group all about the same age.  For her class they ski for 2 hours, then do lunch at the same place as the boys.  It is kind of like a lodge.  Then after lunch she skis for 2 more hours, so it is really perfect for her.  Then I pick her up at 3pm.  She looked so cute and she had fun, but was very tired when I picked her up just today.

After I got Amber settled in school I took the gondola up and met Jason.  It was so beautiful up there that I think I spent most of my day taking pictures.

We skied for a bit and then had lunch at one of the couple chalet restaurants on the mountain and skied a bit more and then I left back down on the gondola to pick up Amber and he stayed up there until the boys finished.  Their classes have 30 min. different ending times.  So we had a good day of skiing but it is definitely harder to ski here then our normal places in MI we are used to.  We both fell a few times.  The first time I fell I just went too far off the groomed ski hill and into a pile of fresh snow.  I stopped and then just completely fell over.  Jason skied over next to me and then fell on top of me, thanks for the help honey!
Once I got back down and got Amber we were walking back to the hotel and she started crying and Jason said after he picked the boys up they each started crying about different things as well- oh my!
Here the lifts close at 4pm b/c it gets dark and the mountains aren't lit.  So when everyone comes back down the mountain and walks back to the hotel we put our ski stuff in the storage room, it is a good size room to store things and it has heated hooks that you put your boots on, great idea!
From 3-5 the hotel offers snacks as part of your half board package.  So Amber and I did that today.  Not too much here, kind of random left overs from the night before.  So from here we got ready for the pool and headed over there and then the boys met up with us later.  It is a good size pool and then a little baby pool.

So from the pool you could see an outdoor hot tub but we couldn't figure out how to get there.  So I walked out of the pool area and up to the spa area.  Before I opened the door there is a sign there that says "Naked Area must be 18 or over"  I open the door, omg, there is an older man standing right in front of the door drying himself off, nothing on to cover any part of himself up.  I was like ahh, and closed the door.  It just shocked me!  So then this woman comes down and I thought I will watch her and then see what she does, and she did the same thing as me, ha!  We look at each other and she said something in German, but she opened the door again and we went in.  Once we bypassed the naked greeter there are just small rooms around. One has beach loungers on it with kind of like a sun lamp shining on them, and some people were in robes but others were laying there buck naked.  Then there were saunas, and maybe showers but you could clearly see in them.  There were people just walking around naked and then some sort of tub in the middle of the room and I didn't even want to see what that looked like.  I quickly glanced toward the outside wall and think I saw the door to the hot tub but I was so uncomfortable I couldn't stay in there any longer and walked back to the pool area where people were properly covered!  Yikes!
After the pool we got cleaned up and dinner started at 6:30.  We had to preorder at breakfast which of the 3 main meals we wanted tonight.  They still had the salad buffet and breads and raw meats, but otherwise you got your dinner served to you.
After dinner we came back to the room and watched the Charlie Brown Christmas movie that I had downloaded on the Ipad before we left.  I love those movies!

Monday was Christmas Eve.  We slept in a little later today since we had the routine down now.  We got all our layers of clothes on and went to breakfast, a big, good buffet.  Then we walked down and got the kid's  skis and walked over to where the ski school office is and bought lunch passes for the kids.  Then Jason got the boys on the gondola since they meet the ski instructor just across from the gondola at the top of the hill by the big snowman.

Here are pictures of the big snowman.

I walked Amber over to her ski school and got her all set.  Everyone was happy to go back to ski school even after the tears yesterday.  Then Jason met me and we went for a little walk into town and did a little shopping.  Cute town with the chalet type houses.

This tree was light up on Sat. night when we came into town for the Christmas market they had right here and it was so pretty.  So these are just sheets of the silky colored paper made into balls and when they shine the light on it they all look like they are lighting up.
Then on our way back we picked at Amber going up this little motorized tow rope and down a little hill.

Then we came back and got our ski gear on and picked up our skis and walked over to the gondola station.  It is a big building and we had lunch inside there- this family vacation is great!  We drop of the kids in the morning and don't pick them up until the afternoon!
Here is the gondola station.

 This first picture is just taken from where we walk out of our hotel with the skis so you can see it is pretty close.  We just had to walk through the parking lot and across the street.

After we finish eating we walked over to where Amber eats lunch and peaked at her.  She was at a table with other kids and the ski instructor and was fine.  So we got on the gondola and went skiing for a bit.  Here are some pictures from the gondola.

Since they haven't gotten much new snow some of the slopes are getting pretty icy and I feel like I am
just sliding down the hill instead of skiing.  We found a few easy slopes to move across the mountain on but the problem was trying to get back to the boys and the gondola in that there are no easy slopes going that way.  They are intermediate ones, but these are like what a black diamond would be at home.  You have to go to the edge of the mountain to see the hill it is so steep.  So we made it back ok with no falls today.
Today it was very warm on top of this one mountain in the sun, 65 degrees Fahrenheit!  People were taking layers of clothing off.  Then we saw the boys.  I left then to go down on the gondola and pick up Amber and Jason went and hung out in one of the chalet restaurants on the hill for awhile until the boys were done.

So when I got Amber she had had a good time and we went back to the hotel and got snacks and then back to the room to get ready for Christmas Eve dinner.
Jason had picked up Jacob a bit early from ski school to let him go down a different mountain with him.  Jacob goes 1st and when Jason gets down a bit he sees someones one ski, oh great he is thinking this is probably Jacob's.  Sure enough there is a trail of Jacob's skis and poles down part of this mountain!
So it takes Jacob awhile to get himself back together and they get on the chair lift but now they were late picking up Sean.  They all took the gondola back down and started getting ready for dinner.
Tonight they had a little program for Christmas Eve.  Here in Europe it seems that Christmas Eve is the bigger event.  This is when the families get together and have their big dinner and then later in the evening sometimes Santa actually comes to your door delivering presents and then the kids open their presents in the evening.  Some German people's tradition is that you don't even put your tree up until Christmas Eve!  I couldn't imagine that, especially since mine is up around Thanksgiving time (:  and I love it!  So at 5pm they had mimosas for us and juice for the kids in this room with tables and glass windows and a nice tree.

As I am looking through the camera closely at the children I see that Sean's hair is completely crooked!  He cut his hair that little stinker!
So they had a program tonight in one of the conference rooms.  They had a 4 person band playing Christmas songs.  Then we believe it was the owner of the hotel got up and gave a 15 min. presentation, all in Austrian of course so no idea what he was saying.  Their language is similar to German, but we don't know that either!  This is a small hotel but big for here and is a family run place.
Then an angel came in and past out a gift to every child in the room.  They were big stuffed dogs.  That was very kind of them.  Amber was excited.

After it ended we had a little time before dinner opened up so we went to the game room for the kids to play for a bit.

Then on to dinner.  There was a buffet for the kids and a 5 course meal for the adults!  The first thing was a craw fish salad with puree salmon and other things in a mold- it was ok.  Then a good soup.  Then a pheasant meat over a big type of ravioli with a brown sauce- very good.  4th thing was a piece of grilled veal with a big shrimp on top, vegetables, mashed potatoes and a potato pancake, all good, but didn't care for the veal. Then they had international cheeses and some dessert.  I think it was an apricot thing- we passed.  No chocolate cake here!
After dinner the kids went back in the game room.  We let Amber go in with the boys about 5 min. before we went in.  When we got there she was skipping around the room holding some girl's hand who was probably around 6 and I don't think she spoke any English- too funny!  She always wants a friend!  The boys were playing fuse ball with 2 other boys and having fun.
Then we all went back to the room and watched another one of my favorite Christmas movies- the Grinch cartoon one.  Then I forgot to bring my Night Before Christmas Book, so I tried reciting it but I kept forgetting parts.  The kids were wound up and the boys weren't asleep until around 10:30.  So then I got out my Christmas tree ornament and hung it on the closet handle and then Santa came and brought everyone a gift and I had brought a few little things for the kids to go along with that.  HO HO HO!

Merry Christmas today!  Amber woke up 1st around 8am and found the presents right away.  About 8:20 we had to wake up Sean.  So we celebrated our little Christmas here and everyone was happy with it.  Santa had left a note that he had left every one's presents in Lux.

Today we decided to take the day off of skiing.  So we bundled up after breakfast and went to a tubing hill.  We had to drive to a different mountain and they had one run for tubing here.  It was fun!  Amber took turns doing it with either Jason or me.  We went pretty fast down the hill.  So we spent the morning here.

Then we drove back to the hotel.  This place was half way up a mountain so it was a pretty, narrow, windy road. 
Then we took the gondola half way up the mountain so Amber could see it and had lunch here at one of the chalet houses on the hill.

I thought that would be neat for her b/c I wasn't sure if her ski school would go to the top of the mountain since they ski on the bottom of the mountain. 
We took some pictures up here and enjoyed lunch and took the gondola back down. 

Then the kids just wanted to go to the pool.  So we spent a couple of hours there.
The drinking water here is delicious.  Only one restaurant actually had bottled water the rest of the places just use fresh mountain tap!
Once everyone got cleaned up the boys went to the game room and played there for a couple of hours.  Dinner tonight was an Italian Buffet.  Christmas Eve dinner is bigger here.  After dinner I had brought the Christmas Bingo so we busted that out and played for a bit.  Right before bed Jacob lost his 3rd tooth of the school year!  Maybe he was hopping that Santa would come back and bring him another gift!


Wednesday it started out raining but then turned snow as you went up the mountain.  The kids did ski school and lunch for today.  Jason and I got in the car and drove to another town about 15 min. away but still the same ski area, just a different part of the alps.  There is a huge amount of slops spread all across this alp region through different towns.  Our ski lift passes work at all lifts in this region.  We chose this mountain today b/c it has a lot of easy slopes, just what we need!  So we parked and walked to the chairlift.  The first one went 1/2 way up the mountain.  Then you get off and ski a little to your right and get on the second chair lift and that takes you to the top of the mountain.  This mountain needs a gondola!  But the chairlifts are normally pretty nice, with heated seats, a rack to rest your skis on and a little plastic shield that comes down over you so you don't get wet when it is snowing or raining.  So we skied this mountain today.

 Alot of fresh snow up here and easy and fun runs for us.  We stopped at a chalet on the mountain for lunch and to figure out how to get back to the bottom since we had now gone down the other side of the mountain.  Lunch was good, but we really need to figure out some German words b/c we can't read the menus.  Every breakfast on our table is a little pamphlet with the weather, dinner choices and any activity the hotel has going on.  But it is always in either German or Austrian and we always have to keep asking for the English.
There are many runs at the top of this hill and with all the snow you couldn't see very far in front of you so easy to get lost.  There still were not a lot of people around.  More seem to be arriving today now that it is after Christmas.
After lunch we found the chair lift that went back to the very top to get us down to the the other side of the mountain.  We get halfway down the right hill on the easy slopes but the second half was down intermediate slopes but not as bad as the other mountains intermediate slopes so we made it to the bottom.  It was a pleasant day!  It took us about an hour to get back down from the time we left the restaurant, kind of cool!
We found the car and loaded up the skis but Jason's buckle on his boot was stuck and he couldn't get it off so I drove us back to the hotel and dropped Jason off in front of the ski door where we store our stuff and the ski guy was there and just popped Jason's boot off and all was fine.
We had about 1/2 hour to relax before we had to go and get the kids.  All our stuff was soaked today from the rain and heavy snowing. 
When I went over to get Amber I saw her going up the tow rope and then down the little hill around the cones.  She did great and looked so cute!

She said she had fun.  We walked back to the hotel and had snacks and hot chocolate for snack time and then headed to the pool.  Jason took the gondola up and picked up the boys from ski school.  They skied 1/2 way down the mountain and then took the gondola down the rest of the way as it gets pretty steep.  They met up with us at the pool.
After the pool the boys played in the game room with some other boys for awhile.  They are having so much fun in there.  The game room isn't that big but it has a ping pong table, pool, video games, computers, and a fuse ball table. 
Dinner was great as usual. Everyone is pretty tired by the end of the day.  Even I go to bed about 9:30!


Thursday this area and hotel seemed to be getting more crowded.  I am glad that we were here for awhile before all the other people came.  Today Jason had to be back in the room right after lunch for a phone call so we didn't go skiing today.  We got the kids all set in ski school and we drove to another town about 15 min. away.  It was a neat little 2 lane road with not much out there between the towns.  This was a big town and had a good size school here so I wonder if they bus kids from all around the area here.  So we just walked around and went shopping.  They don't have many bakeries here like they do in France, Germany and Luxembourg.  No chocolate stores like in Belgium.  But we did find one bakery and we saw the biggest cinnamon rolls.  We got a chocolate one and a cinnamon for all of us to share later.  I think they might have been as big as Amber's head.

We don't have this in Lux!  From here we drove back to our resort since we were taking Amber out to lunch.  So we picked her up when her morning session ended and walked into town to a restaurant.  We had a nice lunch just the 3 of us!  Here in town most restaurants are bars/restaurants so the bar part you can smoke in but the restaurant part you can't but in general it still smells in the restaurant part.  After lunch Jason walked back to the hotel to work and I got Amber back to ski school for the afternoon session.  Then I walked over the the restaurant where the boys eat with their ski school.  They take the gondola down and eat at the restaurant next to Amber's ski school.  So I sat and chatted with them for a bit and then walked back to the hotel.  As I was leaving they were getting their dessert.  It was a big crepe with chocolate on the inside and whipped cream on the side!  I went back to the hotel for a bit and then back over to watch Amber's race.  They took turns going up the tow rope and then down the hill, around the markers and the instructors timed them.  She looked so cute!

Then her class ended so we came back to the hotel and got some hot chocolate after unloading her skis in the drop off room at the hotel.  About an hour later we had to go back over to the ski restaurant where the kids eat lunch with the ski school and there was a medal ceremony for all the ski school kids.  The boys had had their race too.  Jason had gone up the mountain and gotten the boys when they were done with their school and they skied 1/2 way down the mountain and then they took the gondola the rest of the way down.  They met us at the awards ceremony. 
Amber loved her instructors.
Here is a picture of her with the girl who was in charge of the kids program in her area.

So at the ceremony they called each ski group up and they got a certificate with their time on it and their place and a medal.  Amber got 1st in her class,

Sean got 2nd and Jacob 3rd, he fell!  I love how people say Jacob here, Yacob- he hates it!  The instructors here are mostly girls and they are tall, stocky girls. 

Then the teachers did a dance for the kids to follow and then a conga line.

Then each of the kids had gotten a ticket and Amber and the girl in charged picked out #'s and some kids won things.

By the time this all ended the kids didn't have enough time to go to the pool so we got ready for dinner.
Another 5 course meal!  Yum

Friday was our last day of skiing- happy and sad! Happy I won't have to put those skies on for awhile again so my body can rest and sad to have to leave this beautiful area.
Today was Amber's big day- ski school at the top of the mountain. She got to go down the hill today where the boys started. I got her all ready and got her up the mountain on the gondola. Today was cold and really snowing. She was excited.  We found her teachers and then I went back down the gondola and Jason and the boys picked me up and we drove back to the town Jason and I skied at the other day. We took the boys out of their ski school today to take them on these better runs. They were getting bored going on the same few easy runs at this hill. At the other town we took the 1st chair lift that goes 1/2 way up the mountain and then got on the next chair left to take us to the top. The boys had fun skiing with us down all these different runs. Jacob is a speed demon and wants to go over all the bumps.  Sean just glides carefully down the hill and Jason and I are just trying to make it safely down the hill!

Jason liked this sign it said something about an avalanche.
We stopped and had lunch on the mountain then skied for a bit more and then we had to start making our way all the way back down to the bottom of the mountain and back to the car b/c we had to drive back to the hotel and then I had to take the gondola up to get Amber from her lesson.
We had a very nice, fun day skiing with the boys. At the hotel we turned all our ski gear back in, then I went back up the gondola to get Amber. She looked so cute taking the big chair lift up and then they just snake down the mountain following the ski instructor.

After class we took the gondola back down and she said she didn't want to turn in her skies b/c she wanted to go skiing again! After Amber and I got back to our room all the boys were already at the pool so I got her ready and dropped her off there and went back to the room to start packing up all our stuff.
Everyone enjoyed their last swim here and we got ready for dinner. This morning they had given us the menu with 3 choices to pick from. Jason chose the pig and I chose the fish. Every night the kids had a buffet. The dinner was good as usual!  By the end of the week we noticed the kids were eating dinner much faster and not lingering around the buffet for seconds.  It was because they were having so much fun in the game room they wanted to get back to it!

Sat. morning we enjoyed our last big breakfast at the hotel and then we filled the car and car carrier to the max with all our stuff.  Then we just drove an hour to Salzburg where we were going to spend the night and check it out.  So we dropped off the car at the hotel.  We were about 15 min. from all the sights so we walked over there and grabbed a quick lunch and walked around.  Salzburg has a river going through it.

One one side of me was the river and this was on the other side.  It is houses built into the rock behind them.
Then it was some streets with all sorts of shops/designer stores and everything else too.  Here is where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born. They had many things in the town for sale with Mozart's picture on them.

These red boxes have chocolates in them.

These are rubber ducks suppose to be Mozart.
So we went and toured his house.  I love hearing/seeing things that happened in history and be able to be at the same spot where it happened, etc. D-Day Normandy Beach, we were there, the Colosseum and everything in Rome, Anne Frank house with the Jewish and WWII.  There is so much history here in Europe.  So amongst the shop lined pedestrian streets was Mozart's birthplace.

So his parents rented the 3rd floor apt. for 26 years.  His mother gave birth to 7 children here, this was the 1700's.  But only 2 of them lived past 1 year, can you imagine!  How sad.  Mozart's father was a famous piano player and then both Mozart and his sister became piano players as well.  Their apt. we toured and when you walked up the stairs to the 3 rd floor.  It was a large hallway with a bunch of doors that were different rooms to the apt, but I think there was another floor above them which would have meant people were walking through the hall in their apt. to get to the stairs.  So there was one door which was a kitchen. 
 
Then another door to a study, another door to a big bedroom and then the family room and another room could also be reached by the hallway doors or the adjoining doors in those rooms. 
Mozart got married and had 6 children, but the same thing, only 2 lived past childhood.  His sister got married to a man who had been widowed twice and had 5 kids ages 5 and under and then they had 3 more children, so she had a very big family. 
Mozart died at a very young age- 35 after being sick for awhile, but it was written that his death was caused by fever, so they think he may have had something else too.  So it was very interseting.  Then they had the apt. tour and floors below all set up as a museum.  All righ on the hub of the busy shopping street. 
From here we walked over to the fortress.  It is on top of this cliff overlooking the town.

We took a little tram up to the top of the cliff.  Inside the fortress walls they had a puppet museum.  Puppets are very popular here and there are some puppet shows.

Once inside the walls we had to wait about 15 min. in line to go inside the fortress.  Then you walk up the stairs and into rooms where they had things on display.  Weapons, war things, house furishings, etc.

On the way out was the Europe's largest Amber store!
So that was neat and then we took the tram back down and just walked back towards the hotel.  There was a market like booths in one place with some drinks and food set up.  One food tent looked like it had elephant ears so we ordered 1.  While we are waiting I got a faint smell of garlic but don't think much of it besides it must be coming from another booth.  I take the elephant ear and then break off a piece and smell it and omg, it is covered in garlic, yuck!  Thank goodness I didn't take a bit of it!  Amber and I didn't eat it, but the boys did and they stunk afterwards, seriously why would someone make that. 

We walked back to the hotel and let the boys air out.  We checked in and our room was ready and then we made our dinner reservations at the restaurant right next store to the hotel.  We were able to get a family room here.  So it was set up as 2 regular hotel rooms but with a common entrance with a big door.  So once we closed and locked the big door we could just leave our 2 doors open and go between the rooms.  They must not have had any interconnecting rooms.  We only had to wait about an hour and then the restaurant opened at 5:30 and it got busy soon after that.  Sean was in a bad mood so he didn't seem to like anything on the menu so he didn't order anything and then just ate off all our meals.  For dessert we came back up to the room and shared the 2 pretzels we had gotten from the other non garlic booth.  One was chocolate and one was cinnamon- yummy!  One thing Salzburg is known for is the Sound of Music.  So they had a bunch of tours for that where they take you out into the country.

Sunday morning we woke up and grabbed some cereal I brought and started the drive home.  It was suppose to be only 6 hours but ended up taking 7 hours.  It isn't that long, but feels like forever.  We were so sandwiched in the car, b/c you know things never seem to go back in as smoothly as they did when you were going there.  And then we did pick up a few things along the way (:
We got home around 4:30 pm or so and Jason dropped me off and I started getting everything under the tree so we could celebrate Christmas.  He took the kids to the gas station to do some grocery shopping.  When I finally got everything ready the kids finally got to celebrate their Christmas!  Almost a week later!

The strawberry shortcake house that speaks in French, oops didn't think of that!
They loved their Christmas and enjoyed all their gifts and the house was a complete disaster between all the luggage, snow gear and Christmas stuff.
Amber learned how to snap her fingers this past week so she loves doing it and showing it to everyone she knows!

Monday was New Year's Eve and we started the clean up process and I started on the huge, overwhelming pile of laundry.  I made mint chocolate cookies for tonight to bring to our get together.  We went ice skating in the afternoon with 3 other families and then over to one of their houses and all had tacos and celebrated New Years! 

We came home at 10 and then Jacob fell asleep, but the other 2 stayed up and we watched a display of fireworks across towns from Amber's balcony.  It was neat and we rang in the New Year!

Happy New Year!  We welcomed 2013 by enjoying a day at home and doing more laundry!

Wednesday Jason went back to work.  I took the kids to Ikea in the morning to pick up another bookshelf and some things.  One thing I wanted was their gingerbread cookie dough but they were all sold out.  I told my friend I think she bought the last of it.  She said she still had some and she was nice enough to drop it off when she was out today.  So we will get to making that later.  I worked on the laundry some more!
The boys have been coughing for a bit now, so I made an appt. with my Dr. b/c the kids Dr. never wants to give them anything unless it is almost pneumonia.  So we had that appt. this afternoon.  We had to wait for an hour before we got in and Sean has bronchitis and Jacob the start of an ear infection and pharyngitis as well.  So they both got put on some medicine.  So then we had to go to the pharmacy where I had to wait in line as well.  They were out of 2 of the things the boys needed so I have to go back tomorrow and get them.
Jason had left work at a decent time and was able to go to the butcher out there and get some meats.  So he came home and grilled something and got dinner ready so by the time we got back from the pharmacy dinner was all ready so that worked out well!
Jacob lost another tooth tonight!  4th one since school has started!

Thursday we ran over to my friend's house to return the car carrier and some stuff we had borrowed from them and then over to the pharmacy to pick up the rest of the boys medicine that wasn't in stock yesterday.  On the way home from the pharmacy we see the cops parked and clocking people, yep they got Jason.  I bet now he wishes he had gone into work today!  Here you get points taken off your license and in 3 years if you don't get any more points taken off you get them back.  So he got 2 points taken off and a bill of 145  Euros!  Yikes!  Then Jacob says "Thats ok dad we won't be here in 3 more years anyway!"  Too funny!
I spent a lot of time downloading pictures and doing laundry.  The kids enjoyed their free time and played.  And Jacob and I went back out to Ikea and got him a coffee table that he can put all his legos on and not have to clean them up.  There is a small sitting room in our bedroom we don't use so we put it up there and the kids can do their legos there and not have to worry about putting them away then.  I think he likes the table just as much as his gifts!

Friday Jason went into the office and with no tickets on the way!  Sean went to a friend's house to play pretty much all day and Amber had 2 friends come over.  One of the friend's mom came back for lunch and we caught up and had lunch here.  So that was nice.  All the kids liked Sean's new lego train he had gotten.  Jacob was helping them out with it.  It was cute!

For dinner we walked down the street to a Japanese restaurant for dinner and back home for a cookie buffet dessert!

Sat we went to Metz, France.  It is about 45 minutes away and we hadn't been there yet.  We walked around town, had McDonald's for lunch.  They still had some of their Christmas market up so Amber went on a Christmas tree ride and we then we on the ferris wheel ride.

We also bought a pretzel here that was as big as Amber's head!
We saw their big Cathedral of St. Stephen.  It is very pretty and has huge high ceilings.  Beautiful stained glass windows.

The had a huge really neat nativity scene set up here off to the side.
We saw a main city square that has medieval storefronts on this street.  It isn't a very pretty area but neat to see how old the houses were.  One of the houses had a plaque that said it was from the 1400's.  You can tell they had to add pipes up the walls for plumbing.

We walked into the open and covered market areas where they sell food and everything else.  We pasted by the arch on the end of the town that used to mark the south limit of the city.  So it was a nice visit.
This was how we spent our Christmas holiday break!