What a Christmas

Thank you to everybody who gave me such a nice Christmas this year- I was looking forward to this big family feast for a very long time and then with Ryan coming over it became as perfect as we could only make it in this year 2007.

°Thank you°Danke°Gracias°Merci°Gracie°


big smile from me. Danke

2. Weihnachtsfeiertag- a house full of kids

On the 26th, the last day of christmas celebrations we always see my sister Bianca with her family. In the late afternoon we had the present-giving and afterwards we indulged more food, of course. That's what we are here for ;)

that was really full house but lots of fun, too. Here we've got Ryan, Nadin- the 2nd oldest daughter, Max Kim- the smallest but loudest and most active one :) , Leonie Anna- my Goddchild, me, my brother Kim and then Lisa Bianca's oldest.
The only two missing are Felix my older brother and his girlfriend Andrea but they are having fun with the Chinese at the moment. They experience a lot of crazy meals in Shanghai and don't ask which animals they serve there on your plate...you would not believe it but you can check that out on their page (see on the right on my link list)

Here is Bianca's OLDEST child- her husband Bernhard =) Baby Jesus got him a train, he was super excited about his "Modelleisenbahn" because it has the very new and fast ICE trains and you can have sounds and everything :-O

Here is our oldest kid called Papa trying to figure out how the helicopter works...


uhh...but wait...help is coming. Max knows exactly what to do. The oldest learns from the youngest, that's the way to be :)

Bianca and Bernhard just exhaustet: "what a crazy family. are they ever gonna be tired? "
we are special indeed and that's perfect how it is =)
there is always action somewhere in the family
Bianca then had the solution how to make everybody a bit calmer- fooooooooood

Bianca: "yes, now they are quiet" HAHA

Bianca trying to control and feed the hungry kids. We had a yummy cold saltroast with a big range of salads and cold dishes. For dessert we enjoyed some ice-cream and for 2. and 3. and 4. dessert....christmas cookies =)

as drinks, beer of course. No matter where we went, Ryan always had to taste the regional beers because everybody wanted to show him the good German beer. Not that he suffered, a quick "yes" and determined nodding was always the answer =) "Prost Papa"!
"Prost" sounds absolutely German out of Ryan's mouth, no wonder, he practiced lots and lots :)

Bianca's plan didn't quite work out. After the yummy meal more action with a flying Max was on the schedule.

Max decorating their very own christmas tree and i went shopping in Leonie's new supermarket. These new toys are so fancy, with credit cards and beeping scanner and the rolling cash out thing and digital scales- I'm impressed

Again this christmas day was awesome with lots of F's
fun
food
family
food
fire
food
....
did I forget anything?
oh yeah
food
haha

1. Weihnachtsfeiertag

On the 25th we always see my Dad's dad and his side of the family. In the afternoon we played some chrismtas songs, had lunch and cookies of course, relaxed, played games and just enjoyed christmas

In the evening we went to a German restaurant. It was really cosy inside, exactly the right place to keep eating :) Ryan and me shared a soup with special dumplings (liverdumplings...sounds gross but tastes yummy) and dried pancake stripes

and for our mains we had a "schäufele" which is the hip of a pig and really tender meat with no fat, served with dumplings, sauce and mixed winter salad and not to forget "radler" which is beer mixed with sprite- ryan loves it and so do i =) This is really the kind of food that you would not find anywhere in Australia. I really enjoyed it. And Ryno was full as he was all the time over our 3-day-Christmas and thus justified all his little naps here and there with "I really gotta digest, I'm so full, can't move, you have to roll me" haha! but cookies always found some room, hay ;)

That was rare, Ryan in T-shirt, usually he was freezing everywhere

Paps and Babs

and my Opa Günkel

what happened here???

Ryan and me together with beanies and snow in the backround? hääää?

I know pretty weird, hay? That's what I thought every now and then when Beanie, my brothers or my Dad said odd things... now I know why.... Ryan came over as a surprise, woooooooooooow, so cooooooooool.
Sunday at 12 ish Dad called me to the door and was just in the middle of baking so with flour on my hands I came to the door and then......screeeaaaaaaaaam......ryan was walking in with a big smile :) I screamed, couldnt believe it, had shaky hands and hugged him every 30 seconds. Such a great present.....

THANK YOU SO MUCH RYAN

Weihnachtszeit in Lauf

the old church of Lauf....the whole "old-city" was covered in lights, the scent of Glühwein, cinnaom and almonds- really christmasy :) after Ryan arrived midday on Sunday the 23rd, we went to the christmas market to show him whats typical to do in Deutschland

Ryan's first experience of minus degrees and he freezed a lot. After we came home we were lying in front of the open fire place for quite a while until he aclimatized ;) Unfortunately he's not too excited about the very typical christmas- drink Glühwein....didn't stop me drinking it though :-P

Papa and my brother Kim relaxing in front of the fire....it's really nice to just lie there and read, listen to music or just not do anything

Papa and me in the middle of preparations....here we are baking Lebkuchen, very typical for Germany. The Nürnberger Elisenlebkuchen are very well known and yummy :-P We were creative and mad hearts and other funny or extraordinary shapes.

the tree still caught in its package and I was just about to free it

our energy food...I really have to say that Dad and me did quite well and we had a range of good cookies. yum yum yum

even the dough was irresistible ;)

and here one of the biggest fans...he loved it and once I filled the plate up and put it on the sofa next to him and Paps it didn't take five minutes and most of it was gone

the Christbaum ready for Heiligabend the 24th

the nativity scene, pretty essential for our set up

on the 24th, Ryan and me decorated the tree or rather he sat in the chair and told me where something was missing- lazy lazy ;)

in the afternoon we went to church with my sister and her kids and when the service was over we went for a short walk in the cold night.

merry christmas schnaps ... prost :)

for christmas dinner we had a delicious cheese fondue with special rules. everytime you lost your bread you had to drink a "kirschwasser" (schnaps)

papa: "oh noooooo i lost it again"

anna: "uhm...you didnt even have one your fork"

papa: "nu nu....well...i lost it....you know what that means *prost*" with such a big grin on his face

it was really funny and so good, too

he probably should have had more schnaps for his digestion...he said he was just soo full....all this crazy and unfortunately so yummy food- hehe

some more candles, a quick play on the piano and the present giving could come- yeah!

my dad has sent ryan one of his track suits and he absolutely loves it. babyjesus brought another pretty cool adidas ones for both of us.

after everybody gave away and received their pressis, which were all really nice, we enjoyed the fire, played backgammon, ate cookies, drank wine and just relaxed. It was an awesome night!!

The German breakfast absolutely fascinated our Australian guest. My Dad has a real talent for this most important meal of the day. All these sausages, and different breads, danishes, coffee, eggs, freshly pressed juice, different jams, cheese, Brezen.....woow. As soon as Ryan opened the eyes in the morning, no matter what time, he said "breakfast time?" or "I'm hungryyyyy"

Hamburg

On the 16th of December the team from F+i Marktforschung went to Hamburg per plane. What I have to do with this? Well, I was super lucky that I started to work there since I've been in Germany and then one of the colleagues got sick and the tickets for everything were booked already, so they asked "Do you wanna fly to Hamburg for a weekend, we will stay at the "Steigenberger" Hotel and go to the musical "Lion King", go shopping and dining......" Of course I took that opportunity and spent a really nice weekend with the F+i crew in North Germany.

How funny was it to get on a plane for a 50 minute flight? Pf....in that time I usually get comfortable for the massive flight to Oz or back to Deutschland.

I felt like a queen on that weekend: the hotel was super chic 5 stars and expensive, I got a single room with plasma tv and so much "schnick-schnack",

we went out for dinner in fancy restaurants, or just went out for every single meal that we had on that day including extra cake and coffee session and cocktails after dinner, big breakfast in a popular Hamburger Cafe "Alex" (click it)....just WOW for me as you will remember just a few months ago...
->





dinner on the car park...





washing in public toilets...
.

the possessions of three girls fitting in one car...



....but that was another time....now I'm princess in Hamburg =))))

Another activity was the visit of the Panoptikum with popular wax figures

the fattest man living...he lost so much weight so that he needed to get rid of his excess skin which weighed 26 kilos....omg

wohoooo, johny i want a child with youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu *scream*

ahaaaaaaaaaa

one of the many christmas markets there and of course....sweets and treats for anna :-P


the famous patrizier houses...very small houses on quite little space

on the "Schleefahrt" on the Alster at night

our aperitif for our Lion-King meal in the musical house, very delicious and fancy food :-O and a wonderful view. The musical took place on its own little island so we got there with a ferry and then you were surrounded by the lights of Hamburg, awesome.

the boss and his partner



some cultural sightseeing as well of course...



Hamburg at night

who is this? We met Cora Schumacher in one of the shopping centres. I honestly didnt recognize her and dont really know her ;) but the other two did. I only thought "hui what a skinny blonde" *lol* and then the other two...."is it her? is it her" and I only "whoooooooooo" Anna live, LOL

these figures are everywhere in Hamburg in different designs..quite cute. Like the bears in Berlin

then our boss even bought Lebkuchen hearts for his women :)

one of the shopping centers- dreamworld for us-haha- with millions and millions of lights on the x-mas decoration as Xandra thought ;)


Bye bye Hamburg, scheeee wars =) especially the musical was soooo cool, had goosebumps all the time, just loved it, the singing, the figures, the colours, the music, the story...just wow!

Danke nochmal an die F+i !!!!!!!!! War ein riesen Erlebnis für mich *freu*