Merry Christmas!!!

I never got around to sending Christmas cards this year so here's my electronic version...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

May your holidays be filled with Peace, Love and Happiness!!!

Love,

Tony, Julie, Isabelle and Logan

No Snow Day!!!!

Here is a picture of Logan walking to school in the snow. Do you see all that snow?? And they still had school. If we were still at home we would be sitting at home in our PJs having a snow day!!!!

Christmas time in the City

London is very nice this time of year. It doesn't have quite the magical feel of NYC but there are lots of lights and activities.

We took the kids to see the Snowman. I honestly wasn't sure what to expect from Logan at a ballet but he was awesome. He really enjoyed all the dancing Snowmen but his favorite character was the spiky man, Jack Frost. Isabelle, of course, loved the Ice Princess. After the show, we went down to Trafalgar Square to see the BIG Christmas tree. It's impressive!

(A few days after we were there the student protesters tried to burn it down! )

Next on our list was to see Santa or as they like to call him here, Father Christmas. I was told back in September to book tickets to Santa's Grotto at Harrods so I did. It was nice but I was expecting something more.... grand, I guess. It is Harrods after all but it was Santa sitting in a big red chair. The kids loved it and decided he was "the real one" and the ones in Charlotte had all been dressed as Santa???

We then put up our Christmas tree. We bought a real one since we left the big fake one in storage. Imagine this... Tony having to walk a good 15-20 minutes with a 7 ft tree over his shoulders. I thought it was funny and cute, made me think of "It's a Wonderful Life". Not sure he felt the same way.

There are lots of Christmas lights in London but one area seems to be the brightest of all... Oxford Street, Regent Street and Carnaby! We sat on top of a double decker bus down Oxford St and it was pretty cool. Isabelle liked the lights that were above the street. Logan loved Carnaby because Santa was dressed in a space suit.

Of course, there are also the Christmas windows! Harrods had a Peter Pan theme and Hamley's toy store had lots of teddy bears. I love this time of year!!!

Thanksgiving Celebration in Germany?

Since we do not live in a country that celebrates Thanksgiving (or as one Englishman said "celebrate the fact we took over other people's land and then help feed them with our plentiful food grown on that land" : ) ) we decided to take a trip to Munich. Why Munich? I wanted to go to the Christmas Markets and the kids wanted to see Sleeping Beauty's castle.

On Thanksgiving Day, we did not eat any turkey and dressing or pumpkin pie. But we did eat Schnitzel and Apple Strudel! Not exactly the feast we are used to but it was ok. What I find funny is what I missed most about Thanksgiving... the smell of all the food cooking and hearing the Macy's Parade in the background.

We got a car for a day, which a rental is usually something like a Toyota or Nissan but in Germany, Mercedes is like owning a Ford back home. So we pile into our Mercedes Wagon and drive into the Bavarian Alps to see the Neuschwanstein castle. This castle was built by King Ludwig II in the 1800s way up on a hill. I must say he had good taste. The caste was small, well, small for a castle but it was decorated with very elaborate fabrics, lights, wood carvings, etc... The tour was very short due to the fact he died during the building of the castle and it was never finished. There were wall murals with dragons being slayed by knights with blood aplenty. This was Logan's favorite part of the entire trip to Germany..... it just warms a mother's heart!

The next day, we went to the Marienplatz which is a big square with a large Cuckoo Clock. At 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., the Cuckoo comes to life. These little dolls spin around and dance while music plays. I heard a tour guide behind me say this was voted the second most boring tourist attraction in Europe. Hmmm. This was Isabelle's favorite part of the trip (she thought it would be the castle but it wasn't since Sleeping Beauty obviously wasn't there).

Below are some pictures from out trip. The first two are from the castle. The last ones are from the Christmas Market, Marienplatz and the Christmas train.