Family Time in December 2009

Family time in December included:



Celebrating Great-Grandma Darlene's 82nd Birthday



The kiddos wanting to sleep with a jet-lagged Grandma Julie



Many a competitive game of "Ticket to Ride"



Visiting the lights at the LA Temple

My wonderful parents

It was so nice to have three of my four grown-up brothers here for Christmas. All the years of being the oldest and caring for them have paid off. This time they were taking care of me!

Joseph is a cuddler. He would often come up to Opa Hanno and sit down and cuddle with him. Here he is cuddling with Uncle Fred.

Joseph is my self-proclaimed "Cooker."
I can hardly do anything in the kitchen without him running to help me.


One of my favorite Christmas memories from 2009 includes Rebecca picking one of her dolls (a soft Prince Philip doll) and of her own accord deciding to give it to Joseph. She came down to the wrapping room and wrapped it, telling me, "I want to give him something that is mine. I feel good in my heart."
Joseph also gave Rebecca something and wanted to tell her what was inside. When it was time to open presents he went looking for the gift for her. They are such good friends. Seeing them interact is one of the happiest parts of my life.
Oh, and I also forgot to mention that my mom spent a lot of time sewing some clothes for Rebecca's new doll. I was supposed to learn how to sew, but we ran out of time and it was just faster for her to do it herself. We had a great December.

Salad Citrus

We have a salad citrus tree in our yard. My dad introduced me to those trees last year, and since I was required to plant a certain number of trees in our yard, I bought one of those for our garden. It grows limes, clementines and a number of different kinds of oranges. Five different things in all. We had fun seeing it with all the fruit on it.

December Projects

The month of December was full of projects. My parents are builders, by nature/talent and also by profession, so they help us get a lot of things done that we wouldn't be capable of on our own. First my mom helped us rearrange the furniture in the garage, turning half of it into storage for outdoor items (lawnmower etc.) and the other half into a nice room. That is where Philipp and Fred slept over the holidays. It helped to have an extra "guest room."

My parents and brothers also helped put together a new bunkbed for Joseph and Rebecca, moved Rebecca's bed to another room, helped with some major furniture rearranging in the master bedroom, and built us a pantry (Hurray!). I'm trying to think if I've forgotten anything. We were incredibly busy all month long. Everyone was such a big help and we're very grateful to all my family for spending their vacation on our home improvement projects.

First project: carpet in the garage.

Next, my brothers helped remove two dead trees. Unfortunately not all of our landscaping took perfectly and the trees have had the hardest time. It was sad to see the trees go, even though they were dead.

One of the more fun projects, of course, was putting up the Christmas tree!

And last but not least, Rebecca and Aunt Emily's project was building a house.
A gingerbread house that is!

My own projects included:



....some fun Christmas shopping



...decorating for Christmas



...and just loving my kids and continuing to keep the little bun in the oven safe and warm.

Christmas 2009

We celebrate Christmas by opening our presents on Christmas Eve, as is traditional in Austria and Germany. While the kids are busy doing something else in the house, the "Christkind" quietly slips in unnoticed and leaves presents under the tree. When he is done he rings a bell, which is the signal to the children that they can come down to look at their presents.

Rebecca and Joseph seeing the tree filled with presents underneath.



We always sing "Stille Nacht" and "O Tannenbaum" before doing anything else.



Rebecca with her American Girl Doll, "Rebecca."



The Girls



The Boys



Joseph couldn't have been more thrilled with his tools. He used his tools to open his other presents and "cut" the ham at dinner time.





We light a few real beeswax candles in honor of the traditional Austrian Christmas tree.





We eat peas and rice and ham. My dad grew up with peas and rice for Christmas Eve dinner. It was expensive to buy rice for them in those days, so it was a real treat. We grew up with it, too, and are carrying on the tradition.



Note the tools. Joseph hammered the ham, sawed the ham, drilled the ham....

One special present was a collection of photos of heavy machines (tractors, trucks etc.) from the temple site in Kiev, Ukraine. My dad, who is project manager for the building of the temple there took the photos. When he takes a picture of a worker he likes to give them a copy of their picture. Most of these workers have never owned a picture of themselves in their whole lives. They like to take their picture around the site and show it to all the other workers. Joseph loves tractors and trucks, so it was a perfect present for him.

Mary in our traditional nativity play. The bowl was her own idea.

Sleep in heavenly peace...

Rebecca lined up her doll's accessories. It was her idea to use the shoe box as a closet.



We're usually too tired to open everything on Christmas Eve, so it continues in the morning with stockings, more good food and good times.

Christmas Parties

What would December be without a bunch of Christmas parties! This year I hosted our annual High School Friends Christmas Party. It's been fun to get together every year and watch our children grow. They all get along great and have a fun time playing together.

Next we had our church Christmas party with Grandma Julie in attendance (and Rebecca singing in a trio), and Warren's work party at a fancy hotel in Pasadena. Warren sang a few Christmas songs at the kid's church party in the style of Kermit and Piggy. The kids loved it, of course!

We also celebrated as is tradition for us at Warren's work with lunch and a visit from Santa.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

One of my favorite memories from this Christmas season was getting out our two mini Christmas trees (courtesy of Grandma Carol). The kids were so excited to decorate them and it welcomed in the Christmas spirit.

Speaking of Christmas trees, I grew up with a real Christmas tree and we bought it every year close to Christmas, in fact we didn't put it up until Christmas eve, as is tradition in Austria. When I was little it was a surprise, as I got older I helped decorate.

This year we were expecting lots of family for the holidays. My parents and all my brothers came except for Arnold and his family who stayed in Germany. Last year my mom and I got a great real tree at a great price pretty close to Christmas, so I was waiting for her to do the same this year. Well, life got busy and people got sick, so it was Dec. 23rd when we finally got around to looking for a tree. We tried everything we could think of. No one had any real trees left. In fact, one store said they had been sold out for two weeks already. While we were at a hardware store looking for something I saw a sign that said all the Christmas things were on sale. I didn't really think about it till later that night but called and confirmed with the store that it included the fake trees. My mom and I went back the next morning and exited the store with a normally $200 tree for only $35! Talk about having fun shopping! I got a storage bag for 75% off and even a tool set for Joseph for 50% off that we almost bought a few weeks ago for full price. We had so much fun at the hardware store that morning!