November

The time seems to be flying by. I can't believe November is over and Christmas is almost here! It is crazy! I wish some of the festivities of Thanksgiving and Christmas could be spread more evenly throughout the year, but I guess that is all part of the fun of it! Here are a few pictures from our Month (including a gazillion photos from the original German Christmas Market... :-))

Camden dragged me to a Turkey Trot 5k on the base, on a rainy and cold Saturday morning. I was actually quite impressed with his motivation!

Trophies and Turkeys!

I love to run, but am NOT a fast runner, so I was SHOCKED to win second place (ok... to keep it real, I still had a slow time and it WAS the Senior division ...but I was happy none-the-less :-)

We had a fun time with friends at the "Lichthof" in Bamberg

Here is photo that Mia sent to me when she was "babysitting" Frank. He spilled all of his food on the floor - his little expression says, "Yea... this happened, but I can't stress about it" Looks quite guiltyif you ask me :-)

Mia made pom poms for her slippers - Youtube crafts is the ultimate in entertainment for her :-) 

We had Thanksgiving at our house...

Our good friends from Hong Kong...

Czech and Australia celebrated with us!

And our table cloth of thanks is pretty much packed fulll - not many more years left on this one!

And crazy enough - the 1st of Advent is already here! Germans celebrate Advent in a big way!

Mia with a German Kinder egg! Illegal in the U.S. (for safety reasons) , but cherished by kids in Germany!

We are extremely goofy! We decided that we look alike (with the exception that I don't have flawless skin or shiny healthy hair - oh yeah - I have a few extra wrinkles too :-))- what do you think???

Yes - this is the one and only family photo that I was able to get! I tried to be a bit artistic, but not quite sure it worked! 

We went to Dresden (located near the Polish Border)...

to the famous Christmas Market...

German Christmas Markets...

are famous, but the Dreden Christmas Market....

is REALLY famous...

because it is the OLDEST Christmas Market in Germany....

around a mere 500 years old!!!

It is definitely my favorite ....

Christmas Market ....

So far!...

so much character....

so adorable...

so cozy (even though it is very cold)...

so traditional (this iswhat they call a Pyramid)...

Not sure if you can make this out, but it is a Nativity seen built from wood...

Almost looks fake - it is so adorable...

and always completely bustling though the Advent Season..

The Market is called the "Striezelmarkt"

a bit cold! (My oldest 2 (for whatever reason) refuse to wear normal winter coats and hats. Mia being "German" has no problem with it - not quite sure why, but the struggle is real!!!! :-)

so adorable...

love these 3!

Love these 4 too!

and this one too!

Definitely gets you in the spirit of Christmas!!

Where to next?

Happy First Advent!!!!

Happenings

The last few weeks have been quite busy celebrating birthdays, work, normal life etc... Here are a few pics :-)

Bailey - heading off to London for her 18th birthday present. She had a great time!!!

Bryan, Mia, and I went to see the Harlem Globetrotters on the base. They do such a good show and it was a  really fun time 

Instead of 3 points - they give 4 points :-)

Mia has such a great laugh - because she literally laughs outloud. Her smile (and laugh) was priceless watching the show!

How did I end up here?

They have constant audience participation

And after the show, they took time to sign autographs!

Mia really enjoyed it!

This was "Too Tall" (he was the same size as Mia :-)

On the way to Munich to pick up Bailey, Bryan and I had a nice "Date day". We went to Kloster Weltenburg (the oldest Monestary in the world). This writing carved into stone on the outside of the gates was sombering...

The Monestary sits on the Danube River and is surrounded by this Gorge. So pretty!!! You can see the river boats that go right through it....

The Monestary (on the right)

This was a photo of the flooding in the region. I guess it happens quite often...

The marks on the building show how high the water has risen and in which year it flooded. Amazing!

And a goofy selfie :-)

 

The Monestary from the back...

We climbed a hill for a better view, but the darn trees were in the way...

The tiny canoe at the bottom shows you how big this gorge really is!!!

so pretty (even on an overcast day)

Beautiful!!!

This is a picture of the Monestary from the sky (which of course also brews beer). 

The brewery is quite famous

Since 1050 - Yes - almost 1000 years old!!!!!

And this was adorable...There was a stream in the water where the ducks would quickly float down, eating fish on the way. When they got to the end of the stream, they would fly back to the beginning just to immediately float down the stream again in order to get more fish. They were clever little fellas!!! 

The town had a cute little St. Martins Day festival that we went to. Beautiful old Buildings too!

In remembrance of those who lost their lives in WW1 and WW11

Interesting mural????

On the way to Munich is perhaps the largest Hops growing area in the world. So interesting to see!

And as we were waiting to pick up Bailey, we went to the Airport Visitors Park (yes they have one of those!!!). It is a huge hill in the middle of the Airport that you can climb up and see the action. On a clear day, you can see the Alps in the distance, but of course we had lots of clouds. We did get a glimpse of the Super Moon on the way home though :-)