Skating at the Schloss

We spent the afternoon yesterday back at Schloss Schleissheim, this time bringing our skates! Well, at least Troy & Sophia had their skates, Alexandra & I power walked around them. Troy had never skated outdoors before, and I think it was a dream for him to be there, and to have his daughter with him!

Back to Munich

Well, we arrived back in Munich to more cold. -10 the night we arrived at the airport, but no snow. Which was kind of a relief given the past 3 weeks in Seattle.

We had heard of the canals at the varioius schloss around Munich that were frozen over, so we took a trip out to Schloss Schleissheim to check it out. This is the main canal leading between the 2 palaces, and it was completely frozen over - at least 8 inches thick from the bubbles you could see below your feet. Amazing, and we will definately be coming back for some skating.

The cool kids on the block

Playtime in the snow with Uncle Brehan, Sean & Sophia.

Sophia & I finally got a snowman made 2 nights before we left when it snowed 8 inches while we were at dinner. Amazing - I have never seen a Seattle winter like this!

Happy 2009!

Well, we are back, and given that I am writing this at 1am you can probably guess that we are beginning our weeks of jet lag fun. Troy and I are taking turns staying up, and since I was falling asleep at the dinner table tonight, I had the early 4 hours (8-12), and he gets 12 - 4am. Hopefully we will all be asleep between 4-10am, and then we start the day. Troy has to leave for Paris at 5am, so it is just me & the girls tonight. Poor man!
Any way, my plan for the late night hours is to add photos from Christmas, so be sure to look back (I'll do them chronologically).
Thanks again to everyone for making Christmas so special, and sorry about not being able to touch base with everyone at home. The snow made everything crazy this year, and we are sorry if we missed you!

Cousin Photos

We went to have photos of Sophia, Alexandra & Sean taken, & while we were waiting for the proofs there was some wonderful play time!

More of New Years at the Lake

The girls are so sweet, and it is so wonderful to see the 2 of them just falling into place there...

New Years at the Lake

We spent a very quiet New Years at the lake with just the 4 of us (crazy to say 4 still), as everyone else was occupied with tradition , and we could actually drive up there since the snow was melting...

It was Alexandra's first time crawling on the best [ugly, brown] carpet, and Sophia taught her to enjoy every moment. Plus, she found all of the food & toys caught up in the fibers from the last 3 years (since Sophia was the same age!).

Christmas Celebrations

Opening Alexandra's gifts on the days after Christmas. Sophia was a BIG help!

Christmas Dinner... The ultimate table was a bit smaller this year!

Between Christmas dinner & Boxing day, we were quite the party house!

Sophia & Mira on Boxing Day.
It was wonderful to see so many friends, and to be able to introduce Alexandra to everyone!

Papa was so exhausted at end of year, that he fell asleep with Sophia watching TV after Christmas dinner. Somehow, she managed to wake him enough to go flying off his back...

More Christmas!

Alexandra finally woke up for some christmas celebrations... The hat stayed on for about 10 seconds, but she was pretty cute! She loves the lights on the tree & hasn't really tried to pull anything down, but she does try to stroke the branches. I think the feeling is so new to her that she is just in awe of it!

Sophia in her new Princess lounge clothes, and a tiara of course...

Sean & Sophia watching more snow fall on Christmas day. I think she will remember this white christmas for a long, long time!The snow accumulation on the back deck from Christmas eve. This was all cleared off over the weekend!
Enough snow, time to play the new games.

Christmas!!

I love Sophia on Christmas mornings. Both last year & this year she is torn between a childs desire to just rip open every gift, and her want to play with her toys the minute she opens them. It is hard to do both!

Sophia was so excited for Troy & I to open her present to us. At school they had made the gift and the wrapping paper (glitter everywhere, we had to put it in a ziploc to get it to Seattle without glitter all over our clothes). Her hand is so cute, and she was so proud of herself!

Unfortunately, Alexandra slept thru most of the chaos. We opened a few presents every day for her, for almost the rest of the time we were in Seattle!