Last Day of 2010

It's a Friday tis year and we played SORRY in the afternoon - F's choice over watching Videos. Some special Sparkling Juice, yummy scrambled and fried eggs and fruit and nuts... Everyone was happy :)
Before the boys went to bed we went outside to light some sparklers... Let's hope for an awesome New Year!

Walk in the woods

It's the first day of Christmas Break and the weather is perfect: Snow! That's all we need :)
We went for a walk in the woods to check for the stream down hill...

No school today - too cold?!

The wind chill was quite something, so we stayed inside (except for testing HOW cold it really felt out there ;))

Snow again - and again perfect timing: 3rd Advent

How beautiful - slowly falling snowflakes on Sunday morning... they continue to add to the blanket of snow thorughout the day. The boys went outside after lunch having a blast :)

Christmas Butter Cookies

I just finished preparing the dough for our favorite Chirstmas Cookies. Simply made out of
Flour
Sugar
Vanilla Sugar
Egg Yolks
Butter

The dough is now resting in the fridge. We'll take it to F's friend Aditya this afternoon and cut and bake the cookies there. I guess we'll eat some too ;)

Pottery with the boys

After school we went to our friends house for playing with A & V and to have tea & sweets, of course. They wanted to join us for a ceramics 'class' at Gail's Pottery. So we went - and what fun they had! Though I have to say, it's always challenging to keep everything and everyone from becoming too excited. F: "Clay is my passion, because I'm passionate about clay..." :)

It's freezing out there...

...6F (- 12Celsius) in the morning. And of course, St. Nicolaus was here! Ahhh, F was delighted :) Chocolate and a book (The Cartoonists Workbook). We had to remind him constantly, that he still needs toget ready for school... H just woke up, so he hasn't found his shoes yet.

More Sandhill Cranes...

...early afternoon today we heard and watched quite a few of the cranes when we walked over to our neighbors house. Stunning!

More Snow...

Ach ja, as we would sigh in German... Yesterday was a perfect day. Snow fell overnight and continued falling during the day. Naturally, the boys were excited and went outside after lunch. Ahhh, sledding, snowball fight with Dad and then some.
We even decorated our Christmas Tree already! Wow, that's early in our home. The outside Christmas tree is always lighted after Thanksgiving, but the inside usually only a week before Christmas. BEautiful - we're now offically in Holiday mood :)
In this sense, we'll leight the 2nd candle in the afternnon for the 2nd of Advent.

Sandhill Cranes Migration

It was last weekend (Thanksgiving) quite late this year, but we saw them again: The Sandhill Cranes on their way to the South. Amazingly beautiful. First there is the noise, then you have to search the sky and then: There they are. We're blown away every time by the number and formation(s) of these birds.

Here a link for thoses interested:

http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/3109.htm

The first snow of the Season...

...or is not more than the first flurries. Still enough for children to go nuts :) Unbelievable what a little snow means to children. F & H are more than excited. F finished his homework as soon as we got back from school (and hair cut today) and then off in the cold it was. He told H he'll biuld him a snowball 'It should work, when I gather enough flurries...' Quote.