CHRISTMAS

Oh, I can't say enough about how blessed we were to have John home in time for Christmas!!!
After not hearing from him for 3 days, I had no idea what was going on; If he had left Iraq or not. So when he showed up at the house on Monday, I was ready for Christmas day to be on Tuesday. As I posted previously, it was an answer to many prayers and I am so grateful to all of you who prayed on our behalf!
This sign you see in the window is the sign I had made for when he came home for R&R but wasn't ready when John came home a day earlier than expected. (John took the picture with his new camera that he got for Christmas.)

Here are some pictures of our Christmas...

Jakob and Zack ate chocolate ALL day long. I think "chocolate" is Zack's new favorite word.


Jakob was so excited for everyone to have presents to open. It didn't matter who was opening them, he was right there helping.




The kids both loved playing with their "pretend swords" made from wrapping paper tube.


Jakob is sporting two of his gifts. He absolutely loves to shave with Dad! I looked all over for a plastic razor.


Jakob and Zackary are working on their pictures for Aunt Lea. Below is a picture of the Bamberg Christmas market. It was crowded and hard to get a good picture. It was rows and rows of little tiny shops, selling things from candy to nativity scenes (which are very popular here) to tree ornaments and villages.



Now that Daddy's home, he's teaching Jakob about chores. So far, Jakob had done quite well with the dishes. Zack, as you can see, prefers to empty the cupboards and dirty the dishes.



The other day we spent an evening with the Dettmer family. Our German friends. We introduced them to Geo Caching and they fed us a true Frankonian dinner. The first picture is of the kids climbing on a wood pile near our parking spot. The second picture is of the cache they found. The third pic is of John pushing the stroller. Zack fell asleep on our way to the second and longest cache, so we pushed him around. It was VERY cold and the kids are not use to being outside in this cold for long periods of time. When we got home Zack's feed were frozen to the point of pain. Poor thing! As you can see, there really isn't a trail there. Luckily the ground was frozen solid so we were able to push the stroller. The last picture is of a large rock that has trees growing out of it. It was the strangest thing to see. They were all over the place.