Holiday Train

I forgot what day it was. It was a WED night and we went and saw the Holiday Train. Henry already slept so he continued in the car but when he saw the train he was wide awake. It was sooo worth it and so exciting.

Our Elf on the Shelf adventures...

We got a Starbucks in Belleville... YEAH :)... Dangerous for me but I'm not passing it much... actually never because I barely go shopping in Belleville now. But for a little hot chocolate treat for my cuties we def. stop by there every now and then... it's fun.

Henry survived another day of Pre-School :)

Pre-Holiday Season

Oh my... I'm sorry guys... but I quickly want to add a few pics :).

Our naughty elf on the shelf has been introduced to you guys already, right? Here we are with a weekend elf:

Last weekend there was gingerbread decorating at our library and also the christmas parade (which we didn't end up see because 1st of all they were almost 30min late and we were hungry and second of all it was a bit too cold ;). But we made it to the decorating part which was fun

We actually have an ice skating ring in our little downtown :). But there wasn't any ice on it yet. I think it's still too warm for it.

To warm up we went into the Belleville Museum which had decorated christmas trees on display, that was very nice to see

St. Nikolaus also came to our house and Zoe was so excited, she colored something for him and the donkey. Both pictures are decorated with the German flag. I figured I tell her that he is German since none of her classmates would know about him... so sweet :)

That naughty elf was fishing gold fish that day, watching over the presents St. Nikolaus brought :)

The next day the elf taped Ninja Turtle onto the bridge and stole his car for a ride... the other cars joined in. The kids loved it...

Hands-On Museum with Austin and Michael

Coloring the bananas, really? ;)

And in a 'sack huepfen' race with Gingerbread man and Ninja Turtle.

Christmas Time...

Henry and I had a fun play date with a friend of ours on Monday and then we had a lunch date at a bagel place and ran some errands afterwards.

On Sunday we already cut out some cookies but since the time ran out on Sunday we continued to decorate them on Monday after school. Boy oh Boy... these cookies were loaded with frosting and sprinkles!!!

Here our newest addition to the family. The elf on the shelf. Last year I was already thrilled by all the fun things the elf is doing in other households and now we finally have one too :). I'm super excited... the story is... the elf is Santa's Helper who comes into homes in the days before Christmas and making notes of the kids if they're naughty or nice... each night when the kids go to bed he goes back to the north pole, reports to Santa and comes back before the kids get up and can be found in a new 'normally naughty' position.

Here is our naughty elf *lol*...
On the 1st he was hanging up in the fan in Henry's underpants, using it as a hammock. The kids were so clever and turned on the fan... :(... they were cracking up big times.

On the 2nd he was found in our plant in on a toilet paper swing, eating a cookie and he also left some cookie crumbles on the table... naughty elf...

And here is what we're going to do tonight :). The kids are already in bed but tonight at around 930pm there is this Holiday Train coming through our town and we just have to see it. So I will wake them up (Zoe is coming downstairs every 10 min asking if it's time yet to go - but I assume Henry fell asleep already)... put the snow suits over their PJ's and we're heading out to see this train. I'm so excited to see this.

Thanksgiving Week

This week was a short school week. Zoe had only MON and TUE school and Dustin had to add another half day on WED and the rest of the week everybody is off. Henry is super excited that he doesn't have to go to school and he says that he doesn't need to go to school anymore. He somehow doesn't like his teacher :(... I don't know... oh well...
On Monday we enjoyed some time at the Hands On Museum with Michael and Austin. Henry was super excited and LOVED that place. I think it actually was his first time. I only took Zoe back in the days when Henry wasn't around or I went when Henry was super tiny but I doubt that...

 He was so excited that he fell asleep on the car ride home!

Turkey Dinner... the 17lbs Turkey turned out super delicious again. We had lots of yummy food... oh no... I forgot to make the red cabbage!!!! But we had sweet potatoes, Mashed Potatoes, Dumplings, Green Beans, Corn, Gravy and this delicious turkey... it was PLENTY of food... no wonder I forgot in all this craziness the red cabbage :(...

Dustin created those amazing looking roses for us :). It looks really cool and wasn't that difficult to make.  It just took a little time but we had plenty of that today.