Moran Family Fun

is six! Yep, she's a big six year old now. Her Christmas Eve birthday gets a little trickier every year, but so far she still actually likes having her birthday so close to Christmas. To celebrate her birthday this year we all went out for lunch and Samantha chose McDonalds - hooray. (Can you hear the sarcasm?) I mean, German McDonalds is better than American McDonalds but it's still a flavorless burger and fries. So we braved the snowy roads and drove out to get lunch. When we got back home she was READY to open presents. Sooo ready. We shoveled some snow and then headed inside to keep partying. The presents were all a hit, especially her new pink scooter. Like Natalie and Emily last year, she wanted a doughnut cake. I love when the kids ask for doughnut cake. I can buy a dozen doughnuts, stack them up on the cake stand, and the cake is ready. Samantha is a sweetie and we all love being around her. She's really smart, funny, and sweet. Samantha loves music. She can sing a...

We traveled to Mannheim on Wednesday to visit one last Christmas market before they all shut down until next year. Any time we drive to Mannheim we drive right by Ikea so before the market I had to make just a quick stop. But really, a trip to Ikea is never quick because they make you walk around the whole store to get out of there! Still it was fun and we found this laptop desk - now my legs won't be burning up from having the computer on my lap when I'm posting to the blog. I love that the height is adjustable and also that the whole thing closes so when I'm not using the computer it's like a little side table. Then it was on to our real destination, the Christmas market in Mannheim. It made our list this year because a couple of different people had told me what a great market they have in Mannheim. After going to Strasbourg because of a similar recommendation, I was a little worried but it ended up being a really fun Christmas Market. We found parking right acros...

We thought the beginning of 2010 was crazy snowy and it looks like the end of the year is shaping up to be just as crazy. We woke up Thanksgiving morning to snow and it has continued since then. Besides the obvious downsides - snowdays (a benefit to SOME of us), shoveling and more shoveling, and scary driving conditions - the snow is not all bad. The kids get to have fun building things out of snow, the cold is a good excuse to drink lots of hot chocolate, and it's even more beautiful around here when everything is covered in fluffy whiteness. Jared and the girls built an igloo in the front yard To make the inside of our house match the outside I made a paper snowstorm in the entryway

Rothenburg was next on our list of Christmas Markets to visit this year so we loaded up the van and headed out on Saturday morning. Rothenburg is an almost too perfect old Germany city, with streets that look as if they came right out of a postcard within the old city walls. We visited Rothenburg once before, maybe nine years ago, so we had seen all the touristy things and this trip was just for the Christmas Market. So off all the Markets we've been to, Rothenburg's is the most beautiful. We parked just outside the old city wall and walked through an arched stone doorway into the Altstadt. The streets were all cobblestoned and covered in just enough snow to be pretty. We walked straight to the main square and, strangely, right past the hotel we stayed in all those years ago. It was kind of fun to say, "Remember, that's where we parked our car, ate breakfast, bought that hat, etc." The Christmas Market itself was spread out over the central part of town. It starte...

That's what Natalie has been telling everyone since her birthday, "I'M FOUR!!!" She was excited to be four and has told me that she wants to be four forever. Natalie also told me that now that she's four, "I am never wrong because I know everything." She is, as she likes to tell me, sweet and funny. For her birthday this year she wanted all her favorite foods for dinner: cheese, bananas, crackers, chocolate, pizza, broccoli, and gummi bears. I made tortellini instead because I wanted an actual dinner and I know she loves "lini". For her birthday cake she asked for Pinkalicious cupcakes. (If you haven't read the book, you should, it's really fun for little girls.) But without cupcake liners the cupcakes didn't turn out so well. They looked fine, but when I took them out of the pans they were runny in the middle. So I started over and we ended up having pink cake with chocolate frosting. We love Natalie and all her crazy cuteness. Sh...

Every year on the 5th of December Germans celebrate St. Nikolaus Day . It's the day that Santa Claus comes to town around here. That night all the kids put their shoes outside and then St. Nikolaus fills them with goodies. It's a fun holiday that my kids enjoy - unfortunately, it always catches me by surprise and I'm not prepared with treats to put in their shoes. The girls put their shoes out on the front steps and I sent them to bed. Then I started frantically searching for stuff to put out there - I found some candy and a few other little things. It wasn't much, but I figured it would have to do. In the morning their shoes were overflowing with chocolate santas, chocolate christmas tree ornaments, cookies, nuts, and fruits. I love my wonderful neighbors who always remember our kids!

Before the Christmas Season began we sat down and planned which Christmas Markets we wanted to visit this year. Having heard many great things about the market in Strasbourg France, we added it to the list. We visited Strasbourg this summer with Mom and Becca and I thought it was a beautiful city so I was excited to go there again, especially at Christmastime. And the city was beautiful. There were Christmas lights everywhere, gorgeous window displays in the stores, and the roofs of the old half-timbered buildings were covered in snow. Really, just Christmas postcard perfection. Are you hearing a but under all of this? Oh yeah, there is a big, bit but (that makes me smile!) We did not enjoy the Strasbourg Christmas Market experience at all. Driving in a bigger city always stresses me out, and this day was no different. The GPS was telling us all sorts of crazy things, "Turn left now, make a U-turn if possible, etc." So we turned it off and navigated our way through the city u...

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. --Ecclesiastes 3:1 That one little verse in the Old Testament has been running through my mind this week as I have been thinking about all the time I spend working on my schooling. Is right now the season for me to go to college? Has that season come and gone - did I miss the boat when we got married and had our sweet babies? Will it come around again at some point? Is this time, is right now , the time for me to fulfill this purpose? Are there other things that belong in this season, other purposes for this time of my life? When I first started school two years ago I was so excited - each week I would get to work on my assignments early Monday morning, my papers were finished and ready to be turned in way before the deadline - I loved the work and I was excited about what I was learning. School has been way at the bottom of my priority list this week, and maybe even longer...

My main crafting focus this November was making an Advent Calendar for our family. I was crafting along with Jill of homemadebyjill so many of the ideas were straight out copied or a little bit adapted. In the past our Advent Calendars have had some sort of food to go with them. The kids weren't too excited about the little peppermint candies that went on the one I made when Madison and Emily were little and the chocolate Advent Calendars we've bought here were too exciting and the chocolates would be all gone way before Christmas Eve. I'm looking forward to putting each little ornament on our felt tree to help count down the days to Christmas and I think the kids are too. It was a lot of fun to make, and I should probably admit that I'm a bit behind on the little ornaments (I think I have 7 or so right now) but I figure I just have to make one ornament a day to stay ahead of the game. Merry Christmas!