Welcome 2012!

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year!  We spent the evening with our next door neighbors.  Blue Rock went to bed at 7:30pm and we hung out with our neighbors after he went to sleep.  Around 7pm we shot off fireworks for him so he could see them before bed.  Again, we were amazed he slept through the midnight new year's celebration.  Germans put on a great new year's show.  Sadly, someone in our neighborhood seemed to want to shoot something off every hour on the hour.  So at 4am, it woke Blue Rock.  My husband and I feel asleep around 2am so this was not a happy surprise.  We ended up bringing him to our room.

I know some of you receive updates via email.  I wanted you to know that my domain name expired.  I'm trying to buy it back.  Sadly, someone I don't know bought it after it expired.  In the meantime, you can visit my blog here - www.ladyexpatblog.blogspot.com.

May this year be one of the best years there is!  2011 was a good year but we had our challenges and lots of losses.  May you and your family have lots of love and prosperity in 2012.

Welcome 2011

We rang in the New Year with our next door neighbors.  It was a fun evening.  Our son went to bed around 9pm and slept through the war of fireworks.  We were impressed.  I was so glad because by midnight I was worn out.  

Our neighbors cooked duck which was really good.  The only other time I have eaten duck was at a Thai food restaurant in Texas and it was slimy and gross.  This duck was not slimy and had a nice flavor.  She also cooked rice, dumplings, pasta, and several other things.  The wife is from Slovakia and her family made some homemade Slovakian pickles and salami which were both very good. Her husband is American and they both speak English.  We have some wonderful German neighbors who live on the other side of us.  We feel so blessed to have such wonderful neighbors.  We actually know our neighbors in Germany better than we did our neighbors in the States.  Something we want to duplicate once we return to the US - get to know our neighbors.

Today we had some friends over for dinner to celebrate the New Year.  We had three families over for a total of 12 people.  There were 8 adults and 4 kids.  We had a great time.  We cooked a spiral ham for the first time, which turned out great, black eyed peas, corn, peas, Greek Salad, rolls, and several appetizers of fruit, cheese, crackers, chips, and dip. For dessert I baked chocolate chip cookies, one friend brought homemade apple pie, my neighbors brought peanut butter balls, and my other friend brought muffins.  The food was delicious and the conversations were enjoyable.  All of the kids got along great.  I even put up a kid's table and the kids sat there and ate very well.  My son was in his high chair but wanted down to go sit at the kid's table.  He did wonderful!  

I hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful new year.  May God bless you and fill your home with love.  Many blessings from my house to yours.  Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Sadly, we didn't get any snow, but we had lots of sunshine which is great especially this time of year in Germany.

First I'd like to say that Christmas seems to be a lot more fun once you have a child. My son had a great time opening his first Christmas presents and playing with his new toys. He got visits from Santa Claus, the Christ Child, and the Christmas Man. The Christ Child and Christmas Man visit children in Germany. To make this Christmas better it would have been nice to have grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins around. Hopefully we will be able to celebrate Christmas with extended family sometime in the near future.

I think it's funny how sometimes the simplest (and often cheapest) gifts make a child so happy. My son's favorite new toys seems to be his Rock-A-Stack toy and a soft multi-texture rattle that he likes chewing on and shaking. His favorite "bigger" toy is Scout, a talking dog that says his name and sings songs about him using his name and different things he does. He laughs, smiles, and talks to Scout. He likes playing with his other toys too but these seem to keep his attention the longest.

This Christmas we stayed home and celebrated with the 3 of us. We read the story of Christ's birth to our son and talked about why we celebrate Christmas. On Christmas Eve I cooked our main dish, we had beef tenderloin with blue cheese sauce, turkey bacon wrapped asparagus, stuff mushrooms, and chocolate pie. Christmas Day we had beef tenderloin, steamed asparagus, and steamed sweet potatoes. We also made creme brulee which was delicious and ate enchiladas for dinner.

Overall we could not have asked for a better first Christmas for our boy. He is such a wonderful child and full of life and love. By the way, I forgot to mention previously that he now knows his name. It's so cute, when you say his name he stops and looks at you. We love being parents and feel so blessed to have a child in our lives.

New Years we plan on staying home and watching all our of neighbors shoot fire crackers and rockets.  Last year was quite an eventful night.  We just hope our baby doesn't get too scared with the loud noise.  We wish many blessings to you and your family in 2010.

Christmas Eve Dinner

This year's gingerbread house