Fuer OPA!

Chrismakkah, Christmas (ah)

Ok, given all the German crazy traditions around Christmas, Hannukah got a little short cut there, but let's start with the whole wind up, lead by the advent calendar. Every day of December leading up to the 24th, there is a little tiny present, talk about parental stress.




In between we celebrated the first night of Hannukah with Mike Goos, Ella got to light the candle






In the night from December 5th to the 6th the old Nikolaus (probably some distant cousin of St Nik) fills the kids' boots, assuming that they've been well polished before








Along with the fillings for the boots, he dropped off Oma and Opa from Germany, hurray




Of course, we had to take them to the zoo right away






Bake "Plaetzchen" with them




Impress them with the most graceful dances




Take them to Ella's school performance




Make sure they meet Grandma and Grandpa again, ideally over yummy food, a common interest




Walk off the heavy bbq, or as Opa calls it "die Knochen"






Forget about photographing the Golden Gate bridge, if you have Ella smiling fakely at you.




Oma und Opa in perfect harmony - for once




Finn and Mama




Finn and Papa




Ella showing Oma her favorite Gelato spot




And why shy likes Korean food




Setting up Advents-Kaffee




While Finn is testing the couch with Marlene (an older woman)



Unfortunately as soon as "Cinderella" came on, Marlene only liked the real prince




Finally we made it to the 24th, which we started with some carol singing via iChat, since the other half of the family was in German




While the kids happened to be out on a walk, Santa dropped by in the late afternoon




More carols to be sung, Noah, Galienne and Craig helped us out






The Mary and Joe story told with a bunch of haba figures




And finally: THE PRESENTS!
No need to help with the unwrapping, thanks!








Focus, schmocus




Well, and finally, finally, we eat. Sticking with traditions: bratwurst und kartoffelsalat






We all had the whole week off, enjoying the days with Oma and Opa

At the zoo again




At the bay area discovery museum








And at the Japanese tea garden in Golden Gate park





And then Oma and Opa returned to Germany and we got to update the blog...

November, finally

There have been a few - not to say many - complaints about our sluggish blogging habits, so here it is, a summery of November for starters.

We went on a little weekend trip with Abe, Kirby, Sasha and Mia up to the Russian River area, beautiful time to be up there. We took a couple of hikes and a canoe trip:








Then there was the old German tradition of "St. Martin / Laternenzug", always a favorite amongst the kids:




There was a lot of hanging out and enjoying our first real family movie night (popcorn helped to keep Finn seated):




A little trip to Fairyland in Oakland with Lina and Nika:







Complete with a burger for everyone:






Of course Finn got inspired to dress up at home:




And finally our traditional Thanksgiving trip to Steven's parents in LA, where Finn took over the cul-du-sac with his scooter:



We spent some time in Santa Monica at the pier. Note Finn's safety measures, he likes to wear his helmet for most of the day



Naturally we hit all of Encino's playgrounds





Steven and I got to return to the beach for an afternoon, all by ourselves, what a treat



That was November in a nutshell.