Christmas at Roselawn

Kiara had to follow clues to find her gift from Santa. One was hidden "where Baby Jesus was born" (bet you didn't know that a Diet Coke can also pose as a shepherd!)

The "scary" old doll held the last clue. (Kiara grabbed that one and ran!)

Then she opened...

A pink BB gun! ...And couldn't wait to practice shooting it outside. The smoke from our burning leaves added a neat effect! Talk about a smokin' gun!

Family and friends came over in the afternoon. The weather was so nice that we moved the party outside. "Christmas in the Country" events included burning leaves, jumping on a pogo stick, playing Bocci ball, shooting the bb gun, and "rooster catching". (My mom's friend and her Uncle Donald ended up catching it as he roosted in the tree later that evening. The constantly crowing cock is now cooped up in our henhouse.)

Then some MORE friends came over with their two girls and they acted out the Christmas story for the adults... the TRUE meaning of Christmas.

Later in the week two of Paul's sisters and their daughters came for a visit over the weekend.

I did lots of cooking and baked an apple pie with the gift our long-term B&B guest gave us. A pie plate with a blackbird in the middle. It had a little hole in its beak to release the steam. How cute, huh?

Now time to look forward to celebrating New Year's. Kiara and I plan to go over to my mom's since Paul is playing drums tomorrow night.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

Deutschland

Okay, here are a few pictures from my trip to Germany... Still waiting for my brother to send pics from his camera (hint, hint, Scott)

At the airport headed to Berlin. We were in for a looooong night of flying.

A pretty cool shot of a church tower that stands in the center of the city surrounded by modern buildings. Most of it was destroyed during WWII, but they left what remained as reminder of the terrors of war.

Another haunting scene was one of the many torture areas we toured at a concentration camp. I really learned a lot about German history during the time of Hitler. I'm glad I went, but some of the things I heard were quite disturbing.

Scott and I were standing near the Spree River. One night we walked through a gas lantern-lit garden along the water. That was probably my favorite memories of the trip.

This is Spandau Old Town which is actually older that Berlin itself. It has neat little streets with medieval style houses and lots of neat balconies with that bavarian feel.

My mom and I ate up in that "space needle" on the right. It had a revolving restaurant with awesome views of the city. I love how blue the sky looks in this picture.

Glad I had a minute to post some of the pictures. Of course I have other things I SHOULD be doing right now, but Paul convinced me to take a break and have some family time watching a Christmas movie he rented. Sooo, I got in that relaxation mode, then he decided to first change out the DVD player for one he found (yes, found) because he was anxious to see if it worked. He started over an hour ago, and still no Christmas movie yet... so I wandered on over to the computer and ended up getting to the pictures of the trip. Now what... should I go ahead and start wrapping more presents? Organize this messy office? See what Kiara is doing to the cat??? Hmmm... maybe I'll just check in on my blogger friends...

Kiara's Quote: Her favorite Christmas carol at age 3 was Angels We Have Heard on High, especially the line "joyful and try armpit".

I'm Back

Well, I've been back from Germany for a while, but it has taken some time to get back to the world of blogging. I've been putting extra hours in at work so I can flex some time for Christmas. We've got some family visiting and I want to be there as much as possible.

I was super-busy over Thanksgiving managing the B&B and taking care of our guests while Paul was away visiting his brother in Florida. Last weekend we had an Open House at Roselawn for a tour of historical homes. We had another function today- about 20 ladies for a Christmas party. Now the dishes are done and I am sitting back thinking about my dad. Today would have been his 63rd birthday. My mom is here and we had a cake in honor of him. Happy Birthday, Dad. I miss you.
Tomorrow is our church's youth Chrismas program, which somehow I ended up being in charge of. Once that is over, things will seem a little less crazy... but then, I do have lots of shopping to do. Only 12 days left. Won't be long until the 12 drummers are drumming!!!

Our computer had been sitting at our CPA's office for two weeks waiting for a program installation, and I haven't downloaded the pics from our trip since getting it back. They are actually on the back up computer we used while we were waiting to get the new one back. Maybe next post??? But here's one taken while ice skating at an Adoption Celebration event. Kiara was hanging onto us all the way around the rink. Needless to say, we were very tired after about an hour!

Kiara's Quote: Last Christmas I reminded Kiara that she only gets three gifts because that's how many Jesus got-- to which she replied, "Well, there better not be any myrrh!