Adventures of Team Williams: 2010

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Breakfast with Santa

"Breakfast with Santa" at the Ambassador's residence was quite a hit!
Hot chocolate, apple cider, coffee, eggs, bacon, donuts, pastries, cookies, o my o my!

So serious!

Picture taken by Carter

Picture by Abby

Picture taken by Carter

Ambassador was the first to sit on Santa's lap

We were so proud of Abby and Carter, they waited so patiently to see Santa. Carter asked for "lots of things" and Abby "a game." The kids were a little taken back by the dozens of kids watching them sit on Santa's lap, no pretty smiles, but we've come a long way over the years!

Abby and Carter with Santa 17 months old

A trip to the Christmas Tree Farm

Daniel and I started a family tradition the 1st Christmas we were married to go cut down our own Christmas Tree. We had a place in Virginia that we LOVED and looked forward to this day each year. Were we going to be able to find something similar in Berlin? Yes! Thanks to a good German friend at church, we found a place just outside the city that is very similar, yet different, than Snickers Gap in Virginia. The big difference between the farms is that the majority of the trees here were SHORT?! No really, about 4 feet tall? 4 feet just isn't going to cut it for Daniel! Seriously, the man had to cut off 2 feet of tree a few years ago because it didn't fit in our house! So, it took awhile to find us the perfect tree!

Ready to find the Perfect Christmas Tree!

Ok, here it is!

Abby up under the tree helping Daddy saw it down

Daddy's Big Helpers!

When Daniel and the kids pulled up to the hut, a nice German lady said (in German of course!) "that is the biggest tree I've seen anyone cut down?"

Home, Warm and ready to Decorate!

Carter LOVED putting the ornaments on the tree! He liked hearing about where each ornament has come from, etc. We have been collecting ornaments from all over the globe to places we travel and over the past 8+ years we've quite a collection!

Daddy completed the tree with the Angel

Thanks to Granny and Popcorn's early Christmas gift, we even added a Grand Finale Train!

Halloween in Berlin

Within the first week of arriving in Germany, we had already heard several stories about "Being prepared for Halloween?!" Later we learned that what they meant was that our neighborhood full of American's was a magnet for Germans who wanted in on the free candy. So, I prepared with 30lbs of candy (approx 1000 pieces).

The kids are still stuck on trains and kitty cats, specifically blue trains and pink kitty cats!

Carter (aka Thomas) getting ready for Cubbies

Carter in the midst of "what does a train say?" "Choooooooooooo Chooooooooooooo"

NO idea how many kids we had (several hundred for sure), but the fact Taxi's were dropping kids off on our street says it all! We did have 3 different parents give us candy "to help contribute to the cause?"

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Operation Separation

The day our stuff arrived from the States, we began what I want to call "Operation Separation."

The twins had shared the same room (and even the same bed for the first few months of their lives) since the day they were born. After many unhappy awakenings by each of them, I felt it was time to give them each their own space. I was a little anxious about the change, but they both acted like it was no big deal?! God is so good! The separation was a little harder on Carter than Abby, but as you can see from the picture below, he found some good replacement roommates! Below is the picture of Carter's room (which actually has a bed for Abby as well just in case!).

Abby's replacements!

Asparagus Farm

Asparagus Farm, you ask? In October, we wanted to find a 'pumpkin patch' type place to visit, and, well, we ended up at an aspargus farm!?! Apparently, asparagus is a popular food for Germans, especially white asparagus! Despite the 'asparagus' title, it was very similar to a pumpkin patch place in the States.

This particular farm has a different theme each year and this year it was "Fairy Tales." There were probably 2 dozen or so displays of pumpkins/gords/etc decorated as a particular tale, but we only checked out a few.