We got Santa Pictures!!

2012 is a year for the memory books for the Willis family!  Little R has ALWAYS been terrified of Santa!  He has had an enormous fear of being anywhere near Santa...even being in the same mall was too close for our little guy!

R and I are pretty much experts on Santa fear.  A was also terrified of the jolly man.  I have one picture of A with Santa, when she was almost a year old.  She is SCREAMING!!  We didn't try Santa again until A was 6 years old!

But this year was a bit different.  Little R began showing some interest in Santa.  Then we saw him outside the PX when we were in the van.  Little R didn't cry.  Then we saw Santa across the food court while we were eating dinner.  Little R kept his eye on him, but he didn't cry.  So I made the decision that this was going to be our year for our first Little R Santa pictures.

I had this great little outfit I had bought on clearance at Target before we left the States.  A had a pretty hand-me-down Christmas outfit from T.  So we dressed them both up, and told them we were going to see Santa!!

As I put Little R's outfit on him, I was almost in tears!  He looked so handsome!!  I took him to the full length mirror in my room to show him how handsome he looked.  He was so proud!!  He kept looking at himself and getting this little grin on his face...it was too cute!  He said numerous times throughout the night "I look snazzy"!! 

A & Little R at home, before we left.

He had to show off his reindeer ornament he made at school.  It's his footprint!  I LOVE IT...and so does he!

So off we went to the PX.  Little R and A both went up to Santa...Little R sat on his lap...and.didn't.cry!  He didn't talk to Santa...not one word...but he didn't cry!  This Mama was proud of her big boy!!

My very handsome little man...with Santa!!

And A was so sweet to go along with him.  I am pretty sure he wouldn't have done it by himself.

And she wasn't afraid to talk to him!

When we got back to the car, Little R was still pretty hyped up by the experience, and looking so "snazzy".  From the backseat he says "Is this what I'm gonna wear when I marry Piper?"  Oh, my heart melted!!  Piper is the daughter of some of our very best friends back in Oklahoma.  And while we talk about this family A LOT, we don't specifically talk about him marrying Piper.  It was just very sweet that he still remembers her, and the fact that he thinks he is going to marry her just shows that he felt the love in this amazing family!  So my answer was, "Yes, Buddy, I think that would be a GREAT outfit to wear when you marry Piper."

A's Christmas Party & Performance

A has still been going strong in Team Dance and Tumbling.  We are still missing the activities we had in Edmond...the skill level was much higher, and I think A would be far more advanced in both if we had been able to stay there.  But this is keeping her active while we are here, and hopefully she will be able to get back into her cheer & tumbling when we return to Edmond.  She has definitely shown improvement in her tumbling, and her instructor is advising her to move up from the beginner class...so that's our next step!  If nothing else, she is having fun with her friends in dance, and she has built up some serious muscle during the course of her tumbling classes!  The girl has gained around 15 pounds...and it's definitely not fat!!  The girl loves to cheer and dance...she lights up when she is performing...and I love seeing her enjoy something so much!

Part of the dance crew before the performance.  You see how these girls love the camera??

This is A's friend Ava, in the white leggings, standing right next to A.  They are in the same class at school, and everyone (even the teachers) get them confused!  It irritates A very much that she is called Ava almost as much as she is called by her own name!  Of course it doesn't help that they not only LOOK alike, they ACT alike, too!  They have very similar personalities and mannerisms.  I had to get a picture of this...as they were waiting for instruction, they were standing almost exactly the same!!  Silly girls!

This is the best pic we got of the performance...poor lighting, movement, and some guy's big head kept us from having any really good pics!

 

http://vimeo.com/56396594


This is a video of A's performance.  We had a bad angle, so we lost some of it behind the curtain.  This was A's first time doing ANY tumbling for an audience, so she was nervous!  But she did it!  We were quite proud of her!

Little R's First School Program!

Earlier this year, we had a huge (to us) decision on our hands:  whether to leave Little R in German kindergarten, or place him in the American Pre-K program on post.  We decided to go with the American Pre-K program, and it has been great!  It takes a little more work on my part...he goes 5 days a week, 3 hours a day...and it's a 15-20 minute drive from our house.  So my mornings are pretty much taken up with getting him to school, and then what seems like minutes later, picking him up from school!  But I don't regret the decision at all!

He is definitely thriving in the environment!  He has great friends, and is learning to stop, be still, and listen to a lesson.  And for our super-active little guy that's a big accomplishment!!  He received rave reviews from his teacher at parent/teacher conference a few weeks ago!  I think he will definitely be prepared for kindergarten next year, without a doubt!

For Christmas, the school had a small program for the parents.  The kids made penguin costumes and performed a song for us, and then we had "made especially for us, by the kids" gingerbread cookies.  It was very sweet, and I love seeing my little guy interact with kids his age!

The Penguin Parade

He was a little concerned about how many parents were watching!

My Perfectly Proud Penguin

These are little R's two very best buddies...Sterling & Luis!  I would say that Sterling is his first "best" friend!  He doesn't do or say much that doesn't involve Sterling!

Little R enjoying his gingerbread cookie!
 

Willis Family Snow Day

We designated today as a snow day for our kids, even though schools were in session with no delays! 
We have 4 posts here in Stuttgart, and when they are "grading" the road conditions, they consider the roads between the 4 posts.  The only problem is that a large number of people live in small towns a pretty good distance from the 4 posts...and the roads there are usually not comparable to the main roads between the posts.  So this morning, they graded the roads amber, and had a normal school day with no delays.  I drove home from one of the posts at 10:30 yesterday morning, and it was ROUGH.  It snowed continuously the rest of the day yesterday, and throughout the night, and never rose above freezing.  And yet they were saying for us to put our kids on the school bus at 7:00 and get them to school on time!  Our answer was a definite NO!!  The main roads had not even been plowed at that time!  I truly believe school is very important, but I don't think it is worth risking the lives of my kiddos!!  I don't believe that the people making these decisions have the best interests of our kids in mind!  Just one more thing to dislike...

But my rant is over!!  The kids enjoyed some fun snow time!!  They built a (small) snowman, and had a blast running around the field, making snow angels, and tackling each other in the deep snow!  And they are now safe and warm in the house, with a fire going in the fireplace.  And I am much happier knowing they are here, and not about to head home on scary roads in a bus!

R was working hard at digging a "home" for Frosty!

A's a poser!!

"It won't stick together"

T was working hard!

Little R named him "Frosty"...how original!

Frosty is sporting his UCO hat!

All 3 kids with the finished product!!  The size does not represent the effort!!  The snow is very dry and powdery...it didn't make very good snowmen or snowballs!

Christmas Market Fun!

Christmas Markets are HUGE here in Germany!!  Every town has one, and some of them in the bigger towns are quite the affair!  We went to our first Christmas market last year, and it was one of the big (and very crowded) ones.  We decided to start this year with the very small one here in our town of Holzgerlingen.  R is still not up to walking long distances, so we thought the small one would be a good start.

The Christmas market itself was very cute!  The weather was VERY cold!!  We got all bundled up, and away we went!  The camera battery died immediately after we got there, so the only shots we got were the posers before we got there.

We bought some ornaments for friends, A bought a Nutella crepe (YUM), T bought a bratwurst, and Little R bought a pony ride!  This was his first ever pony ride, and I am so disappointed I didn't have my camera!!  He was so proud of himself!!  And this wasn't just a ride in a circle...they went down the street and back again.  As he came back into sight, I waved at him, and he waved back, beaming!!

After that, he had a major meltdown.  Little R does NOT like the cold, and it was in the 20s yesterday.  And we were out in it for about 45 minutes to an hour...so that was more than enough for him!  And for some reason, he was devastated at having to walk through the brown, slushy snow on the streets and sidewalk...he said it was GROSS!!  This boy does NOT like his shoes to get dirty!! : )

We will definitely be going to another, larger Christmas market during this Christmas season.  But this was a nice introduction to the German Christmas season!  And maybe we will get lucky, and the temps will climb back up into the 30s for our next Christmas Market adventure! : )

All bundled up!  He even wore my scarf!

This was before they were frozen!!  Little R was still happy because he hadn't encountered the "slush" yet!

T LOVES hugs from Daddy!!  Especially in public!

Ready for some shopping!!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!!!

It's beginning to look Christmasy around here!  Once again, another "new" house this Christmas.  Trying to decide where to put the tree and decorations is always a challenge in a new place.

I love Christmas time!!  I love decorating the tree!!  It is a walk down memory lane for us...we have to discuss each ornament as it is taken out of the wrap...most of them are handmade by the kids, or gifts from friends along the way.  Each one has a story...and we love to relive those stories each year as we decorate the tree.  Now I will admit, I have seen much prettier trees than ours.  The themed trees that people post are absolutely beautiful!!  But I wouldn't trade my "memory" tree for any of them!! 

Little R was very involved in hanging ornaments this year.

Lots of helpers!

This is Little R's tree in his room.  He decorated it all by himself...can you tell??



The Hulk made an appearance at our tree decorating!!  He is usually the official "angel placer", but our angel won't fit on top of our tree this year...our ceilings are too low!  So "Oatmeal", has found a perch on a shelf for this Christmas season, and our "angel placer" decided to entertain himself in other ways!

Rudolph noses!!

The stockings are hung!

We actually got to decorate our mantle this year!

Our tree!  Yes, it leans just a bit...that just adds to the character!  I think we are actually going to try a real tree next year, and see if A tolerates it okay.  I grew up with a real tree, and I have great memories of hunting for that perfect tree each year!  I would love to pass that on to our kids.