Munich Red Bull Hockey Team

We've been taking the kids to hockey games at Cornell since they were little and they all love going. They love the atmosphere, the cheers, the competition. We didn't know what to expect here in Munich but we happy to find that the Munich team has it's own cheers, chants and songs. We certainly couldn't understand everything but it was lots of fun to watch! We had a fun evening and will definitely go again! Plus, Munich won!

Merry Christmas from Us to You!!

Steve, Stefanie, Rachel, Missy, AJ & Dom

We had a fabulous Christmas Day here in Germany! The kids weren't up too early but not too late either.

Dom, Rachel, Stefanie & AJ

We had fun opening presents and spending the day together playing games and watching movies. Everyone got at least one present they loved and at least one that was a surprise. A victory for Mom and Dad!

Santa was generous...

Dominic and his new rucksack

AJ is ready for running with his Gore Windstopper gear!

Stefanie is thrilled to have her own backgammon set

Rachel is the happiest pandacorn!

After our yummy dinner - which included Steve's specialty - friend turkey! Our friends who hadn't traveled for Christmas this year came over for a little dessert party. We are so thankful to have such good friends as our away from home family!

The Moms

The Dads

The Teens

Happy Birthday Missy!

Stefanie, Rachel, Missy, Dominic & AJ

Once again my family has made my birthday very special. We had a lovely day together and I was completely and totally spoiled by everyone. And I had this delicious cake - baking by Stefanie and decorating by Rachel!

Munich Family Day!

AJ, Dom, Stefanie & Rachel

We continued our family tradition of spending December 23rd in Munich. We started our day with a little shopping, everyone had one or two things left to buy for Christmas! Then we watched Rogue One. We all thought it was a great movie, although we were all surprised by the ending.

Stefanie, Missy & Rachel in Marienplatz

After the movie we did some more shopping as well as some gluhwein drinking at a Christmas market. This is an important part of the Christkindlmarkts. A warm gluhwein keeps you warm for seemingly ever.

Gluhwein at the Medieval Christkindlmarkt

Then we had dinner at Burger Lobster Bank, a trendy burger place in Munich. Dinner was fun and delicious and the kids enjoyed checking out such a popular place.

Valerie Visits!

A fun Christmas treat for me. My friend Val, a forever friend from Ohio State stopped in Munich on her way to Hannover. We had a terrific day catching up on the last 25 years - it was so awesome! It was freezing outside so we sandwiched a very short walking tour of Munich between sitting inside warm and cozy, eating good food, and talking nonstop! I love being able to connect with people for short times or long times as they make their way through or to Munich!

The Boys are HOME!

Stefanie, AJ, Dominic, Rachel

WOOOHOOOOO!  Dominic and AJ are home! We are so psyched to have them here for the next 2+ weeks. So much fun for all of us!

Although they were supposed to arrive together, bad weather in Newark kept AJ from meeting Dominic in time. And Dominic talked to everyone to try to have them wait for AJ but in the end they closed the gate as AJ was running from his plane to Dominic's plane.

There's Dominic!

Luckily, it finally occurred to me to call the German customer service number when AJ wasn't having any luck getting through a line in Newark or on the phone and we got him on a flight a few hours after Dominic left.

Yay! AJ made it too!!

So happy to have them all home!!

Army BEATS Navy!

Dominic and friends and the Secretary of the Army

This is a BIG deal! Army beat Navy this weekend, the first time since 2001. It was exciting for the team and the cadets! We loved watching the celebration on tv afterwards as the cadets flooded the field and hearing Army sing second.

Both schools sing the alma mater after the game and the winner always sings second. My favorite t-shirt from the day was "Win First, Sing Second". We were thrilled to get these pictures of Dominic celebrating with the rest of USMA. Also, we get him for one more day of winter break, a bonus because Army WON!

Dominic is down there somewhere!

Happy Birthday Steve!

We had a nice day celebrating Steve today! We started with church at Andechs Monastery followed by Steve's favorite breakfast there - weißwurst and pretzel. After breakfast we sat at our cozy table playing hearts with the girls.

We had a relaxing day at home, decorating for Christmas and watching F1 racing and NFL football and of course there was apple pie for birthday cake.

Before baking...

The girls were in charge of candles!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Courtesy of Stefanie & Rachel

For the second year in a row we hosted our friends for a Thanksgiving dinner. Both years we had 38 people. This year 19 adults and 19 young adults. And it was fabulous! We move much of the furniture out of our living room/dining room and move in two biergarten tables.

Everyone brings at least one dish to share, there are many desserts and of course lots of drinks!

The cooking is done!

The food was absolutely delicious, everyone out did themselves with their cooking. Our friend Lois cooked a yummy turkey the traditional way and Steve cooked two. He did one in the turkey fryer and a second one on his weber grill. Both were a huge success.

Chris & Steve - ready for the weber!

Right out of the turkey fryer

Steve and Ken are ready to carve

A typical plate

An added bonus of this Thanksgiving was the son of our good friends who is studying in Rome came to stay for Thanksgiving break. It was so awesome to have Chris here. And truly if we can't have the brothers here, Chris is the next best thing. He and AJ have been friends since first grade!

Rachel, Chris & Stefanie

We are so thankful that we have made such wonderful friends and that when we can't be with our family in the US we get to celebrate with our Munich family!!

Stefanie's Final Volleyball Tournament

Stefanie has played varsity volleyball at Munich International School for five years and she has been captain for the last three. We have had so much fun watching her play all these years. The volleyball team closes the season with an eight team tournament every November. This year it was in Athens. We had promised Stef last year we would come to watch her, Steve had to fly in on day 2 from the US but we were there!

Stefanie is #3

Three other families traveled with us to Athens which made for fun game watching and evenings. Stefanie and her teammates weren't with us in the evenings; students stay with families from the host school and in turn when teams travel to our school we host them. It's a really nice system that exposes the kids to different cultures and lifestyles as well as teaching them about being a guest and being a host.

Acropolis view from our hotel

We stayed in the center of Athens at a fabulous hotel. This allowed us to explore the city when we weren't watching games and also let me get some morning runs in, who doesn't want to run by the FIRST Olympic stadium? Steve and I had already taken the kids to Athens so we did some low key site seeing and visited the Acropolis Museum.

Outside the Olympic Stadium

The girls played their hearts out but their high hopes of a championship were dashed as it became apparent that six of the eight teams were very evenly matched. Most of their sets went to maximum points and several went past 25 points. In the end they finished fifth but they were able to brag that they were the only team that beat the winning team!

Steve, Stefanie & Missy

Our friend Denise celebrated her birthday while we were there and the adults had a lovely rooftop dinner. We had some delicious food, it was only topped by the fun company!

The tournament ended late afternoon on Saturday so we had to fly home Sunday morning. I know, poor us. The girls also stayed in a hotel that night so after a little Athens touring they joined us for dinner. Where do you take 10 high school girls for dinner? Hard Rock Cafe of course - everyone was happy!