Cast Free!

Yay!  Rachel's cast came off today! She is so excited to be cast free and just in time for the final basketball tournament of the season!  Clearly that arm needs some strengthening but hopefully she'll be back to normal soon!

Snowboarding and Wrist Breaking

Rachel

As most people who know Rachel know, she's a sporty kid who isn't afraid of much. So it wasn't a surprise that she wanted to try snowboarding. So we scheduled a lesson and headed to the mountains. Her friend Julia joined us to ski in the morning during Rachel's lesson. Meanwhile Steve and I took a cross country lesson.

Rachel & Julia

She had a great instructor, Alex, who was only a few years older and a lot of fun.  She seemed to get the hang of it. 

Rachel and Alex are in the bottom right corner

After lunch felt confident enough to go down the hill with Julia. Unfortunately, although she made it down the hill she took an awkward fall at the bottom.  Julia called and and we got back from the cross country trail as quickly as we could and headed home. Rachel has a high tolerance for pain and the fact that it hurt enough to make her cry made it certain that a trip to the ER was necessary.  Sure enough. the wrist was broken. Cast on and five weeks without sports. Rachel is truly most annoyed that it will keep her from playing the whole basketball season!

Eistock!

AJ, Mary, Joe, Stefanie & Rachel

As winter break comes to a close we are spending as much time as we can with our kids! Unfortunately, Dominic missed out since he was already back at school. First came a movie and a yummy Bavarian lunch.

A new twise on a beer barrel table!

Then we found this behind Augustiner.  Eisstock! Or a Bavarian version of curling, basically bocce on ice.

Mary, Rachel, Stefanie, Joe, AJ & Steve

AJ

Rachel

Joe

Mary

Stefanie

The kids and Steve had a blast playing even though it was freezing outside. After being my usual graceful self and wiping out spectacularly on the ice, I stuck to taking photos!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year! We welcome 2017 and the adventures it might bring! One thing we will never, ever get used to is the fireworks on New Year's Eve. There are absolutely no rules. Everyone sets off fireworks wherever they happen to be standing. I am not exaggerating to say they explode literally over our house. This video was taken from our upstairs deck - no zoom!

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!