Merry Christmas to everyone!

We had a wonderful Christmas celebration. Last night we went to church for Christmas Eve. That was very nice. It had been too long since we were last at church on Christmas Eve. It made everything just so much more festive and thoughtful.
Today we talked to my parents in Germany for a long time. My sister is visiting them from Portugal and we skyped with her, too. It was so much fun to connect with them and be able to at least see them and talk as long as you like. I remember when I first moved to the US in 1985 all I had was the phone. Believe you me, it was EXPENSIVE! to call Germany, so I tried not to talk too long. Of course that made the distance seem so much more. Now, thanks to computers and Skype, we can talk and see each other as long and as often as we like and it doesn't cost anything. I just love it!
Then the kids played "Mexican Train" while I made our Christmas dinner. I really wanted to make goose, but at a price of $ 70 I decided against it. So we had marinated beef, with potato dumplings and red cabbage ( Sauerbraten mit Kloessen und Rotkohl). It was really delicious. For desert I had planned gluten free cheesecake, but since I talked to my parents for a really long time, I didn't have time for the cheesecake. So we will have Jesus' birthday cake tomorrow :)
After that the girls played with their new iPad for a while and then we snuggled onto the couch with gluten free cookies and watched 631 of 1060 pictures my parents had send me on a DVD. The kids were surprised that I was once a kid ;-)  Well, not really surprised but you just don't think of your parents as having been a baby once upon a time. So we had a few laughs of how Opa used to look before him and Oma were even married or when long sideburns were all the fashion.  We looked at baby pictures of me and pictures of me and my sister in the 70's, boy the style during that time was a serious fail :D
It was a good celebration of the birth of Christ. Thank you Jesus for everything you have done and still do for us. I know that His birthday is not in December, but I don't really care, because no one knows exactly when He was born. I am just more than happy and thankful that He was born and that is what we celebrate.

This is a German tradition "Bunte Teller"
everone gets a plate with Christmas
Candy. Actually there also should be
some nuts and oranges on there but
nobody wants that :-)

In the process of setting the table 

Christmas dinner is served :D

Nina is having a deep conversation with
"Siri"  ;-)