Friday, December 28, 2012

The Tabb6 do Christmas


Christmas is an all time favorite in our house. It's the time of year that Josh is home the most. The time of year that we focus more on each other then on the projects that we are doing. The time when we reflect on where the past year took us and what the next year has in store.
It's about being with each other and making priceless memories.
Christmas morning always starts with Christmas pj's on Christmas Eve. This years pj's were given to us thru a christmas pj exchange from a sweet friend of mine in the UK.
4 Tabblets in their Christmas PJ's post presents

As soon as everyone is up we dive into the mound of gifts under the tree and dump out our stockings. Due to the spoiling rights of Grandparents and Aunts/Uncles the Tabblets were very blessed this year when it came to items under the tree. 
 Excited Mamum waiting for babies to wake
 The loot
 Aidan asked Santa for a dog
 Teagan asked for a Kitty (surprise surprise)
 Aidan and Teagan were up first!  They played basket ball until...
 Killian joined us! 
 Nothing like a little Christmas morning cheese! 
 I love Aidan's "Hmmm... what's in here" look
 Stocking stuffer cuddles
 When he opened the plastic ball toys/candy fell out. heehee. 
 Big brother gave him a piece of chocolate... lol 
 Present time! 
 "... How does this work, guys?"

 Excited for Duplos
 Barbie Jeep! BEEP BEEP!
 First present opened... 
 and he's off to test it out. Had to wrangle him back to open more... 
 Getting the hang of it... 

 One of her favorite movie shorts! 
 So excited for his new shoes... must be the age. I'm pretty sure my 10 year old Aidan won't appreciate them as much haha. 
 WHOA! SPIDERMAN! 
 Upset because he couldn't get the balls out of the side of the box. 
 Played with this one all morning! 
 Aprons from Grandma... Wants to bake cookies!
 Oven mits included. 
 Time for more CHEESE!
 Bark! Bark! 
 Unwrapping on his own within minutes! 
 Sweet loves for his new dino
 Clothes for Imogen who was still sleeping. 
 Love the bow? It was there for an hour... 
 Sweet baby girl finally decided to join us and loved watching 

We had a great morning opening presents from our loved ones back stateside. They spoiled us indeed this year. Must be the distance :-) 

 Aidan mentioned he wanted me to take a picture with all of his new presents. However at that point most of them had been scattered across the room so we grabbed a few that were still waiting in line to be opened and did a few snaps of each kid. 


 Big Brother with his "sweet smile" 
 Silly crazy sister with her "pretty smile" 
 Bub-Bub saying cheese for the 15th time. He said it everytime I picked up the camera. 
 Sleepy baby sister smiles 

Once all the gifts were opened I went to work in the kitchen while Josh stayed behind to battle the twisty ties and plastic clips of the kids' gifts. This holiday I didn't want to keep the oven on all day or have to get up super early to put the turkey in the oven so I chose to do ham. Plus leftover ham makes great sandwiches. Also since it was just the 6 of us I did just our favorite side dishes. Sweet potatoes w/marshmallows, creamed sweet corn and green bean casserole. Less then 2 hours after starting we were ready to eat! Christmas lunch was served right on time at 1300. 

 Imogen thoroughly enjoys her gift this year! She is getting too big. Our baby is growing up fast. 
I've been finding myself tearing up when I look at our family, especially Imogen. These are our last baby days and while that's very exciting it is also a hard thing for me to get my head around. Unless God has other plans I will never have another one this small and innocent. If only I could make this one a baby for a little while longer... :-) 

We hope that you had a wonderful holiday and we look forward to what this next year has in store. 

Much love. 

Guteneck and Regensburg Weihnachtsmarkts


After experiencing the big and magnificent Nürnburg Christkindlemarkt, we needed to see more of them. So Friday afternoon before Christmas we set out to Schloss-Guteneck. Guteneck is a castle so the  markt is known for being romantic and special since it's on castle grounds. Indeed it was romantic :-) 

 Vendors among the main gate
 Map of the grounds
 4 of the 6 (LOVE THEM)


We happened to get there and walk in the right direction to see their live performance of Josef and Maria. It was really cool. There was no block offs or do not enters... it was all performed in the crowd. So we followed them in their journey. 
 From door to door... 

 until their arrival of the stable
 and the arrival of the shepards to see the King born in a stable...
 It was a really cool experience. When the shepards arrived they led the crowd in "Stille Nacht" (Silent night) It was beautiful! 


 Warming up by the bon fire, eating our first Knobi-Brot
which was something along the lines of sauerkraut, bacon or pork peices on top of a round turkish loaf. Josh and I put jalapeños on our side of the round. Aidan and Teagan enjoyed the non spiced side :-) 

 YUMMY! 

 Vendors inside part of the castle

 The other 2 Tabbs missing from the previous picture! hehe.
After the knobi brot we tried food from this vendor... basically chicken on a stick wrapped in pastry covered in "sour cream sauce" that tasted like a variety of ranch. 
And of course we got the annual mug complete with some belly warming Glüwine

 Side of castle
 Castle courtyard... SOOO PRETTY! 
 Looking down in to another area
 Guteneck's markt was by far our favorite. It was a great evening.

Saturday we decided to squeeze in one last christmas market since we were getting anxious for Christmas. We were even saying things like "let's do Christmas early! The kids won't know"... haha. 
So we headed out to cure our cabin fever. 

Regensburg was our destination. It had 4 markts all linked together thru out the town. It was fun walking thru the pedestrian walkways from one market to another. 
The main markt also had 1/2 meter sausages and we were determined to get one. 

 The city of Regensburg is beautiful in itself

 Tree at the town hall
 All you had to do was follow the decorated streets to get to the next markt. 
 We found this guy on one of the street corners. 
 The first pony our Tabblets have every encountered
Aidan was enthralled
 haha. Teagan however was a bit more weary... 
... and the 1/2 meter sausage we were after! Which we enjoyed with a mug of Glüwine... :-) 

We are so blessed to be in such a gorgeous country.  Trying to do our best at savoring our every moment together before the upcoming year's events.