In fair Verona, where we lay our scene...

I really had no idea what to expect with Verona. It wasn't on my list of places we needed to go before we leave Europe, and the only thing I could remember of it was it was the place where Romeo and Juliette was set. After a couple of days in Verona, I must say I loved it. It is a charming little city and very family friendly.

We got there Wednesday afternoon and unfortunately missed the lunch hour by the time we settled into our hotel. We made due with some delicious pizza. Then went on a walking tour of this fair little city.

There is just something about small town Italy that is so amazing. Verona felt a lot like Venice without the water. It was filled with beautiful falling down buildings and friendly locals. It made Todd and I both want to buy a place and retire.

 We had just a few hours before dark and bedtime for the kids so we got out to get oriented with the city. The goal was to just get ready for our busy day the next day. It was absolutely lovely.

It was a perfect day. The evening was a little cool, but the weather was absolutely beautiful.

 James thought it would be fun to get a better look of the river. Thankfully Todd had a good hold on him.

We ended up finding the Duomo and stepped in for a quick look. It was beautiful. And it made me fall in love with my camera all over again. If you could have seen how dark this old church was you would be amazed at how well the pictures turned out. I don't think another compact camera could have done any better.

Unfortunately my camera battery died while I was busy enjoying my camera. Fortunately we were on our way back and the only thing I missed was a stop for ice cream.

What to do....

 Christmas was a little weird this year. We planned on going to visit some friends in the UK, but when we found out what we thought our schedule was going to be (Hailee in school until the 22nd and Todd needing to be back to work on the 27th) we decided that the trip probably wouldn't work out. We rescheduled our UK trip to August.

Then a few days before Christmas we found out that Todd would in fact have the week between Christmas and New Years off. We again looked at going to the UK, but with the last minute decision, it still didn't work out.

Getting ready for Christmas was crazy, we were all very busy until Christmas Eve when things calmed down. It was nice to relax for a few days, but when we woke up Tuesday morning I had had enough time relaxing and wanted to get out and do something. So I started looking for hotels....and by lunch time we had a hotel and train tickets to Verona, Italy for a great deal. We left the next morning.

It was quite possibly a first for our family. We've never done anything quite like it. We're used to last minute planning, but the day before was a little much, even for us. Tuesday was spend getting ready for our trip and we didn't even start packing until after the kids went to bed. When we booked our tickets we scheduled what we thought was the 9:00 am train, but just as we were going to bed Todd double checked the tickets and realized they put us on the 7:00 am train. Thankfully Todd checked the tickets before going to bed and we were able to set and earlier alarm and get everything done. We downloaded our guide book and went off to bed.

The next morning we were up bright and early and caught our train. We love taking the train. The train to Verona was absolutely beautiful. My sister Emily sent us the first 4 seasons of Psych on DVD so we enjoyed catching up on Psych and watching the views out of our train window. Not a bad way to travel at all.

Overall I think it was one of our more successful trips. stay tuned for pictures of our quick trip to Verona.

Christmas 2011

 We had a nice quiet Christmas this year. We were excited to have the missionaries and Ruth over for Christmas dinner. I let each kid pick out something special for Christmas dinner. James chose "punkin pie" (As you can see in the pie on the right he decided he wanted to eat it before dinner. He tried grabbing it before dinner.) The only thing Hailee wanted was "Christmas Jell-O". When I went to find Jell-O in Germany I was surprised to find they only had three flavors. Luckily for Hailee the flavor were Lime, Lemon, and Raspberry. Close enough to Christmas colors, although our Raspberry was more of a purple-pink color. It wasn't true Christmas colors, but Hailee was pleased.  Todd's pick was Ham. I did find ham at the store, but it wasn't the cheating ham you can buy from Costco. I actually had to figure out how to cook it. All in all dinner turned out really nice. 

 Unfortunately once our company arrived I didn't get one picture.  I was busy getting everything ready to eat. After dinner we read the Christmas story and watch the First Presidency Christmas devotional. It was a lovely evening. Then it was time to put the kids to bed. I think Hailee fell asleep in record time.

 In the morning the kids slept in until almost 8:00. It was heavenly. My favorite quote of the morning was when they were coming down the stairs. Since James is the youngest he got to come down first. At the top of the stairs just as he could start seeing the tree he stopped and said "Oooohh! Look at that!" To which poor Hailee was dying, "James I can't see anything, you need to go down more." Thankfully she survived her brother's slow decent and Christmas morning was a success. The kids were so sweet with each other. All Hailee wanted was a sled, and when James woke up he decided that all he wanted was Hailee's sled.

 Hailee was pretty sweet about it and let him play. The one sadness of Christmas morning is that the snow is completely melted, so it will probably be a little bit before we can enjoy the new sleds. But I'm fairly confident that once we have snow the sleds will get plenty of use.

I love when Christmas falls around Sunday. It makes it even more special. We had a lovely church program on Sunday and then had a nice relaxing afternoon. I'm so thankful for my little family.

Frohe Weihnachten

Wir wünschen Ihnen ein frohes Weihnachten

Die Cunningham Familie

The Eve of Christmas Eve

 One of our favorite Christmas traditions is celebrating the Eve of Christmas Eve, and this year it was even more fun because we got to pick up Todd from work and come home to Celebrate the real start of our Christmas vacation. Todd and I have tried to combine some of our families traditions and also make some of our own. For this tradition we took his tradition of making breakfast for dinner and my tradition of sleeping under the Christmas tree. The kids loved it. We are breakfast for dinner, got new Christmas pajamas,  watched "Elf", had a fire in the fireplace, and slept under the Christmas tree. The kids loved it. Todd and I unfortunately missed our air mattress. But overall it was a fun day.

 My one request of the evening was to have a fire in our fire place. The men of the family were kind enough to grant my request, and thankfully James learned enough of fire safety to not start the house on fire or get burned. All in all it was a huge success.

We tried a new pancake recipe that was so fun. It might be a new tradition to add to the night. They were Gingerbread pancakes, but James called them "Pumpkin pie cakes."

Gingerbread Pancakes

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 tsp salt

1 egg
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons molasses
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tsp vanilla

Pancake Toppings
Maple pancake syrup
Apple pie filling, warmed
Whip Cream
Butter

Directions
In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Combine the egg, milk, molasses and oil; mix well and stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto a greased hot griddle; turn when bubbles form on top. Cook until the second side is golden brown.

Weihnachtsbaum or Tannenbaum

The kids and I had a really fun time picking up our tree.  It's not quite as pretty as an Oregon tree, but we were excited to get our authentic Weihnachtsbaum or Tannenbaum. I'm not sure which one we got, but I know they both are used for Christmas trees, so I suppose it doesn't really matter.  The kids had a great time walking around the lot and picking out the perfect tree. Then they loved watching the man "bag" it up so we can get it home.

It was the first time that I was grateful for a "big" car. It fit right it and we were able to get it home really easily. Next up...Christmas :).

For the record...

I love snow boots. Coming from Oregon we knew that we were not prepared for a German winter so we started preparing and now that snow has come I am very grateful for our warm coats, snow pants, and warm gloves. We also did a considerable amount of looking for snow boots. It took a while to find ones for me that were comfortable enough for walking, but still looked nice enough for church. And even though I love my snow boots and have enjoyed walking all around in them and keeping dry, I think I love James' snow boots even more. Yes they are very cute, but my favorite part is that the completely slow him down.

The first time we put them on him he wanted his Puma shoes back on. Not that I can really blame him, his Puma shoes are amazing for little feet. I highly recommend them to anyone with little kids. He can run so fast in them and Todd is convinced they are great for his development. His snow boots on the other hand are big and clunky and keep his feet warm and toasty in the snow. But the absolute best part is I can keep up with him.

Yesterday when we picked up Hailee I decided to try and keep them on him. He cried "I want my Puma shoes" all the way to the bus stop.

 Here we are at the bus stop. We had a few minutes to wait and he started realizing that his feet weren't getting cold in the snow. He started to seeing the advantages of his snow boots.

And by the time we picked up our Christmas tree he was a little red blur again. Thankfully though he is still slow enough I can keep up.