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Snowman Dan

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Into the woods...

Not at the camera, Dan!

Dave took a great picture, or?

"I'm French! Why do you think I have this outrageous accent,
you silly king!"

The tree lot. Under the tent the farmer selling the trees served "Glow Wine."

The neighbors did manage to get some sledding in.

No sledding for us today, but the snowball fight was a blast!

SNOW DAY

After a nice breakfast, Dan and David and I went for a walk through the forest and fields. Ellen and a school friend were left to practice their oral report due next week on Africa. Annette ran errands. The three of us made snow angels and then had a snowball fight in the school's wooden fort. Then we followed a trail through the woods and into the neighboring fields. Along the way, we saw tracks from hare and deer. David and I took turns using my camera. He is quite the budding photographer! On the way back from the fields, we went a different route by the neighbor's farm. He was selling cut-your-own Christmas trees, and next to the cash stand, he was serving mugs of hot spiced Gluhwein (Glow Wine). After mugs of hot chocolate back at home, Dan and I loaded ourselves into the car for a quick run to the grocery. I picked up some Lebkuchen (spice cookies) and Stollen (sweet bread). Ellen brought me some Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread) earlier, so I bought some cookies to go with that, too. Then we ran back home and picked up David for a trip to Moebel Kraft. It's a huge store right across the field from the house. It's like 5 stories high, with a restaurant in the top. We looked at all the toys and Christmas ornaments, and then went up to the restaurant for hotdogs. Mmmm. Now the rest of the family and I are crashing while Dan is at his office Christmas party. They are mini-bowling. Have you heard of that?

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David and Ellen's school.

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SNOWY MORNING

It's 5:30 in the morning. When Dan says to prepare for an early wake-up call, he is not kidding, is he? I awoke to find Dan standing in front of the window, calling me to come and see the SNOW! Very beautiful Dan, can't wait to go and play...ZZZ. Oh, sorry, I dozed off a bit. This is Dan's normal time to wake up, but up until today (his day off), he's been letting me sleep until Dave woke me up at 7 or so for breakfast.

I walked into the bedroom last night to go to bed and was shocked by the temperature. Apparently the workman turned off the radiator when he was installing the new window. And he left it off. Radiators take a little while to warm back up. So after I scraped the ice from my pillow, I wedged myself between the blankets. BUT NO...I just asked Dan and he said that they usually leave it off when they sleep, and that they usually sleep with the window open. I suspected that they were secretly polar bears, but now I have proof.

OK...time for musli and yogurt.