Today was the best! As Layla gets older, Christmas just gets more and more fun. I ended up sleeping with Layla half way through the night last night because she wasn't feeling too great. So this morning she wakes me up and says "Mom, wake up, it's morning now!" So I sit up (I was already half way awake anyway because I was so darn excited!) and I tell her "Layla, I think Santa came last night!" She gets all excited and runs out into the living room. She gets to the Christmas tree and makes a huge gasp and says "Wow, Santa came! All these presents are for me!" Then she sat down right in front of the tree and just starred at them, not moving. LOL, it was so cute! I finally told her that we should go wake up Daddy and let him know that Santa came so we could open all the presents. She ran into Ed and woke him up asap! When we walked back into the living room I showed her that Santa ate most of the cookies we left for him and that he made a mess (there were crumbs and milk all over the table). She thought it was so funny and the rest of the day kept saying "Santa made a big mess, we need to clean it now." Then we ran over to the tree and started opening presents. Layla opened presents for about an hour. She kept ripping tiny little pieces off and had to have every single piece of paper off the present before she moved on to the next one. She loved it! She got so much stuff, I don't know where I am going to put everything. After the presents were all open she wanted to open the actual toys. She would pick one out that she wanted to play with, we would open it, she would play with it for about 5 minutes, and then she would run to get another one to play with. This went on until every toy was open and on the floor (= huge mess)! It was so cute though, she really loved everything. She kept saying "Oh, thank you, Santa!" and "I love my Santa Clause" the entire day. We played with presents all day until about 4:30pm when we headed over to Matt and Shell's house for dinner. Dinner was awesome, Shell is such a good cook! We ate and then played some Trivial pursuit which Matt dominated at and then went home. Layla was beat from playing all day and went right to sleep. We had such a good Christmas this year, it was awesome. Layla loves everything and will have toys to play with for the next 20 years! 
Today we just relaxed around the house during the day. We keep telling Layla that tonight Santa is coming and dropping off all of her presents and she gets to open them tomorrow morning and she is so excited. We even had the Santa tracker up on the computer all day so we could see where Santa was at. This evening before we went to dinner, we went to look at the reindeer one more time and we brought them carrots this time so that Layla could feed them. We told her that they had to eat dinner so they could fly all over the world to take Santa to all the kid's houses. She had so much fun throwing carrots out the car window (it was way too cold to get out of the car). But I think Ed had the most fun out of anyone. After that we met Matt, Shell, and Evan for some dinner only to find that every single thing was closed (let me just reiterate that I hate Graf. This would have never happened in Mainz or Wiesbaden). So we ended up finding a doner stand that was open. We got some fries and doners and headed back to the house to eat. Layla and Evan played while the four of us played some Wii. It was a lot of fun and even though it didn't turn out exactly how we wanted it to, we had a great time. After they left our tradition is to let Layla open one present that she can pick out. Well, she wanted to open the "big, purple one" from Grandma and Grandpa. She was so excited to open it, it ended up being a Fancy Nancy doll. She is so cute, Layla even had to go to bed with her tonight. Once her present was open we had her set out cookies and milk for Santa, read her some Christmas stories and she fell fast asleep. Then it was time for the presents to come out! I was so excited to put everything under the tree, I made Ed run downstairs asap and get the presents. I love playing Santa, it is the best! There were presents everywhere! After that Ed and I hopped into bed and watched Tropic Thunder (which is hilarious, by the way) and fell asleep. All in all it was a great Christmas eve and one to remember since Ed won't be here with us next year! 
This year Layla and I went to the library in the beginning of December and checked out pretty much every Christmas book we could get our hands on. We read them every night before bed and our favorite one was "The 12 Days of Christmas". I have heard that song before but have never known the words but since we got the book we've been trying to sing it. Well today Layla and I were dancing around the living room and singing it and I got to the 8th day of Christmas and drew a blank. I am sitting there trying to remember what the dang 8th day of Christmas is so I decided to ask Layla. She looks at me and says "MILKING!" She knows the song better than I do, she is so smart!
Layla finished off her Advent calendar this morning! I cannot believe it is already Christmas eve. Layla is so excited about Santa coming tonight and leaving her lots of presents. She keeps talking about it over and over again. Tonight we're going to go look at the reindeer one more time (a couple minutes away from post) and then go to dinner, come home watch a Christmas Story, let Layla open a present, get everything ready for Santa and then go to bed. This is so much fun with Layla being older, she understands everything. 
Tonight while Layla and I were in bed...
Layla: "Mom, I need a drink. I'm thirsty."
Me yelling to the other room: "DAD! LAYLA NEEDS SOME WATER!"
Layla: "You hear that, Mom? He loves me!"
Me: "Yes, he does. You have him wrapped around your little finger!"
Layla: "Yup!"
Today we decided to go to the Bamberg Christmas market since this is our last Christmas in Germany, we want to take advantage of all the markets over here. The drive to Bamberg is about an hour or so which Layla slept for most of which was nice. We got there and found the market right away. It was much smaller than Nuremberg but was very cute and all in one little square. As soon as we got there Ed had to buy his favorite candy, roasted peanuts. I thought Layla would want something too but she was a total grouch (she doesn't nap very well) so she just sat in her stroller. As I was pushing her some German lady started talking to me and laughing at Layla. I, of course, had no idea what she was saying but as soon as I looked at her I started laughing too. Her beanie was over her eyes and she just sat there like she was paralyzed. It was hilarious! We walked around a bit more and then stopped to get a snack. Because of Shelby I decided to try a dampfnudeln and Ed got a couple of waffles. It was a very yummy snack! Then across from the market we spotted a toy store. We decided to go in and look around and get warm; we were hoping it would chipper Layla up. It did the trick and Layla found a toy that she had to have, a carton of 6 wooden eggs. She loves them! Then we walked around for a bit more and had lunch (mushrooms with garlic sauce and a steak sandwich, Layla had fries) and decided to head back to the car and drive home. 
While we were heading back to Grafenwoehr Ed said that the Bayreuth Christmas market was on the way home and about half way between Bamberg and Grafenwoehr. So we decided to break up the trip and go to that one too. Well that one was gorgeous! I am so happy we decided to stop at it. We parked the car in an underground garage and when we started walking, we ended up in this huge, beautiful indoor mall. It felt like we were back in America. There was a Christmas puppet show going on and there were so many Christmas displays, it was just beautiful. We had to walk through the mall to get to the Christmas market and the market was huge! It was so Christmasy too, it had Christmas trees every where you looked, ice sculptures, carolers, a huge nativity scene and beautiful lights. We pretty much just walked around for a bit and got our bratwurst (which Layla stole the entire thing from me!) and pretzel. I found this pretty wreath that I had to have and it smells so good! That was my big purchase of the day! So after eating and walking around for a bit we were getting cold and wanted to get back to check the mail (thanks for the presents both Grandmas and Grandpas). We had such an awesome day, one we will definitely remember when we're out of Germany! 
when you party too hard for a few days! 
Shelby and Steve-O left at around 11:00 this morning and as soon as they left, Layla knocked out. She had so much fun with Steve-O and they even stayed up until about midnight the last three nights. They played so good with each other and Layla is already asking where Steve-O and Shelby went. So, Shelby, when you read this WE HAD SO MUCH FUN! Thank you for coming and staying with us, we'll never forget the great memories!
One of my best friends, Shelby, and her son Steve-O decided to make the 4 hour drive to come stay with Layla and I for a final visit before we move back to the states. So today we decided to hit up the most famous Christmas market in Germany, the Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt. It was gorgeous and we had so much fun. The best part was it was snowing the whole time we were there so it made it feel so Christmasy. We went early enough in the day that it wasn't very busy either. When we first got there we headed over to the kids part of the market where there were rides and things for the kids to do. Steve-O and Layla dipped a candle and colored it really pretty colors. Then we even got to see the German Santa and took a picture with him! After that the kids rode some rides and then we headed on over to the main market. It was so pretty, the ornaments everywhere were beautiful and the food smelled so good! We ended up eating lots of candy, two different pretzels, potato pancakes, kinder punch, and nuremberger sausages. The food was to die for, I was stuffed but couldn't stop eating. I let Layla pick out one ornament and what a surprise, she picked out a pink glass ornament with rhinestones in the shape of a lipstick (she is definitely my kid). They had every kind of ornament you could imagine, Shelby picked out this adorable mushroom and also an orange that looks dipped in chocolate. I wanted to buy everything! We were also looking for something matching that we could both get and we settled on this gorgeous hand painted candle holder. Whenever I look at it I'll remember how much fun we had at the market! After we walked around for awhile longer we decided to head back to the car because the snow started coming down even harder and it was getting cold! On the way to the car I bought a fresh cut bundle of mistletoe to hang in the house. We really had an awesome time and I am so happy that Shelby was able to experience it with me! 
Today Layla and I baked a ton of cookies for our friends in Iraq. I got the best chocolate chip cookie recipe from a friend and the cookies turned out amazing. Layla had fun eating all the dough and mixing, she's a great helper! 
Ed has been gone for about a week now and gets back around the 17th. I was writing him an email and asked Layla what she wanted to tell Daddy. This was her message:
Daddy, I love you. Um. My Papa, Gamma. I miss you. I go in the pool, I kick and swim. I want toys and presents. Um. Presents. A toy. I got my pictures. Open my mail. One, two, my Gamma. Um. Show my Daddy my mail. A nail, lip gloss and makeup. Old McDonald had a farm, ei ei oh. I want a snake. A cow. One and two and I want gum. I draw. Um. I love presents. I wake up, presents! I show you, one, a doggie.
This year's Santa picture, not as good as last year's but still pretty funny! At least she looked cute! 
Tonight while Layla was in the bath I was cleaning out our medicine cabinet and Layla spotted her Tylenol in there. She gasps and says "My medicine! Mommy, I need medicine. I have a boo boo nose!" Little liar! I told her that medicine is only for when she is sick and she then tells me "I am! I have a boo boo nose!"
Today was day #2 opening the Advent calendar and Layla loooves getting her piece of chocolate as soon as she wakes up every morning. Well today she told me she wanted to "hold it" so I told her if I gave it to her she better not open any more. She told me "OK!" and took it from my hands. Well 5 minutes later she comes running into the room saying "Look, Mommy, CANDY!!!" I turned around and sure enough, there was day #20's chocolate in her hands. Needless to say I took the calendar away from her and it all went down hill from there. So now we have a ghetto Advent calendar with day #20 taped back on with no chocolate. I told Layla she only has herself to blame when she opens it on the 20th and there is no candy in there.
Tonight we finished the Christmas tree by adding tinsel to it. I did the top half and Layla did the bottom half. The part she did is my favorite part of the tree. She had so much fun putting it on and it looks so cute now, I just love it! 
