A Sleepover with Rihana!

Rihana and her parents came to visit this weekend.

We're so happy that we now have more space to host friends

and we all savored the good food and good conversation!

The girls had a great time together and

 are already planning their next sleepover!

Marburg's Christmas Market

We had wonderful time in Marburg today!

The Christmas Market was just lovely,

especially the mini Ferris Wheel.

We especially enjoyed meeting up with old friends

 and visiting some of our old stomping grounds.

Rocking Around the Christmas Tree!

Frankfurt's Christmas Market is one of the best in Germany.

We wandered through it this afternoon and evening, 

stopping to admire the festive decorations and lights,

buy a few gifts, have a few treats,

and, of course, ride the train and carousel!

Mattis and Tooske came to play!

We were thrilled to have Mattis and Tooske over with their parents today! The kids played really well together despite not having seen each other for a quite some time and we all had a great time catching up. We're so happy they made the drive over from Marburg to spend the day with us and we hope to see them again soon!

Rana is 4 & 1/2!

Königstein's Christmas Market was festive, but smaller 

than what we were accustomed to in Marburg - 

and it was only open for one weekend!

Rana enjoyed it while it lasted, especially the carousel, 

and is looking forward to going to other near-by 

Christmas Markets in the coming weeks.  

Jolly Old St. Nicholas

St. Nicholas showered Rana with lots of treats today!

The local supermarket very festively asked kids to drop off a 

boot earlier in the week so that they could  fill them with goodies 

today on behalf of St. Nick. Rana proudly presented her boot's mate 

today to claim her treat - and now she thinks that St. Nick actually 

stopped by the supermarket on his way through town!

She had Nicholas treats waiting for her in her shoes 

outside her bedroom door when she got up this morning 

and chocolate in her slippers at Kindergarten. 

We've had quite a bit of snow already this winter, 

apparently a perk of living at a higher elevation than before.

Rana loves the snow and is very much enjoying all of the 

Christmas decorations and activities around town.

A Visit from Baby Noor

We were so happy to see Baby Noor 

and her parents again last weekend.

Rana was eager to help take care of her 

and the two of them cuddled together quite a bit!

What wonderful girls!