One Year Down...Two to Go!

I know, its been a LONG time since I updated. A lot has happened since August, including two trips to the US. Here is a quick update of the end of 2006 for the Van Wagener's Germany journey...

Visitors
We've had more visitors, including my parents.
We also saw Stacey, Katie, The Hudsons, and Gabby (if you know who they are...).

The Hudsons visited in September. You can't tell she's pregnant in the picture, but they now have a healthy baby boy at home! Congratulations!

Katie Klaman - came over in November from Manilla (work) to hang out with me while Scott was in Texas. This was taken at a really cool kids play center. Katie was Daniel's buddy for a week.

Halloween
Joshua had his first Halloween. A little different here, but beginning to be "Americanized", as our neighbors say. The boys didn't get to Trick-Or-Treat, but we had friends over and the kids dressed up. Joshua was Tigger and Daniel was a German Polizei. Some neighbors with older kids came by holding flaming torches and calling out, "suss oder sauer!" (give me sweets or I do something sour).












Happy Birthday Daniel!
Daniel had his third birthday. It lasted from early October (we were in Louisiana) until his actual Nov.9 birthday. He got a "Like A Bike" bike. As you can see, no pedals, so he has learned to balance very well. He loves his bike and asks to ride daily. This is typical of what many of the kids here ride (not all parents are crazy enough to buy the pricey wooden ones).







Thanksgiving
We had four families over to help celebrate our first Thanksgiving in Germany. A little different than usual, especially since it was on a Saturday. No days off of work here! But still lots of fun.

Christmas Celebrations in Deutschland
The kids had a children's Christmas party and Scott and I had a no kids Christmas party with the DAV. Daniel is terrified of Santa, but Joshua had no problem sitting on his lap to pose for a picture (he's such a ham).

Florida and Disney World
Joshua's first trip to the coast of Florida and Disney. Daniel has now been to Disney World three times. We spent a week in Florida with Scott's family to celebrate his 30th Birthday and Christmas.

Louisiana - Christmas

We spent the rest of our time in New Orleans/Baton Rouge to celebrate Christmas with the Chifici and Trahan Families. Joshua's first Christmas was great, he loved all the tissue paper and ribon! Oh, and yes, the boys wore thier lederhosen like good little German boys.