The Antics of Fidget and Mistletoe

Way back in 2012, an elf named Fidget started coming to our home every December 1.  She is no ordinary elf, no sir, she is one of Santa's very special scout elves.  In the past 5 years, Fidget (and later Mistletoe, our reindeer) has gotten up to some serious mischief.  She has pulled every prank in the book and not once repeated herself.  And this year was no exception (although Fidget it getting a bit tired).  Below you will find the antics of Fidget and Mistletoe 6.0...

December 1 

Fidget and Mistletoe arrive at the house bringing a personalized book for the girls.

December 2

Swinging from the chandelier.  Literally.

December 3

Adding herself to the family collage wall.

December 4

Still on the collage wall and with a warning note of lousy behavior, already.

December 5

Crazy straws and drinking from my cup of coffee this morning.

December 6

St. Nick came and for once Fidget didn't steal the stockings.  She did turn herself into a snow globe ornament though and hung herself on the tree.

December 7

All aboard the "Shoe-Shoe" Train

December 8

She finally stole their stockings and MadHatters lounging place, turned on the TV and binge-watched holiday movies on Netflix...

December 9

Caught in the spiders web (side note - that spider is now named Spike and lives in MadHatter's bed as her pet)

December 10

Chocolate coin hunt...

December 11

They trapped the girls in their room.  Neither of them could believe the balloons that fell when they went to get ready in the morning.

December 12

Fidget made a huge mess in the girl's playroom and the Barbie teacher put her in timeout and made her write sentences for her punishment.

December 13

Giving Mistletoe a bubble bath in the sink.

December 14

Fidget got into the paints and put Rudolph red noses on all of us...

December 15

Fidget packed the girls lunches but not before wrapping all of their contents.

December 16

Fidget has never flown coach (why?  She can fly!) so she wrapped herself in a protective baggie and asked us to take her on the plane.

December 17

Simba the Sloth and Fidget hung out for the night at our Disney hotel.

December 18

The stripped down and sunbathing in the warmth of the...moon?

December 19

Playing an epic game of UNO with new friends they made here in Florida

December 20th

Scavenger Hunt time!

December 21

Superheros to the rescue when Lambie got caught in the elevator door grate.

December 22

She must have been thirsty and got herself caught in a water bottle.

December 23
Taking a spin on the ceiling fan

December 24
In the manger, just before baby Jesus takes his place.  And as the last day of Fidget and Mistletoe, we have some melancholy girls around the house today.  The excitement of being able to hold Fidget offsets that a bit, and the fact that Santa comes tomorrow truly helps too.  Merry Christmas everyone!  Until next year Fidget.

Home for the Holiday's

Bright and early on Saturday morning, we awoke to find Fidget ready to head to the U.S. with us.  We promptly tucked her under our arms and made our way to the airport to begin our long journey to Florida.  But first, we stopped at the airports very own Christkindlmarkt...

 We arrived after an uneventful trip and were greeted by Nana and Grampa at the Orlando airport.  We were exhausted (it takes about 20 hours to get from door to door) but very excited about the surprise passes we had for Disney World for the next day.  Jet lag, schmetlag...You just aren't allowed to be tired at Disney.  We got there early and stayed most of the day wandering around and soaking up everything we missed about the Magic Kingdom (we used to have season passes to the one in Disneyland after all).  The sun was shining, the crowds were thin and the holidays were everywhere we looked.

So, so bright!

 Always our first ride...

We left early that day.  We still had a 3 hour trip back to Nana and Grampa's place but we were not sad as we would be right back again in 2 weeks for the main event.  Stay tuned for those posts...

We spent the next 10 days just lazing around (like the cat in Stinkerbell's suitcase), soaking in the sunshine and watching the gorgeous colors of the winter sunsets.  I don't have many pictures because I feel like I have taken them all before but trust me, it was a lot of fun with a lot more to come.

 

A Warming Hut and Skating in the City

As the Christmas season got into full swing and we neared the time when we would all be going our far reaches of the world for a few weeks vacation we decided to get a few of us together to spend a bit of time enjoying each others company and the unique offerings this time of year.  Tuesday morning we met at Marienplatz and indulged in a little Christkindlmarkt shopping (and some seasonal Glühwein/Kinderpunsch)

It got very cold, very suddenly, so we ducked into the large department store, Oberpollinger, for a quick lunch in the warmth.  In the summer, the store has outdoor table options but in the winter we found something even better - small huts, fully decked out with seating, festive decorations and heating.  You can get your wine and small snacks from the deck bar and take them back to your reserved hut (which you get for free for 2 hours!).  We didn't have time to do it that afternoon as we had to pick the kids up from school but we made reservations for the next afternoon.  And we added the surprise of ice skating (right downstairs) for the kids.  What a glorious send off it was for us all!

One of our huts.

The kids had their own hut and a phone camera which resulted in some interesting photos.

And then they came and took one of the adults too.  (The strange lighting is the red space heater that was shining directly on us.)

Skating!

Happenings

We have been so busy this past few weeks with heading on vacation and then to Prague for a long weekend and trying to get ready for the holidays.  On top of all of that the girls have had quite a bit going on at school and I have been very bad about blogging it.  So here it is - about a month of Happenings...

Pattern Day.  They were challenged to put on as many patterns as they could. 

Which was enough to get them voted as their class winners respectively.

And culminated in a parade in front of the whole school.

A sick MadHatter after our trip to Prague.  This is what 4 straight days of sleepovers and playdates does to her.

On our way to pick up the girls from school - SNOW!

Self-explanatory and so much fun.

This one got a new handmade hat the at the Markt.

This was the 4th and 5th graders contribution to the basket auction.  They got the most tickets of all of the grades (from EC1 - 12th) and won a pizza party.  They then donated their winnings to a 4th grade class in a school that would not be able to do such a thing due to lack of funds.

Breakfast at Santa at the Hard Rock Cafe.  It was the craziest Santa helper ever but the American style breakfast and the company were fantastic.

The Christkindlmarkt at Marienplatz for the first time this season!

Love that tree, the festive feel in the air and the Gluhwein.

Ever since the first snow fell we have been getting more and more each day.

Mustache day!

Which we got in on as parents too!

MadHatter's class has been working on a unit that teaches commerce and what it entails.  They had to come up with a product, get a loan from the "bank" (the principals), create the product, price it, promote it and finally open a store and sell it.  Her Comfy Hand Warmers sold our in about 1/2 hour!

MadHatter takes Irish Dance as an afterschool activity.  She did a performance with her class at the all school assembly and I was lucky to be there to see it!

Stinkerbell's class also did a performance that they were working on for the past few weeks in Music class.