Joyeux Noel!

Disclaimer: this is a mega-post...

So after I spent an amazing weekend celebrating Uncle Tim's graduation from the Air Force Weapons School out in Las Vegas, we had just a few days state-side before our big trip to visit Aunt Erin, Uncle Thomas, Sarah, Pierre, and Augustin for Christmas.  It had exactly a year since our last visit with them, and we couldn't wait to get to spend a whole week together! 

We left on a Friday evening and arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, early the next morning.  Joergen wasn't feeling well to begin with, but they both did amazing on the flight.  What a difference a couple of years makes!  It gave us such hope that these transatlantic trips may actually get easier. 

This picture was taken in the Frankfurt airport, 8:30 am local time, 2:30 am to us.  You can see by how flushed poor Joergen's cheeks were that he wasn't feeling so well, but we were proud of him for being such a trooper.

After a few hours in Frankfurt and a bus ride to France, we arrived at the station in Strasbourg to see Uncle Thomas waiting to bring us to their new house in Bischheim.  We were never so happy to see a familiar face!  It was a joyful reunion for all.  Given our sleep-deprived haze, I frankly have no idea what we did that afternoon after we got to their house.  I do, however, have a couple of pictures from pajama time that evening that at least remind me of how happy my boys were to see their cousins!

Joergen and Sarah

Liam, Augustin, and Pierre

Having 5 kiddos running around (4 of whom were boys aged 5 or younger) was crazy and loud and wonderful.  We had some rainy weather throughout the week that kept us indoors now and then, but the kids found plenty of ways to occupy themselves.  One of their favorite (and most argued-about) things to do was to play Angry Birds on our iPad.  The Hantz kids got good at it quickly!

Liam and Joergen had a blast discovering all of their cousins' toys, books, games, and puzzles, most of which they had never seen before.  I would often find Joergen by himself in Pierre and Augustin's room, playing in a mountain of cars and trucks and whatever else he could pull out of their toy bins.  The kids clicked quickly and in general played really nicely together.

Pierre, Augustin, and Liam

On the 23rd, we headed into downtown Strasbourg to check out their amazing Christmas Market and see our dear friends Chris and Ariane and their little guy Xavier... who you may remember from this post back in the summer.  Or from this one a couple of years ago. 

Joergen, Sarah, Pierre, and Liam at the city Christmas tree

It was  a cool coincidence to be there at the same time as Chris and Ariane, who normally call Boston home... Ariane's aunt happens to live right in Strasbourg, and they happened to be visiting her (among many other family members and friends in Europe) over the holidays.  It was such a great and unexpected spot for a rendezvous!

Anthony, Chris, Xavier, Ariane, me, with Liam, J, and Pierre in the front

Although Anthony and I hadn't been to Strasbourg at Christmastime in 7 years, the city was as beautiful as we'd remembered it.  It really is a magical place to be at that time of year!

The Notre Dame Cathedral in Strasbourg

It was a cold evening, but nothing that a vin chaud couldn't fix, and we had a great time wandering the busy Strasbourg streets while catching up with each other and taking in all the tourist-y goodness.  Some of our favorite spots:

Xavier, Ariane, and Chris

Sarah, Me, and Anthony

Pierre, Sarah, and Erin

The Christmas Capital, indeed!

Pretty sure we had similar pictures to this in college with the first person to "fall asleep"!

The city Christmas tree at night

Back at la maison de Hantz, there were many moments of fun to be had.  I have a ton of photos to share, but in the interest of space, only our favorites could make the cut.

Aunt Erin and the herd

An unlikely favorite new game-- run down the hall!  Go!

Celebrating Pierre's 5th Birthday

Augustin playing Pierre's new recorder. Next to the iPad, this was the (germier) favorite toy to fight over.

Augustin and Joergen hugging it out.  What could be cuter than this?!

Celebrating Augustin's 2nd birthday on Christmas Eve.  Joyeux Anniversaire!

Hey! Vegan cupcakes are really pretty delicious!

Augustin opening his birthday presents

Sarah and Liam testing out Augustin's new crab-catch game

An intense game of Candy Land

Sarah's Hair Salon (where they even serve wine!)

Cuddle time before bed- what could be better?!

After a great celebration of Augustin's birthday on Christmas Eve, we woke up on Christmas morning to Liam running down the upstairs hallway yelling, "Guys! Look! SANTA was in my room!  I'm serious!!"  And whaddaya know?  He was!

Above the bed where Liam was sleeping, Santa had left a stocking full of little toys and treats for Liam and Joergen.  And he left one for Sarah, Pierre, and Augustin in their room too!  AND he left presents for everyone under the tree!

Some of my favorite pics from Christmas morning...

Sarah opening her One Direction CD, which became the soundtrack of our trip.

Aunt Erin and Augustin

Dad with a surprise gift from Uncle Andrew

Pierre with his new Leapster game

Every time Joergen would open a present, he would hand me the wrapping paper with this face and say, "Trash" as if it were the grossest thing in the world.

Liam and Joer opening new books

Toddlers in red jammies eating Pez... love!

Our fabulous hosts, Aunt Erin and Uncle Thomas

Later that day, Mamy and Papy came over to celebrate Christmas with us.

Uncle Thomas practicing his American smile

Pierre and Liam playing with Sarah's beads

Sarah helping Augustin slam dunk with his new basketball hoop

And then... things got interesting...

"We can't cope with all this craziness.  Let's just suck our thumbs."

The girls of the house, unite!

The next day was a perfect day to play outside.  Sarah, Pierre, and Augustin have an awesome swing set right in their backyard, and even though (or perhaps because?) it was a little muddy, they had a blast.

We also had fun with a little game of soccer.

That night, we headed over to Mamy and Papy's house for a feast.  Seriously.  Augustin got to open a few more birthday presents (which everyone had fun with!).

Augustin, Joanna, and Liam

Mamy set up the cutest kids' tables for all the little ones.  My favorite was this toddler table for two!

The "big kid" table (Liam couldn't get enough of the fizzy water):

Uncle Thomas' brother Mika with his new baby Lucy.  Even though she's a little sad in this picture, she is one of the cutest baby girls I have ever seen!

Sarah and Joergen

The next day was Daddy's and my 9th anniversary!  And because Uncle Thomas and Aunt Erin's 11th anniversary was the next day after that, we decided to feed the kids early and have a grown-up joint-anniversary celebration that night... complements of Nana and Grandpa.  Thanks guys!!

But first, it was spaghetti night.  Joy! Rapture! Mess!

And after the carb-loading, it was time for a little one-on-one:

While the kids finished up their dinner, Uncle Thomas, Dad, Joergen, and I headed into Strasbourg so I could pick up Dad's anniversary gift: a Strasbourg beer stein for his collection.  It was rainy and windy and cold, but the cathedral still looked amazing:

We got a break in the rain storm long enough to take a couple of quick pictures.  I love Thomas's American smile!

Happy Anniversary!

No sooner did we get back to the car with the beer stein, when I was fumbling to put away my umbrella and the package slipped out of my hands... and smashed onto the sidewalk below.  I could have cried.  There was no time to go back and get another one, so after all that I had to head back stein-less, and make a plan to come back the next day.  Ugh.

Once the kiddos were all in bed (well, except for Liam, go figure.  But he was content to watch Arthur on my Kindle upstairs, and did so until he too fell asleep), we got to work on our special dinner.  Uncle Thomas shucked some delicious oysters:

And we opened a bottle of (real) champagne:

Cheers to our favorite couple and a combined 20 years of marriage!  And thank you Mom and Dad for an incredible dinner!

After a fantastic night, we woke up to our last day in France.  I loved this pic of everyone reading/iPadding together:

On departure day, we woke up before dawn to catch our bus back to Frankfurt.  We were so incredibly sad to leave, but with Joergen still not feeling well, we knew it was time to head home.  We were treated to a beautiful sunrise on the bus ride to Germany:

It wasn't long into our flight when the Derry boys all succumbed to their exhaustion from a wonderful week:

Thank you Hantz family for such an amazing visit.  We love and miss you all!!!