Christmas In Luxembourg

Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noel!! We are slowly learning the french phrases for things! Christmas was very different for us this year being so far away from home and not being able to celebrate with our families. However, we tried to our best to make it a good one for the girls. I think they were pleased with all that santa brought for them. Here are some pictures from Christmas. Notice our "Charlie Brown" christmas tree....it was all of 5 feet tall- maybe. The picture of the cake was our christmas dessert....a holiday yule log. (La Buche de Noel). This is a french tradition and the cake is shaped like a log and is filled with chocolate mouse. Another very good dessert for a special occasion. Learning all of the different traditions over here has been a wonderful experience for all of us!!

Pictures of the Girls

Here are some recent pictures of the girls. The one of Ericka is on her first day of her new preschool. She's been very tired of staying at home with mom all of the time. The other two pictures are from today, St. Nicholas Day. The girls loved their gifts from grandma bug which arrived today.

Strasbourg, France

These are pictures from when we went to Strasbourg, France last weekend. We went there for their big christmas market. There were many local vendors selling handmade clothing, ornaments, pottery, food ect... We tried hot wine (which actually tasted more like cider than wine) and Strasbourg sausage. Lauren loved the sausage! There was quite a crowd as this is a big tourist spot this time of the year due to the christmas market. We stayed over night so we got to enjoy a weekend away. Strasbourg is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Luxembourg.

The American Military Cemetary in Luxembourg

There is a beautiful American military cemetary just outside of Luxembourg city. For those of you not familiar with history, the Americans freed Luxembourg from the Germans during World War II. The cemetary is a tribute to all of the young men who lost their lives while fighting in Luxembourg. The Luxembourgish people are very grateful to the Americans for giving them their freedom.

Sites in Luxembourg

We have been to a few of the sights here in Luxembourg. The weather is terrible here this time of year...so that's why it is so gloomy in most of the pictures. It's cloudy and rains just about everyday. The top two pictures are the view from our apartment. It's pretty at night with all of the lights. The next pictures are of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Luxembourg.

November 21, 2007 Lauren's 1st Birthday

Lauren celebrated her first birthday in Luxembourg. We had a difficult time finding her a birthday cake on our own. Mark had his secretary at work recommend a bakery and order one for us as we can't speak french. The cake was very delicious: chocolate with a chocolate mouse filling. It was VERY RICH!! Lauren absolutely loved the cake as you can tell from the pictures. They did put Happy Birthday Lauren (ie) they spelled it wrong- on a piece of dark chocolate. They also put in one with Happy Birthday in french- Joyeux Anniversaire!

Our New Home

This is our new home!! It's a 5 bedroom apartment...but I think of it more like a duplex as we have 2 levels. Check out my small kitchen!!! That had definately taken some time to get used to. There is no carpet in the apartments in Luxembourg...we have tile on the entire first floor, and wood floors downstairs where the bedrooms are. We have radiator heat also which is different. We are very fortunate to have very nice neighbors from London who live upstairs. They are Andrew and Christine and they have been so helpful to us. Christine does not work so she is home during the days during the week while Mark is at work. She has a beautiful english accent and we laugh alot about how each other talks. She's taken us for walks into the town and she can read some french too-so that helps when all of our mail comes from the government here and it's in french. Only down side to where we live as that we cannot have satellite tv because of the side of the building that we live on. So we are stuck with cable where the only english speaking channels are CNN and BBC. Ericka watches the cartoons in french though and doesn't seem to mind! Maybe she can pick up on the french quicker and become our translater.

November 4, 2007

The family finally makes the move to Luxembourg on November 4, 2007. The girls travelled like champs and were very good on the long flight to our new home.