New Years

On December 31st after David got off work, we headed to our friend's house near Bonn.  We were very excited to be spending New Years there!  We arrived and they had a wonderful dinner waiting for us.  It is their traditional New Years dinner.  It was like a fondue type, but instead of hot oil to cook your meat in, it was a hot plate in the middle of the table.  You put fruit, vegetables, meat on it and cook it up.  It was sooooooooooooooo yummy!!!  They then introduced us to a new way to play Uno.  I don't think I will ever play Uno the original way again.  It was so much fun, we laughed so much my sides hurt.  We also watched Dinner for One.  It is a German New Years tradition and one I think we are going to continue.  If you have never watched it you should!!  It was HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!  Kay said you could watch it 85 times on German TV on New Years Eve.

Right before midnight we headed up to the third floor where they had a balcony to watch the fireworks.  Michael is such a goofball!!

They have all sorts of fireworks here that are legal for everybody to shoot off.

They just kept going and going and going.

They were everywhere.  From the balcony we could see other towns and there were fireworks as far as the eye could see.  And it wasn't a short time, it went on for a solid 45 minutes straight!!!  I am not talking one or two houses, all the houses everywhere!!  It was getting so foggy that it was getting harder and harder to see.  It was AWESOME!!!!

Then Kay broke out he sparklers - German style.  These sparklers were a meter long.  They were crazy!!  The boys loved them!!!

Here the boys were hanging them over the balcony "fishing."  After that we finished our game and I was ready to go to sleep since it was almost 2 am.

The next day we relaxed for most of the morning, but then decided we all needed to get out a little.  So the boys took off in front of all of us.  AJ was trying to ride the penny board while Michael is running with Jan.  It was a beautiful day!!!

AJ was starting to do really well on the Penny board!!!

As you can see it was a beautiful walk through orchards and fields.  It was nice to get out and stretch the legs.  You couldn't beat the weather and have to get your vitamin D when you can over here.  :-)