The 26th of December...
After a lazy morning of sleeping in, Mark took the kids up to Blauen & Sonne for some tobogganing. These are 2 dorms that are up about 20 minutes from us. Down here near Kandern have no snow, but there's usually snow up in this area. Guess we've got a place to go to anytime we want to be in the snow...something that Connor is missing on a regular basis.

Christmas day was an interesting day. We left the Canary Islands at 7:00am and arrived back in Germany around noon. We came home and settled in. Jacob had picked up some Kraft Dinner in Italy while playing volleyball on a US military base. He gave this to the family for his christmas present so that was our treat for lunch. We then opened gifts and spent the rest of the afternoon resting. We were invited to another dorm for supper where all the dorm staff and their families came (those that were still around). We had a great turkey dinner and spent the evening visiting. Jacob and Tiera went over to a friends place to play games and watch a movie and then came home later in the evening. It was a really nice day.














Tiera got the "Lost" series.































Jacob got a leather jacket.















Caleb got lego.





















Connor got a scooter.


















Opening stockings is usually the last part of our opening gifts. We could not find any stockings in Germany (other than an occasional one that was around $40) so we improvised using some of Mark's clean socks. Guess we'll have to bring some stockings back from Canada.

On Dec 17th most of the kids had left by now so we had our final cleanup of the dorm. The night before had been an all-nighter with kids staying up and watching movies as many were leaving in the wee hours of the morning. The place was a mess in the morning as I'm sure you can imagine.

In the evening we met together as a staff (& 2 guys from our dorm that were the last to leave) and we celebrated a Christmas dinner together. We tried something new...raclette. You can see the 2 black things in the middle of the table. The top part is a grill of sorts and the bottom has 6 individual holders where you put raclette cheese into and then place them underneath the grill part. This melts the cheese and you pour it over your grilled veggies, potatoes and proscuito ham that has been grilled on the part above. It was SO good. We finished off the meal with Pavlova topped with sliced kiwi.
This was our last evening together before most of the staff headed off to varying places for Christmas. It was a real special time.

We spent a week in the Canary Islands on the island of Tenerife which is part of Spain. Our first 2 days were very wet and we wondered if we were ever going to see the sun as the forcast for the rest of the week was rain everyday. We were so thankful to have the sun come out for our last 4 days where we enjoyed the warmth and sunshine. It was a very restful week and we had a great time together as a family.















Sunset on the Atlantic ocean.















Christmas eve dinner.

















































































Tiera trying to capture that perfect image of a flower.

































Pictures of the Bahia Principe where we stayed. Our room was the very front, 3rd floor up. We had a great view.


































After the rain, we woke up to a sunny day and noticed the snow peaked mountain that occured during the rain that we got lower down.






















The lava formations all around the hotel were very interesting to explore.







Our place was right on the ocean, but that didn't mean a sandy beach. It was very rocky and we weren't able to swim in it because it was too rocky and rough.




our first 2 days were wet and raining but it didn't stop these 5 from getting into the pool. You can see the raindrops on the water if you look closely.


Mini golf was one of the activities available.

Tiera and another student led the congregational chirstmas carols during the highschool concert. She's dressed up for her part in the small group ensamble.


Caleb was part of a handbell song. It was so well done. He really enjoyed it. He was also part of the junior choir.


Tiera's highschool choir.


Before the highschool concert, the small group ensemble sang christmas carols outside the entrance to the school.



Connor getting ready for his part in the elementary choir. They did a super job.


Connor singing in the elementary concert. He's third from the left in the back row.


Cyndy & Tiera enjoying their pizzas after the dorm cleaning.


Tiera...emptying out the games cupboard for a thorough clean.


The kitchen is the hardest area to clean. There were several groups working at it and at times you could hardly turn around in there because of all the people and work that was getting done.


Checking the garbage can to make sure it was clean. :)

Dorm cleaning is a HUGE day for all of us. We all gather together for about 3 1/2 hours and do a major overhaul of the dorm. We pull things apart and move every piece of furniture and item to clean in, around, over and under. Something that the guys do NOT look forward to. They get out of school about an hour early and then we get to work. Each RA is in charge of a group and an area that's been preplanned. Mark and I are running all over the place doing checks, getting supplies, and answering a million questions. We had to check each item to make sure it was done correctly and then Res Life came in to see that all was completed well. We treated the guys to doner kebaps for supper that night. Tiera and I prefer the pizza so we ordered that instead. We were exhausted when all was said and done.