Christmas Dinner......

These are our friends Sami (Finland) and Simone (Germany). They were with us for our second Christmas in a row. We had Sami, Simone, Janne, Tiina and Erika for Christmas dinner. We made ham, potatoes, corn and other things. It was nice to have Christmas dinner with friends.
This was the post-meal Monopoly game.
This is Janne, Tiina and Erika at their Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas to everyone and we miss being home for the holidays!

Weihnachten in Germany....

Today is Christmas in Germany and it is called Weihnachten. They open presents and Santa comes at night instead of the 25th. Jess and I went to an evening church service and took some pictures. This is Jess in the church on the balcony. In Finland Joulupukki (Santa) comes on the 24th night. He comes to the house and gives the presents to the children and they sing Christmas carols. I dressed up as Santa and stood out on the street. When Erika came in she saw the presents and that Santa had come. Janne told her that maybe Joulupukki was still around and took her out to the balcony. I was on the street dressed as Santa waiting for her. She waved and was really excited. The funny part of the story is that while I was waiting for Erika outside, Germans out driving and walking kept talking to me. I tried to hide but it didn`t work. They would honk and wave or ask me questions. I would just say HO HO HO! I never thought I would be stranded on the street in Germany dressed as Santa. Chalk up another story to tell the kids! This is me with Janne before Erika came.
This is me in front of the Christmas tree. Pretty strong looking Santa eh!
This is a picture of the church from the balcony. Really old and really different from home. Neat experience to be in a different country on Christmas eve and to attend a service in a different language.

Team Christmas Gift Exchange....

This is for those of you who keep asking me to put up hockey stuff. It will bring back good memories for some of you who played the game. This is the annual dressing room Secret Santa. I have been through more than ten of these over the years but it never gets old! We had it tonight for the players and this is Sami (my finnish friend) opening his gift. These are two guys on the team who never seperate and do everything together. On the back is each others number. (Shirts are sewn together)
This is our trainer ECKIE and he isn`t afraid to have the odd beer! Great guy and my best trainer yet.
Obviously the rest can`t be put up due to personal reasons!

8½ months pregnant or somebody swallowed a bowling ball!

These are pictures of my lovely wife and our unborn child. As you can see, there is a slight bulge around the trunk area. Anyways, Jess looks great and is doing fine at 8 and a half months pregnant. Some people tell me that I will not be able to sleep into 10 everyday when the baby comes but we will see.

First Snow Fall......

Well, we had our first snowfall today and it finally feels like Christmas. There haven`t been any blogs because we`ve had four days off and Jess and I were relaxing. We went to the Christmas Markets in Frankfurt and to a team concert but forgot our camera. So just look at the other Christmas Market pictures and imagine Frankfurt! Anyways, Jess is doing great and we only have 6 weeks to go.

Hockey News....

For those of you following the hockey situation......the season goes on. The city gave us 30,000 Euros to continue the rest of the year plus some other things. We will be in Germany for Christmas and will have a German baby. (That may or may not be positive!) Anyways the baby now weighs 4.4 pounds and has a 31 cm head. Also, the doctor stated that he may have the Davis nose. Lucky, lucky kid! Thanks to those that prayed for us.

New Belly Shots....

This is Jess` new addition. Getting bigger by the day! This is a shot of my chest. The weights are much heavier over here. They are European!
This is a belly shot of me as well. For those of you who accuse me of sucking my stomach in, stop speaking these untruths!
This is Jessie with clothes! Gotta love maternity tops!
Oh, and Jess is beginning her 8th month (week 32) and we have recently visited the hospital where it all will happen.

The Team....

Well for those of you who don`t know what is going on here.........here it goes. The team is in financial trouble right now. They pay a lot of money a year for our ice time and youth hockey. In Germany, the Pro team pays for the ice of the junior team, and youth hockey. It costs our team 80,000 Euros a year for this icetime. They want some help from the city for the expenses. Two weeks ago they wanted the city to buy our ice rink and help the team. It was do or die for the organization. Well, we died! But the city said they would give us 30,000 Euros for next year. That didn`t help out and we were close to going bankrupt. Now the ownership is pressing for that money this year in advance so we can make it through the year. The meeting for this is on Tuesday. If the city says no, we are done. Home for Christmas! Not neccessarily but it doesn`t look good. Please pray for us because financially for Jess and I we need the year to finish. It will put us in good shape and eliminate most of our student loans. We need to stay! Anyways, our fans have been great. They are true hockey fans and have been picketing and petitioning for the last month. Below are some pictures. The first one is at city hall. 700 fans came to this meeting in jerseys, scarves, etc. They booed politicians when they spoke and cheered those for the team. Pretty funny! Anyways, this is them below right behind the last row of politicians. I was waiting for a strangulation!

This is the march to city hall by the townspeople and fans. About 700 fans walked down the main street with a police escort blocking traffic.
This is the last homegame. Everyone in the crowd had sparklers to show unity in their support. Really neat and Jess was a little teary eyed.

Christmas Decorations......

For those of you who spent your Saturday putting up Christmas lights and decorations, here is our display. It took 20 minutes to finish and it is quite spectacular in person. (I know it is small but it is all we have)Here is a close-up of our tree for those of you who contributed to it. The hockey skates are courtesy of the Conroy`s. Big thank you! The two crystal snowmen are courtesy of Grandma Smith. Very nice addition. Finally, the teacher decoration is from the McAuley family (Kasi and Jake). Lovely, just lovely. (Side note: The crystal manger scene on the bottom is also courtesy of the Conroy`s.) Thank you to everyone for their generosity. I know some of you want to take credit for the pinecones but they came with the tree. Shame on you for those who sent nothing! ha ha ha ha ha joking........

Christmas in Gladbach......

Well, this is the view outside of our window. Christmas Markets in Gladbach with donkey rides. It doesn`t say Christmas if it doesn`t have donkey rides. Due to the hygiene of the animals, we passed on the rides for the safety of our future child!This is the Christmas Market complete with on duty firefighters pouring beer from the taps in the firehall garage. Wanted to take a picture but was afraid that this would hurt me in future fire calls. You never want to upset the fire department when you live in a 100 year old wooden house!