Happy Holidays

There is so much more to Christmas than Christmas....

to me! Baking, shoppping, music, decorating,

sharing, serving, relaxing, sewing, reading,

entertaining, and SNOW. Altnough we didn't have

a white Christmas Eve or Christmas Day we did get

quite a bit of snow the week before and the week

after and it is so beautiful.

The week before Christmas my mother said she

was thinking about having few friends over one

afternoon for pie and ice cream. She invited

me to stop by....was I surprised when I got there...

she only had 26 of the ladies she invited show up!

What a party girl!

Dad hung out in the basement with the dogs.

Grandpa Bingham

Here are a couple pictures taken when we went to

breakfast with Grandpa, Elaine, Tab and Pam.

Christmas Eve 2010

We had 18 for our Christmas Eve Dinner! So Fun!

Stryker, Ty and Krew are ready for the

party....

This year our Christmas Eve dinner was based on the

traditions from Norway, since one of my ancestors

came from Norway in the mid 1800's.

The meal consisted of leg of lamb roast, boiled

potatoes, cauliflower, raisen bread, dates, figs,

nuts and "Christmas Beer" (soda).......it was a

real party!

The grand-children opened their gifts from nana

and papa.
We had a candy cane hunt...McCall won.

This is Krew showing some of the candy canes he gathered!

Christmas Day

Helmut talking to his mother on the phone Christmas morning....

an important part of every holiday!

Paul and Max

The smartest thing I did this year was "not" wrap

presents! I put everything into bags......this

approach sure saved me a lot of time!

Nana and Papa enjoying sweet Bode, Matt & Meggan's

youngest son.
Meggan and Bode.

Matt & Ty......Ty needed some candy!

Brian and "Curley"

Christianne and Tony

Europe 2010

We recently returned from a 3 1/2 week vacation in

Europe. As I begin to update the blog I realize it

would be impossible to share everything we did and

saw........so I will only post a small part of a holiday

that we will forever remember and be grateful to

all of our family and friends that made it so

memorable! Each time you get to the bottom of

a page...click older post to see the next pictures or

you may miss some of our trip pictures.

Here we are with a newly discovered relative, Erwin Bambl,

who treated us to an unexpected trip into the Czhec

Republic. Johann Weinzierl and his wonderful family made this

meeting possible.

We went to the lovely little village of Oberammergau

and saw the "Passion Play".

...seeing wonderful old family friends,

the Hoblers in Munich.
...eating Apfelkuchl in Tegernsee...

The world's biggest cuckoo clock....

The beauty of the black forest......

... A fun evening with family at a historic Tiergarten....

Family Fun!

Here we are in Ausburg with Isabella and most of her family.
Our three wonderful nieces in Germany!

Werner and Isabella.

This time while in Germany we spent almost a week with Helmut's

brother, Ralph and his

sister, Isabella and their families. This is a picture with some

of us in Treiberg by Germany's tallest waterfall.

This is the view from the castle in Heidleberg.

Here Helmut and some of the family are

looking at the castle ruins.

....taking a river cruise in beautiful Bavaria.........


The traditional band playing in a hoffbrau ...so fun to
listen to while we enjoy our meal!

Poland

On this trip we again went into Poland for a few days

to see Halina and do some family history

research. Once again I am touched by the

beauty of the countryside.

We went to the Pila Civil Archive in search of

some genealogy questions still unanswered....

not really much success, but interesting?

The town square in Poznan is always a fun place to

eat and stroll around!

It is always so nice to see Halina. This time she took

us to the home of her daughter Berta where we were

served herbal tea and cookies.

The Winklers in Berlin, Germany

We could not go to Germay without some time with our

wonderful friends, the Winklers. As in the past they

were so much help getting to and from.........as we make

our regular pilgrimage into Poland from Germany.

This is a picture of Helmut with the Winklers in

front of their lovely home in Berlin.

Before taking us to the airport to catch our flight to London

our dear friends invited us to walk to the nearby

cemetery to see the grave of their daughter, Dorene.

We felt honored to be included in their weekly time to

visit this place and do a bit of cleaning around her

grave and tombstone.

London, England

We spent the last few days of our trip

in London, England. One of the best parts

of this time was meeting some distant relatives,

Mark and Ann Wyatt.

The rest of the time in London we went sight-

seeing.........so interesting!

In the background of this picture of Helmut is
the "Millenial Wheel". It is similar to a
ferris wheel...but it moves slowly so that
those going for a ride can enjoy a view of London
and it's many sights. We didn't go on that this
time...but hope to someday.

We enjoyed "The Original Tour" bus ride
all around London!

It is a BIG city full of history and it would take
more than a few day to see everything there.

Nana and Papa Camp - August 2010

Nana and Papa Camp has become a wonderful tradition!

It is for our grand-children age 5 and older. This year

we had 6 old enough to come and they were all

wonderful. I can't wait until next year to do it

again.

We (actually the kids) set up

two tents....one for the girls....

and one for the boys, of course. We spent 2 and a 1/2
days doing a variety of activities. I hope
they enjoyed their time together. Making memories
is fun, but so exhausting! Here are some of the things
that we did............

Meika and Papa are trying to escape the camping

adventure. They both eventually came outside

after watching some tv.

They all participated in a brief moment of
scripture study.

The girls made some really delicious banana bread!

The boys were assigned to dig the dutch oven
pit. But Mieka volunteered, co cute.

Meika admitted that she can't read?

What?! So, Papa helped her

with the worksheet on joy.