Christmas/New Year's

We had a pretty quiet Christmas at the Stohr house.  Since we are going to Disney soon, we didn't want to do a long car ride to DC so close to the drive to Disney.  So it was just the three of us.  I definitely missed being with family and also wasn't a big fan of cooking Christmas meals by myself!

Prudence seemed to enjoy her Christmas.  She put out cookies and milk for Santa, carrots for the reindeer and was very excited to see only crumbs were left on the plate!  We spent Christmas morning enjoying goodies from La Farm Bakery and opening presents.  The big hits for Prudence this year were Mickey Mouse toys, lots of books and movies.  She had also told Santa she wanted "hop-hop" toys so he brought her a few bunny figurines with a bunny hutch to play with.

Prudence really enjoyed the Christmas season this year.  She loved taking nightly walks to look at the Christmas decorations and especially enjoyed all the blow-up Santa's, snowmen, etc.  Sometimes on the walks, the Santas would be tipped over due to wind earlier in the day.  Prudence would get very concerned about why the Santas were laying down.  We told her once that maybe they had drunk too much wine so this was the explanation she used from that point forward to explain why the Santas were laying on the ground.  Here is a video of her saying that one Santa had "probably too many wine."

2012 was a pretty good year for us.  Some of the highlights were: Oli and I both started CrossFitting, Prudence started preschool and adjusted very well, we celebrated my dad's 60th birthday at the beach, and attended the wedding of good friends.  Of course 2012 wasn't without its share of sorrow.  Back in June, the family had to say goodbye to our sweet dog, Kerby.  When I was 15, I begged my dad to let me get a puppy.  Specifically, a Jack Russell puppy.  After he was sick of hearing about it, he gave up and on May 13th, 1996, with my hard-earned cash in hand, I went and picked up my puppy.  Kerby was one of a kind.  He was a friend to everyone he met (my dad was no exception!) and had more personality than any dog I've ever known and probably will ever know.  Not a day goes by that I don't think of Kerby, or "Bean" as everyone called him :)

New Year's Eve was also quiet.  We have never been ones for going out so this year was no different.  We made some yummy soup and later in the evening we made traditional German Berliners for dessert.  It's basically a jelly doughnut, but they taste so much better homemade and freshly cooked.  One of them is filled with mustard and the person that gets it, is supposed to have good luck.  No one ended up getting the mustard filled one this year; the recipe makes quite a few and we never found it in the ones we did eat.  So it seems the trash can will be having a very good 2013.

Berliners

Oli streamed a German television channel on the laptop so that Prudence could ring in Germany's New Year at 6pm our time, since she would not be making it till midnight.  We went outside and attempted to set off some small fireworks that Oli bought, but then realized what he bought were indoor party poppers.  However, it took multiple lighting attempts of the popper string before I looked at the box and informed him they were indoor poppers.  Even more embarrassing was our neighbors coming outside to watch the "fireworks."  But even though we didn't have fireworks, it was a nice evening and hopefully a good start to 2013.

Happy New Year to everyone and I hope 2013 is a wonderful year for you all!

The Next American Idol?

Prudence has recently started to enjoy singing.  She may not get all the words right, but she sure tries hard.  Some of her favorite songs to sing are the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song, "Twelve Days of Christmas" and my favorite, "You Are My Sunshine."  My mom used to sing it to me when I was a child and I can't hear it without thinking of her.  Both Oli and I sing "You Are My Sunshine" to Prudence before bed and she has recently started to try to sing along.  The other night in the bath she started singing and I quickly pulled my phone out to start recording.

My favorite part is her extreme emphasis on the second syllable of happy.  :)

A blog? Do people still have blogs?

Yes, I have started a blog.  I know I'm a little bit late in joining the blogosphere and I'm not even sure this is the best way to share family news/pictures, but it's the option I like best for now.  I'm planning to shut down my Facebook account, but still want a way to share things with family and friends, who enjoy seeing pictures of Prudence.  So feel free to subscribe, follow by e-mail (nifty feature on the top right), comment or ignore completely :)

To kick things off, here is a pic of Prudy and me from last night.  One of her favorite activities is looking at water fountains.  We headed over to Waverly Place  for some grocery shopping, frozen yogurt eating and fountain watching.  It was even more exciting than usual for Prudence since they had a big Christmas Tree set up.