Sorry Dave

Dear Dave,

Sorry for the lack of posts. Here is my Christmas tree.

There will be more when holidays are over and I don't have to spend all day every day playing "dinosaur airplane" and "Car Crash"

A Friend stops by...

One of the things that has been nice since moving is that there are more children in the neighbourhood for Liam to play with. In fact there there are three kids in Liam's kindergarten class on our street.

Right next door to us is Annika, who Liam gets along quite well with. Recently there have been days when we get a phone call and it is Annika's parents telling us that "Annika is asking to play with Liam." This is a godsend. As awesome as Liam is, sometimes it is nice when two little monsters amuse each other without the need for parents to play along.

Here are the two little monkeys, getting ready to make some trouble...
A popular game is to put ALL the bears on a table, everything else on the floor and then walk around singing.
Or maybe Liam can help Annika with her horse technique
After all the clowning, they have to have a little lie down. Notice that neither child let go of their stuffed animal of choice for the duration of play. Liam likes to take the animals on adventures. Apparently it was the Polar Bear's birthday. That was the cause for singing and celebration.
Annika is a nice little girl, I am glad that they can play so nicely together.

Differences in housing....

One of the things people sometime ask me is "do I like living in Germany?" or "what is it like living over there?" I just thought I would share a quick thought on something that I REALLY like about the area where I live.

I really really like the way that new housing is built here. I don't even know if this is specific to my little corner of Germany or across the whole country. Around here (the south west) plots of land for housing are bought on an individual basis by the people who want to build the house. This results in many single-lots being sold and built on demand.

In Canada, at least southern Ontario, Land is generally purchased in huge areas by development companies, who then build a whole bunch of houses and sell them off.

This contrast in how land is sold really changes the way towns evolve. My village/town has about 3500 people and is pretty old. There is some growth around the edges as old farms stop running andnew housing areas are built. We purchased a plot of land and built in just such an area.

Here is what the whole village looks like from up the hill.
Now here is an aerial view of my subdivision. Notice the lack of straight lines in the roads and the fact that there are still lots of empty lots. This is not "the middle of nowhere" at all. We have public transport (buses and a train station) and are 10km down the road from Tuebingen, a major university town.
This kind of area is really the kind of things people in my life-position can afford to build in. It is all young families in this area.

I was online the other day and saw this photo of housing in Markham, Ontario. Just north of Toronto. This is typical of housing in the area. It is pretty much what would be affordable to me had I chosen to stay living in southern Ontario.
To be fair, housing in Ontario is somewhat less expensive that Germany, but not that much really...

Still it could be worse. Check out Mexico city. This is a real photo...
OK, that is low income housing, but still.... wow.
n

Christmas Cookies

As it happens every year, Claudia baked a huge batch of Christmas cookies. This year she had an active helper though...

Also as happens every year, Claudia says "this time I am not making so many" and in the end we have enough cookies to feed most of southern Germany. This year was four different types, filling a tupperwear tub about as big as a small car.

The ones above are the "simple" ones that Liam was able to help with. I did not take photos of the more complex (and even more awesome) cookies... perhaps I should before the resident cookie monsters eat them all up.

Did I mention I personally represent about 40% of the Southern German cookie consuming capacity? I am a cookie-hound.

Augsburg Christmas Market

The season is upon us... did the first Christmas market visit. Augsburg.

Not so many photos, it was tricky.

Here is the booth selling treats that looks like a giant Christmas pyramid. The town hall of Augsburg is in the background. I liked how this came out. The best photo of the few that I took.
Liam was very excited, he was led into the action by Mummy and Oma.
They had a great big Naitivity, Liam liked that.
Claudia bought Liam a chocolate covered banana, that was also a big hit.
Then the adults enjoyed a gluhwien. yum