Just an Early Morning Hello

Everyone is sleeping in so I have a few moments of peace to sit and write this morning.  It has been a busy week here.  Unfortunately it started with Alani getting a cold and me getting the stomach flu.  We have both recovered now though so we are looking forward to getting back to our usual activities.  Alani has her two top teeth coming in now, making a grand total of four teeth!  She is all over the place these days and is loving trying to get into all sorts of things she shouldn't.
This week we also had our first big snow of the winter.  Alani was really loving watching it come down when I was carrying her around outside.  She couldn't really figure out what to do with it so she looked at the sky, closed her eyes, and opened her mouth.  It was really fun to see her enjoy snow for the first time.  I enjoyed the snow as well and it really does beat rain.  However, this is the first time I've had to put "snow tires" on a stroller.  Talk about a workout!  Pushing Alani through the snow is tough, my leg muscles are actually sore.  I might come out of this winter in better shape than I went in. 
We are getting ready for our trip back to the states for the holidays.  We will be spending Christmas with my family in TX, New Year's in CT, then we will be in NYC for a couple of days.  We are really looking forward to the trip, although I'm dreading the flight over and all of the luggage! 

In Germany stores are closed on Sundays, which means that we generally have to do all of our shopping on Saturday for anything we might be need on Sunday or Monday morning.  However, during Advent, the stores are open for a couple Sunday's to give people more time to Christmas shop.  The best place to shop though is at the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market).  These are usually set up in the city center or, in a large city like Berlin, there will be several of them.  We have been to a couple of them now, but today are going to head over to one of the better ones.  Last week Valentin took Alani when I was sick and they went and bought our Advent Wreath.  Today we are looking for Christmas gifts as well as an Advent Calendar for Alani, this should be some fun shopping.