I just love their accent!

We were so blessed to have the Johnson family in our home to share a meal and fellowship. We met the Johnson family at our previous church and just love this family to pieces! I can never get enough of their British accents and the funny words that they use-crieky! (Not sure if I spelled that right-but it is a cool word nonetheless). We are planning a visit this May or June and I can't wait-I love England.
We had wonderful conversation and it was so great to catch up on the past 2 years! Thanks Dawn, Jeremy, Jasmin, Ansley and Arian for making our holidays even brighter!

Highlights from Christmas Day

It is impossible to capture each moment of Christmas and post it on a blog-so here are a few of my favorites.

Chloe gets all gussied up

If anyone knows my Micah, they know that he wants to be a future agent! Thanks Aunt Steph and Uncle Tom for picking up this great sweatshirt in D.C. Micah also got a 7pc tuxedo for Christmas-he loves to go undercover!

Santa delivered a wine refrigerator to Scott

The kids always enjoy our Christmas Day visit to LRMC! They delivered gift cards to the wounded warriors on several floors!

Giving is so much better than getting!

CHRISTMAS MARKETS 2008

It is that time of year when the birth of our Savior is coming!
We celebrate this lovely time of year here in Germany with some
very special Christmas Markets
We started off the season by heading to SPEYER-a quaint village 1 hr from
here. We went with our life group from church on Thanksgiving Day! The weather was
sunny and we had a great time and I picked up my first 2 gluhwein mugs for this year!
Gluhwein is a spiced warm, wine and it is good! It is nice to drink a hot cup when the
weather is cool. I love to have a large glass filled with hot cocoa even better.

Don't you love this sign? I saw it on one of the shops!! AMEN!

SPEYER- 27 Novemeber 2008-Thanksgiving Day

Entrance into the market

The ice rink

The Duomo in the background-see all the litle stalls! Love that

One of the little wooden stalls selling Flammkuchen-a pizza with cream sauce and onions-Yum!

My friends Jenna and Jill-all eating and drinking cocoa

Chloe and Eli riding in the red car!



Scott, Micah, Trentan and Chloe at the Speyer Weihnachtmarkt

My 1st blog award!!

What an honor to receive an award!! My wonderful friend, Allison

gave me this award as an incentive to keep making my blog better

and more fun! Don't you just love people who motivate you in a positive way?

For this award I am supposed to list 5 things that I think are FABULOUS!!

(In no particular order)

1) Shabby Chic decor-especially for Christmas

2) Christmas Markets in Europe (pictured is the market in Strausbourg, France)

Don't you just love the encased chandeliers? Amazing

3) Cruising Around Europe- we took out first cruise back in Oct to the Eastern Med

and it was MORE than FABULOUS!! (this was from Santorini, Greece-our fav stop!)

4) Interlaken, Switzerland in July for a church retreat-it was a little bit of Heaven

5)- My family!!! Can you get anymore fabulous than that?

Home remodel

Chloe's room before

Chloe's Room with carpet out and ceilings painted in a soft pink

Chloe's Room with dark cherry hard wood floors in

Chloe's Sitting Area

Tea time at Chloe's

Chloe's bed that was purchased in France and painted a chippy white

Our garden house-BEFORE painting

The inside after decorations

The inside-it has electricity-so even in the winter we use a heater and can still play cards

Our garden cottage-AFTER painting-it is called the "CRAB SHACK"

Downstairs flooring BEFORE demolishion

The floor all torn out

The walls were painted in a sage green and yellow/khaki color

The newly laid floors and painted walls

Door treatments were added and frames with our black and white vacation photos added (the base boards have since been completed)

This was the downstairs bath prior to demolition; everything was bwn/orange

Scott had a good time tearing it up!

Our handyman Rudi, finishing the beadboard

New ceramic flooring

The new bath with pedestal sink (the ceiling and molding has since been finished)

The Gortner's dining area prior to the move (New Year's Day)

The walls were first painted a creamy yellow and the plaster scraped off the wall for a smooth surface

We cut our own boxes for wainscoat and used montage kleber (wall glue) to hang them

One view of the almost completed project-we still added a chair molding and high base boards

Another view of the room with molding boxes (still need to add pics with molding and base board)