Have a great New Year's Eve

We spent yesterday taking a long walk at Tryon Creek and are spending the last afternoon of 2011 hanging out with the girls who are playing with their friends.

The toothfairy visited our house...

Alena lost another tooth yesterday.  It started to wiggle while we were up in Seattle and it already came out.  Wow!!!

and look what she brought her....

one happy girl - so glad the toothfairy stopped by :)

Arizona Firm Recalls Marinated Beef and Chicken Products Due To Mislabeling and Undeclared Allergens

Arizona Firm Recalls Marinated Beef and Chicken Products Due To Mislabeling and Undeclared Allergens

Best Pasta - ever - for Dinner...

...we love having family visit - everyone enjoys it, at least everyone at the Pdx side :))) - Tonight one of our guests cooked for us. Pasta Bolognese - the most delicious, fantastic Bolognese ever. Really! I am not sure if I can ever recreate this....

We took a road trip

up north - on the way we stopped for lunch

Alena waiting for her meal

Mia Rose and Kati waiting patiently for their meal

Do you know where we stopped along the way?  Yes, we did indeed have fast food...however it's the only one our family eats when in the Pacific Northwest...Burgerville.  Kids Hamburger Meal, with juice for the lovely girlies...

At our destination we visited one very fun place - and the girls got to visit with some cute pigs...

and since we stayed overnight, and it was not in downtown Portland - we went out for breakfast.  Thankfully our good friend told us just where to go...

look at that delicious Vegan Pancake

Alena loved her breakfast - Vegan Pancake with plenty of fruit and a side of bacon :)

and now, would you like to know where we went?  OK - here is one clue...

Do you know where we went?  Yes? Are you sure?  -  Yup, this is the Space Needle and we went on a road trip to visit the larger city up north, Seattle :)

Oh, and we had breakfast at Portage Bay Cafe http://www.portagebaycafe.com/ It was fantastic - and to me the best is always if our girls can have just the food they like :)  They had vegan pancakes, soy milk - and having Galactosemia safe food was no issue.  Whoo-hoo - just what this mothership loves :)

Alena plays "We wish you a Merry Christmas"

Mia Rose plays "Away in the Manger"

A lovely Christmas

we had indeed and guess what, Santa even visited our house.  Yes, he did.  Look at these excited girlies...

And yes, Santa brought just the right colors :)

Breakfast and then a nice long walk outside.  One of the things I absolutely love about living in Portland is that it is always possible to take long walks outside.  All of us walked up Mt. Tabor, stopped at the Wishing Tree for a special wish, and on the way back down - of course - stopped at the playground.  I always feel so much better better day after a nice long walk....

After our walk the girls were ready for some long awaited movies and we started cooking our traditional Christmas feast.  I love traditions, so on Christmas Day we make a Weihnachtsgans (Christmas goose) with Chestnut & Dried Fruit Stuffing, Kartoffelkloesse (potato dumplings), Blaukraut (red cabbage), and this year we also had brussel sprouts with chestnuts....and of course the butter was substituted in all recipes with  Earth Balance a.k.a. Vegan Butter...

I hope you all had wonderful day!

Merry Christmas - Froehliche Weihnachten from Portland

Bubbly for all - real bubbly for the parental units and sparkling cider for the girlies :)

Christmas Eve 2011

We saw the Nutcracker in the afternoon and here they are - ready for Christmas Eve Dinner. Delicious ham, Kartoffelsalat (Potato Salad), mixed green salad, and raisin sauce. It was a dinner success! And do you know who came by for a visit after dinner? Yes, the Christkind came by and left presents for our two lovely ladies. Whoo- hoo all the way from Germany!