Ornaments, Hair, and Passports

I forgot about kids and ornaments- Luke thinks the round ones are actual balls and he throws them down the hall. He took one off the tree, and while the front door was open, he threw it hard onto the porch-of course it broke. We have since moved all ornaments up so the top half is quite full of ornaments and the bottom is bare- it looks pretty funny.

 Jack and Luke were playing with our Little People Nativity set while I was nursing Thomas in the other room, and I hear, "Mom, Luke is smacking those wise men's camels!" It made me laugh. We had to put up the baby Jesus figure from the Nativity set because he kept being launched, and I felt a little weird about condoning the launching of Jesus into the manger in order to explode it.

At aerobics the instructor has added a few Christmas songs to the mix, and when Last Christmas came on Jack said, "Oh Mom, this is my favorite song!" He started singing along, and the instructor looked at me and laughed pretty hard.

I changed my hair color-I haven't adjusted yet- I don't think I like it. Pete keeps telling me I am the only person who even notices the color is that different. I changed it because I don't have the time or the means to keep up blonde hair and end up with 2 inches of darker hair at the top before I have it fixed. Plus, I knew when we moved I probably wouldn't have the nerve to make a hair appointment for awhile so I had them match the color to my roots so it will be close to my natural hair color ( a color I haven't seen since high school). Pete believes this is a more sensible look for a 30-year-old mother of 3 with little time to sit in a stylist's chair for two hours- maybe he's right, but right now I miss my blonde hair-even if I am the only one who notices the difference.

We got our passports a couple weeks ago. It was very exciting actually. After not getting anywhere with my emails to the consulate I finally got a a few responses on the same day- they told us not to get a visa before we move because Americans can live in Germany for 90 days before they need a visa. This will give us time to find housing and get the university to help us. We are looking for housing now and so far everything is quite small and quite expensive, and we may have to live just outside the city. I have looked at plane tickets and we know when we are leaving so that makes it more real. After Christmas break we are going to start doing things like talking to the bank about international banking, talk to the cell phone company about turning off service, getting medical records, making sure the kids have gone to the doctor and we get their records, and loads more. The next few months are going to go by fast.