Christmas letter 2012

We started 2012 at the Airport in Frankfurt/Germany and went home to Seattle after spending Christmas and Tim’s 6th birthday celebration with our friends and family.

At the beginning of the year Tim went to 1st grade and Sarah to pre-school (4 days per week) at the Community School of West Seattle. For Sarah’s 4th birthday we had a big party with bunny rabbits and tons of ice cream. Sarah learned to swim during summer and both kids take swim lessons every week at the Y.

Marco changed jobs and is now selling shoes. Not quite. He took over the technical management of amazon’s shoe websites Javari.de. We celebrated his promotion with a 5 day trip to Disneyland, California.

After 8 years in the states, we finally received our Green Cards, which include a work permit for Christine. Since then she is working on furthering her professional goals, next to kids and household. Since the beginning of the year she is selling German Kids Products online and is working on multiple projects. 2013 she plans to found a co-working space for freelancers and is working tirelessly on this project since November.

In her free-time she was hosting a PEPS-group, attended Bartending College for a Mixologist Diploma, worked on an educational beehive for our neighborhood and harvested plenty of zucchini squash and tomatoes. To stay fit she trained for a 5k. Marco and the kids supported her with a 1K run.

In June the kids stayed with their grandparents Carola and Hartmut at the Waginger Lake. So we could go hiking at the Partnachklamm, meet our friends in Munich, visit Europe’s biggest thermal water park in Erding and sleep in. Two weeks we spent at the Brombachsee, in Bad Reichenhall and in Utting. We also visited Michael and Sigrid’s medieval knights' games: a highlight of our year.

We spent a weekend camping at Lake Easton in August and a long weekend on the Oregon Coast in September.

After that, Tim started his new school at the Advanced Placement Program at Thurgood Marshall Elementary. He settled in quickly and even enjoys the long school bus ride. He sings in the school choir and participated in his first chess tournament.

For Thanksgiving we stayed a week in Palm Springs, CA. After that Marco had to go on a week-long business trip to India. After a number of delays, we got him back home and a happy to celebrate the rest of the holidays as a family all together.

We wish you and your family all the best, good health and lots of fun in 2013 and some quiet days with your loved ones to enjoy the rest of this year.