Inspiration found!

It seems ages since my last blog and so many events seem to have passed by way to quickly. CHRISTmas was a very quiet affair in the Johnson household this year. Nobody was up at 5am opening presents and it was me that woke the children at a very civilised 8.30am. Tea and croissants were served and the present opening commenced.

CHRISTmas eve

CHRISTmas Day

Once the presents were opened it was off to church for our CHRISTmas day service and then home again for our steak and frozen dinner!! Because we had already had our huge CHRISTmas dinner earlier on in December I decided I was going to take it easy for the day and with us all leaving for Bavaria on boxing day there was no way we wanted loads of leftovers, so frozen roasts,parsnips and brussels with chestnuts it was. Mr J cooked big fat juicy steaks on the bbq and we were done.  I personally wouldn't say no to frozen CHRISTmas again it worked out very nice.

The car had already been packed on CHRISTmas eve, Thanks Mr J! So when 5.30am arrived on boxing day we started out on the long journey to Bavaria. With leftover steak and stuffing sandwiches made we were ready for the 9.30am  ferry crossing.  This isn't something I look forward to as I am usually feeling ill before we have even left the port however we managed to get right at the front of the boat and it was a very calm crossing. Praise God!

Jasmine had bought herself a little present before we went on the journey, a Go Pro camera. Check out there website for what you can do with this little piece of kit Go Pro  It was mainly going to be used to do video blogs of our holiday and to get footage while they were all skiing. As most of you know I don't ski , don't like the cold and don't like the snow unless I'm sat indoors  wrapped up in a blanket watching it fall. I know I know but I'm out numbered !! One day I will get my beach holiday and have a tan again.

My holiday is usually spent reading, knitting and spending time with God. This year I decided that I was going to do some cross stitch so had taken a few pattern books and materials and would decide when i got there what I was going to make. We had decided that this year we were going to drive straight through to Bavaria, usually we stay the night at Ramstein both on the way there and on the way back but not this time.  We did stop off on our way down at our good friends Andrea and Scott's house where as always a warm welcome greeted us and so did some of Scott's amazing chicken chowder and pumpkin pie.  We finally got to meet the newest addition to the family baby Brayden who is a year old already. He is just too cute for words and both Mr J and Brayden seemed to be smitten with each other. :-)

Supplies were exchanged namely twizzlers and Romantic homes magazine Romantic. Twizzlers were for the kids by the way! 

The cross stitch I decided to do was inspired by the t shirt that Scott was wearing when we called in on the way down. ' I Love my Wife'  I thought it was the coolest shirt ever. So Scott cooks, not only owns, but wears a I love my wife t shirt ,oh did i mention that he is amazing at DIY too. Mr J only got to hear about the tshirt a few times during our holiday!!! Love you Mr J.XX

Below is a day to day of the cross stitch progress. Three days and it was finished.

After leaving the house at 5.30am on boxing day we actually got to our bed at 3 am the following morning having had only a 2 hour break at Ramstein with our friends. We were all up by 10ish as skiing had been planned for that afternoon. This was the  view from the cabin window on the first morning. Glorious blue skies and snow underfoot.

The rest of the family went off to the local ski run just to get familiarised with their ski's and snowboard as we hadn't been skiing last year. I do think this may have been our 5th year at the cabin though.

This was how my afternoon was spent!

 I do think I may have the coolest family on the slopes. See below!

For the first few night we ate in the cabin but decided it was schnitzel time by about day three. So we all got dressed up and walked down to the restaurant, only probably about a 100 meters from our cabin door but still a trek for me who seems to turn into an old granny when walking on snow/ice. Very little steps and very slowly!! Well worth the trek as the food was amazing,as always.  I partook in Bauern Schnitzel, which is breaded pork topped with bacon and cheese and a side order of bratkartoffeln. Delicious.

 

Mr J went for the currywurtz mit pommes.

Jasmine had the plain schnitzel. When her plate arrived it had 2 huge schnitzel along with a massive pile of fries. After watching many episodes of Man v Food   Jasmine was sure she was up to the challenge. This was a challenge as before her main course had arrived she had loaded up on two bowls of salad.

Woman V Food, Woman wins!!

Ariane looking very pleased with herself as she also ordered plain schnitzel but  from the section ' for those with a smaller appetite'. A regular portion of food for most normal people!!

Aynsley also ordered the Bauern schnitzel, the look just says it all.

The restaurant had some simple but beautiful decorations.

The snow started to fall on day three and didn't stop until the day we were leaving. Only one near death experience for the skiers as they managed to spin the car on one of the main roads and that was with the snow chains on !! The 30 minute journey from the slopes took them nearly 2 hours that night!! Thank God they got back safely.

Evenings are always spent together playing games our favourites are Dutch blitz dutch blitz and music quizzes from our Ipods. It all gets very competitive and one afternoon the dutch blitz game lasted for 5 hours!

Our Cabin

Snowing again!

Handsome Mr J with his beard. I Like! Unfortunately it had to be shaved off when he went back to work.

New years eve are always a crazy affair in Germany. Usually the Germans are very sensible, clean living, rule abiding people, that is until new years eve! They all go crazy with fireworks no health and safety or risk assessments at these events, oh no you just light it and hope you don't either shoot yourself with it or anyone else!!  There is always an outside bar with gluhwien and champagne is handed out to anyone who wants it in the run up to the big count down. Then its off with the fireworks.

We  already had the car packed on new years eve so we could make an early start on new years day on out return trip. We were however staying overnight at Ramstien this time.

Whenever we drive past this genius piece of engineering it always gets a comment.  See for yourself. This is the airports multi-story car park. Built on a bridge crossing the motorway! Genius use  of space!!

After a night at the hotel and some serious shopping we were back to visit with friends Scott and Andrea for the whole day. This is the highlight of my trip, getting to spend time with Godly friends and just talk and be inspired.

Andrea is my design hero, when Brayden arrived she gave up her job as a nurse and became a entrepreneur. She travels all over Europe buying unusual pieces of furniture and then either repaints or re purposes the items. Take a look at her house and you will see what I mean. Check out her blog at Chloes Couture .

Those of you who read my previous post about whitehall garden centre whitehall Well this family live in the real deal not some set made especially for the season, and they have 4 children!! How she has the energy to maintain all this, run a business and look after 4 kids is beyond me. I am officially renaming her 'superwoman'.

In good ole American style we had a TThanksgiving feast. As we Brits don't do thanksgiving this was another opportunity for us to live the American live we dream of. Smoked turkey was a taste sensation, wish we could get it here in the UK. Then there was corn casserole, sweet potatoes and marshmallow( a particular favourite of mine) mash potatoes made with milk butter and cream!!! Even I tried them! the list could go on and desert was amazing too with brownies,pumpkin pie,cool whip and ice cream. Thank you so much to Scott , Andrea and the Children for such a fantastic time together.

Even their daughters room is a design inspiration.

The less said about the ferry journey back the better!! Lets just say we were on the last ferry to cross before they stopped all ferry crossing due to the bad weather!!!

When we got home we quickly emptied the car and rolled into bed about 5am.  We were up about 9am as we had to collect Bonnie from the kennels.

A quick look at the stash we bought home with us. I must say that alot of this was in our goodie bags from Scott and Andrea , Thanks once again how would we survive without kool aid, twizzlers,lucky charms and a mountain of toll house chocolate chips.

More Gifts from Andrea a gorgeous basket filled with candles and decorations. The little clock you can see now lives on my mantle and has an amazing ticking noise. I loved it but Ariane could not concentrate on the TV because of the noise it made. So no more winding up of the little old clock.

and an apothecary jar full of marshmallows. Fabulous.

Back to reality now and this is how we started the next few days after the trip.  Cinnabon cinnamon rolls and coffee with gingerbread latte creamer in it. Bliss!

God bless you all. xx