Merry Christmas everybody

24th of December has been long awaited by all of us. We had a safe journey to Vorarlberg on wednesday and are now expecting the arrival of the Christ child. Unfortunately the warm weather the past few days has destroyed all hopes of White Christmas, but this will not prevent us from enjoying this nice and reflective time. Markus managed to somewhere pick up a cold and therefore has to skip the afternoon in Bregenz near the Esel with Flo and his friends and stayed in instead. Jakob got a long awaited present already before lunchtime as we fed him the first time ever fresh carrots. We have been hesitant to give him something else than breast or tee, but he sent out clear signals over the past weeks that he would prefer feeding with the spoon. The result was extremely promising. Jakob was eating properly and he obviously enjoyed the taste of the carrots. Now we have to wait and see what his digestive system thinks about the change in nutrition.

"Finally they give something else than milk!"

In the evening we were waiting for the arrival of the Christ child at the home of the Meierei as this year it was their turn. Jakob was well behaved, neatly dressed and was all excited when we heard the bell ringing in the other room indicating the arrival of god's child. When he saw the beautifully decorated Christmas tree with the lit-up candles his fascination was very obvious and he had lots of fun unwrapping the present he received underneath the tree - a bag full of wooden bricks. The bricks were immediately tested for being water proof and resistant to pressure and they passed Jakob's mouth test. After a while of playing with the new present and some dinner - mum's breast - our little one went to bed and slept to our all surprise for three hours. We used the time for the traditional dinner on Christmas Eve - sausages with potatoes and horseradish cream - followed by the annual general meeting of the Vorarlberger Wichtel Bengel Verein, where all members got a present. With the exemption of Markus' throat getting worse (painful coughing and loss of voice) the day was absolutely wonderful and enjoyable. A good start into this year's Christmas season.

Jakob, Kerstin & Markus