Christmas Holidays in Innsbruck

I did not yet manage to write a posting about our time in Austria, so here we finally go! We spent this season's Christmas time with our families in Innsbruck. It was a wonderful, very traditional and merry celebration - well, several celebrations, to be honest! Delicious food from all grandmas, visiting family and friends and enjoying the snow in the mountains - that describes best this invigorating holiday!
Anna loved the Christmas tree - especially blowing out the candles:
...and her gifts:
But what took the biscuit was the golden ribbon...
... and the little round table mats:
At the Polish side of our family - very serious people :-)
Anna and her two other uncles:
Aunt Ruth and little cousin Martha eating yummy Christmas cookies:
Admiring everything that cousin Judith is doing:
Grandma besieged:
Traraaa! I'm a princess! (or was it a clown?...)

And finally, some pictures in the snowy mountains - Anna's very first sledging experiences:

Rodeln im Park

We are currently enjoying one of the best winter in years. There is plenty of snow outside and temperatures are persistently below 0°C. This means we have perfect conditions for sledging on the nearby hillslope in the park! It seems that the entire population of Babelsberg is gathering there for a winter fun activities:

No wonder that sledges are sold out practically everywhere in Potsdam and Berlin. We were lucky enough to get an Austrian Gasser Rodel this week via a direct import. With this sledge, Anna surely is the fastest kid going downhill! But before the athletes go on their adrenaline-shedding downhill ride, they have to make a final check of all their protective garments: snow overall, reindeer-skin gloves, pom-pom hat, yes, all in place!

So, off we go! The sledgers are going downhill so incredibly fast that the camera only catches them on the final stretch of the Babelsberg worldcup downhill run:


Kamil and Anna are about to reach the speed of sound...

... and here are the same two athletes after winning another thrilling world cup run.

And here are Ulf and Arne, two other competitors and friends.


Anna learns the winter survival essentials from her dad - how to eat snow, lesson no. 1:

Kitchen Helper

I love to help my grandparents in the kitchen - it's a wonderful place!


Grandma sometimes says that I am more a hurdle than a helper...


Cool! Granddad let me do all kind of forbidden stuff - like sitting on the cupboard and biting into a big chunk of cheese!!! Yummy!!!


...but he is doing so, too!!! Luckily grandma did not see us!


Nespresso - what else?


And I helped grandma writing the menu for Christmas:

Cold spell before Christmas

While Micha and Anna already went to Austria, Kamil has to spend a few days more at work. We had a cold spell the last days with temperatures as low as -15°C. The Havel is beginning to freeze.


But it is not yet too cold to do some exercise outside! Bored by being along on the 4th advent sunday, Kamil got out Micha's mountainbike and biked up "Großer Ravensberg", which is about the highest peak around Potsdam.
a small frozen lake south of Großer Ravensberg.

Anna's First Birthday

It's hard to believe - our little Anna is mixing up our life already since one year! Happy birthday, Anna!!! You are such a wonderful, beautiful and joyful daughter - we are so happy to have you in our family!
Anna loved her gifts:


(Georg und Ruth, sie hat wirklich als erstes euer Geschenk herausgesucht! Und schaut, sie war total fasziniert von euren Büchern!!!)




(Wenig später kam dann Omas und Opas grosses Geschenk dran!)




And she loved her cake:

Anna Walking Her Tatzelwurm

Two weeks ago, at my parent's place in Innsbruck, Anna was walking her Tatzelwurm:

Anna im Waschbecken