Christmassing

 

We had a lovely Christmas this year. We flew back to our house in England to spend time with Ben's family and it was lovely to be back home. Funny, we have got two homes at the moment in two different countries.
Jamie loved seeing his nana and granddad, uncles and cousins.

He also enjoyed getting lots and lots of presents (too many as always!!)..
I got the best present ever this year, a proper camera. A Canon EOS 60d. It's brillant but I have a lot to learn as I do not understand a word of all that vocabulary that seems to come with it.

We have also got the LEGO bug. Up until now Jamie would play with Lego Duplo which is great but as a child I used to love LEGO. Especially building things out of my imagination. So to see Jamie play and enjoy it so much is a lovely lovely thing.

Today is the last day of this exciting year - in two days we are flying back to Germany and get back to a regular life. But these 13 days of holidays in our own home have been very very special. 

What we have been up to

I just cannot keep up with blogging... it makes me sad because I love to look back at what we have done and how much Jamie changes - but each time I tell myself to blog more it just doesn't happen.

Blankenese Beach

In September we moved from the UK back to my homecountry and town in Germany. It's only temporary (for up to two years) but I am loving it nonetheless..
Our life is simply wonderful here - we have got a lovely (furnished ) apartment right by the river Elbe in the nicest part of Hamburg (Blankenese where I grew up).. We have got woods, the beach, parks around us all in walking distance.. We have got a whole big bus system and train system that takes you into the city in 25 minutes...

 And most important, Jamie is now speaking both German and English perfectly!! I always spoke German to him but he ALWAYS replied in English the last year. Just to hear him say: "Speak German to me ,Mama!" melts my heart away. He also got to know my nan very well and now it's Christmas time , he gets to know my traditions and the German way of decorating..

This is the beach that is 10 minutes down some steps!! We are right on a big hill and go for walks every morning.. Jamie has made lots and lots of progress (he has been diagnosed with sensory processing disorder and hypermobility/hypotonia) as I finally have got the time to focus on him entirely. We are totally back to waldorf days with rhythms, songs, stories, lots of outdoor time and imaginative play. This is doing him a world of good, we had lots and lots of problems before we came here, he went to pre-school 3 days a week and it basically wrecked him. Plus me looking after two little ones as a childminder - he was in a complete mess with sensory overload and he hardly slept and I didn't really enjoy the time with him anymore.

But that is all behind us now and whilst I do miss England in lots of ways I see these 2 years as a gift that came to us at a time of great great need.

So far we experienced autumn here with lots and lots of conkers and lovely walks through coloured woods and are now into winter with Christmas markets and mulled wine and lovely simple fairy lights all around us.

We left all our things in England plus our house , so we have got a lot less stuff around our little apartment and \i have realized how freeing that is. So when we get back we will be decluttering like mad. I have completely gotten back the joy of parenting, the joy of simple things and simple days and I think we will all come back as much stronger persons .