Aaron Baillio’s Blog

Check out the new videos on my video link.  They are from the last 2 weeks.

Well, we certainly had an exciting and adventurous Christmas and New Year!  Granny and Papa Hoffman came into town and the first thing we did was go down to southern Germany in to the Bavarian region.  We stayed at a cool little gasthaus called Haus Rissen.  It was right in the middle of town.  It was cute.  After a long drive, we arrived late and crashed out.

So, the first thing we did is we went to the NeuSchwanstein castle (pictured left).  It was really cool and very pretty even though it was freezing.  We also had to hike ourselves up the mountain to get to the castle.  That was a bit rough.  Kristin had Asher on her shoulders and I had Will on mine.  I’m sure it wasn’t the smartest move to have the 7 month pregnant lady carrying a baby on her shoulders up a tall mountain!  Papa also nearly died as well.  We were so worn out from the hike the guided tour hardly seemed worth it!  But it was still pretty cool and there were some neat things in the castle.

The next day we went to the tallest peak in all of Germany and Austria…the Zugspitze.  It was interesting to say the least.  It was a fortune to get up to the top!  And then at the top it was so snowy and windy that you could hardly see but 30 or 40 feet out in front of you.  So, that was kind of a bust, but it was still cool.  We took the train up to the top and it was pretty scenic, plus the boys fell asleep on the way so that was a nice quick nap.  Then we took a cable car up to the very, very top and after spending some time in the wicked blizzard we ducked back inside to warm up again and buy some trinkets.  All in all, it was kind of a wash, but a least I can say I went to the tallest peak in Germany.

We actually came home that night cause there really wasn’t anything else anyone wanted to do, so we came home.  That’s okay cause we did most of what we wanted to do.  The next day we went to Metz to hang out at their Christmas market.  That was really fun.  They had a lot of cool booths and the boys got to go n several merry go rounds and we got some cool treats and food and stuff.  So that was cool.  Then we got to hang out for several days for Christmas.   

The boys had quite a hall.  They got presents from both sets of grandparents as well as 2 aunts and uncles and us!  Here are some of the cooler presents…a Spiderman and Hulk with diggers.  Will also got a Buzz Lightyear and Asher got a couple trucks.  So, it was fun.  They got lots of clothes too which is good.  It is hard to get good stuff here.  It was fun to see Will this year cause he knew what was going on and that Santa had come.  Asher just liked to tear the paper off.  

After Christmas we just did one other big trip.  I drug everyone up to Maastricht, Netherlands.  It was a really pretty place but it was 28 degrees out and there were tons of people which annoys Kristin and her dad to no end, so it was not asfun as it could be.  Plus, I didn’t have any kind of plan for when we were there so they weren’t down with the aimless wandering.  I wanted to follow that trip up with a stop over at Liege to see their Christmas market, but everyone was pretty worn out.  Oh well!  Can’t win them all!

The rest of the time was spent just hanging out around the house.  On New Year’s Eve Kristin took her folks back to the airport and they got home safely.  That night we went to a friend’s house to party till the New Year!  It was a lot of fun.  We played games, we played Guitar Hero and we watched the fireworks.  They were so amazing!  It was like everyhome in every town bought a huge pack of rockets and lit them together starting at midnight.  I have never seen anything like it!  The whole sky was lit by it!  Will was terrified of the fireworks we were setting off on the porch so he went inside but Asher did pretty well.  So, we went to bed around 1am and of course the boys didn’t wake up any later than usual, but it was worth it.  We got to lay around the house all day on New Year’s so it didn’t bother us.  Asher is sick though…that kind of stinks, but all in all we had a great time for the holidays.