Frohe Weihnachten!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I thought I would post some pictures of our tree as evidence of me waiting until Christmas to open our gifts. Don't worry, Cameron has been good about removing the customs labels before I get to the packages, so I have no idea what's inside the majority of them!

We cut down our tree (and by we I mean Cameron cut while I gave directions) at a Christmas tree farm that seemed more like part of someone's property that wanted to make a couple extra bucks off their forest. It took us a while to find a tree worthy of our ornaments, and even so, this one has a large bare area thats tucked away in the corner. A lot of the trees looked like the ones Daddy used to cut down- authentic I guess.

Here are our stockings- can you guess whose is whose?

And last but not least, my first needlepoint project, done with only 2 sentences of instructions. Its not a close up because she's not very good, and of course the same day she was framed, Mum sent me beautiful and perfect needlepoint ornaments she made. Some day I'll be that good...

We are going to spend Christmas with a group of friends- it will be sad being our first Christmas away from family, but luckily our friends are in the same boat and we can commiserate together.

Merry Christmas!

Brrrrrlin

Berlin is cold. The temperature is cold, the landscape is flat and full of windmill farms, and the buildings are grey and dreary- everything appropriately matches the weather.

We spent a weekend wandering around the city and taking in the highlights- the wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, and of course the new American embassy (first time I've been to an embassy, unfortunately it was closed).

Below is a picture of the remaining sections of the wall, and Cameron and I on opposing sides.

Classic "good" versus "evil"- I am on the Western side of the wall :)

My favorite part of the trip was Checkpoint Charlie and its museum. It was interesting to read about the wall during different decades, and to see all the creative ways people would escape to the western side. People would, for example, hide in cars, impersonate American officers with homemade uniforms, swim with a hand held submarine, and even hid between two hollowed out surfboards. 

This is the Brandenburg Gate, built in 1788 and used as a gate into Berlin since then. The gate was a symbol of the Nazi regime, and subsequently part of the Berlin Wall. Now, several embassies (the new American one is just to the right of this photo) and a Dunkin' Donuts (haven't seen one of those since Sept!) are located within the Gate's square. I wonder if the American ambassador requested that a Dunkin' Donuts be built there... he's got a tough job... do I go to Starbucks or Dunks today??

Nuremberg Christkindlemarkt

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

I figured I would post a shot of my Thanksgiving dinner to prove that we did not starve. Everything was not as delicious as Mummy's always is, but the turkey was good and everything was ready at the same time. We had turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potato, gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmellow, carrots, salad, and rolls. Oh, and not only did I make everything ON the table, I put the table TOGETHER (from ikea).

Friday we went to the opening of the Christkindlemarkt in Nuremberg. This Christmas market is one of the largest in Germany, and I cannot imagine shopping at a larger one. There were hundreds of stalls selling tasty treats, ornaments, nativity scenes, nutcrackers, smokers, toys, and anything else that comes to mind when thinking of a traditional Christmas. There are strict rules about what stalls can sell, and many vendors are denied access if their goods are not up to standard.  That being said, there is a small international section, and the booth from the USA was peddling Obama t-shirts and pins, Coca-Cola paraphernalia, another un-Christmas-y, non-handmade things (probably made in China, not even the US). What a disappointment.

The decorations put all around the city for the market are amazing. There were life size nutcrackers everywhere and angels strung between buildings. In every city/town I've been in recently there are garlands with lights and huge Christmas trees. Even the biggest Scrooge can't help getting into the holiday spirit around here!

Along with all the shopping there was to do at the Christkindlemarkt, there was a lot of food to eat as well. While Jessie and I shopped our way through the isles of booths, Cameron ate his way through the market. He had a bratwurst sandwich, a waffle with nutella and whipped cream (seen below), a crepe with nutella and banana, gluchwine (Germany's version of mulled wine), some sort of mystery meat hamburger, and a couple of my candied walnuts- all within 4 hours. The Germans sure know how to make good food come out of portable carts!

We happened to still be shopping when it was time for the opening ceremony of the market. During this, a woman dressed as an angel appears on a ledge of the church across the marktplatz, reads a poem, and Christmas song or two is sung. For this, hundreds of people pack into the marktplatz- wall to wall people, we could not see the church from where we were standing (sorry, we couldn't get a picture), but we could not move backwards or sideways to exit. It was rather frightening, as all of the lights are turned out while the angel "appears". I guess the Germans are trustworthy people, as I suppose that would never happen in America without incident.

This is a view of the town from the Nuremberg Castle's tower, which we climbed to warm up, take a break from shopping, and burn some calories so we could eat more treats.

P.S. Why is it that the chocolate in advent calendars is never as good as regular chocolate? We opened ours (bought from a delish German chocolatier) and the candy tasted like it was left over from 1998. Maybe I'll make my own next year.

Next up- cutting down our Christmas tree....