Frohe Feiertage!
It’s official: The holiday season is in full swing in Germany. Last night Alisa and I went to a Weihnachsmarkt, which is a Christmas market. They are rather large, decorated markets with many shops and food. At the market, you’ll find everything from cakes and nougat to winter clothing and bee’s wax candles. There are so many things to purchase, if you’d like, that one can certainly get all their Christmas (and decoration) shopping done and fill up their stomach before walking around the entire market. The market we visited was at the Schloss Charlottenburg (Charlottenburg Palace).
When Alisa and I were in Prague with my parents visiting friends Jano and Zuzka, we enjoyed some mulled wine at a restaurant. Because we enjoyed it quite a bit, we figured we would try some at the Christmas market. Well, it turns out that mulled wine can vary greatly depending on where you purchase it from. The mulled wine we had at the Schloss Charlottenburg Christmas market was really gross. Alisa tried hard to drink it down, but soon gave up. So, a fair warning: Mulled wine sounds great, but buy one for the group to try before you buy one for each person!
Regardless of how the mulled wine tasted, we enjoyed our time at the market, and we will visit it again to enjoy the sights and the food (including marzipan with nougat, toasted almonds and more!).
One holiday we celebrated with some American friends is Thanksgiving. Obviously this is a normal day for most any German, but knowing what a big, traditional holiday it is for us in the United States, a few of us thought it would be nice to get together for the day and eat traditional Thanksgiving food. What was great is everyone at the dinner participated by bringing a dish to pass, or helping prepare the food. We didn’t end up with a turkey, but we did have two chickens, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, creamed corn, cranberry sauce, apple crisp, and pumpkin pie. It no doubt was a feast. I think everyone was feeling slower and tired when we finished our food. Wow, what a great meal! While we could only talk to family on the phone (and Skype, of course) that day, at least we were able to enjoy great food with great friends and be thankful for what we have.
That Thanksgiving night, Alisa and I got home around midnight. The first thing we did was Skype with her family. All of them were at her parents’ house, so there were plenty of people to chat with. It’s both touching and difficult to chat with them all knowing we are so far away and don’t see them as often as we’d like. Hopefully someday that will change and we will frequently visit, because they mean so much to us.
After chatting with Alisa’s family, we Skyped with my mother. She was at home with Taylor, who was running around having a great time. I made faces at her and she giggled. She’s a cutie with really long, blonde hair. I hope she enjoyed the movie Happy Feet 2, which is what they saw a little after we visited.
We then chatted with my father on the phone. He, of course, was at work trying to catch up on things. I usually call his cell phone even though I fully expect him to be at work when I call. He works hard, and whenever he’s able to relax more, I will be thankful for that.
We finished the night by talking with my Grandma Millie. She was with my parents and brother for Thanksgiving lunch, and now she was at home watching some TV. She recently fell, so she’s been in some pain. Still, she happily chatted with us and detailed her day.
Christmas is coming, and the lights are up throughout Berlin! I hope to get some more pictures of the places around the city. Thank you for reading, and Happy Holidays!
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Glad y’all are having such a good time for the holidays so far! It’s amazing the period of time we live in, with things like Skype, cell phones, and mulled wine (at least some of it!). Hope the rest of your holidays is just as nice as what you’ve had so far. And remember, Santa will be stopping by your place first, so please make sure it’s safe and clean so he won’t have a problem continuing on to our side of the globe too!
Love you guys, and Frohe Weihnachten!