"It Feels Like Christmas!"

Mine and Ray's favorite Christmas Tradition is to watch as many versions of A Christmas Carol as we possibly can throughout the season. My favorite is the musical, 1970's "Scrooge" with Albert Finney, while Ray loves "Muppet Christmas Carol." This year I read the book and we watched the Patrick Stewart version, which we also really enjoyed. The song that has been stuck in my head the most though is the Muppet's "It Feels Like Christmas" because, really, it does.

Minus the snow. Germany has had several icy mornings, but no snow! Hallelujiah! It's a Christmas miracle! :) I couldn't be happier about this fact. Though everyone and their dog seems to disagree with me.

Here are some pictures and updates of our Christmas season to demonstrate why this song has been stuck in my head nonstop.

Our real Christmas Tree! We drove out to a little town where a man and his family farm the trees all year, then sell them off the side of their house, and picked out our first real tree. I must say, I think it's a bit of an improvement from last years tree. We made all of our ornaments from applesauce and cinnamon, and then threaded our popcorn garland while watching yet another Christmas Carol. The whole tree smells amazing!

Yesterday we went to the Saarbrücken Christmas Market. We only managed to hit three markets this year (Kaiserslautern, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and Saarbrücken) but of those three, the last was our favorite. It felt truly German as opposed to touristy like Rothenburg, and was big enough to spend 3+ hours there as opposed to Kaiserslautern which took 30 minutes. Saarbrücken also has fabulous stores for bargain shopping like TK*Maxx (the German TJ*Maxx) and Primark, which is arguably our new favorite store out here. We took advantage of the deals and bought some last minute Christmas presents.

We also ate some of the yummiest Christmas treats at the market that we have ever had...

Reibekuchen! A delicious mix of hash browns in batter that is then deep fried and served with applesauce. Oh my heavens, so so good! And a toasty treat to warm up our chilly fingers.

This one may be my next baking experiment. I have to learn how to make Dampfnudel. It's like a steamed bun of goodness, and then this one was covered in vanilla cream sauce and cherries. This one also had cherry jam on the inside. Ray and I devoured the whole thing in the blink of an eye.

We got some kinderpunsch also, but the picture turned out crazy blurry. Sad day, because the collectible mugs from this market are cute little boots with "2013" painted across the toes. We now have six fabulous Christmas market mugs to use each Christmas. :)

Saarbrücken market had some fun, new exhibits. Like the 12 meter tall Christmas Pyramid:

And the finale: Santa's sleigh with reindeer, and the fog below, flying across the night sky:

Santa and the lady personifying the fog had to climb up this tower and into their vehicles to prepare for their night flight.

While the narration of the story of Rudolph booms over speakers, the sleigh glides over the entire market. It stops in the middle during the climax of the story. Then Rudolph's nose lights up bright, fireworks shoot from the back of the sleigh, and they zoom across the remainder of their course. It was fun to stand in the center of the marktplatz with hundreds of adults and children all staring up as Santa and "The Fog" waved to us below.

Only 3 more sleeps until Christmas! And then it's on to London for New Years!

p.s. I really did have every intention of sending out Christmas cards this year, but I failed miserably. We never got around to taking nice "card worthy" Christmas-y photos, so once again. This compilation posted onto our blog will have to suffice. Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving and December... finally!

This year for Thanksgiving, we were able to spend the holiday with my mom, step-dad and brother. It was such a blessing to be able to spend the day with family; something that most of our friends and acquaintances didn't get to do out here. I was amazed at the outpouring of love and warmth from the people we know here. Mormons as people are giving and friendly, and when you add on top of that Military lifestyle, well, we had no less than 5 Thanksgiving Dinner invitations. I'm so thankful for kind and caring people who open their homes to wandering couples who may need a place to feel a little American tradition.

We spent the day after Thanksgiving cleaning up, shopping for small Christmas decorations, and going to our first Christmas Market. The market we went to on Friday was the Kaiserslautern Weihnachtsmarkt- which was small and mostly food vendors. Nevertheless, it was cheery and the food was fabulous! We had: kinder gluhwein (warm grape juice with spices), reibekuchen (delicious hashbrowns with applesauce), and these amazing sticky sweet rolls that you dip in a vanilla cream sauce. Yum!

On Saturday, we got seats on a bus to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. We went there this summer when my friend was here visiting, but only got a few hours to explore and do the Night Watchman Tour. This time we left at 0700 and didn't get back until 2200- which meant 9 hours at the Christmas Market! Rothenburg o.d.T. is an amazingly well preserved medieval city, and the birthplace of the Christmas decoration supplier: Kathe Wohlfahrt. The little village literally had five retail stores of Kathe Wohlfahrt decorations- maybe a little overkill, but heck, it's just all so freaking festive! There were trees with bows and candles on every corner, and the biggest Christmas tree I've seen in my life right in the center of the market square. The stalls were selling roasted nuts, gluhwein, bratwurst, cookies, candies, candles, lace, and even more Christmas decor. We walked through the market, the town, all around the wall that surrounds the whole medieval village, and ended the night by attending an organ concert in the St. Jacobs Church. It was all beautiful, and the perfect start to our German Christmas.

Here we are outside the first Kathe Wohlfahrt we went into... back when we thought that was the only one!

This street was full of happy people, twinkling lights, Christmas carols, and a very cute Raymond :)

Here I am in the center of the market. Behind me is the gigantic real tree they had all decorated and lit up, and in my hand is an actual roasted chestnut. Yup, they exist. And they were interestingly delicious.

Christmas Experience: Level Up

That's how I felt eating a roasted chestnut at Christmas time.

Shh... you're not supposed to take pictures inside Kathe Wohlfahrt's Christmas Village.

But why did they make it so beautiful if you can't take pictures?! Can you believe this was inside a centuries old building?

 I get the impression a brass band is a necessity at each Christmas Market. They have yet to play a carol we actually know. The drunk German men next to me knew what this group was playing though!

Ah, Rothenburg. You are delightful in both summer and winter. Though really I must say, this first Christmas Market is going to be incredibly difficult to top.