The First Day of Christmas

As I said in the Christmas Eve post, we were out quite late celebrating with the Heyer family. So we were very glad that the boys slept in until close to 10:00 am....and Tracy and I did the same. Originally, our ski trip was to be our only present to the boys; however, we decided to get the older boys a few things that they had been wanting from the Christmas market and the younger boys a new toy to play with during the break. Tracy and I were concerned that the two week break could be a tough one for all of us so having a few new things might help. When we made those gift decisions, we were not planning on any Christmas packages. So rather than having nothing for Christmas morning, we had more than usual! What a treat to enjoy fun new things over the two week break!

Besides Christmas lights, I also packed the boys' stockings.
The number one request for a stocking stuffer was a big
bag of Haribo gummi bears. 

Thank you to the Louws Family and our California
cousins for contributing to our Christmas in Germany!

A tradition that we have every year is to give the boys a new tree ornament.
There is a shop called The Glas Insel that sells stained glass products. Tracy
and I met there one afternoon and chose ornaments for the boys along with
a manger scene for our family.

~ Punching arms from Uncle Todd and Aunt Marcy ~
These have been a favorite of all of the kids that have visited our home
since Christmas....but you can tell from the photo that they are not a
favorite of Tracy's! He looks like he's just about to say, "Enough already!'

~ Fun shirts from the California cousins ~

One day while at the Christmas market, Micah and Joel found some hats
from the Himalayas that they really liked. The next morning, Tracy and I
went back and purchased them. Later that afternoon, the boys took Tracy
by the booth to show him the hats they really wanted. I think they were
both a bit suspicious but didn't say anything.

Noah opening his remote control car. Needless to say, we heard that thing
run just about non-stop for the next 48 hours. The recharge time for the
battery ended up being a pleasant time of quietness.

Joj got a diablo (Chinese yoyo) that does some really
cool tricks...if one is skilled enough to master it.

Tracy shows off his new coffee mug that Noah made for him at school.
Little did he know he was about to get smacked with a
punching arm....that smile is soon to fade!

Normally, for Christmas brunch I make something that we all like to eat - like blueberry scones or monkey bread. This year I opted to visit the local bakery just down our street on Christmas Eve. Along with fresh pastries, I also had several cartons of pineapple juice - a favorite drink of the boys. That was one of the things that Joel asked for as a gift!

For Christmas dinner, we invited Colin and Rachel to join us mid-afternoon. They are an American/Australian couple that we met one of our first days after arriving. We get to see them fairly often as they also attend our church. I cooked a turkey and a few dishes to go with that, and Rachel provided some side dishes as well. Colin and Rachel were flying out to Paris the next morning so graciously offered us all of the leftovers. As a result, I didn't have to cook for two whole days! That was glorious!

I cooked the turkey without a turkey bag this time and
it turned out so much better than at Thanksgiving!
That was surprising!

~ Stollen from Dresden ~
Our neighbors, Bernd and Barbara, gave us this Stollen as a Christmas
gift. They told us this is traditional to eat at Christmas and that we were
to save it for Christmas day. We've sampled several Stollens throughout
the last few weeks and this was by far the very best we had. Barbara said
that this particular recipe from Dresden has been in the family for over
500 years and is known to be the best that Germany has to offer.

Rachel made her family's traditional fruit cake to share with us. The little
snowman on the top of the cake was so cute that I asked her about it.
She purchased the little guy from a booth at the Christmas market....so I
made a trip to the same booth and now own a similar little
glass snowman for next year.

Christmas Eve

In Germany, Christmas Eve is the biggest day of celebration for the holidays. It is this night that most families have all of their traditions - gift-giving, nice meals, lighting candles on the tree and such. Then they actually have two more days of Christmas, the 25th and the 26th. They simply call them the first and second days of Christmas.

Germans take their holidays very seriously. It is against the law for most stores to be open on holidays. In fact, we were warned by many friends to stock up on food as the stores close by 2:00 pm on Christmas Eve and will not reopen until the 27th. Because of the way Christmas fell in the week, the stores were closed on Sunday, the 23rd (they are always closed on Sunday.) Then, they closed early Monday just after lunch; not to reopen until Thursday. What this basically means is that the week before Christmas, I had to go to the store about twice a day. This is one time that having a vehicle would have come in handy. Carrying food in my backpack and bike basket limits how much I purchase - or it should. A couple of times that week leading up to the holidays, I was questioned at the check-out as to whether or not I had a vehicle. Oh to have captured their facial expressions when I said that I had a bike!

We were thrilled to be invited to spend Christmas Eve with the Heyer family whom we met through our church. In speaking with Dorte, we decided that we would join them at their house after our church's Christmas Eve service at 4:00. Their family tradition is to have fondue each year so they would provide all of the food for that. I was to bring a typical American dessert to share.

The church service is what one would expect to see on Christmas Eve. We sang a few traditional hymns, some that we knew and some that we didn't. The Christmas story from Luke 2 was read by our friend, Fred. Eva and her little friend played a couple duets on their violins. And our pastor and youth worker presented a drama over the meaning of Christmas....errr, maybe that is what is was about! There was no simulcast that service so I missed some of the meaning. That's a safe guess though, right?

Eva and her friend play a duet while Eva's grandpa, Fred, watches.

This is the size tree I would love to have!

 ~ Pastor Dieter with Wibke and her crow puppet ~

Each Sunday of Advent, a child in the service would
volunteer to climb a ladder and light the candles.

~ a parade of young children playing musical instruments ~

The church's organ was built by a member many years ago.

~ the nativity at the front of the church ~

Upon arriving at the Heyer's, we visited a bit while sipping Gluhwein, a traditional hot drink that is served only at Christmas. It is a fruity drink that may or may not have alcohol in it and is a very popular item at Christmas markets. It was served at every Christmas event that we went to in December. It reminds me of an apple cider drink only with a grape juice base - oranges with cloves might be added, along with anise or cinnamon, quite varied really. We sat around the advent wreath with just the glow of the candles and tree lighting the room. EVERY home has an advent wreath. In fact, people everywhere will greet each other with "Happy __ Advent Week to you!" This struck us as a big difference from the States. Advent doesn't seem to be on the radar for most Americans, but here everyone has an advent wreath, or two or three, in their homes and are very conscious of counting down in this manner the coming celebration of Christ's birth.

I've seen so many creative Advent displays this season!

Before eating fondue, we watched Achim and Kerstian light the candles on the tree. What a beautiful sight to see real candles burning on the tree! Then we took turns singing Christmas carols, first in English and then in German. After that we listened to a dramatic reading of the Christmas story by a famous German author. Lastly, Dorte read to us a Christmas story from a book of short stories.

There were about 20-25 candles as well as
typical white lights.

Cleo was enjoyed by our whole family! The lab was a pleasant reminder
of Crockett. At one point, Cleo sat beside Tracy and laid her head on his
lap just like she is doing with Noah. Very cute!

The meal was absolutely delicious! As a result, we all want to make fondue our new Christmas tradition. It was such a long process though that Noah came to me at one point and said that he was so tired and could he go to sleep on the couch. I couldn't believe he was tired already! Somehow I was thinking it was maybe 7:00 or so. Well, not too much later I went into the kitchen and saw a clock....11:15! What? How did that happen?? We still hadn't eaten dessert. I quickly apologized that we had overstayed our welcome and was laughed at. "The night is young!" I was told. We didn't make it home until about 1:30 am. What a fun evening! I had a headache from thinking in German for so many hours. We were all very tired but so thankful to truly experience such a lovely evening with the Heyers. The next morning when we awoke (thankfully around 10 am!), I asked Tracy a question. His response was, "Ich guesse nicht." ( a combination of "guess" with German pronouns and verb conjugations) This happens often after working for several hours to think and speak in German. We both had a good laugh!

There was a fondue pot at each end of the table with which to cook our food.
Dorte had prepared four kinds of meat (lamb, beef, pork and chicken), along
with shrimp and mushrooms. The rest of the meal was a variety of items from
a local Turkish market. We enjoyed the sides so much that I purchased some
of the same for our New Year's Eve festivities. The stuffed jalapeños were our
favorite!

Here is most of the crew - the Heyer boys are Marvin (16) and Kerstian (14).
Dorte's sister, Angelica, also joined us for the evening. We laughed over the
fact that we talked for so many hours about religion and politics, two
conversations that are usually not good choices for a first visit.

For dessert, I put together a tray of some of our favorite Christmas cookies
and treats. Often Tracy's family will eat cookies with applesauce so I took
a large container of applesauce I had made earlier in the fall. On the tray
there were a few pieces of Grandma McKenzie's cherished fudge, some of
our traditional Christmas caramels, a collection of cookies that we had
made at Sonja's house, and a few treats from the Louws family. They sent
us a really fun package that arrived just before Christmas. The Twix bars
were to be just for me! I willingly shared...but not too many. I still have a
bit of a stash. The candy canes were from the Louws as well. I didn't see
one candy cane for sale here anywhere so one more thing that is typical
of America, I guess. 

~ Micah with his German twin, Kerstian! ~
People have come up to Micah at church speaking to him as if he is one
of the Heyer boys. It took us several Sundays to finally meet him and
realize how close the resemblance.

Monopoly - Göttingen style!

Jamie and Susan had us over one evening before Christmas for cheese fondue, a first for us. It was delicious and will become a special meal for us in the future. Susan and I got connected through a mutual friend via Facebook before moving here, and we have enjoyed getting to know their family. That night they gave us a Christmas gift of Monopoly - Göttingen version. We only have Monopoly Jr. back home so have never played the full-blown game. What a blast we have had with that game! It makes it so much more fun to really know where these places are and to have visited a number of the properties. Noah and Josiah sat down with a map of the city the other day and located almost every property on the board. Then we googled the ones not in the City Center. As a result, I learned a few more street names!

Our first family game lasted over three days time - Noah won that round.

What a great gift idea! Playing this game will always bring back fond
memories of our time here.

Getting a Tree

We looked all over the city center for where Christmas trees were being sold. They were hard to find! Even though in the Christmas market they were tied to every pole available, we couldn't find them for sale. The simple explanation is that Christmas trees are hard to find in early December because according to German tradition, they don't put up a tree until Christmas Eve. Hence, we didn't see many trees available until later into December. We didn't actually purchase ours until the 15th which felt very late for us as Americans but oh so early living in Germany.

Tracy rode my bike home so that he could easily put down his foot when
needing to stop at lights.

Friends told us that Max Bahr had trees for sale. That is about a five kilometer ride away so not too bad but longer than desired when hauling a tree home! Max Bahr is like Home Depot, and I must confess that all of us got a bit homesick walking into that store! The smells were so much like home! Strange, I know, but it was so fun for all of us to smell Home Depot smells.

Max Bahr had lots of trees from which to select. Of course, I wanted the ten foot tree but at over 65 Euros....well, maybe something smaller. We have the perfect front window for a big, beautiful tree but alas, we purchased one shorter than me. Our smallest tree yet. It looked a bit Charlie Brown but at least it was real and at least it didn't cost us our weekly food budget! In order to compensate for the lack of height, we stood it on top of several books. Something that I swore I would NEVER do. It seems like little-old-lady. It's just plain wrong to have to put your tree up on something to add height to it!

Joel, Josiah and Noah trying to get it into the stand. As
is obvious in this photo, the tree is barely taller than
Josiah. We were all a bit shocked by its smallness. It
just seemed so large coming back on the bike. I guess
it's good that I didn't push for the ten-footer!

So a foot plus off the ground helped, but you can tell that
it is not quite shaped evenly - we hid that side to the windows.

Noah's biggest concern with the tree was that we didn't have a star for on top. So while at Max Bahr, we also purchased some twine. Thanks to Pinterest, I found a twine star that I thought I could make. Adapted a bit because of using cardboard instead of wood for a frame, I made it work but shortly after Christmas, it began unraveling. As much as Noah wants to keep that star, it won't be making the trip home. But it did make a nice tree topper this year.

And then for lights. I thought ahead and brought lights with me. Tracy was a bit in disbelief when I pulled out lights from home. I brought lights, he brought books. Good idea, right? Not quite. First of all, I forgot that something like lights need to be plugged into a transformer not just an adapter. Oops. So we blew a strand or two that way. Those were the colored lights that the boys had in their rooms. Because one of our traditions is that they always have colored lights in their rooms at Christmas, I went and bought a new strand of 50 lights for each of the boys' rooms. Big spender! The lights here are very expensive and being a one-shot deal, we didn't feel the need for strands of more than that. More like, I didn't feel the need to spend more. Back to the tree lights though. I asked my parents to bring lights along with them because we did have a transformer. I thankfully thought to check the lights with the transformer before stringing them on the tree. Good thing as we figured out that the fuse in the transformer was blown. My next adventure was trying to find an electronics store that sold the fuse I needed. Even though I asked for directions a couple of times, I still had to search some time for the store. Maybe like half of a morning if I would choose to be honest. For just 80 Euro cents, I had what I needed. And that one blew immediately, too. Great. I would have saved myself a lot of time and energy had I simply purchased lights and given them as a blessing to someone else when we leave. Long story shortened, we used the colored lights from the boys' rooms for the tree. Yes, our tree was that small that 100 lights were enough! I've since learned that we should have just used candles - that's the German tradition. Maybe next year....actually, Tracy already axed that idea since our house is a log cabin.

Decorations were scarce but that made the ones we had very special. Our cousins in California sent us a Christmas package with a few ornaments with which to decorate. Our good friends in Durham sent us a special ornament with North Carolina on it as a touch of home. Josiah and Noah got busy and made some ornaments as well which they are hoping make the trip home. To finish out the decorations, our friends, Jamie and Susan, also shared some red Christmas balls with us.

Noah made this candle out of clothespins at school. 

One of several ornaments from Charlie and Andie,
our California cousins.

Our friends, Brian and Misty Young, sent us this
North Carolina ornament.

Josiah created this from a collection of "craft" things
that we have gathered during our time here.

We probably have more memories of this particular tree than any other. And as a result, it will probably go down as one of our favorites. Charlie Brown or not, we were thankful to have one.

St. Nikolaustag

December 6th is St. Nikolaustag in Germany. Nikolaus was a 4th century Greek that was known to be quite religious from an early age. Interesting tidbit - he was one of the Bishops that signed the Nicene Creed. He was also known for secret gift-giving and would put coins in the shoes of children, thus becoming the model for Santa Claus.

Traditionally in Germany, children place a shoe or a boot at the front door or by a fireplace on the eve of St. Nikolaustag (Tag = day). In the morning, they find small gifts or candy filling their shoe. So we decided that "When in Rome, do as the Romans do!" and had the boys place a shoe or boot by our front door. Noah and Josiah chose their boots in hopes that they would get more stuff. Micah chose one of his church shoes as they don't stink as much. If you are going to eat candy, you sure don't want it tasting like stinky feet, right??

Noah's class presented a play on the evening before the 6th. It was really fun to watch him in this play as he memorized his lines in German without knowing all of what he was saying at first. I forgot my camera so don't have any photos from the play, but he got to be one of the wise men and gave his gift of straw to Baby Jesus.

~ Boots by the Door ~

These chocolate eggs are quite popular with
children as they have a chocolate shell on the
outside and then a prize on the inside. The
boys have been itching to buy one of these
just about every time we are in the store
together. Josiah was so excited about the egg
that he took it to school with him on the 6th.

We had not tried these chocolates yet either,
but these are favorites among the kids as well.
They remind me of malt balls only more moist.

We have never done something like this
before but decided that the boys would
really enjoy having some extra cash to spend
at the Christmas Market. They were all very
excited to have this much to spend without
Tracy and me saying, "No!" So far, all the money
they have spent has gone to Schmalzkuchen - for
2 Euros, you can get a very large serving of
Schmalzkuchen, which are little fried dough
balls with powdered sugar sprinkled on top.
Very yummy indeed!

~ Schmalzkkuchen ~

This is what they woke up to on the 6th - chocolates and money in the shoes
and two packs of gum on top. When I give out gum, it's a half a stick at a time
if they are lucky. They love being able to make their own decisions about
gum! And I guarantee they don't ever chew just a half of a stick at a time
when it's up to them to decide. The little packages behind their shoes are strands
of colored Christmas lights. We had lights with us but didn't plug them in correctly
and ruined them the first time we used them. They are thrilled to have working
lights in their rooms each night as they go to sleep.

~ St. Nikolaustag Morgen - St. Nicholas Day morning ~

Christmas Cookies at Sonja's

Saturday afternoon (12/1) we joined quite a few other people in making and baking Christmas cookies at Sonja's house. Sonja is in the OT department with Tracy and has made us feel quite welcome here by inviting us to several events since arriving. One of Sonja's roommates, Johanna, loves to make cookies and has the philosophy of "the more, the merrier!" Their apartment was jam packed - wall to wall people with many different kinds of cookies being made. One of the neat things in living here this year is getting to meet people from all over the world. Tracy spent some time talking with a guy from Iran. I heard French being spoken at one point and wondered for a moment if I just hadn't really learned any German at all! It took me a minute of listening to realize that it was indeed another foreign language. I know we can do this very same thing in North Carolina as there are a lot of internationals living there, too, but this year has really tipped the scales with meeting people from other countries - not just Germany.


This was shortly after arriving - there were still many more to join us! We made
sugar cookies with frosting and were glad to find out the Sonja had many cookie
cutters; otherwise we would have used a glass and made just plain old circles.

Frosting the cookies - we had blue, green and white...I didn't realize that we only
had two colors when we left our house. The boys weren't disappointed though since
they still got their fill of sugar. Really doesn't matter in what color it comes!

Noah eating one of far too many cookies! He complained of a tummy ache
and a headache latter that night....I wonder why??

Joel showing his dinosaur with blue stripes. Of course, he filled in the empty spots
with white. No sense eating a sugar cookie with only little stripes of frosting, right?
Random - he's been wearing this shirt and one other for two weeks now and has
two weeks to go with his cast/sling for his shoulder. He has to wear a button-down
since he can't lift his left arm. You can see just a bit of it sticking out of the collar.
He's been a real trooper! No complaining from him. One benefit is that he hasn't
had to take his turn at emptying the dishwasher.

Once we finished our cookies, the table was used by several others for rolling
out their cookies. The only other American there allowed the boys to help him
shape his Snickerdoodles. You can just barely see behind Noah's and Josiah's
heads a couple of branches of a pine tree. I have been wondering what people
do with these as I see a lot of them being sold all over town. I found out! They
hang them on the walls and dangle a few tree ornaments from them.

Johanna is making her cookies using a mold - very time-consuming and very pretty!

Weihnachtsmarkt

Let the celebration begin! The Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) opened this past week in the City Center. The area near the old Rathaus (Town Hall) has been transformed into a Winter Wonderland. Words don't quite capture how festive the area is. Lights galore. Christmas trees tied to every pole that can be found. Stalls selling any kind of treat that you might want to eat. The smells are so inviting - Brats, stone-baked pizzas, cotton candy, caramel popcorn, sugar-glazed nuts of all kinds....it's like going to the State Fair only at Christmas time. We decided to make it our goal to go for dinner as a family at least once a week and went last night for the first time. It sounds like a lot of eating out to me but really, it's only set up for another three weeks. Wow! Christmas is around the corner!

~ Noah and Josiah eating their Brats ~
We think it so funny that Brats are served in buns that are always
about two inches too short at either end.

In the background of the photo is the Altes Rathaus - lit up with a very large
tree in front of it. The little stalls are all around the Rathaus - there are hundreds
of them! And then there are lights hung in the streets - the one in this photo
announces that you are at the Weihnachtsmarkt.

Everyone chose what they wanted for dinner - last night was Brats and pizzas.
And then we all chose one dessert - cotton candy for the boys! Tracy and I
shared some really tasty English walnuts coated with some crispy kind of topping.

~ Noah with fingers dyed red after consuming so much Erdbeer (strawberry) cotton candy ~
All the boys decided on a different dessert for next time since their fingers
were frozen after licking all of the sugar off of them!

Each street in the city center has lights to announce the street name and then
decorative lights on further down the street. I might finally learn the names
of the streets this way. I still won't be able to pronounce them so that a
German person will understand what I'm saying though!

I love how there are Christmas trees everywhere! There
is a tree on every and any post available. It sure does make
the area so festive. Some of the trees have even been decorated.