1st Three Weeks of December

In the weeks after Budapest we didn't get out a whole lot.  On Monday it started snowing and continued snowing for pretty much the entire week.  As a result of all the snow, Carissa and the kids had three 2 hour delays for work and school and one day completely cancelled.  This was great except for the fact that Carissa was informed that she doesn't get paid when either occur, so instead of enjoying the time off, we were worrying how the time off would affect our already tight budget.  The kids liked being able to sleep in and have less hectic mornings and of course loved all the snow.

 First Snowfall

The snow kept coming during the next two weeks and my neighbor shared that they normally don't have snow by Christmas.  So far I'd say we've had probably 2-3 feet of snow.  The Germans have had trouble keeping up with the plowing and the base has completely ran out of salt so the roads haven't been great.  There have been a lot more 2 hour delays as well.

The second weekend of December we got out of the house and went to the Nuremberg Christmas market, which apparently is the biggest and most famous in Germany.  We took the train in as a test run anticipating that we would take my family there when they visited over Christmas.  The Hauptbanhof is conveniently located just outside the old city so it was just a short walk into town.  We shopped the stalls and tried to find Christmas presents for family back home, ate some bratwurst, kuesse (chocolate covered marshmallow cream on a wafer cookie) and got some coffee and hot chocolate.  After a few hours it started to rain and we had to get back home so the kids could attend Sunday school.  Before boarding the train we made sure to ask the conductor if the train was going to split in half before it reached our stop.

Nuremberg Christmas Market

During the weekdays we spent our time taking Elise to basketball practice and games, baking Christmas cookies and treats for ourselves and the kids school Christmas parties, and getting ready for my Mom, Luke, Courtney, Lauren and Lillian to arrive.  We hadn't really thought through what having 5 guests meant - we realized about 2 weeks before they arrived that we didn't have 5 extra sets of linens, pillows, a crib, towels, etc. so we were scrambling around trying to figure out how we could get all this stuff without having to purchase it.  Between Jack and Judy, and Carissa's assistant Sanders we got together enough odds and ends to make it work.  We also tried to do a little Christmas decorating.  We wanted a Christmas tree, but since we didn't have a tree stand, lights or ornaments we decided that getting a real tree would just be too expensive and impractical.  We decided instead to make our own tree out of paper.  Carissa found a picture of a tree on the internet, divided it into squares like in middle school art class and then we each copied a square onto a large piece of posterboard and taped the tree to the wall.  The kids made paper and lego ornaments, and we hung a few that we had purchased at the Christmas markets.  The kids loved it and it turned out to be a great tree.

1st Basketball game (I got Elise to pick #32 - Kevin McHale)

O Tannenbaum

The third weekend we went to the Weiden Christmas Market at night.  It was bitterly cold and the market was tiny.  It probably took 10 minutes to see the whole thing, we ate some crepes for dinner and then went home.

Weiden Christmas Market