Well, one thing that I have definitely missed about Germany is the Christmas Market. You can find one in just about every town and each one seems to have its own unique flavor. But one thing you can be sure of – there will be Glühwein. Nothing else can keep you warm and satisfied as you trundle along looking at the various Christmas wares. Ahhh… Christmas in Germany. I love it!
As I was reading an article this morning, I began thinking what I could to do help others out this holiday season. While there are obviously many ways I can help, my answer this season is simple. If you were thinking about giving me a Christmas gift this year, instead make a donation to Compassion International. When I look around my house, I already have everything I could ever need (and I am a bit embarrassed to say a ton of stuff I/we don’t really need).
We have sponsored a little girl named Valerie through Compassion for many years now as well as contributing to Compassion’s Child Survival Program. Valerie has been a huge blessing to us as we read letters from her about her life in Haiti. It is awesome to know that we are making a huge difference in the life of a child in a country that I care very deeply for. I don’t mention any of this to seek kudos, but instead to show how easy it is to make a world of difference in the lives of others not nearly as fortunate as any one of us.
* And if you weren’t planning on getting me a present, PLEASE consider donating just the same.
I cannot believe that we have not posted any Christmas pictures. I guess we’ve been too busy playing with all of our new goodies and getting back into the swing of things.
Last Sunday, we rushed out of church and headed down the National Highway here in Crete on our way to Rethymno. Every year the largest Carnival parade on the island is held in this town. The drive was crazy as usual – the norm on the National Highway here – but we made it without damage. They had a roadblock for all the parade goers, so that you parked outside of the city and rode the bus into the center of town (free of charge).
The parade was pretty cool, but definitely different from parades in the states. Here, you find a lot of the paraders (is that what you call them?) smoking and drinking while marching along. One float in particular took the cake. It was a large boat, with a smaller boat pulling it. The smaller boat had a nice little wetbar built in along the side that had quite a few partakers. The large boat had a covered deck at the top. In the deck sat a woman smoking away, surrounded by little kids. Hmmm… Hasn’t anybody heard about the dangers of second hand smoke? It actually reminded me of when I went to the local hospital here to donate blood and saw quite a few of the doctors with cigarettes in their pockets.
Ahhh, I digress. Anyways, the parade was good, but definitely on the long side. So we headed down towards the harbor to get some good grub. They have a cool Venetian fortress here as well as a beautiful lighthouse. The food was good, the drive home just as uneventful (but not any less crazy).
Enjoy the photos! Check out the photos…
So we are now just 20 days away from Christmas and still living in a hotel. We gave the house hunt our best shot… and lost! We found the perfect house last week through a realtor and knew it was THE ONE. Then the next day someone decided to buy it! Go figure! The house had been on the market for over a year and just as we’re about to rent it, it sells!
So, we finally gave up and picked the house we were shown 2 months ago. We haven’t signed the lease yet, but that should be all taken care of on the 10th, then we’ll move in on the 15th.. Which, if things go right, will have us all moved in before Christmas.
Yippee!
One of the interesting things about living in a different country is finding out about all the different holidays that get celebrated where you are. Well,
today they are celebrating Sankt Nikolaus (name sound familiar?). He is considered to be a pre-Christmas messenger that examines kids’ behavior. The kids leave a boot outside their door during the night. If they are good, when they wake up they will find gifts of toys or sweets (where we are at, it is usually apples, oranges, nuts. etc.). On the other hand, if they are bad, they will find a tree branch in their boot (basically to represent a bundle of switches) reminding them that they need to shape up or else!
Anyways, just a little bit of culture from this side of the ocean for those interested!
If you’re interested in reading more, you can find information here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas
This year we had a church Thanksgiving dinner the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I cooked 2 turkeys for that dinner and was pretty turkeyed out by the time Thanksgiving Day rolled around. So, since it was just going to be the 4 of us, I decided I’d take my chances with cooking a duck. This was the first time I had ever cooked a duck, but I figured – “What the Heck!” It can’t be that difficult, right? I read up a little bit on how to cook a duck and decided I’d give it a shot on the rotisserie I have for my grill.
The day before Thanksgiving, we invited some friends of ours (Fred and Beth) over to share Thanksgiving with us and figured the duck would be enough for all of us, so everything was ready to go. So, about two hours before our friends are supposed to show up, I fire up the grill and get it ready to start cooking. I had prepped the duck earlier in the day, and it was now time to cook it up! I got it all ready on the rotisserie spit, put it on the grill, had everything just right, and walked away. It was supposed to cook for about an hour and a half. So, about 15 minutes into it, I look outside and see a huge amount of smoke. I ran out there and found the entire duck burnt to a crisp! On Thanksgiving Day and only an hour and a half before we are supposed to eat!
PANIC MODE! Okay, so I will admit that I didn’t exactly keep my cool, but I did go into fix-it mode. I had to think of what kind of animal I could throw on the fire and have cooked in time for dinner. Fortunately, Thanksgiving is an American holiday so the German grocery stores were open. I headed over to the REWE to see what they had. So, if you can’t serve turkey (or duck), why not serve chicken? I almost bought a couple of whole chickens (since they come out great on the rotisserie), but since time was of the essence and I prefer dark meat, I decided to stick with thighs and legs.
Fortunately, it all came out just fine and we had a great Thanksgiving! Afterwords, we sent the kids off to bed (after Fred whooped up on Gavin in Whack-a-Mole) and had a great time playing games and just enjoying each other’s company. With the burnt duck behind me, I was reminded what Thanksgiving was really all about. Giving thanks to God for all he provides – even if I did burn it! Just kidding.
Hey everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We surely did! The boys were pleasantly surprised with what Santa left under the tree. We had a quiet Christmas morning at home. We first read the Christmas story from Tristan’s kids bible, then opened presents. After that, we had fun making "Omelets in a bag" where the kids got to make their own omelets and add what they wanted on them (except for jelly beans, of course!). They really enjoyed doing that and quickly scarfed down what they made. In the late afternoon we headed up to visit with some friends of ours in Darmstadt. It truly was a wonderful Christmas!
Click on the video below for a small video of our Christmas morning.
