Lana, the family, and I stayed home for Christmas 2012 since we took a holiday earlier in December and I had to travel with work on New Years Day. Lana's mother and brother came up from Munich to spent Christmas with us and I had a guy from the squadron over as well to enjoy Lana's good cooking and relax around the Christmas Tree (a nice real one Lana picked out of a German farmers field). A few months back, Lana and I bought a nativity scene made of stuff woolen figurines and it was nice to read and explain the Christmas story to Liam for the first time. I heard the phrase, "Papa, Jesus is dah" (Jesus is there) may times as Liam pointed to the baby in the manger. Lilli also enjoyed her first Christmas and did a pretty good job pulling the paper off some of her presents. It was a time of good fellowship and being thankful for God's gift to us over 2,000 years ago!
We also enjoyed more Christmas markets, this time in Trier and Trauben-Traubach. Both we pretty cool, especially the one in Trauben-Traubach as it takes place underneath parts of the city in old wine cellars. The best part was a French vendor selling great tasting olives and cheese!
We'll see where Christmas 2013 takes us, but I have a feeling we'll be in France visiting my sister and brother-n-law while there at French language school...looking forward to it!
We're back in Wittlich after a week holiday in southern Germany. Our trip took us to Munich, Garmisch, Chieming, and Rothenburg ob der Tauber. We stayed with Lana's Mom in Munich for a short time in order to visit family and enjoy the Christmas market, Christkindlmarkt (Christ child market) or Weihnachtsmarkt, in and around the city center of Marienplatz. As mentioned in the last post, they are generally set up in the city's stadtplatz (city center) with a nativity scene, nutcrackers, toasted almonds, food stands, Christmas music, Glühwein (hot red wine), hot chocolate and merry-go-rounds for the kids. Liam has had his fair share of rides. Munich and the surrounding area had over a foot (30 cm) of snow in the first few days we were there, making it perfect for the Christkindlmarkt. From Munich, Lana and I also drove to Garmisch for a day of snowboarding...thankful for Oma's babysitting! Garmisch is where Lana and I met for the first time back in September of 2006, time flies!
The majority of our time was spent in Chieming with Lana's grandparents. They really enjoy spending time with Liam and Lilli, and we're thankful for the time with them. Ur (great) Oma's food was great and the time relaxing as we stayed warm inside while it continued to snow through Wednesday night. We visited the Christkindlmarkt in the nearby town of Traunstein, and took a drive south into the Alps through Rupholding and Inzell to enjoy the sun and snow covered scenery.
To cut the drive back to Wittlich in half, we made our way to Rothenburg ob der Tauber for a night. The early parts of Rothenburg date back to 950 and it's now known for its well-preserved medieval old town. The hotel we stayed in was Gasthof Goldener Greifen, 640 years old. We enjoyed yet another Christkindlsmarkt and I took the "Night Watchman's Tour". Every corner turned had something new and interesting to see and I wish we could "pause" our time here in Germany to enjoy all the sites to the fullest...time goes too fast! The same goes for the time I have off of work, as spending quality time with Lana and the kids is something I wish I had more of.
It's back to work next week for me before Christmas and New Years are here. I'll have four day weekends for each before catching a commercial flight to the US for the months of January and February. My squadron will be in the US training for our deployment later next year.
