Merry Christmas to all from snowy Germany! This year is the most snow I have ever encountered in Germany. Yesterday it snowed all day for an accumulation of about 6 inches or so. Simmern had the plows out, but they are not used to so much snow. We attended the children's church Christmas program yesterday afternoon, ate supper with the family, sang a few Christmas songs with Kadi on the recorder and Jodi playing the harmonica, exchanged Christmas gifts, and then went to 10:30 pm church. For the first time in my life I understood a large majority of the sermon and couldn't be more excited about it. My German is flowing quite freely and my nerves of living in Germany and speaking German are going away. Give me 3 months living in this country and I will be fine. No doubt about it that I'm always going to be the American girl with the different accent, but so far Ben's family and friends are impressed with my improvement of the German language. Thankfully my month in Freiburg at the Goethe Institute this summer paid off!
Today we had a lovely family dinner with Ben's grandparents at a local restaurant and it was the first time I have had schnitzel for Christmas. It was delicious! We followed our lunch with cake and coffe at the grandparents and now are sitting around the fireplace for a relaxing evening. The highlight of Stabe Christmas is my brother-in-law and his girlfriend brought their cat Aaron with them. The old tomcat just sits and sleeps on the couch all day and is quite a conversation piece.
Tomorrow we head north to Soergenloch for a full day at the other grandparent's house with more food, delicious German Riesling, and more cake & coffee. A quiet Christmas with no kids around, but quite relaxing. I'm sure in the next five years it will be a completely different atmosphere in Germany.
I'm grateful for Skype and being able to wish my family Merry Christmas webcam to webcam. Ben and I are very excited to hit the after Christmas sales in Germany on Monday to start buying items for our new rental home. We really don't have a lot so the list is long, but it will be fun to shop. The last year or so we have not purchased much besides plane tickets and hotel rooms for vacation. The sales are good so we will take full advantage!
Merry Christmas to all and God bless!
