Merry Christmas (only slightly late)

Schloss Merode

Christmas Market at the Schloss

I know you will all be finished with Christmas but I'm still smack bang in the middle so I thought I'd write a bit about how it all works over here. Last weekend both my host-sisters arrived home for the holiday which is awesome and so the whole family went to a Christmas market at a palace/castle/big pretty building. Definitely one of the cooler markets we've been to mainly because of the castle and the atmosphere that creates! They also had people dressed up doing flag dances and people telling the nativity story and crowd carol singing so it was a whole lot of fun. We also decorated the real tree all together and I must say it looks pretty darn good!

Vera and I putting on the lights

Christmas here starts on the 24th with church (I played the flute) and then a large evening meal and then present opening. I've been given a 1000 piece puzzle that is mostly black and white so I suspect that will keep me amused for a good long while. On the 25th we went to Manuela's parents and had lunch with them, checked out their village church which is super old and then ate a very large evening meal. Then we played a card game and did the dishes until 11:30 pm. Today was our day off and we went rock-climbing (Christmas present for Vera's boyfriend Steffan) which was fabulous. Having not done any climbing for the last year or so, my muscles are definitely not pleased but it was good to be up on the wall again Check out the link! Climbing/Flying
 My knee performed beautifully and I hope we go back soon.

Sisters! (Ute, me, Vera)

Tomorrow the eating continues with lunch/dinner at Siegfried's parents and all his side of the family. I'm rather glad we did some exercise today otherwise I'd be feeling rather unhealthy! I hope everyone at home had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all a very happy holiday.

Christmas Fever

There are positive and negative things about the start of December over here. The major negative being the weather. We had our first big storm of the winter at the end of this week with high winds and snow showers. Thankfully better than most of the rest of the country! But I've definitely noticed the temperature dropping and find myself asking why on earth I came for the German winter. But I've resigned myself to being freezing for the next 3 months or so and can only look forward I guess. The positive thing is that 1st of December is the start of the Advent time and therefore the start of Christmas markets. Last Sunday we had a very little market here in Effeld and my orchestra had our Christmas concert. Thankfully it went better than I expected and I had a lot of fun. It's been getting dark about 5pm now and everybody has lights in their windows or lights in their trees and the village looks rather festive. On Wednesday I sang with my choir at the Heinsberg market and Manuela took a video for you all to watch. My camera isn't great with video so I'm afraid the quality is pretty average but hopefully you can get an overall impression.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=194kBkId218

The 6th is Nikolaus day and the kids all put their shoes out and in the morning there are oranges and nuts and toys and chocolate inside. I went to primary school with Manuela and Nikolaus came to school and so they sang songs and read the Nikolaus story and then all the classes received special bread. Pretty cool tradition!

Ice-skating outside

On Saturday we went to Koblenz and the Christmas markets there which was awesome. The rain stayed away so I only had to combat the cold. Koblenz is different from a lot of other cities because they spread their markets out through all the little squares. This means you wander through the streets and come around a corner to find brightly lit stalls, yummy smells and music. Most markets are half food and drink stalls and half crafty Christmas themed things to buy and so there is something for everyone. The guys tend to find somewhere to stand and drink mulled wine while the girls go shopping!