Frohe Weihnachten!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas this year. Craig and I spent our first married Christmas in Germany. We tried to make our Christmas feel as normal as possible, but we did miss our friends and family. Here are some pictures from our Christmas celebration.

Our tree

Craig made home-made cinnamon rolls. He even made the icing.

Bella in her Christmas clothes.

We loved watching our dogs open their presents.

Thanks mom!

Bella thought the best place to hide her new treat would be on top of the clothes-drying rack. Not a good idea.

Thanks Grandma Su!

Asleep with her new gift.

Our Christmas dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving--German Style

We hope that all of our friends and family had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was so nice to be able to talk on the phone with some of you over this Holiday weekend.

Craig and I were pretty bummed on Thursday when we had to get up and go to work/school. Craig commented that this is his first Thanksgiving that he has ever had a responsibility on this day. We would be lying if we said it wasn't a little sad for us.

Even though we live in Germany we are still Americans and we both think that keeping cultural traditions is extremely important. Therefore, we decided to have our own Thanksgiving dinner. We did it on Saturday to give us enough time to prepare and had two of our American friends, a German friend and a UK friend over for our own version of Thanksgiving.

This was big pressure for Craig and I. One, it was our first married Thanksgiving. Two, we were hosting it. Three, Craig was making the turkey which he had never done before. The fun of this dinner was that we were all making dishes we had never made before and I have to say they turned out to be absolutely delicious.

Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving in Germany:

Craig preparing the stuffing.

If you know our dogs, you know that they love to be the center of attention. This includes having their picture taken.

Mika had to have her picture taken too.

Time for the turkey--Craig's first time preparing and cooking the turkey. It turned out extremely good!

The table.

Yummy food. Deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, ham, turkey, bread, stuffing....

Katherine at the food table. Mika hoping Katherine will drop some food.

Craig happy that he is getting a Thanksgiving meal.

Delicious!

Enjoying the Thanksgiving meal.

Bella in her party dress.

Time for dessert!

Craig and SieMei.

Andrew and Christin.

Mine and Craig's brownies. You can't tell from the picture but they are in the shape of a snowman, santa and a Christmas tree. We found a brownie mix at a store in town and on the box there is a picture of the American flag. "Real American brownies:)."

Teacher friends!

My satisfied husband.

Ok.. the pictures below are our attempt with self timer on the camera, two crazed dogs and a family picture.

Here we are.... Happy Thanksgiving from Craig, Amy, Bella and Mika :)

Greetings,

I feel like a blog update is well overdue. Once again, Craig and I have got caught up in our everyday life routines. The great part about having our blog is it gives us, not only a chance to share our experiences, but for us to reflect on our experiences and realize we have a lot to be thankful for this holiday.

I have been busy with school activities. The weather has turned dark and dreary as we start this winter so the school offers ways to keep everyone from getting too stir crazy. I currently take a german class once a week, a Teaching English as a Second Language course every other week and I am participating in the school play, Fame. Along with having the dogs around and that whole "teaching" bit, I am managing to keep myself entertained.

Craig is continuing to excel in his language course. He is currently in the second level and the more he learns the harder he realizes the language is. Luckily, he has been told that learning German starts off hard but then gets easier. This is unlike learning English which starts of easy and then gets much, much harder.

The dogs are now with us and we are so happy to have them. Our little family is complete. We have taken them on the tram and they did fabulous. Mika was terrified until she realized she could look out the window. Bella just sat in my lap and was content.

Bella did a little bit of shopping with Craig and I last week in the Hauptbahnhof (train station). However, I ended up carrying her the whole time because I was afraid she was going to pee on the floor.

One excitement in our life is that the Christmas market in Leipzig has started. The city center of Leipzig looks like what one would imagine Santa's North Pole to look like (minus the snow). There are stands set up everywhere with all sorts of items to buy. I had first thought that there would only be Christmas items but I was wrong. There are scarves, gloves, purses, brooms, shaving kits, bird houses, along with every Christmas decoration you could imagine. The best part of the market is the food. Yummy, yummy food that smells delicious. Last night Craig and I enjoyed a bratwurst; his was 1/2 a metre long! The choice drink at the Christmas markets in Germany is the Gluhwein (hot wine). It is served in a special, collectible cup which you can bring back to the stand to have refilled for a price.

We will be having our own small Thanksgiving dinner with a couple of friends on Saturday. We miss our family and friends and wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving day tomorrow!

A couple of pictures for your viewing pleasure:

We biked, in the rain and cold, to the Christmas market. I refuse to ride the tram because it is just so much easier to bike around. Unfortunately my light doesn't work well on my bike when it rains so I had to wear Craig's headlamp last night as we rode.

There are actual men playing Christmas music on their instruments. The stand below them is selling Gluhwein.

Ferris wheel set up in Augustusplatz. My students informed me that the carousel burned down during the night :(.

Craig enjoying his Gluhwein and hunk of meat. The wine this year is served in a glass which celebrates the Leipzig University's 600 year anniversary.

The stands at the market!

Yummy, yummy food.

Our creatures are spoiled :).

Autumn in the City

Autumn has come to Leipzig. Well, it has been here for a few weeks now, but we thought today was a good day to go out and take pictures of the leaves. Once again we are very grateful for the park and we are not the only ones either. Even though it was pretty dreary weather, there were plenty of people out. Hope you enjoy the photos!

A little "house" in the park. I think it might be used by the park workers.

In front of our apartment. Don't you just love the cars parked on the sidewalk?!?!

Another view in front of our apartment.

Our apartment building.

The school where I teach.