Merry Christmas

Well, the christmas gifts were a hit, our christmas tree didn't burn down, and we survived three days in a house full of chain smokers... yep, it's official: christmas is over! Ahh.. but what a wonderful christmas it was.

It all started on Christmas eve. Armed with a fresh new haircut, and a cute outfit, we woke up ready to attack the day and all it had to offer us. After a good breakfast we hit the supermarket to get last minute groceries needed for our dinner that night. After spending way more money than we meant to (but we have lots of yummy things to eat now!) we came back home. Shortly after his mom came home from her morning errands and we went back to the supermarket to buy our first Christmas present from Fabian's mom: a new TV for our bedroom. That'll make three TVs in this apartment, for three people... a bit sad, but... well... now we can watch TV in our room if we want!

Then it was back home for his mom Ellen and I and off to work for Fabian (and then off to drop off some gifts for some friends). As soon as Ellen and I got back (and caught our breath from carrying the TV upstairs ourselves... we are awesome) we started to clean, and spent a good couple of hours to clean our apartment.

Then it was a break for me before I hit the christmas tree so that i could call and talk to my family for Christmas. Sadly I couldn't call on Christmas day, but I did the next best thing and called the day before and talked to my loved ones for a good hour and a half (maybe a bit more) before going downstairs to the cellar with Fabian to bring up our Christmas decorations.

Then it was tree decorating time while Fabian looked on and his mom prepared our delicious dinner for that evening. In the middle of the decorating our phone rang... and it was my dad, the one person I hadn't called yet that day. He said they were going to be busy and wanted to make sure they talked to me... also he couldn't wait to tell me the good news he had, so he just had to call me! And what was the good news!?!?

My real Dad and step mom are coming in APRIL TO VISIT ME!!!!

I mean... I'm not excited or anything, I promise. They will arrive here in Frankfurt, Germany on Sat. April 1, in the morning, and will fly out again on Fri. April 14, 2006! I'm super excited that they can come. They got a good deal on tickets, and I can't wait until they get here. We may take a trip to paris, and do some other traveling and sight seeing, and it'll be super fun to show them where I am and everything about my life here.

After me asking them if they are really super, for real coming, it finally sank in, and after a bit longer on the phone I had to go to finish our Christmas tree before it was time to eat....

Finally, the tree was done and the presents (not very many since we are only three people) were underneath, and it was time to eat our dinner. It consisted of a cold spanish soup for apetizer, and then duck, salad, and knoedel (home made... they are balls of potatoes that we don't have in the states. they are delicious) with orange sauce over it all (except the salad of course). it was simply wonderful....

After dinner Ellen went to light the candles on the christmas tree (yes, real candles. it's like extremely dangerous, and i was extremeley nervous the whole time, but we didn't burn the apartment down, or the tree either). then we came in and were told the Christkind (christ child) had been here (the christ kind brings gifts after dinner before gifts on Christmas eve) and we went to open our gifts. Along with the TV from Fabian's mom we each also got real scotland scarfs, from scotland itself. They are super warm, and cute. i also got new watch bands (mine are two years old now), and a photo album for a photo journal of my year. I have a page or two for every week of the entire year I am here in Germany, so I'm looking forward to starting to print out pics and work on my journal!

and well, that's about it... fabian's mom got new lights for the Kitchen, and Fabian got a new cookbook of his favorite chef, Jamie Oliver, from me.... it is a book in English, which is what Fabian always wants, and I stumbled across it and bought it for him. It was hit...

we then went to Midnight Mass at a church here in Germany where we are friends with the Pastor and his family and then came back to sleep. The service was cool (it was lutheran), and in german, and I got to try my hand (or my voice, as it were) at singing along to christmas songs in german i didn't know.

After that it was back here for sleep, a lazy christmas morning (Fabian's mom loved the wall hanging of the Nativity Scene that we gave to here Xmas morning, mom!) and then off to Bayern (the german state where Munich is) to visit fabian's mom's family for three days... they are the ones who smoke, a lot, but they are fun...

i'm being yelled at to hurry up so we can go do some errands, have a great day and our visit to her parent's will be explained next time!

:)