A Ski Christmas!

We're taking off soon for our Christmas vacation, so we want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. We're going skiing in Austria (we know, we know, our life is very rough) and will be out of the loop for the next week. We will miss sharing the holidays with family and friends, but we're also very excited to get some skiing in. Here's a picture of our hotel and a link to the trail map:




Have a wonderful holiday and we'll be back soon with pictures and video!

Rob makes a grab for 'Favorite Uncle'

On our way to Dresden, we stopped in Frankfurt one night in order to see our friend, Vicki, and her daughter, Denali. It was great to see Vicki, who was on her way home for the holidays and we were able to give Denali an early Christmas present:

If you can't tell, that's a Kitten scarf with matching Paw mittens. Yes, it's ridiculously cute and Denali pretty much refused to take them off all night. While Erika is technically Denali's godmother, Rob was utterly selfish and spent the whole evening playing with her, spoiling her rotten and keeping her to himself. Here, he teaches her how to climb out windows:


Denali narrowly avoids being eaten:

In the end, he wore her down completely, which allowed Vicki to enjoy her dinner and helped Rob maintain his favored status over some guy in New Jersey (you know who you are!)

My Christmas Market can beat up your Christmas Market

This weekend took us to yet another German Christmas Market, this time in Dresden. Dresden is a beautiful old city in eastern Germany overlooking the Elbe River and the old-town district is absolutely stunning at night. We met some friends who flew in from London and spent two days alternating between freezing our toes off while walking through the market and stopping for Gluhwein or Grog and some of that oh-so-healthy German food. Dresden is nine hours away, which seems like a long way to go for a bratwurst, but the city puts on one of the best markets in the country. This year was the 573rd Dresden Christmas Market. Yeah. And look how huge it is:


This dwarfs the Aachen market and, for those of you who might get this reference, it's about 5 times larger than the Nuremberg Market. Luckily, we had already done most of the heavy shopping in Aachen, so we were able to enjoy the food and company rather than fight the crowd.

And now, the obligatory giant church photo:

This is the Frauenkirche, the giant Lutheran church in the center of the old town that has come to symbolize the rebuilding of Dresden after WWII. And this is the Lego version, which is almost as impressive as the real thing:


We've really enjoyed the markets- Erika was as excited as a kid on Christmas when we stumbled onto a small market wedged into a side-street on the first night in town and her eyes went wide when we found the giant Christmas 'pyramid' above. It's been a great way to get out and enjoy the holiday season while we're away from home. Look for more pics soon in our Flickr link on the right.

A little Christmas spirit

We decided against a tree this year- the Dutch do have them and they seem to be a pretty popular tradition. But, we're going to be out of town for the week of Christmas and for a long weekend before that, so we decided instead to get a wreath. This isn't the greatest picture (Rob had a hard time keeping the shadow of his giant head out of the way) but it's decorated with crystal icicles we found in Aachen and, although it weighs a ton, the tiny nail it's hanging on has held up so far. Erika went crazy and decorated the windows, too, and now it feels a little more like Christmas in the apartment.

Ahh... Ahh... Aachen!

...Gesundheit.


This weekend we traveled to Aachen, Germany to shop at the Christmas Market. Aachen is Germany's westernmost city, so while the city itself doesn't have much to offer tourists, the traditional German Christmas Market brings in all the Belgian, Dutch, and other neighbors. A Christmas Market is exactly what it sounds like: an insane mass of crazed people yelling in foreign tongues, elbowing each other for position at the front of the line to buy ornaments and sausage. And the little old ladies are the worst, because they look so sweet and kindly, but, in reality, they have the sharpest elbows- how else do you think they survived this long? (Hint: It's the elbows!)

Here, Erika works her way into the crowd:

Somehow, we survived the gauntlet and managed to enjoy ourselves. Several of our friends also made the trip, so we all shared in the bratwurst, gluhwein, and schnitzel. Gluhwein is a mulled red wine (Rob doesn't know what that means, either, but he likes it anyway) and is perfect for warming you up as you take a break from the elbows and the gnashing of teeth. We like it so much, we brought some home with us, along with some beautiful crafts and ornaments and even a "German Christmas Decoration Thing" for ourselves:


The candle-smoke turns the fan, which spins the figurines. And, yeah, it's as cool as it sounds. It has fire and wind and it's made out of wood! What could possibly go wrong?