Miller Familie~

~The Miller Family~

Creed, Mallory-daughter, Heidi, Luke, Nash, Grant

The Miller's are one of the perk's we have
while living in Germany!
We had fun giving them a piece for 
their German village collection.

Christmas Market "Hat Trick"~

It was a German Christmas Market "hat trick"
for us on Saturday after spending the entire day
visiting three markets!

Cheers!
At each market we visit we have a glass of "Kinder Punch".
We are saving all the unique cups to remind us of the fun
markets we visited through the season.
When we ordered some in Aachen the man raised
his eyebrows at us as if we were crazy not
ordering the typical hot wine drink for our cups.
We just smile.

 Here is the Bonn square with all their booths.

 The Church in the Bonn square is a

perfect backdrop for the lit booths.

 More Bonn Christmas market booths.

 Our next German Christmas Market we 

visited was in Siegberg, 20 minutes away.

 The Siegberg Christmas markets have a midevil theme

 to them with traditional dancing to add to the atmosphere.

 Hopefully you can see the bagpipers really cool shoes!

 More fun dancing!

 All the booths had everyone dressed 

in midevil attire selling, displaying or

showing how a trade was done.

 Here is the blacksmisth display.

 We drove down the road, about an hour away, to the 

Aachen Christmas market so Jim could see this charming city.

I didn't mind the return trip, one day later!

 Jim and I's Christmas gift was to buy sweet little

ceramic buildings to create a little village to set

up for the holidays.  These buildings are made

in Aachen, Germany.

 Here we are in front of the booth with the 

small buildings we bought.

 These are the booth workers helping us

create our little village.

 This picture does not do the Aachen church justice.

You can barely make out the snow on top of the building.

It was SO, SO, crowded!  

It was so hard to manuver our way through the 

crowds and try to look at the booths.  But hey,

it's all part of the atmosphere!

What a fun day!

Birthday Party~

Alex and Nicole Schaub invited our dinner 

group over to celebrate Alex's birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!

Alex LOVES American chocolate chip cookies!

So I made him one whole batch to enjoy!

He also was excited to receive the 

"Sherlock Holmes" movie.

  Alex and Nicole's son, Tim-12, is a talented pianist.

We enjoyed a listening to a private performance.

Here our dinner group is enjoying a delicious and

traditional German meal cooked by Nicole.

It includes a sweet purple cabbage, knudel's-a type of 

dumpling, and pork with a brown sauce.  For dessert we 

also ate a traditional European sweet called Quark that is 

somewhat like a creamy yogurt with small berries mixed in.  

Germany Christmas Markets are Open!~

The Christmas holidays have begun in Germany!

The markets are open with food, drinks 

and plenty of shopping to enjoy.

 ~Aachen, Germany~

The church is beautiful inside as well.

 We enjoyed walking through the booths in 

the front of the church as well as the back.

There are plenty of booths for gift shopping and also booths 

selling traditional food.  Eating outside, standing at tall tables 

lets you enjoy the festive atmosphere, no matter the cold.

We sampled a few dishes the Germans like such as fried 

cauliflower, a "greens" dish, baked potatoes smoothered 

in mushrooms and a fried breaded apple sweet.  Much of the 

food is fried like fish, potatoe cakes, vegies and other items.

NOT the healthiest diet...

Good thing we only eat this way once a year!

It's been VERY COLD all week in Germany!  

A drink called "Kinder Punch" helped 

a bit to warm us...so we could keep shopping!!

 A beautiful view of the main square in Aachen.

 ~Coreen and Heidi~

 The "Achener WeihnachtsMarkt" sign and replica 

of the well known cookies made and sold in Aachen.

 Heidi, MaryAnn, Coreen

Several women came on this day trip.

It's always easy to make time for a full

day of shopping in the Christmas markets!

Heidi, Terri, Sarah, Kim, Coreen, Piki.  

Not seen are Lori and Charmion.

The German/American Christmas Party~

Our Bonn Ward Relief Society activity was

a night about Christmas holiday traditions.

It was a small group gathered for the evening.

Unfortunately, many women were wary of driving

in the snow we have been getting all week long.

Good thing they don't live in Colorado....

 Ingrid, our new Relief Society Counselor, 

welcoming the sisters for the evening.

 The evening included the American tradition of a 

Cookie Exchange activity.  
There were many delicious samples to eat!

We also had Spanish and of course German holiday 
traditions that were talked about.  Some countries open 
gifts on Christmas Eve, and others on Christmas day.  
The traditional Christmas tree is not set up until almost 
Christmas Eve.  German children open their gifts on 
Christmas Eve after they have been delivered by the 
Weinachtsmann-Santa Claus.

It was a nice, cozy evening enjoying our

friendships in the ward!

International Christmas Party~

The last day of my Deutsch class was

spent doing a little bit of Deutsch and 

a lot of eating and talking about our

different countries holiday traditions.

 Our instructor, Kathleen, will not return

next session to teach us since she is 

expecting her second daughter next spring.

 Our new instructor, Christine, is in the top far

right of the picture.  We are already worried

she will not be as much fun as Kathleen...

 Here is most of our class as well as Kathleen's

daughter, Nelly, joining us for the morning.

 From left to right:

Linda-American, Sarah-American, Maria-Portugese,

Kathleen, Nelly-German, Coreen, Susanne-African,

Lenka-Czech, Arti-Indian.  We were missing 

MaryAnn-American.

We will all be in the next class together.  WHEW!

We hope our numbers will give us power

with the new teacher...

 Kathleen and Coreen

Coreen and Lenka, my new Czech friend!

Always EVENTFUL "Ornament" Exchange~

The Women of BIS attended their yearly 

Christmas Party on the "Party Boat."

Every year we have the same "issues"with our gift game.  

Each person brings a nice gift, about 15 Euro or $22.  

All the gifts are placed on a table. Everyone takes a turn, 

according to the number they drew, and chooses a gift 

from the table.  Before the next person chooses a gift 

from the table she can look around the room and if she

sees a gift someone else has that she likes, she can take it-

as long as it has not been taken three previous times.  

Once a gift has been taken three times it is "frozen." 

Well, some gifts are REALLY nice.  THOSE are the ones 

EVERYONE WANTS!

Here's some perspective how the game goes along 

during the evening:  The "Britts"ask you if you like it before 

they think to take it, if you like your gift they won't take it.  

The Italians get fiesty SERIOUSLY and will "fight" you for it.  

The Germans hide their gifts under the table or tell you 

they are already frozen-and they aren't.  

The Americans "play fair" and

take your gift, even if you WERE friends!

World "politics...."

This is the table where all the fun happened!

 A buffet style Chinese meal was provided.

Good eats!

 We had the whole upper floor of the boat 

for our evening of eating talking, and the 

always controversial gift exchange!

 Coreen, Terry, Heidi and Lisa

This was the party boat on the Rheine, and 

here is Heidi holding the gift I "stole" from her!

Maybe I'll have her over for lunch and serve

her from my nice new serving tray...

What EVERY Hostess Needs~

My FABULOUS birthday gift from Lissy!

 

Lissy remembered that I was so impressed with her

very functional trivet while in her home.  

She thoughtfully surprised me and for my birthday

gave me my very own trivet!

 What is so unique about this particular trivet is that

you can expand it to accommodate various dish sizes!

This is a shorter dish...

...and here it is holding a longer, 9 x 13 size dish.
You're gonna want one!

I LOVE IT!!

Thank you Lissy!
Culture note:  In Europe people host their own parties 
to celebrate their birthday's!  America seems to be the 
only country, I'm aware of, that has birthday parties 
hosted by someone else other than the honoree.

A Day With Lissy~

~Lissy and Coreen~

We had a fun day in Bonn shopping, eating lunch,

and walking through the German Christmas Markets.

They had just opened within the last week!

It had snowed the previous day and was still quite 

cold but it's worth the cold to be out among all the

people and decorated Christmas huts selling all 

their goodies as gifts for the season.

Mother to Be~

Anna-Lena, a friend in our Bonn ward,
 is soon to be a new mother!

Heidi and I had a wonderful time 
hosting a baby shower for her.

First Snow~

Today's snowfall in Bonn was our 

first snowfall of the season.

It is not anything compared to the recent storms
in Utah or Colorado but it was a pleasant
surprise to wake up to the morning after our
"Deutschland" Thanksgiving.