Christmas 2010 & New Years in Germany!

2010 was the year Craig got to experience Christmas for the first time in a different culture. Craig got to spend Christmas with my family in Germany. Craig was super excited and so was I, since I hadn't been home for Christmas since 2004. We flew into Frankfurt/Mainz, where my parents work and spent some time there before heading to my grandparents and then finally to our house in Berlin.

While in Mainz, my mom took both Craig and I shopping for our Christmas gifts. My parents asked us what we wanted for Christmas and we both said that we needed clothes...Craig needed regular clothes and I needed work/professional clothes. My mom went all out and took us both separately shopping! Yayyy! I always love to go shopping in Europe because we have a different style that is a bit more preppy! Craig got a few pairs of jeans, a variety of slim-cut button-ups, nice sweaters, a slim-cut suit (which he has yet to wear), a corduroy jacket, new shoes. I love when he dresses up a little nicer as it makes him look so much cuter I think. Thanks Mom and Dad for Craig's Make-Over haha and my cute work clothes! After spending a couple of days with my parents, my mom flew to Berlin to be at our house with my grandparents (her parents) and we both drove with my dad to my other grandparents (my dad's parents) to spend Christmas Eve there.

Ohhh...I forgot to mention that Germany had been dumped on with snow and that it never stopped snowing while we were there. This is very untypical for Germany, we do get snow in the winter but it never really sticks for very long unless you are in the mountains. Craig had to shovel snow with my dad the entire time we were in Germany...not fun...but I think he made quite the impression on my family with being so helpful :)

My grandparents (Omi and Opi) were so happy to see us and we were happy to spent Christmas with them. My dad took us to the Erfurt Christmas Market. In Germany, you will find Christmas Markets in every city during the month of December. They remind me of my childhood so much. They are seriously the BEST! These markets have all kinds of holiday foods and drinks and handmade crafty things and ferris wheels and all the other things that make you feel like it's Christmas time! We probably sampled every food that was there and ate roasted almonds and drank hot spiced red wine (Gluehwein)...mmmmh seriously so delicious. I was so happy to be at the Christmas Market with my Daddio and Craig and I enjoyed every moment of it. We then checked out the city and took Craig sight-seeing. My dad went to boarding school in that city and it was also the home to Martin Luther, you know the guy that translated the bible. The city offered lots of history and I think Craig loved walking around on old cobble stone roads and seeing the city covered in snow and decorated with christmas lights. It was just what I wanted Craig to see and experience since this is how I grew up spending Christmas in Germany. It was amazing!

Christmas Market (Weihnachtsmarkt) Erfurt

On Christmas Eve, my grandparents prepared our traditional Christmas meal, which is really two meals! We have duck with potatoe dumplings, brown gravy and red cabbage and the second meal is oven baked fish with potatoes and horseradish sauce...mmmmhhhh...I missed it so much and I felt very satisfied and food coma-like once I completed both dishes!!! On Christmas Eve, we went to church (Craig said he was ever in such an old church before...it was a 1000 years old Lutheran church), walked home in the snow...very romantic, had an amazing Christmas dinner, and then we opened gifts! Yes, in Germany we open our gifts on Christmas Eve! We got my grandparents the game "Dominos". We brought it from the US so we can teach them how to play Mexican Train. They loved it! We had so much fun just relaxing, hanging out with my cute Omi and Opi and being at my Dad's hometown for Christmas. Love, Love, Love!

Christmas Eve with Omi & Opi

3 Generations

On Christmas morning, we started our journey to Berlin. It is my other grandpa's birthday on Christmas Day and we were excited to see him and my other grandma. The drive was going to be 4 hours and we had to leave early to make it in time for the Birthday dinner. Because it had snowed so hard on Christmas Eve, we were not able to leave early due to the road conditions. We ended up taking almost 6 hours for a 4 hour drive. When we finally arrived, we had a delicious birthday dinner and then my dad read funny old medieval quotes from Martin Luther's little handbook, which he had bought at the Christmas Market in Erfurt. My dad is seriously so cute...the entire family was laughing and had an amazing time just having dinner for 3 hours straight and listening to my dad's stories!  I love family time and I was so happy to be back home in Berlin. The celebration was not over yet. The following day, we celebrated my g-pa's 93rd birthday in style again. He took the entire family to a fun lunch at a typical old-school German restaurant. My uncle, aunt and cousin were there too and we loved just having the entire family together. Just as a side note, during Craig's first visit to Germany, he had a hard time adjusting the food. He now fully embraces it and started to really like it, mainly due to the fact that there was a lot of meat involved and that he has become accustom to eating lots of bread and cheese. I love it! 

 Berlin Christmas Tree

 Birthday Lunch for Grandpa!

 Craig after shoveling the walkway in front of the house!

Dad barely able to drive down our road...never had that much snow in our neighborhood before!

 Craig loving life and dinner!

 Walking Berlin

 Berlin Dome

While in Berlin, we met up with some of my friends from high school. We had brunch together Downtown and it was so fun to see  all of them again and to introduce Craig. None of them have changed and it was great to hear what they have been up to and what kind of career they are working towards. We also hung out quite a bit with Melanie and Daniel, who live just right around the corner from my parent's house. Melanie and I also went to High School together and her and Daniel came to visit us here in Utah last summer. Craig loves hanging out with them and it's fun to have another couple close by. They just became parents to beautiful little Ella and I can't wait to meet her! They both introduced us to the game Carcasonne and we had to buy it as soon as we came back. This game has become an addiction and I can only recommend it to couples.

We celebrated New Year's with Melanie & Daniel and their friends in Downtown Berlin. It was awesome because Craig never experienced New Year's in Berlin and on top of that he got to do it among a fun group of natives that lived in one of those typical old-school flats in downtown Berlin...Craig absolutely loved it. We took the subway to downtown and Craig got to experience a whole new Berlin that day. Berlin is after London and Paris, the biggest city in Europe and it puts on a big party for New Years. We didn't end up going to the Brandenburg Gate, where the touristy New Years party takes place but instead we celebrated in a fun area that is close to a bridge from where you can shoot your own fireworks and can see all the other fireworks and the skyline of the city very well. It was so much fun! There were so many people on this bridge that the crowd started to shake the bridge...scary but true and fun!!! Fireworks just went off left and right for a couple of hours and I was happy to be finally back in my hometown to celebrate into the New Year...just like old times! I am in love with Berlin! Best kept secret in Europe and well worth a visit. Berlin is now being compared to the European New York, because of it's diversity and it's young artsy culture.

From Berlin, we both flew back to Frankfurt as our plane was leaving from there. We had one more night with my parents, which we took as opportunity to eat at this little hole in the wall Italian restaurant. My parents eat there a lot and it is the best Sicilian/Italian food ever. Lovely!

The next day was January 4th, our wedding day, and the day to return to the States. We received the best wedding gift ever! Our flight to New York was overbook, so Craig and I got to sit in 1st Class! What an amazing ending to an amazing trip! Thanks Mom and Dad for flying us out and having us for the Holidays! We love you so much!!! Can't wait for our next trip to Europe!!!