Frohes Neues Jahr!

Winter in Berlin

Hallo und Frohes Neues Jahr! I got so preoccupied with my Christmas market obsession, GRE studying, and Christmas visitors that I have neglected my blog. In these past few weeks I've managed to do the following:
- Visit 29 different Christmas markets
- Return to at least 8 of them
- Eat 12 Belgian waffles
- Eat 10 bratwursts
- Drink 15 mugs of gluhwein, but only keep one as a souvenir (hey, there's a recession over here, too)
- Snap multiple pictures of hilarious children and only get caught once
- Convince Dominic something horrible had happened when he came home to find my crying, only for him to discover I was worried about hitting my personal Christmas market quota for the day.
- Gain at least 5 pounds.
- Secretly weigh myself at a friend's house to confirm this, and then delight in the fact that I don't know the conversion from kilograms to pounds. Whatever it is, my weight in kilograms makes me sound downright skinny.
- Purchase all my Christmas gifts and find out exactly how much postage to the US costs. (Okay, Mom, you were right.)
- Master the art of timing my arrival to each market to optimize the likelihood of free samples
- Remember what it feels like to nearly lose your toes in the cold

I spent a lot of time watching kids enjoy the markets. Many of the markets cater specifically to kids and families, and include descriptions of their child-friendly activities in their online descriptions. The master Berlin Christmas Market website was only in German, however, so I relied (a little too heavily) on Google Translate to assist me as I mapped out my month. One of my favorite "translated" description of child-friendly activities follows - and I don't believe anything I could add would make this any more hilarious:

"In addition to the Ferris wheel there for the kids to touch an animal. Pedro the donkey and two sheep Dolly and Molly are happy to stroke. Comfortably have it in her crib with plenty of straw and hay. And if you're lucky, makes donkeys Pedro loudly his anticipation of the Christmas declared. Of course, also the Ponyreitbahn right next door is not missing."

While I don't know if he got to meet the famous Pedro, (let alone stroke/be stroked by him) I snapped a picture of my favorite kid while he was watching some fire-eaters (normal entertainment) on his wooden bike with a perfect crown. Where did you come from, adorable little boy? I asked my bike shop friend (oh yes, I've been back three time since I bought my bike - I have bike stories to fill every entry in this blog) why kids ride these funny wooden bikes with no pedals. He claims (and I believe him because he fixes my bike every time for free) that this is actually a better way than training wheels for kids to learn to ride bikes. They learn to balance first, and then the rest is cake.

Yes, some Germans even remain naturally blond...into adulthood

Many of the markets also had rides for kids. On the rainiest, darkest of days, parents seemed compelled to show their kids a good time and pay for a ride for them. I always wondered how much fun you'd have as the lone kid on a ride - twirling round and round in the rain. In the picture below the ride is practically full by these standards - I almost count four kids. Plus the sun is "shining".

But Ma, it's freezing

Finally, I snapped this pic of a toddler inhaling a croissant at the airport yesterday. If I could show you a video, I would. It was that entertaining. I didn't know there was anyone that liked pastry as much as I do. In fact, I seem to be known for this love - specifically, my love of the ultimate combination of pastry and meat that is the pig-in-a-blanket. In one of our most homesickness-inducing conversations yet, we were talking to our friend Chad in December about a Christmas party he and our friends were having. Our friend (and his wife) Christina had made pigs-in-a-blanket earlier that day, and he said as they began eating them he proclaimed that somewhere, somehow he was sure I was aware of that glorious moment. I feel so lucky to have friends that know me so well! So here's to all of our wonderful friends and family - Frohes Neues Jahr! I can't wait to begin the second half of our year in Germany and continue to share it with you. Special thoughts go out to our friends Brian and Jess as they begin a similar adventure - a year in Costa Rice - today. Wunderbar! Auf wiedersehen for now, Liz

Make sure to eat those crumbs, kid