If I were as fun and cute as Calli, I would have sent you all Christmas cards this year. However, I am not quite so on the ball (as I think you are all pretty well aware...) So, here you are, folks, my Christmas card blog post.
Amy and I are all about the self-portrait (and traveling together, and just generally being together) so here is a picture of us at the ice-skating rink outside of the Karlsruhe mall one cold December evening. Luckily we are sufficiently bundled, and quite cheerful - infected with the highly contagious holiday spirit that comes along with the Christmas market, ice skating rink, and festive lights all around town.
I discovered that getting pictures of the Christmas Market is quite difficult, but here is the best I have to offer you all. The market is made up of a lot of little stands (like the one behind Amy) where they sell all sorts of goods (of varying quality) and of course food and Glühwein (hot spiced wine, perfect for keeping warm in this chilly weather) A little tip that Amy found out the hard way: don't get the German version of egg nog, unless you actually enjoy the taste of raw eggs in a thick, hot drink. Once sip and I just about tossed my cookies!
Now on to Schluchsee - This is Thomas' family home where we spent almost a week for Christmas. Located in a beautiful tourist town in the mountains of the black forest (click on the link, if you go to the bottom, and click on fotogalerie, there are pictures you can scroll through, if you are curious - I know the site is in German, they don't have an English version, sorry!) Anyway, Thomas' family was so kind, generous and accomodating, it was really the best Christmas away from home I could have hoped for. They were especially great about making sure that I had enough gluten free food - I was so blessed by their generosity and hospitality!
The week in Schluchsee was a lot of fun and gave me a chance to meet a few of Thomas' friends from high school. It was fun to get a look at his life and his childhood by being with his family in his hometown and getting to know his friends (and seeing old pictures!) I would like to add in regards to this picture, that Germans (maybe Europeans in general) have a thing about not smiling in pictures...I have no idea why. I promise that Thomas is a very happy person who laughs and smiles all the time (and makes me double over in laughter every day!) but this is the closest I got to a picture of the two of us in which he is almost smiling - intercultural relationships are such fun! This picture was taken on the mountan overlooking Freiburg (the closest city to Schluchsee) where we took a day trip one day.
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