Last Christmas was our first in Germany. We had only been in the country about 2 weeks. This year we are old pros at celebrating Christmas here. There is no place that celebrates Christmas like Germany, especially in such a grand and beautiful city like Nurnberg.
We kicked off the season with a Relief Society Christmas party on November 24. The tables were beautifully decorated with fruits and edible treats. Favorite stories and poems were read, to the delight of the Germans. They were all laughing at one traditional poem written in the Bavarian dialect. I only understood about half of it, but thoroughly enjoyed watching and listening to them laugh. We sang beautiful German Christmas carols and just enjoyed being together.
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| I was amazed at the beauty of these table settings! And it was as delicious as it looks |
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| Wunderschon! |
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| Waiting our turn to go to the treat table. Yes, there were even more than were already on this table. |
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On November 27, several of the Frankfurt Mission Office staff traveled down to Nurnberg to go to the Nurnberg Christkindls Christmas Market with us. We had so much fun with our out of town friends! These markets are magical. This market in Nurnberg is called the Christkindl markt, meaning Christ child market. We learned the Christ child is represented by a young girl. I learned that she is the traditional gift bringer in many countries is Europe. Martin Luther wanted to discourage the figure of St Nicholas, during the Protestant Reformation in 16th-17th century Europe. Many Protestants thus changed the gift-bringer to the Christ Child of Chrsitkindl, and the date of giving gifts changed from December 6 to Christmas Eve. The Christkind bears little resemblance to the infant in Bethlehem. The Christkind was adopted n Catholic areas like Nurnberg, during the 19th century. In the more Protestant regions of Germany the Christkind began to gradually be replaced by a more of less secularized version of Saint Nicholas, or the Weihnachtsmann (Father Christmas, Santa Claus). The Christkind is a sprite-like child, usually depicted with blonde hair and angelic wings. Martin Luther intended it to be a reference to the incarnation of Jesus as an infant. The Christkindl in Nurnberg is very famous. It is represented by a mid-teenaged girl chosen each year. This is a great honor. She officially opens the market and visits homes for old people and kindergartens and other places distributing little gifts.
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| A large Christkindl hanging over the entrance to the market. |
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| The pianist somehow got his grand piano to the market and played beautifully....with gloves on! |
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| Christmas tree. |
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| Elder Newman visiting from Frankfurt with a Wurst. He ate the whole thing! |
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| Talk about eye candy. I wanted one of each! Such beautiful ornaments. |
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| At one of many Lebkuchen shops. This is one German treat that neither of us likes. The hard gingerbread? Yumm.. that's another story♥ |
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On November 30, we, plus our good friends, the Johnsons, who are serving as the Military Relations Couple in Grafenwoehr, and our young missionaries in Nurnberg took a short trip to Rothenburg ob der Taube to visit the Christmas market there. The market itself is not as grand as the one in Nurnberg, but the city is one of the most beautiful and quaint that we have visited.
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| In the central market platz. Don't you love those buildings! They're real, not faux. |
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| I love cobblestone streets! They are in every city in the older areas. Hard to walk on though. Don't trip! |
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| Same street. Why? Just because. |
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| Yep, its a weapons and armor shop. This stuff is not cheap. |
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| Everything for the knight on your Christmas list. |
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| We call them Hobbit doors. They're real. |
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| Another one. Really cute. (The door ;-) |
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| People must have been a lot shorter 400 years ago. |
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| Zone leaders are all smiles. |
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| This is supposedly the most photographed house in Germany. Do you recognize it? |
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| Another ancient door. Looks drafty. |
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| I had been on the lookout for hard gingerbread. I thought these cuties fit the bill. Unfortunately they tasted awful. |
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As I have mentioned in previous posts, we are responsible for missionary apartment checks. This day we traveled to Erlangen to see two apartments. I was impressed by the colors of the apartment buildings. These bright colors are very popular, especially in Erlangen, for some reason.
On December 7 we traveled with Elder and Sister Johnson to the Altstadt/Old Town of Regensburg to explore and visit the Christmas market. The Johnsons parked their car (we were unable to drive after our first six months on the mission. Germany must have something against people from California. Utah, Idaho and most other states, no problem getting a license, but CA? Nein!). We crossed this ancient bridge into the city.
Regensburg is Bavaria's 4th largest city with 150,000 people. It is on the (beautiful blue) Danube River. Regensburg, by a quirk in the weather, escaped allied bombing during WWII unlike most great German cities. It is a World Heritage site, and rightly so. It is gorgeous.
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| Arriving on the other side. |
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| First thing we did was head to the Historic Sausage Kitchen of Regensburg (Historiche Wurstkuche zu Regensburg). This is (so they say) the oldest wurst restaurant in the world! This restaurant serves 6,000 sausages to guests daily. |
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| Waiting our turn in line to get some of those 6000 wurst |
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| Menu and price list. It was worth the wait! |
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| Sehr lecker (delicious), as most Wurste are. |
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| We viewed the beautiful Saint Peter's Cathedral (Dom St. Peter) the most important church and landmark in Bavaria . It is the seat of the Catholic diocese and a prime example of Gothic architecture. All say it is as beautiful as the great cathedral in Koln.We marveled at the centuries of work it required. |
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| It is difficult to capture the beauty of this massive cathedral. Thankfully, this great treasure was not destroyed in the war. |
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| Beautiful stained glass windows. |
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| An inside view. This cathedral is home to the Regensburger Domspatzen ("cathedral sparrows"), a choir rich in tradition. We were disappointed that we couldn't hear them sing. |
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| Many of the beautifully colorful stained glass windows in the cathedral date from the 14th century, including these depicting the lives of the apostles and saints. |
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| Poor M. One of many organs he was unable to play. |
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| Regensburg is the oldest town on the Danube and a World Heritage site. This mural of David and Goliath has been retouched many times, but dates back to the 16th century. |
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| Walking into the Christmas Market. It was quite small compared to others. Of course by now, we had been to quite a few Christmas Markets. |
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| It does have this lovely carousel. |
Next we walked over to the Thurn and Taxis Palace. In the middle of the 18th century the princes of Thurn and Taxis, founders of the first large-scale postal service in Europe (15th century), created a magnificent castle here. It is said to have more rooms that the Buckingham Palace in London. For a small fee, one can shop at a medieval Christmas Market inside. Yea, you have to pay for the privilege of shopping. The shops there sold mostly artisan type wares. Quite pricey. At night, the walkways were lit up beautifully and was quite magical.
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| The shops were decorated with pine bows and other natural elements. Very charming. |
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| We were intrigued by the plank cooked salmon. It looked and smelled delicious, but we were still quite stuffed full of wurst! |
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| We saw some really cute ideas for making natural Christmas decorations. Birch Candles. Here is a possible project for M. |
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| Narrow, charming , cobble-stone streets.Nothing says Old Germany like these streets. |
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| Heading back to the car at twilight. A beautiful way to spend a day. |
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We were blessed to be able to attend a Senior Couples conference in the beautiful city of Heidelberg- a place I have always wanted to visit. It did not disappoint.After our spiritual instructional meetings in the Heidelberg Meetinghouse we went into the city for the evening. The city had a Disneyland feel; magical, but unlike Disneyland, all real! We took the steep funicular railway to the top of the mountain overlooking the town.
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| Halfway up. Its freezing cold and the restaurant is closed. |
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| Its a lot steeper than it looks. |
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| Heidelberg from the midway restaurant. |
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| Going up! If you don't want to take the train you are welcome to climb the stairs on the left. |
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| Heidelberg in twilight from the top of the mountain |
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| Yoicks! I was a bit nervous being this high up. Welcome to Konigstuhl-the King's Seat. |
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| Abandoned hotel at the top. Eerie. |
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| Heidelberg as night falls. |
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| Yes, its cold. It's Germany...in winter. |
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| Going back down and trying to thaw out. |
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| Heidelberg castle under colored lights. |
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| More lights. Was a lot prettier than it looks here. |
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| Inside the Castle walls. |
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| Christmas Markt lights. Lots of high end $$$ art and crafts and carvings. |
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| Its late, we're tired and...where's that tram?? |
On December 16 we had Zone Conference, always one of the highlights of our mission. What is so amazing is that it is conducted, planned, organized and carried out by the Zone Leaders and the other missionaries. Their leadership capabilities never cease to impress us. The meetings are always inspirational, very well presented, and deal with topics that are needed in our Zone. These young men and women will use the talents they develop on their missions for the rest of our lives. The future of the Church is in great hands! President Stoddard and his wife always speak, which is always a treat. He is so inspired, inspiring and a wonderful mission president. We all love him and Sister Stoddard.
Between sessions, there was, as usual, a huge meal prepared, as usual, by our amazing Sister Preiss and Sister Ochs. 40 years of mission meals and counting! Pure love from these dear ladies.Since this conference was close to Christmas they insisted on preparing a traditional German meal.We had Sauerbraten, Rotkohl, and Knudeln, along with green salad and fresh made bread. Sister Preiss always decorates the tables so beautifully. I have never met anyone able to fold napkins in so many ways. The napkins for this meal were folded to look just like Christmas trees.
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| Did you notice the green Christmas Tree napkins? None of the senior sisters wanted to use them. We all wanted to take them home to try to copy how Sister Preiss folded them:-) |
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| You may be wondering where all the young elders are. The Senior couples are served first, then the young sister missionaries, and finally, the young elders. |
This was the second birthday I celebrated in Germany. The missionaries and some of our YSAs surprised me with a little party. I was so touched... and very surprised! If I had to have another birthday it was nice to celebrate it in such wonderful company!
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| We had neither the time nor the inclination to go out to dinner, so we ordered out some delicious Thai food♥ |
The day after my birthday we had a baptism in our ward building of a young man from Bayreuth. Prosper Sunday. Love that young man! And we love to see such wonderful people find the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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| Prosper and friends. |
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| Supportive ward members from Bayreuth- Shannon and Brianne. Students here from Scotland and Utah. |
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| Elders from Bayreuth that taught and baptized him. Prosper calls them "BRUH" so they made matching ties. |
That evening we six Nurnberg missionaries were invited over to the Igbinobas for their traditional missionary Christmas dinner, along with a few other families in our ward. Br and Sis Igbinoba are from Nigeria. Sis Igbinoba is the best cook! Wow, we love that Nigerian food! We feasted on spicy chicken and rice, with salad and dessert. It was very crowded in their apartment with their three lovely daughters and 17 guests but so much fun. Good food, good friends and games to follow.
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| Germans always have "bone plates". Very tidy, but kind of gross. |
We made one last trip to the Nurnberg Christkindles Markt on December 21. We and the other Nurnberg missionaries wanted to do some last minute shopping and take a picture on the steps of the famous Frauenkirche. Saint Sebaldus is off on the skyline.
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| This photo bomber wouldn't leave us alone. We tried three more shots but he kept joining us:-) |
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| What's a Christmas lovin' girl to do??? |
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| It just never ends! |
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| The inside of Frauenkirche. So beautiful. There was a little group of children and their teachers rehearsing the nativity in darling costumes. I wanted to take a picture of them but felt a bit irreverent. |
That evening we were invited over to an investigator's apartment for an Indian meal he prepared for us. On the menu was some delicious curry chicken and Indian rice, right along side some chicken wings and... scrambled eggs:-) We were sad to see him move back to India for two months.
One of our favorite German Christmas decorations. We sent some beautiful, small wood carvings of the Nativity home for each of our kids. Four arrived, but two didn't. So we tried to send those two these beautiful stars, but when the boxes arrived they were empty! Very sad!
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| We hung three of our own in each of our three front windows. So pretty. |
We also celebrated our wedding anniversary for the second time in Germany. This one was our 43rd♥
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| Our simple gifts to each other. A beautiful crystal heart for our eternal love and two elephants with trunks entwined to represent that we will never forget our love for each other♥ |
On Christmas Eve we invited the sister missionaries and two of our YSAs over for brunch and crafts. M was a good sport to participate. We made snowflakes, and red paper flowers and had a French Toast casserole, fruit and some yummy German fruit juices. Love these girls♥
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| L to R: Sister Knudson, Zeynep, Caroline and Sister John |
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| Elder Hart and the girls |
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| Zeynep's was so elaborate. This is how to make snowflakes! She is the only one who hadn't made them before. She cut it in half, hung it on the diagonal. |
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On Christmas Day we invited our missionaries and a few investigators over to our apartment for Christmas dinner. It was a happy day with so many special friends. We love each one of them.
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Menu: Ham, roast beef, cheesy potatoes,salad, rolls...and Wildpreiselbeeren.
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| We were a little squished but cozy at the table. |
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| The dessert table. Apple and pumpkin pie, carrot cake and........ chocolate muffins and a Turkish dessert brought by two of our guests. No one went home hungry. |
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| Group shot, minus photographer, Elder Hart. |
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| Our Christmas table settings. I didn't make the Christmas tree napkins. I re-used them already folded by Sister Preiss from Zone Conference;-) |
It has been a wonderful year. Words cannot describe all that we feel about having this great opportunity to serve a mission in Nurnberg, Germany. We have been blessed beyond belief and have met so many wonderful new friends that have influenced our lives for the good. We love our Heavenly Father and His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. We love our family at home that have been so supportive. We love them and miss them terribly but look forward to seeing them again soon.
Important family milestones in December
December 7- Happy Birthday to my sister, Debbie
December 21- Happy Birthday to our granddaughter, Georgia Grace
December 22- Happy Birthday to our grandson, Gavin
Love to you all,
Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Mike and Renee
P.S. We just had to take Christmas photos of one of our favorite families in the ward- the Adamus.
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| Mama Precious, her sister and darling baby Marvelous♥ |
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| Bruder Adamu and Marvelous. Isn't she just the cutest? |
