It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Merry Christmas!

I didn't send letters with this year's Christmas Cards. Instead I directed folks to the blog.  "Find our Christmas letter at mcrambles.blogspot.com," I said.  I guess I better put up a Christmas letter, huh?

St. Nikolaus on the Christmas Train.

Dear friends, 
2011 has been a good year for us.  The big news is that it's also been our last year in Europe and we move back to the states in March of 2012.  We're going back from whence we came, to Warner Robins, Georgia.  We are excited to be back in the South with its mild weather and plentiful sunshine. As you might imagine the details of moving are threatening to overrun the Holiday season, but for the most part I'm successfully keeping them in a box until the New Year.

We've been so fortunate to be able to do oodles of traveling while living here, most of which you can read about by clicking the country categories on this site's navigation bar, so I won't rehash them here. (I am admittedly months behind in the travel blogging department.  I usually get caught up in the Winter when the weather is so totally nasty that  there's nothing more appealing than to sit inside at your computer, so if you're interested in our ramblings, be sure to check back.)

As far as how life goes when we aren't out seeing the sights....

The boys are 6 and 3.  C started first grade this year. And he loves it.  It was a bit of a transition at first as this is his first year in a traditional classroom, but he's taken to it well and I'm frequently amazed at both the depth and breadth of what he learns at school.  He's at a DOD elementary school in a very small class with a supremely dedicated teacher.  I think we've been spoiled, for sure!  Here's hoping our tansition into the Georgia school system goes smoothly.

This is B's second year in the German kindergarten and he continues to do well there.  He'll frequently announce to me that when he's at kindergarten he's a German kid and when he's at home, he's an American kid.  We're undecided if, when, or where he'll be doing any kind of preschool stateside, but I'm envisioning having to explain to him that he is actually an American kid, 24-7.

D stays busy at work. Which is about all I can say about that, here. He was selected for Major this year and in between his stints here and there "saving" the world is one class away from finishing his Master's degree. We're proud of all his hard work.

As for me, I manage to keep busy with all the typical SAHM things: volunteering at the elementary school, coffee with friends, playdates with pals, and when the weather's nice long walks and bike rides over the beautiful (but sometimes smelly) farm fields.  I'm basically simply trying to soak up every last ounce of atmosphere before we leave.   While I look forward to being back in the USA and  having Publix and Target around the corner and to being able to complete a (as in ONE) load of laundry in under 4 hours, I love village life.  I love being able to ride my bike to anywhere I need to go and am not at all looking forward to reacclimating to suburban sprawl.

This time of year as the boys flip through toy catalogs and wander through stores and tell us all the things they want for Christmas, we try to talk them about Christmas really being about giving, not getting.   (Mercifully, Armed Forces Network doesn't air commercials.  Which stinks at Superbowl time, but is super convenient this time of year).  Local organizations sponsor Angel Trees and we take them shopping for angel tree toys and try to explain to them how fortunate they are that they want for nothing.  It seems that everywhere you turn these days, people are wanting.  Times are hard, for many.  There are lots of excellent charitable organizations out there doing outstanding work to meet the needs of those in need around the world.  If you're considering additional holiday giving, but don't know where to direct your donations, consider some of these worthy organizations.

The Ronald McDonald House  or the Fisher House  which provide lodging to family members of sick children and wounded warriors, keeping families together under devastating circumstances.

Donate Animals  and feed a family.  In most of Asia, rural economies dominate and donating chickens or milk-producing goats can provide a family mired in poverty with both food and longer term income generation.

ENTRUST, an organization founded by an old friend that uses professional mentorships and monetary donations to help local people in Haiti and Honduras create, manage, and grow their own businesses, breaking the cycle of poverty. Their people- helping- people, invest- in- the- community model of giving offers long term hope.

Compassion International:  Sponsor a child; change a life.

We hope you and yours are well this holiday season.  There's not enough time left for us in Europe to invite you to visit us here, but if you find yourself traveling the I-75 corridor in middle Georgia and have time to sit-a-spell, holler at us!

Do you facebook?  If so, friend us.  It's probably one of the easiest ways for us to not lose any of you as our contact information is constantly in flux.

May your 2012 be filled with love, peace, and great joy!

love, The Mcs :-)

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Christmas Markets

Between last year and this year we've made it to most of the local Christmas markets, and sampled lots of the traditional Gluwein. Christmas markets are lovely; they each have their own flavor, but I'm not quite sure I get the hype or why US tourists spend thousands of dollars, battle the usually crappy weather and the crowds solely to make Christmas market pilgrimages. We've yet to get to any of the markets in Bavaria, so perhaps those are different. They certainly are larger, but I don't know if larger equates with more hand made crafts and goodies or more traditional German woodworking OR if larger simply means more sausage, spirits, and "made in china" replicas?

However, as we ARE here, Christmas markets are fabulous wintertime diversions. Most of the small markets near us seem to function as local watering holes. The German version of Cheers, where you stop by and grab a drink and a snack on your way home, noshing with the locals, soaking up the ambiance. Each market has a distinct atmosphere, however, so read on for quick pics and over-brief summaries of the ones we've visited.

Geilenkirchen: A small, one weekend market, with performances by local groups and fundraising booths for local charities. Some food vendors, kid rides, and a flea-market esque section of retail booths

Aachen: the largest market closest to us with cool high energy buzz. Super crowded on the weekends and not stroller friendly (heck it was even dicey at times with B in the backpack carrier).

Gangelt: one weekend only, just one village up the road from us. Has a very small town feel to it, but in a quaint, the-neghborhood-has-gathered-for-the-weekend kind of way. Lots of flower and greenery vendors and fun rides for the kids. There's nothing better than soaking up the festive atmosphere while meandering the old Gangelt streets and you will run into most everyone you know, so it's got a great open-house feel to it too

Trier: the best market we went to. Trier is in itself a great city, about 90 minutes from here. This market looked the most traditional and of course strolling past the old Roman ruins Trier is famous for only added to the charm. The market takes over the main square and a side street or two and between the market's supersized German decor and the storefronts' decorated windows, it's lots of good holiday fun. AND the best market yummies we had, we had in Trier. Dan got a super yummy brick oven pizza and I sampled the kirsch dampfnuden, which was a sweet dumpling with a cherry sauce.

Monschau: We ended up in Monschau on a Friday evening, and I suspect the market would have been better by day. It was rather poorly lit, so it was hard to appreciate the beautiful town as we were weaving in and out of market booths. In the day time, too, the local shops would have been open, adding more browsing options. However, they did have lederhosen clad horn players, an incredibly tasty orange punch, and lots of fried dough to keep the wee one entertained. No carousel in Monschau either, so that's either good or bad depending on what your take is on buying kids tokens for the merry-go-rounds


Satzvey Castle: Kitchy and Romantic and I absolutely love it! The Satzvey Christmas market isn't that much different in character than their Easter market or their summer time viking, medieval, and renaissance fairs, but Satzvey Castle at anytime of year is a keeper. C gets to gorge on the waffles and have his face painted. He gets to watch the sword fighting, see the horses and try his darndest to pull that sword out of the stone. At the Christmas Market this year he even got to tell St Nicholaus about his Christmas wishes and explain how it was this kid with the slightly southern draw was Christmasing in North Rhine Westphalia

Valkenburg, Netherlands: The markets in Valkenburg are nice because they are underground in caves, out of the elements, and temperature controlled. The port-a-potties in said caves aren't so nice, but when you've got a 4 year old along, you do what you've got to do. One of the caves is Dickensian themed and you watch Scrooge's story unfold on the walls as you wander past

Maastricht, Netherlands: Each winter, Maastricht converts its main square to a winter wonderland, with lots of games and rides and even an Ice Skating rink, just a quick stroll from some of the oldest Roman ruins in the Netherlands and against the backdrop of some beautiful church facades, it's a must see. High energy, lots of families and fun buzz.



Liege, Belgium (about 45 minutes from us): One big party with lots of different foods and wines to try. Typical candies, soaps, and knitted hats, but Liege has a number of fun city walks to take in and among marketing, namely the 406 steps of the Montagne de Bueren. Worth the climb for awesome city and river views. Then, instead of climbing back down, take the long way around, past the ruins of the citadel and the modern hospital through a nature reserve back to the city square for another glass of gluwein and Belgian chocolates to see you through the afternoon.

Catchin' UP: Christmas and Christmas Travel

Wow-- it's te last third of January already! If the rest of 2009 goes by so quickly, then we're in trouble.

Our first German Christmas was nice. We shoved all the boxes against the walls and carved out a little cubby in the living room to do Christmas morning (which actually turned into Christmas-Morning week as C was content to open one gift at a time and play with it for a while before opening another. I don't think he opened his last gift until after our trip. Christmas dinner was a simple one, and although we missed our extended family, with whom we usually celebrate, the Mcs were all together -- and that's something to be thankful for considering how many of the last few Christmases D's spent in another time zone.

We ignored all the unpacking for Christmas day, spent Boxing day in Ikea, and ingnored the unpacking some more the day after as we loaded up the orange box and headed south to Nurnberg and Rothenburg.

Nurnberg was really good fun. The things we did were by and large rather kid-friendly (the toy museum, the train museum, the zoo) and could have been in any city, but we got to see a good chunk of Nurnberg as we walked between attractions. Our second morning we toured the castle and climbed to the top of the Castle's Turret. *Mental Note* -- Climb no more twisty, narrow, steep stairways unless DADDY's the one wearing the baby.

Day three found us in Rothenburg, which according to Rick Steves is the best preserved example of a medieval walled city. The wall is completely in tact and you can't drive in the city. It was cold cold cold cold cold that day and there were still lots of tourists out, so I can't imagine the throng in the summer season. It's kind of tourist-trappy as there's store after store of clocks, nutcrackers, ornaments etc. Some, actually made in Germany, yet many others made in China to look like they were made in Germany. This one is by far the most famous.

Seems like every city/event has some kind of food that it's associated with, and yep we try them all -- in Berlin it's the Currywurst, in Nurnberg it's finger bratwurst, in Bavaria in general it's apple strudel and vanilla sauce, at the Christmas markets its warm waffles and gluwein, and in Rothenburg it's the Schneeball (German for snowball). Trust me, if you ever go to Rothenburg...... Skip the Schneeball.

It's not near as good as it looks. It's really pie crust shaped into a ball and dusted with powdered sugar. Go for a strudel or a kuchen or a piece of cheesecake or a good beer, but skip the shneeball, even C was less than impressed and only ate a few bites, which is a shame because we spent the whole morning bribing him into compliance with the promise of the schneeball to come. [We thought it was fried dough, donut style]

After Rothenburg it was off to the largest exchange in Europe so that D could buy a TV (yeah an all day affair, should have seen him trying to fit it in the box with the stroller, the pack-n-play, the suitcases and all the rest of the gear)

Then, we headed home. However, the roads had iced over and before the sakt trucks got to them, someone on our stretch off the autobahn had an accident. All traffic had to exit, except off course for the traffic that had already passed the last exit. (Exits on the Autobahn, btw, are pretty far apart, so we had to creep quite a ways before we could actually clear the traffic jam. So yes, the drive home which should have taken 2.5 hours took 7 and we welcomed 2009 en route.

The kids, however, hung in there gamely (except of course for C's potty emergency in the traffic jam when he refused to go on the side of the road like all the other menfolk) and handled the travel/touring far better than I had anticipated. Which is good, yes, as we hope to be doing alot more of it in the months to come.

I think we're settled enough that the blog is back, so keep checking back to see what we get into.

Aachen and the Autobahn; Cereal and Sausages

We made it Aachen this past Saturday-- a really old German city (yeah think Charlemagne's time, so really yreally old). But this time of year it's claim to fame is that it hosts the largest Christmas market that's kind of close to us and has a fabulous toy store.


The weather Saturday was cold and drizzly, but if we waited for a sunny day to go anywhere we'd never get out.

The toy store is three levels and has a slide that the kids can slide on to get from the main floor to the basement. Saturday, St. Nikolaus was out giving presents to the kids. (St Nikolaus was also outside every store we walked pass giving out chocolate, so much so that when C was ready for more candy he'd say to me, "Where's Nikolaus")

The Market itself was super crowded, but it was still good fun to meander.

I started B on some cereal this week and as you can see from the picture he's already progressed from cereal to sausages.



To get to Aachen we took our first spin on the Autobahn. I didn't drive, but I did pass my driver's test last week and took the car out for the first time on Sunday. ("the car" would be the 1997 BMW Dan bought this week for our second car-- our orange box is still in transit.) Local lore has it that when you come to GK, you leave with either a baby or a BMW. BMW: check!

Christmas Markets here and there

We went to the Geilenkirchen christmas market this weekend and had a good time walking a bit of the city (it was the first time we had really walked around GK proper.) After being here for nearly two weeks scored our first currywurst for lunch.

we tried to go to another local market today, but by the time we got there, both kids had fallen asleep in the car, it was raining and we would have had to park rather far away and slog through the rain-- didn't seem like it was worth waking them up for it.

we have decided that b/c we will either have no stuff or very discombobulated stuff for Christmas that we'll spend Christmas week in Nurnberg at the mother of all Christmas markets, seems like a good year to do it

Both GK and Heinsberg have children's play equipment on random street corners (see above). C likes to go exploring now 'cause he never knows what he's going to find!