Merry Christmas to All...

So, it's been a little while since I've posted a blog!  I hope you all enjoyed the little Elf dance that Sidonie and I did for you ;)  More than that, however, I hope each of you had a wonderfully peaceful and blessed celebration of Christmas!  It is so nice to celebrate the ultimate gift by giving gifts to those we love!

Christmas card and pics from friends and family far and wide!

Sidonie and I had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas here in Deutschland!  We missed our families and friends terribly as this was our first Christmas without them, but we were very blessed to be able to speak with them on the phone - Thank God for that invention!

Our Charlie Brown tree - no, really, this was it! Isn't it cute?

Sidonie's Christmas Morning picture by the tree. :)

Me "hiding behind the tree!"

The German tradition is to go to an afternoon church service on Christmas Eve then celebrate together with gifts and food in the evening of the 24th.  Sidonie and I went to a service at the church of her professor because Sid was asked to sing and I was asked to play an angel - a German-speaking angel - in their sketch about the true meaning of Christmas.  There were two little kids in the sketch who played the children of the family, and they decided that I was quite a lot of fun.  We played tag and hide-and-seek for most of the afternoon!  My name for the remainder of the afternoon was, of course, "Engel" sounds like "angle" but with an 'eh' at the beginning (Angel!)

Sid's super cute outfit for the Christmas Eve festivities (yes, I "happened" to be wearing a red long-sleeved shirt (and, of course, Sid had red gloves, and I had a green scarf - but did you really expect less from us?))

At the church service we met another couple who are fairly new here to Hamburg (they've been here about two months.)  The husband is from Australia and is in school here for Jazz Guitar.  The wife is from Switzerland (but speaks English well) and is also a musician - a singer!  They were throwing a party that night, so we decided to come - as we were planning to have a traditional American Christmas Morning gift exchange the next day anyway.  We had lots of fun chatting and getting to know the couple (Clint and Noëmi.)  We also got to sing some Christmas carols - with a very jazz feel, quite different!  I think we'll probably try to hang out with them again sometime before the break is over.

I've put some pictures down below of our Christmas morning celebration - unfortunately, I didn't bring the camera to the Christmas Eve service. :(

Sidonie's super-cool matching shrug and hat from Mom! (She knitted them for her.)

My knitted sweater from Mom - so warm!

Our Christmas breakfast! (Mango, Grapes, Pineapple, Lychee Nuts, and Persimmon - yummm!)

Sidonie's new jeans and blazer!

New slacks and a different blazer!

Sidonie's VERY thoughtful gifts to me - she made a basket full of Five Languages of Love gifts - if you haven't read that book by Gary Chapman, you should check it out!

My home-made card (my wife's the best!)

The inside of the card.

The front page of my "Words of Affirmation" gift: a calendar with encouraging words and scriptures on each month - so cool!

Sidonie's pretty gift - I found it at a "flomarkt" (flea market) at a GREAT deal! Amber is a very typical German stone, from what folks tell us, anyway!

I made breakfast for Christmas dinner! [Pancakes with cinnamon, walnuts, and pecans (very had to get here, and a gift from home!) and Maple Syrup to go on top, as well as hash browns (potatoes are NOT hard to get here!) and potato wedges! YUM!

My beautiful and wonderful wife!

...and to all a good night!

Fröhliche Weihnachten von Deutschland!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Bells Are Ringing...

Well, as I sit here in my living room on a Saturday morning and the snow flurries waft about outside my balcony window, I am reminded of how blessed I am and how beautiful God's creation is. You know, no matter what difficulties we face or what hard times we have had this year or previous years, the fact still remains that the the true reason we celebrate this wonderful season is a free gift that was sent to us from Heaven, the baby Jesus. I am so thankful that we can celebrate His birth together! I love Christmas time!

Some random pics of our daily sights:

We are about 14 km outside downtown Hamburg, but still within the Großstadt (city at large.)

This is the bus stop where we wait - there is a digital sign that tells us how long the wait is for the next bus, although it is not always accurate!  Notice how many busses come to our stop - that means we don't typically have to wait too long!  Also, the black one at the bottom (619) is the night bus that comes between midnight and 6AM.

The sign telling us where the U3 train is headed (Barmbek) and some of the major stops along the way, as well as about how long we can expect to wait (7 mins - an unusually long wait.)

Our Halt (Stop) on the U3 train.  Notice the no smoking sign?  It's really just there for decoration and has no practical communicative purpose. :)

Here is the subway map of the city.  Notice the Red arrow?  That's Steinfurther Alle (our stop.)  the center of town is where all the train lines converge, and if you can see the light grey oval encircling a portion of the map, that's the line indicating the Hamburger Großstadt.

Here a timetable of the travel for each stop of the line.  It takes, for instance, 18 minutes on the U3 to get to Hauptbahnhof Süd (Central Station South.)

The interior of the train - I'm not sure how people manage to scratch things into the windows as there are security cameras, but there is nearly always something etched into the window pane next to your seat!

Enough of that for now...let's move on

Quite a lot has happened since I last posted, so I'll try to keep this as brief as possible (we all know that I can get a bit lengthy with these posts ;)  

First off, I have begun working on my first show here in Hamburg!  I'm not acting because it's a university production, but I am choreographing (both dance and fight) for the University Players' production of Into The Woods!  I'm very excited about the project, and I have my first rehearsal with the cast tomorrow afternoon!  The director's concept for the show is interesting, and I'm excited to incorporate it into the choreography!  Carol, the director, and also the curriculum coordinator at the school where I teach, has placed the show in a modern time with the woods being the city as represented by a cityscape backdrop and lamp posts around the set!  Should be lots of fun!   The show goes up in January, so we've got quite a bit of rehearsal time still.

In other news, Sunday was pastor appreciation day at church.  We had a guest minister - an African man who spoke "English" and was translated into German.  his accent was SO thick and his Grammar so...creative...that Sidonie and I often had to look at each other for a moment before we could decipher what he was trying to say - let's just say I was thankful not to be translating, into ANY language!  Lili was also interesting on Sunday; she is usually the sullen baby that always looks bored, but she was smiling and laughing up a storm on Sunday!  I got to hold her throughout worship and for most of the sermon (until she got hungry!)  During the worship, I felt her little chest vibrating, and looked down to see if she was crying for some reason, but no, she was singing along!  Every time I would sing, she would sing too - it was SO cute!  She sang so hard that she fell asleep - and suddenly became much heavier!  She woke up when the sound guy accidentally turned a mic up too loud, and then just looked around, reached over and patted Sidonie's arm, tried to pull my goatee hair, and chewed on her little pacifier beads until she decide that she wanted something more substantial to eat.

Sid took a picture of Pastor Appreciation Day.

I was otherwise occupied holding Lili! (She is so cute!)

On Monday night, Sid and I went to the Hamburger Weihnachtsmarkt (Hamburg Christmas Market!)  It was so much fun (and so cold!)  There are various Christmas markets all over town, and these markets are places for vendors of various types of goods (leather, soap, candy, fruit, wood, jewelry, baked goods, and even little Glühwein stands (mulled wine - the German equivalent of our Spiced Cider) to gather and market their products as christmas gifts!  It's quite a lot of fun to just go and walk around looking at all the pretty things (and trying the samples of fruit, of course - in case there might be something that you can't live without, and let me tell you, the dried figs were pretty darn good!)

Hamburg prepares to celebrate the birth of our Lord by lining the main shopping street in the city with sparklingly beautiful white lights!

The sign at the main entrance to the Weihnachtsmarkt.

The Weihnachtsmarkt sign at another one of the entrances.

The Weihnachtsmarkt with the Rathaus (town hall) in the background. (Notice the medium-sized tree?)

The skinny tree :)

The F A T tree - Something to please everyone!

The Nativity - our favorite part of the Weihnachtsmarkt! (My camera battery died just after taking this, so that's all the pictures you get - sorry!)

I also had my work Christmas party this past week.  It was quite fun, but I left before the entertainment program began because by the time we finished eating the three course meal, it was 11PM and I knew that it would take me an hour to get home (it actually took an hour 15!)  Sidonie had been sitting by herself all night as this party was just for employees of the school not their spouses :(  boo!  I'm sure we'll get to go to a Christmas party together, though!  (Never fear, we'll post pictures!)  Here are a few pics of the festivities that night:

The pretty table settings!

Danny - one of the Irish teachers from work - he saw that I was taking a picture and posed!

Carol and Fran (l-r, Irish and British) the office staff at work - Carol is the same Carol who is a theatre artist and is directing Into The Woods.  They decided that they would respond to the desserts (which had just arrived) as a motivation for the picture!

My bosses - the owners of English Language Institute - Birget and Ian (German and British respectively.)

Well, that's all for now!  Toodles :)

P.S. Let us know how things are going where you are (especially if we haven't heard from you yet!)  Hugs from Hamburg :D

Hamburger Thanksgiving!

So, I know some of you have been waiting patiently, and others of you have just been waiting... ;) for a post about our Thanksgiving celebration here with friends.  Well, take a deep breath because this is it!

Willkommen!

We had a wonderful time!  The comments ranged from expressed desires to wed the chef to true American Thanksgiving spirit.  Marco said: "I'm so full, and I have to dance tomorrow, I think I'd better stop eating," but two minutes later he said: "I changed my mind, I think I'll have some more."  Fun was had by all!  Sidonie took lots of pictures of the festivities as I finished last minute food preparations.  

In addition to all the food we made, Sidonie made some very cute Thanksgiving decorations for the flat.  

Our Thanksgiving entrance way!

Sidonie's Horn of Plenty (per Marco's request) adorned the foyer!

Sidonie's rendering of Gus prior to his visit to the tanning studio!

The dessert table with centerpiece (prior to the arrival of dessert!)

Our bar was FULL of food, and our coffee table was completely covered with desserts!  I think we'll be eating Thanksgiving leftovers for at least half the week!  Whoohoo!

Gus after his tanning bed experience!

Me getting the Deviled Eggs out and onto the tray. (Sadly, I just realized that because Sid was taking the pics, there are none of her :(  Well, I'll put one of her new hair at the end of the blog to make up for it!)

The Spread - notice how I'm in the photo three times? - I guess Sid's in a Thanksgiving photo too, but she did not wear the same attire for these festivities!

More of the Spread.

The dessert table prior to the arrival/removal from the oven of some of the desserts!

For those particularly interested in details (as I would be were I the one reading the blog and not merely the one writing it...) I'll give you the menu.  If you're more like my brother and are just looking for the overview, feel free to skip to the pictures below!  Because most of the grocery stores around our flat are really more like corner markets (as are most grocery stores here) I had a bit of difficulty finding some of the ingredients for some dishes!  I also found that many of the things I would normally have used to prepare certain dishes (like the scoop for the Almond Mounds) were in the US!  Let's just say that some of the recipes were a bit of a variation on the original theme!  I found cranberries at Edeka, "the expensive grocery store," here in Glinde, it's the most like an American grocery store of any I've seen.  I also had to buy the closest thing Edeka had to "stuffing mix" - no Pepperidge Farms here!  (The dressing turned out very good, however.  in fact, Marco said it was his favorite!)  There were also some things that we simply could not find :( like plantains or corn on the cob, for instance, so they had to be cut from the menu.

The Menu for Sunday was as follows:

Turkey (Gus, as we named him, and yes, Laura, we made a real turkey - no tofurkey was to be found! ;)

Cornbread Dressing

Mashed Potatoes (potatoes are a German staple food)

Gravy (giblet-free!  A new concept for the Germans, they called it "sauce for the meat.")

Garlic Green Beans

Brussels Sprouts

Salad (with tomatoes, three kinds of olives, avocado, and freshly made croutons)

Deviled Eggs (These were real eggs too - vegan eggs don't work very well for this recipe!)

Mint Tea (Sweetened with honey - Mmmm!)

Crescent Rolls (These were incredibly difficult to find, but I did finally find some at Edeka.)

Sweet Potatoes with Coconut sauce (This time it really was sauce!)

Cranberry Relish (Everyone wanted that recipe, but they have no idea how hard it was to find all the ingredients!)

And last, but not least,

Almond Mounds (Which were stored in the freezer because we ran out of space in the closet fridge - those of you with the recipe should try it.  Just take them out a couple minutes before you want to eat them so you don't break your teeth!)

and Apple Dumplings!

Stefan and Gus (Before we found a turkey - also difficult to locate - we were talking about making a hen.  Stefan was very sad at the prospect of not having a turkey and said to Sidonie with this best puppy dog face: Turkey, bitte, bitte!)

Hungry Germans voted not to wait for those folks a bit on the tardy side!

Cutting the turkey!

Morten too overwhelmed for words!

Marco in shock!

Stefan in eager anticipation!

Most of Sidonie's class (l-r: Ben, Nina, Marco, Lara, Morten, Stefan.)  Some of her class couldn't make it because they were ill.

The whole gathering (minus Sid who was taking the picture! Those you haven't met yet are Evelyn, Marc and me, of course!)

The great thing was that not only were we able to share some great American food and a wonderful American traditional holiday with our new international friends, but we were also able to pray together over the food and to go around the circle of those present and voice our thanksgivings for what God brought to us this year!  Sidonie and I were not reserved at all about expressing our true thanksgivings, which, of course, involved our deep thankfulness for all God has done in and for us to bring us to the place where we are now.  We also thank Him for bringing us here with a specific purpose and that He will fulfill that purpose through us!

Bonus Features - it's like a DVD only better!

Sidonie's new hair!  We did it ourselves - the first time I've permed anyone's hair, and it came out pretty good!

Another shot of Sid's new hair - this is from when our friends who just got married (the Afgani couple from the wedding pictures) took us out for lunch - loads of fun!

Belated Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good night!