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!