This, That, and Vienna...

So, lots has been going on! I'll give you a few of the highlights! Enjoy :D

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year for all of the students at Sidonie's school here in HH. We knew it would be bigger this year due to word of mouth from two years ago.

We had lots of very yummy food! Sidonie and I made lots of Southern American specialties (we thought about making some Jamaican as well, but thought we'd keep it simple for them! - We had our own Jamaican evening the next week! ;) In addition, we asked everyone to bring a drink or a dessert, and the other two Americans brought some Mac and Cheese, Green Bean Casserole, and Sweet Potato Souffle!

We had a great time and ended up with 25 people for Thanksgiving! We had several people come up and tell us how thankful they were to have been invited to their very first Thanksgiving! We continued my family's tradition of going around the group to say what each one is thankful for. Tears ensued, as is also the tradition!

After Thanksgiving, we started preparing for our upcoming auditions - in VIENNA! We both had an open call for the major production company of Austria, and I had a call for another musical that Sid had already auditioned for in a different city. Vienna is beautiful, and I think if we were to ever live in Austria, I could handle living there!

We got there in perfect time for the Weihnachtsmärkte (Christmas markets!!!) This one is called the Viennese Christ Child Market.


It's one of the biggest and most famous in Vienna, and is located in front of the beautiful Rathaus (City Hall.)


One of our favorite stands there is a book stand (we are our mothers' children!) They have many, many children's books about Christmas and about the reason we celebrate. One book was by Max Lucado and was about a little puppet and how he discovered that no matter what other people thought or said about him, he was special and beautiful to the one who made him. Made us cry! Moms, you have to visit at Christmas and we'll take you both to Vienna!


There were also many stands with amazingly beautiful Christmas ornaments which are nearly all hand painted.


A blanket of snow had fallen just before we got to Vienna, and it just made the markets all the more special. This blanket of snow makes me think of Disney at Christmas (of course, their blankets of "snow" are really synthetic fibers, but it looks the same, right?)


You can't tell exactly, but the tree behind us had red, heart-shaped lanterns hanging all throughout it. :)


There is another very famous Weihnachtsmarkt in front of Schloß Schönbrunn (Schönbrunn Castle!) That's right, it's a Christmas Market in the courtyard of a castle. Absolutely beautiful!



You can see the gates behind us here.



We met our friend and Sidonie's colleague from Buddy last year, Pia, there! She's Swiss, but was also in Vienna for the audition, so we got to see her! Woohoo!


The Castle Christmas Market really had some wonderfully beautiful hand made Christmas gifts. One could have spent a fortune there! Here's a stand with decorations out of real flowers and leaves, that will hold their color for at least 3 years. They said they would still be beautiful after that, but that they could only guarantee the vibrancy of color for three years. Wow!


A couple pictures of the Castle as the sun was setting (at 4PM!)


There's a VERY large Christmas Tree in front of the castle, as you can see!


We also saw a musical while we were in Vienna. We were so excited that we got to see it for only 5 Euros!!! We got Standing Room tickets, and had a thoroughly good time!


The next day, after the auditions were over, we had a bit of time to see more of the city. We went to the Wiener Naschmarkt (the Viennese Farmer's Market.) This was BY FAR the biggest farmer's market I'd ever seen, and they had a huge variety of things, for example this selection of fresh herbs and spices!


Here are Sidonie and our friend Dave, our host in Vienna, and also one of Sidonie's colleagues from Buddy last year, walking though the Naschmarkt.


Don't those veggies just look scrumptious?!!!



I saw this basket and thought of you Ma! Too bad I didn't know what you were working on at the moment!



Another tradition of the Christmas Markets is Glühwein (glow wine.) Sidonie, Dave (also a vegetarian and health-conscious person) and I found an organic stand with many different varieties of glow wines. We all got different varieties!


I maintain that my white glow wine was the best choice! Mmmm!



Dave also showed us an English/American import store around the corner from his house!


They had MANY, MANY things that made us go: "awww...I remember when I saw this on the shelf..."


We didn't buy anything, but it made us wonder why there's not a store like that here in HH...hmmm, maybe we'll open one! ;)


We had enjoyed the Christmas Market at the Castle so much that we decided to go back and visit it with Dave!



We took a short cut through beautiful Vienna on the way!



These were all hand-painted! If I thought I could have gotten one home without it breaking...


I decided to take pictures instead!


Dave also took us to the back of the castle where there are beautiful gardens and a maze and all sorts of pretty things - which were all covered in snow. :D



That evening we met Sidonie's director, Steffi, from Buddy (who lives in Vienna) for tea. We met her near the Stephansdom (Spephan's Cathedreal.) It was a foggy day, but it just made it all the more ehtereal!


There was a very long parade of folks holding candles and singing a song (in Latin.) Not sure what this parade was about, but surely something to do with advent...!



Beautiful Christmas lights in the shopping streets of Vienna!


Wow!


And, finally, the beautiful snow on the ground outside the apartment of our voice teacher. We're cat sitting for her at the moment, and I do mean at this very moment, as she's taking a week trip to Turkey! The kitties: Pippin and Rosie say hello!

Hugs From Hamburg!

Our New Digs

Howdy folks!

I'm back to blogging now that we've gotten set up in our new apartment! When we first got back to Germany, we were busy looking for a place to move here from Essen, where we lived last year, in addition to auditioning for work. We stayed for about a month with our good friends in Essen, the Janz family! We all had a wonderful time, and we'll very much miss our fun times of prayer and worship together, our family dinners, our movie nights with Nette, and our deep conversations with Phil! Our Essen parents: Manni and Irene Janz helped us move up to our new apartment in HAMBURG about two weeks ago now! Thank you Janz family for a fantastic time of getting to know brothers and sisters in Christ, and for adopting us as your oldest two kids! We love you! :D

It was also a huge blessing the way we got into this apartment - we were basically the only ones who looked at it - unheard of in Hamburg! That's like being the only ones who want an apartment in NYC or Chicago! Our new apartment's practically downtown (5 minutes/two underground stops from the central station!) We've got two grocery stores in 5 minutes walking distance, access to three different underground lines within 5 minutes walking distance (which means we don't ever have to wait on a bus - hallelujah!), and are only 20 minutes from our church (as compared to about an hour last time we lived here in HH!)

After moving in, we decided on paint colors, and proceeded to paint an accent wall in the bedroom, living room, as well as the top half of the kitchen. We also had to get some rugs, lamp shades, and various other things that were either not in the apartment or that we didn't yet own. We're very pleased with our paint color choices and how everything turned out! What do you think? We've now gotten everything unpacked, and washed our two weeks worth of laundry - phew - in our new to us washer that our church in Essen gave us (since it was just sitting the the cellar! Thanks guys!) They also gave us our vanity (which there are no pictures of because we're not satisfied with the shower-curtain situation at this point - more pictures will come, to be sure!) Here are the ones we have so far...

Our front door (from the inside, of course) with the poster above it that our church family in Essen gave us when we left. You may not be able to read them, but all the little bits are individual notes of encouragement, prayers for us, or scriptures! What a blessing our Essen church family was!

Our shoe rack. As you may notice, there are no summer/FL shoes on this rack. That's because Winter is upon us here!


The view when you walk into our bedroom.

Our bedroom overlooks the street and the apartment buildings on the other side. It's a one way street and, despite the fact that the hospital is at the end of the street, is nice and quiet!

Our two wardrobes are on the wall opposite the bed, and have between them...

Our desk - which Sidonie painted the same color purple as the accent wall!

As our room is quite large, we have room for a sitting area. This is on the wall opposite the windows (directly in front of you when you enter the room from the foyer. Notice the VERY soft sheep skin rug in front of the couch. We like it a lot! :D

Directly in front of you when you enter the living room from the foyer.

The wall to your left as you enter the living room.

The view to your immediate right upon entering the living room.

Looking toward the opposite corner of the living room.

Once you step into the living room, you can see through to the breakfast nook.

Our beautiful view from the breakfast nook!

You can see here one of our three orange circular rugs. We couldn't find an area rug or runner that we liked and matched our orange/navy motif, so we got three little round rugs instead!

The picture/TV/bookshelf wall of the living room.



Closer photo of our picture wall!

The Fall view from our living room window!

Our shelves with dappled afternoon light. Beautiful.

The view straight in front of you as you enter the kitchen.

Our little peeping tom window that looks through from the kitchen to the shower!

To your right when you enter the kitchen.

Because of the relatively small amount of counter space, there's an extra fold-down counter top to your left as you enter the kitchen - very useful!

Our kitchen window overlooks the patio.

Our patio view is also beautiful and green!

We're so blessed to be back in Hamburg, and are already planning a reprise of an American Thanksgiving in Hamburg!

Love and Hugs to you all - let us know how you are!