Merry Christmas!!!

The snow is coming down fast as I write this. So far we have only accumuated about a foot over the past 10 days, but it looks like we will definitely have a big white Christmas now! After a great trip to the US (which I unfortunately never even had time to write about here), I came back to Germany and began getting ready for our Christmas here. We put up our tree and decorated it when Chris got back from Russia. I started baking this week and made lots of cookies! Chris asked me why in the world I am making so many cookies when it will just be us two here, but I just needed to bake because thats one of the funnest parts of the holiday for me! I decided I will make little cookie packages for each of his teammates.

We ordered wood for our firestove a month ago, but the delivery keeps getting postponed because of the snow. So we ended up going to buy some yesterday just so we can at least make a few nice fires over the holiday. We took one last trip to the Christmas market to drink some Gluhwein and eat a Dampfnudel, a big dough ball with cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla sauce on it. It was delicious!

The team had a great win last weekend against Bremerhaven, one of our biggest rivals. Chris had a good game, so I was happy I made the drive in the snow! We got two new players, and they have already made a difference. Our next game isn't until December 27th, so we thought we would get a day or so off over Christmas. Unfortunately the coach has now scheduled practice for the afternoon of Christmas Eve and again on Christmas evening. I know the guys are really frustated about this and hoped to have more time off. Of course we will still make the most of it! We are going to have a nice dinner and open our gifts here tomorrow evening and cook a big brunch for some of his teammates on Christmas morning.

This will be our first Christmas that we are not able to celebrate with family. We will definitely miss being with everyone. However, we are very thankful and blessed to have each other and be together for our 7th Christmas!

We wish you all a safe, happy, healthy and wonderful Christmas!