Fröhliche Weihnachten

Here we are in Rüdesheim for the Weihnachtsmarkt. There were so many fun Christmas scenes and decorations in this little town by the Rhein river. It was so cold that day, we had to keep buying warm things to eat. (Waffels, hot chocolate, & warm pastries). This was an enchanting place with all kinds of portable wood shops spread out in the city.

There was a little train that went
around on the track that children

could ride on. The cottages were all
decorated with lights and greenery.
The manger scene below was life size. Most of the little towns have their own weihnachtsmarkts. This one was a pretty good sized one. They get so crowded at night you can't even see all the displays. The German people love to come and eat and drink their glüwein. It is quite the tradition here. They have two Christmas days. One on the 25th and one on the 26th. We were invited out to dinner on three evenings. The members of our ward have very little but are so willing to share and feed the missionaries. Some of them feed missionaries for 3 or 4 different nights. Christmas morning we opened our presents and enjoyed the day, especially talking to our kids. We have
much to be thankful for. It is hard being away from family at Christmastime but we also feel our

Heavenly Father needs us here in Germany at this time. We feel of His spirit and see the gospel being shared with many here and touching many lives. We are excited for the new year and the changes for good that it will bring.

Deutsche Weihnachten

We thought we'd throw in a couple of pictures as we approach the coming Christmas season. Even though they aren't thankful here for the pilgrims, we are. We had a fun evening with young and older missionaries for Thanksgiving. Everybody pitched in and we had a good time. No cranberry ice cream, though. We do miss that stuff. We had a lot of normal Thanksgiving things with a little german twist at times. We had a mix of people from Canada, Germany, England and the United States. That may have been some of the mix at the first Thanksgiving. We also have a couple of pictures of the Christmas Market here in Frankfurt. It is a really crazy place with lots of food and booths full of stuff to purchase. If you click on the picture it will fill the whole page (I think) and you can get a look at some of the things for sale here.

I'm trying to move the picture but it doesn't want to go.

While we were here at the Weihnachts Markt, Ginny had her wallet stolen right out of her purse which was hanging on her shoulder and zipped. We didn't find out it was gone until we went to buy some things at a store on the way home. Needless to say she was a little upset. The wallet was found the next day by a construction worker at the market. Everything was still in the wallet except the money. They did leave the small change, though. The police explained to us there are a number of organized groups who come to town for the markets and make a handsome living stealing from those who attend the market and come to buy handmade articles. The people doing the sales in the booths don't take credit cards, so everything sold is done with cash.

Below are some pictures of our Christmas Tree and Adventskranz. We are grateful for the kind thoughts we've received. As you can see, our tree is on the windowsill in our apartment.








I hope some of you will remember doing an adventkranz where you take some time on the four Sundays before Christmas and listen to Christmas music, tell Christmas stories, talk about Christmas past or talk about the true Spirit of Christmas. We are grateful at this time of year when we celebrate the birth of the Savior. It is truly a time to reflect on our many blessings and the promise given to us all through the birth of the Son of God. It is also a time to give gifts in honor of the great gift of eternal life we have been given by Jesus Christ.