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.