We visited the Christmas Market in beautiful Lübeck. (Here is more explanation than what is on Facebook...but just a few different pictures, so if you're here for the pictures, you will already have seen most of them :) )
I especially enjoyed the historical/medieval part of the market :) There were some pretty awesome bagpipers :) We also met up with E, one of my friends from high school!
On Christmas Eve (which is the big day of celebration in Germany--including the opening of presents ;) ) we went to the Christmas Eve church service (not at midnight.. :) ). Let's just say, although we weren't the only participants, we definitely helped a lot :)
We got there early to help decorate and practice some of the music with the bishop (the leader of the congregation). During the service I directed the music sung by the congregation as well as the two choir pieces and played a violin duet with one of the sister missionaries (accompanied by the bishop on the piano).
F sang in the choir and read the Christmas story from the Bible--making sure to include Simeon and Anna--not just the shepherds and the wisemen--as witnesses of Christ's birth and special mission. The bishop played Christmas songs at various points during the story--and it turned into quite a nice presentation of the familiar story.
M is a new member of the congregation from Iran who speaks mostly Persian and some German and some English ;). I made him a Christmas card and wrote Merry Christmas in Persian. The rest of the card I wrote in German ;).
He came and shared our Christmas Eve dinner of fondue. We had fun sauces, bread and rice on the side and all sorts of tasty things (like shrimp--with tempura if desired ;) ) to dip in the fondue of hot oil. One of my favorite things to dip is broccoli because the florets get all crispy and yummy!
We also have a little table with the three nativities on it and some of our plants (from L to R, Petunia, Chuck, and Fred & George hiding behind the paper tree). My family made the lovely paper nativity (in the back on the right) and sent it to me for my first Christmas on my mission (incidentally also my first Christmas away from home). It was easy to send, because it is flat ;).
I bought the little wooden nativity (in the back on the left) at the Frankfurt Christmas Market for the second Christmas on my mission. (For more on my mission, click
here or about our beliefs in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, click
here.)
The newest addition to the collection is the little Christmas pyramid in the front. Christmas pyramids are a wonderful German creation. They use the rising hot air created from the candles to turn the blades of the 'fan' at the top, which in turn rotates the entire pyramid. Ours is small, but they can have several tiers and get to be quite large!
Here is one of the Christmas presents I made (or rather am still making ;) I
am further than in this picture, but not yet done) for F--a rug for his side of the bed so his feet don't get cold! It is a braided rug which uses a
four-strand-braid that always loops into the existing braid. I decided on this method rather than the typical braid-three-strands-for-foreeeever-and-then-sew-it-in-a-spiral method. So...it may end up having taken longer, but it won't be able to come apart at the seams! There aren't any!..so I guess this is a good companion for the sturdy laundry baskets I made that will protect us in the zombie apocalypse...
Here is a Fröbel Star, one of many that I made as decorations for the Christmas party and then repurposed into decorating our tree.
He is decorated purely in stars--made of ribbon, metal, wood and straw :) I guess the one exception is the bowtie adorning the tower at the top :)
Our adorable Christmas tree is called Svenson, essentially the son of
Sven, our tree from last year :)
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