It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

The Christmas spirit is everywhere and I love it!  Christmas is by far my favorite holiday and I'm so glad to be celebrating it here.  Although everybody's been warning me that the holidays are the most difficult times to get through, it's the complete opposite for me.  I love celebrating Christmas with new traditions and in a totally different way than I ever imagined celebrating it.  It's only one Christmas away from my family and the experience is  I'm so comfortable and wrapped up in the excitement and fun of the holiday season that I don't really have time (or have the desire) to be homesick.

eating brats with a friend!

A Weihnachtsmarkt! <3

I love the characteristics of a "German Christmas."  Everything's so traditional and cute!  Everybody has a homemade Advent calendar filled with all of their favorite sweets, the city is always full with people shopping, eating and walking around, drinking Gluehwein at the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market.)  I love going to the Weihnachtsmarkt.  The only way to describe it is adorable, like how I would envision a town in the North Pole to be ;)  People are walking down the streets sipping Gluehwein with their friends and poking through the stalls filled with Christmas decorations (stars, ornaments, Käthe Wohlfahrt stuff, nutcrackers, Christmas carousels, etc.) food (ranging from brats to Flammkuchen (a light, flaky pizza) to burnt, sugared nuts and Lebkuchen hearts,) and scarves and gloves.  It's virtually impossible to go through a market and not buy anything.

Weihnachtssterne (Christmas stars)

one of the stalls...

I have so much fun at these markets!  I've gone with friends multiple times and every time was a different experience!  For them, it's just a typical winter activity that they don't think much about but to me, it's the coolest thing and probably one the the memories I'm going to remember most about Christmas in Germany!  But it's not just the social atmosphere of the holiday season I'm enjoying, but also the more personal, sentimental traditions I'm doing with my host family.

and that's not even half!

Every Sunday during the Advent time, my host family has a "family day" where we do all sorts of activities together.  During the day, we go on walks or sit at the table together, eating cake and other Christmas sweets (like stollen, marzipan, lebkuchen, and lots of cookies with hazelnuts and almonds) and play board games and cards (my favorite game being a German variation of "Sorry,".)  Today we did a little more and got in the holiday spirit!  Although we won't decorate it until Christmas Eve, we got our Christmas tree and baked all sorts of really yummy cookies the whole day!  It was nice having everyone together, baking, telling stories, laughing and having an all-round good time.

I'm so lucky that I have the chance to celebrate a German Christmas!  I just realized writing this though that just being in another country doesn't necessarily mean that the holiday is celebrated that differently, but what really makes holidays special and different is celebrating it with another family with different traditions than I'm used to. But I'm looking forward to these changes (both in the family and in general "German" and full on experiencing what Christmas has in store for me this year!

food paradise

With another friend, Judith at the market