25 Days of Christmas Photo Challenge Day 2: Decorations

Day 2: Decorations

 

This picture was taken today in Colmar, France at the Christmas market. In case you can't tell, we are reflected in a huuuge ball on the Christmas tree! It was such a beautiful day; the air was clear, the temperatures were above freezing, and we had a great time together.

25 Days of Christmas Photo Challenge Day 1: Lights

Well, I can't seem to finish anything I start these days! I'm going to give this another go with a daily photo challenge for December. I'm off to a great start, already a day behind!

Day 1: Lights

These are the traditional Christmas lights that can be seen on the main street in my village. I love them!!

Project November Day 12

Day 12: Something you miss

This one is easy, almost too easy. Living half a world away from my family and the place where I grew up means there are a lot of things to miss. In the quiet, quaintness of my small German villiage,  often miss the convenience of things like Wal-Mart and the Starbucks drive-thru. I miss the comfort of familiar things like worshiping in my home church and my parents' pup Duke snuggling with me before I get out of bed in the morning.

And while those are perfectly ok things to miss, that's just it - they are things. What I truly miss are my friends and family back home, and the opportunities to simply experience life alongside them.

To be able to go shopping with my mom, watch TV with my dad, or talk in funny voices with my brother while eating whipped cream from a spray can.

To call up a friend who lives an hour away and be able to get together for coffee.

To spend time with my grandparents while they are still relatively young and able to enjoy my company.

To get to know my younger cousins and be involved in the formation of their young lives.

Those are some of the things I truly miss.

Project November Day 9

Day 9: Something you've always wondered "what if" about

For most of my adult life, I've wondered how life would have been different for me had my father not taken an honerable discharge from the United States Air Force when I was five years old. He had already completed two tours to Spain and Saudi Arabia while my mom stayed in Indiana with me and my younger brother. His next assignment was most likely going to be a more permanent station at one of the USAF bases in Germany, and our whole family would have gone with him. Instead, my family moved to Ohio and I lived there until I left for college.

I wonder what my family dynamic would have been like. Would I have chosen the same carreer path? Would my exposure to the missionary community have been the same? What would my spiritual growth and development have looked like?

I wonder if I would have become a military brat, or if I would have enjoyed living overseas as a child. Could I have learned German?

I wonder if I would have met students from Black Forest Academy by competing with them in sports like track and field. Is it possible that I could have even attended BFA myself?

Just a few fun things to think about.

Project November, Day 2

Day 2: Something you feel strongly about

I feel very strongly that Christmas music should not be played before the Christmas season begins. I absolutely LOVE Christmas, but I don't particularly enjoy hearing Jingle Bells in October. When I was growing up, our family tradition was to begin decorating for Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving, and that was also the time we began listening to our Christmas CDs. The tree came out of the attic (yes, we were fakers!) and my brother's and my boxes of ornaments exploded on the poor thing. It made sense that once we acknowledged Thanksgiving, we could begin our preparations for Christmas.

Now that I live in Germany I have lowered my standards significantly, the main reason being that Thanksgiving is not recognized here. Because of that, there's just nothing to look forward to other than Christmas. We don't even get a day off from school! So I've been known to turn on my Christmas playlist before American Thanksgiving, but I still refuse to do so any earlier than November 1st. I will reply with a very convincing, "Bah, humbug!" if you try to get me into the Christmas spirit before then!

P52 / 20 / libero

Pictures for week 20 come from my trip with the eighth graders to Lugano, Switzerland. Read about our adventures here.

P52 / 20 / libero

P52 / 18 / up

This week Germany celebrated International Worker's Day, also known as May Day. The towns put up tall maypoles with decorations, then guard them all night long so nobody from another town can steal them. This week I inadvertently parked under the maypole a few days after the festivities, and when I looked up through the sunroof of my car, this is what I saw...

P52 / 18 / up

P52 / 11 / green

This week I attended my very first St. Patrick's Day party. A couple from BFA hosted a green dinner, at which everything we consumed was green. The evening began with a walk around town where we found shamrocks with St. Patrick trivia written on them. Then, our meal was served in three courses:

• Course 1: Salad, cucumber dressing, broccoli, cucumbers. Pretty normal, until you add in the green cheese (Wasabi gouda! You have to see it to believe it.).
• Course 2: Here's where things start to get weird. Green noodles, Swedish meatballs in green sauce, and homemade sweet rolls with butter, both tinted the most magnificent shade of mint I have ever seen.
• Course 3: Green applesauce, green cottage cheese, and green lemon bars.

The beverage of choice was "pond water" - apfelschorle (bubbly apple juice) tinted green.

It was a fun evening spent with people I don't have the chance to spend nearly enough time with!

P52 / 11 / green

*TMI: I was concerned that there would be awkward ramifications of consuming so much food coloring, but today everything appears to be normal. Just thought you should know. :)



foody friday: fruit smoothies

One of my favorite things about spring is the fresh fruit that suddenly abounds, both in the fields and the grocery stores. I am slightly addicted to fruit smoothies, and after much trial and error have developed my go-to recipe, which only adds to the pleasantness of waking up to the sun on a warm spring morning. For someone who hates mornings, I love waking up to this.

For fun, I'm going to write the recipe in German since that was my homework for German class this week.

6 stueck erdbeeren
15 stueck heidelbeeren
1 banane
1 kiwi
100g joghurt
1 schluck orangensaft

Translation:
6 strawberries
15 blueberries
1 banana
1 kiwi
100g yogurt
1 splash of orange jiuce

P52 / 07 / love

This week I received an outpouring of love from friends, colleagues, and parents of my students on Valentine's Day. Here's just a taste of all the goodies!

P52 / 07 / love

#358: SADCC Day 25: the infinity 2

Presenting the final scarf tie of the Christmas season!

show&tell #358: SADCC Day 25: the infinity 2

Merry Christmas! The final scarf tie was supposed to be the decoration, but I didn't have anything that could pass for the little brooch the girl uses in the video so I decided to just skip it (since it's identical to the fake knot) and do my own tie for the last one. I call this the Infinity 2 because it's almost identical to the Infinity. Using a rectangle scarf, tie just the corners together rather than the entire end of each side. It makes a much smaller knot and it causes more "drapery" on the final product.

#357: SADCC Day 24: the double rainbow

I managed to find two scarves that work together for the double rainbow... and at the end of my rainbow is a huge box of Lucky Charms!! Yay Christmas!!

show&tell #357: SADCC Day 24: the double rainbow

#356: SADCC Day 23: the basic loop

This one seems an awful lot like the modern one loop from Day 5... another one of those that is too similar to truly call a different style, but whatevs. Only two more scarf ties to go!!

show&tell #356: SADCC Day 23: the basic loop

#355: SADCC Day 22: the shell roll

Eh, I don't really prefer this one... it's doubtful that I will tie my scarf like this after today.

show&tell #355: SADCC Day 22: the shell roll

And although it's hard to see here, I'm wearing my Christmas present to myself: this awesome shirt from Threadless that I've wanted for a long time (but my size was always sold out) and finally managed to snag during their $10 tees sale!! (In case you can't tell, it's a tribute to the four houses of Hogwarts. Recognizeable only by other nerds like me!)

House Brawl

#354: SADCC Day 21: the infinity

show&tell #355: SADCC Day 21: the infnity

#353: SADCC Day 20: the mira

Blech. It might have something to do with my scarf being too short and too narrow, but this one is just awful.

show&tell #353: SADCC Day 20: the mira

#352: SADCC Day 19: the celebrity

Surprise!



show&tell #352: SADCC Day 19: the celebrity



#351: SADCC Day 18: the waterfall...sorta

I tried to do the waterfall today, but my scarf is too short to wrap around twice. So, this is the modified waterfall. I almost like this better than the actual waterfall.

Yes, it's snowing in my living room. Today we got snow in Kandern for the first time! It was during church and they opened the blinds so we could see it softly falling while we sang.

Also, by now you have noticed my epic hat. Today was my Elf Party, wherein we watched the movie and partook in the four main food groups of elves: candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup. Well, we didn't have syrup so it wasn't a balanced meal...

show&tell #351: SADCC Day 18: the waterfall...sorta

#350: SADCC Day 17: the key tie

I was so proud of myself for this one... and then I looked at the video again and realized it doesn't look anything like that it's supposed to! Oh well, I like the way it came out anyway. Today's picture represents today - multitasking for a super productive second day of vacation.

show&tell #350: SADCC Day 17: the key tie

#349: SADCC Day 16: the wrap

Today is my first day of vacation!

I'm modeling another new scarf, this one a gift from my best friend here in Germany, Katrina. I'm also rocking an edgy necklace from my friend Megan (yay Christmas!) and crazy I-got-caught-in-a-torrential-downpour-today hair.

show&tell #349: SADCC Day 16: the wrap