Christmas 2002 was the first year we were in Germany.  We moved to Neidereschach in May of that year, and we were just starting to get settled in by Christmas time.

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Germany is an interesting place to spend Christmas because nearly every town has a Christmas festival called a Weihnachtsmarkt.  The primary feature is a marketplace of tiny stalls filled with various gifts, ranging from gingerbread to glass ornaments to clothing to kitchen utensils.  There’s also a lot of food, mostly very tranditional, such as bratwurst and gluhwein.  We went to several festivals that year, including the one in Strasbourg, France, which might as well have been in Germany.

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Many of the festivals had small carnivals as well, usually including beautiful marry-go-rounds.  The girls loved riding them, even in the biting German cold.

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It’s funny now to look back at the short ice skating segment in the video.  Carissa really wanted to try ice skating, so we took her to the ice rink in Schwinningen.  I’m not surefooted enough to support a second skater, and Carissa wasn’t yet coordinated enough to make it work.  Now, she and her sisters roller skate around like they were born doing it.  We’ll have to try ice skating again soon.  I’m sure we’ll be much more successful now.

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Sandi was very pregnant with Sadie by this time (Sadie was born on New Year’s Eve that year).  By the following Christmas our family had reached full size, and the real fun could begin.

If you’d like to see our 2002 Christmas video, click here.

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