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Christmas Crafting

12/27/2013

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This is a little late, but I couldn't post these earlier before people received them.  For our close family, I decided to make ornaments this year instead of Christmas cards.  The idea sounded fun and easy in my head, but turned out to be harder than I thought.  
The post office here is always busy around the holidays, so to avoid being shunned by everyone else in line, I would only bring 5-6 ornaments to ship at a time.  This meant that I went to the post office and stood in line at least 6 different times to ship these little things, in addition to our other Christmas packages that had to go out.  

Also, salt dough isn't as easy to work with as I had envisioned!  It took me 3 batches before I deemed them acceptable to give out, and even then they weren't as perfect as I had hoped they would be.  

I hope all who got one though, liked them though and that they didn't look like a 5 yr old made them! :)
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Etsy Browsing on a Thursday

12/27/2013

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I'm loving the new homepage on Etsy where it prompts different collections.  This was my biggest complaint with the site that's otherwise wonderful - you couldn't browse.  Now I just need my friends all to all start browsing and favoriting things too, so like on Pinterest, I can have lots of different cool stuff to look at.  

Click on the images below to go to the Etsy page.
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Isn't this cool!? I don't know how you get it around your head, but I really like it. This shop, StAndersWo has a bunch of these in cool colors, along with other styles.
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This shop is on vacation until the end of January (boo!), but I really like this mug and am excited to see the rest of her shop when she's back.
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A whole series of seasonal vegetable prints from a vendor in Minneapolis, MN
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I thought these hand rolled coasters were sort of beautiful. I don't need anymore coasters, but if you had a cool outdoor space or garden, wouldn't these be nice on the table?
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How posh is this? I thought these were pretty cool. Click the image to see the different colors available.
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I'm hairstyle challenged, but sticking clips or bobby pins in is something I can do. Wouldn't these be pretty?
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Wooden peg dolls would be really cute on top of a wedding cake
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More Christmas Details

12/26/2013

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Jason and I had our first Christmas of it being just the two of us this year.  It was quiet, but it was really great.  We took our time drinking coffee, making the traditional breakfast casserole, and opening presents together and had a really great morning.  I got a new lens for my camera for Christmas, so I played with the old one and the new one around the house for a bit before guilting myself into preparing for our Christmas dinner.

We hosted Christmas dinner for 10 at our house in the evening.  I for once, really didn't overdo it with cooking, and it was so nice.  Maybe I'm finally starting to get the hang of hosting?  We did pot luck and I made a honey glazed ham and a salad, along with some nuts, olives, & cheese that I put out for appetizers.  Having multiple people plus myself in and out of the kitchen made me yearn for more counter space though!  Next house??  Maybe?? The Kuwait house still holds the title for kitchen with the most storage & counter space, but also for most ugly...

It was a good first Christmas in Germany, but I'm looking forward to being with family next year.

Hope you all had a wonderful day!  Now what to do for New Years!  
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Jason's mom's Chocolate Chrinkle recipe, a tradition that's been passed onto me whenever Angie isn't around to make them for us.
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A snow globe from Dad along with Christmas CDs from my Grandma. She always had classical music on in the house around the holidays and its one my best memories of their house at the holidays.
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An ornament of mine from when I was little, from our family Christmas tree
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A handmade gift from Mom
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The only ornament I bought for ourselves this year. It caught my eye downtown Wiesbaden.
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An ornament from Grandma
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The damn Christmas puzzle - took me forever! ;) I did finish it so that I could get it off the table before our guests came, which was the goal.
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Barbie ornament from my other Grandmother, part of the Barbie tree I've had sine I don't know when. Hallmark stopped making the ornaments this year though, bummer!
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Some of our Christmas haul
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Christmas at Our House

12/22/2013

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I'm doing it by myself this year, but I had to have a Christmas puzzle to work on.  It reminds me of Christmas in Ohio.  I'm rushing to finish it though because we have company coming for dinner on Christmas day!  Probably not my best idea ever, but am enjoying the quiet with my Grandma's Christmas music on in the background in the meantime.
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Royal Castle Tour

12/17/2013

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Small mountain village of Oberammergau. We stopped here first for some shopping.
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Climbing into the Alps
While in Munich, I signed us up for a Royal Castle Tour that took us from Munich into the Alps to visit a small mountain village and two of King Ludwig II's palaces.  

The first palace, Schloss (meaning Palace in German) Linderhof, was very small but intricate.  Our tour guide there was very good and was able to give us some insight on the thinking and thought process behind the extravagant and somewhat odd French style decor.  
After Schloss Linderhof, we headed to Schwangau, where the famous Neuschwanstein Castle was built.  Rick Steves has a really good 5 minute video below, if you want to know more about the castle and Ludwig II.
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You unfortunately couldn't take photos within the castle, but the video above shows it a little.
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Munich at Christmas

12/17/2013

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After Dachau we headed to downtown Munich for some merriment.  We ate at the Augustiner Brewery Friday night, Saturday we did an all day tour of King Ludwig II's castles (next post), and Sunday we slept in and headed back to Wiesbaden.

Munich of course had its own Christmas Market.  It was hosted in the Marionplatz, the main square in front of the town halls.  This square is hectic and busy without the Christmas Market, so it was a bit overwhelming with all the festivities packed in there.  The boys enjoyed some Gluwein (warm spiced red wine) as I looked.
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The Marionplatz
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Inside the Augustiner Brewery
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Some of the Christmas lights downtown that caught my eye
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Dachau

12/16/2013

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As part of my brother's European vacation, we planned one "big" trip down to Munich where we spent two nights.  On our way down we stopped in Dachau to see the concentration camp memorial.  To learn more about it, click here.
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One of the bunker cells
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The quote, which was lite on the back of one of the above cells, is hard to read in this photograph, but it says: "At around two in the morning thekey jangles in the first cell door at the other end of the passageway. Immediately everyone is awake. With a metallic thud the loosened shackle falls to the floor. The prisoner from number one takes the first steps to the bunker courtyard. A shot rings out. A life is extinguished."
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A reconstructed example of the barracks
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Path down to one of the memorials within the camp
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The barbed wire that used to surround the whole camp
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The barracks have been destroyed, except for the two re-constructed examples (above). However, each of the plots you see in front of me in this photo would have had a bunker on it. This would have stretched on to the white building you can see along the horizon.
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Winter Festivities, Company, & Exploring

12/16/2013

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With my brother in town the past week, I've played tour guide to our region.  Exploring many parts that I haven't even been to yet myself.  With the Christmas Markets in full swing, its a good time for company to be in town.  Here are some snippets from some of our exploring.

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Rudesheim is part of the Rheingau region, a well known Riesling Route, that's about 30 minutes from us.  The town sits right on the Rhein River is very quaint and has lots to offer tourists, including one of the best Christmas ornament stores.  Since its a touristy town, it has the added bonus that most of the stores & restaurants speak English as well.
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Heidelberg is a city a little less than an hour south of us.  We made the trip down there last week to see Heidelberg Castle, once one of the most impressive Castles in the region.  We got lucky and they were hosting a portion of their town's Christmas Market within the castle grounds.  Although, Avery and I didn't bring enough cash and had to take the 300 step staircase down to get cash and then back up again in order to shop.  ATM's and bathrooms - not something you can always count in on Germany.  Most of the castle is not open to tour, but there is a cellar with a cute cafe next to one of the castle's claim to fame - the largest wine barrel in the world.
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The castle from below
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The Christmas Market just outside the castle gate
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The 300 stairs that we climbed 4 times
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What used to be a moat
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Castle Gate
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Castle courtyard
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Downtown Heidelberg - the other part of the Christmas Market
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A bakery in downtown Heidelberg with an exceptional window display. I bought the cookies way down in the bottom left hand corner - they were shortbread rounds with strawberry jam sandwiched between
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Wiesbaden Christmas Market

12/10/2013

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Olive adding her touch to the Christmas Decor - cat hair on the tree skirt, wonderful
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The Wiesbaden Christmas Market
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Kids sculling (I think that's what its called, right?)
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The cool trees on one of the main streets downtown. They remind me of whomping willows :)
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German windmill, these are so cool
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I exercised some self restraint and didn't try one of these, but there are tons of stands like this and I want to try them all! These are either cake or marshmallow puffs of all flavors - they had cappuccino, strawberry cheesecake, raspberry, etc. Maybe if I see them again I'll try one :)
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Preparations

12/7/2013

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I've been decking the halls and filling our home with the smell of Christmas Cookies.  My brother comes into town on Sunday, so I've been rushing to get everything ready.  I've still got quite a bit to do today, but the cold I've been struggling with all week is making camping in front of the computer/tv look a lot more appealing than running the vacuum.  We'll see...
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The traditional sugar cookies
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First batch of gingerbread cookies. Before and after they came out of the oven - whoa did they blow up. I switched to circles after this and iced them like ornaments.
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Spreading some Christmas Cheer
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