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.

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.

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.

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...

So the Canary Islands were a little different than I had expected them to be.  Our hotel and our view of the Los Gigantes (the huge rock jutting out into the water) were amazing.  The smell of fresh air coming off the ocean, one of my favorite parts of beach vacationing after living in Kuwait and learning what a lack of fresh air is like, did not disappoint.  However, one step out of the hotel and the area was kind of slummy.  So we stuck to our little resort clad corner for the most part and hung out with our friends.  Hanging out with them was the whole point of the trip anyways - not to see the Canary Islands - so because of that it was an amazing trip.  This family is welcoming a new family member in less than 10 weeks, so it was good to see them beforehand and hope to see them soon after their new little friend arrives as well!

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

I went to my first German Christmas Market today in Baden Baden, which is about 1.5 hours from us and about 30 minutes from the French border.  It was a cute little town and the Christmas market was really awesome.  It didn't disappoint.  There were tons of cute stalls, good food, and even alternates to the usual bratwursts (which I'm already sick of!).

I found some cool stuff at the stands, which were pretty diverse.  There was a stand with hand carved Indian wood pieces that I bought myself something from, a bought a pair of alpaca gloves because I was not dressed appropriately for the day (20 euro, I didn't think that was terrible), some truffle-honey, and a piece of nougat.

Most of the others around our area open later this week or this weekend.  I'm excited to check out a bunch.

Just some more images of the setup for the Christmas markets.  The tree below is the biggest Christmas tree I've ever seen!  

I didn't get a picture of it because it wasn't ready yet, but even in my little town they're setting up a lifesize German Pyramid outside the grocery store.  

Jason and I have a little tradition of celebrating our anniversary on the beach.  Our anniversary is right before Thanksgiving.  Four years ago we celebrated on our honeymoon in Mexico, Three years ago we celebrated on the cliffs of Santorini, and next week we'll be doing it for a third time.  I can call it a tradition if we've done it three times, right?  We'll be toasting from this view in the Canary Islands next week.  

I can't wait!!  
The 10 year old inside of me wants to pack my bags tonight out of excitement!

There are 71 days until Christmas!  

I'm so ready to decorate our house for the holidays!  Nothing makes a place feel more like home than when its snowing outside and the Christmas lights are lit and you're drinking something warm with Christmas music in the background.  The only thing that would make that moment better would be a fireplace, which I'm sad to say we don't have here!  

We've always managed with just two small trees.  This year though, Jason and I will be on our own for Christmas for the first time ever.  Its not really what we would prefer, but its just how things worked out this year.  I'm hoping to go home in January to visit friends and family, but we feel its prudent to save the cost of a second flight home this year.  

That being said, I think its time to upgrade to a full size tree!  Hopefully I can find a good fake one.  Caring for a real tree kind of intimidates me!

I found this Christmas Countdown clock today.  In case you ever want to see how many more days there are!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!