Our Christmas in New England

Despite of being away from family, we enjoyed our first Christmas in New England. As the holidays were approaching, we kept getting boxes from our family with lots of gifts in them. It was also fun waiting for the mail to see if we had gotten any Christmas cards. As the days went by, Cameron kept asking if we could open gifts before Christmas (this started about a week before Christmas). Finally we came to an agreement that we could each open a small gift on Christmas Eve but we would wait to open the rest the next morning.

On Christmas Eve we went to our church and we heard a great message on not only the importance of the virgin birth of Christ but also the importance of His death and resurrection. After the sermon, we all gathered for a Christmas party with lots of finger food and home-made eggnog.

On Christmas Day, Cameron wanted to open the presents at 6 AM! Unfortunately, I was half asleep and ignored his request. Later that morning before opening the presents, we read about Christ’s birth in Luke and Matthew – great reminder of salvation thru Christ as being the best gift of all! We are so grateful for all of the gifts that we received from our family; even Atenas got something from her Aunt Jan!

That day, we were invited to have breakfast at our neighbors’ house. We had a “light” breakfast because we were going to cook all day for our Christmas lunch/dinner. We cooked Mexican food: Tamales and Chiles en Nogada. I never thought I would be making tamales in New England (I had to call my mom way in advance to get a list of all the ingredients and the “how to” instructions – there is no recipe with exact measurements for my grandma’s tamales). Everything came out so good and we all had a great time!

Here are some pictures:

Getting our tree (proceeds went to charity):

Finding the perfect tree:

Our decorations:

We couldn’t find our tree stand, so Cameron built one. We might have lost it during our move a year ago. He did a great job, so far the tree has not moved an inch!

My dream comes true

When I was a freshman in college, I first came across a picture of the Neuschwanstein Castle. I had no information about this castle and later I found out that it was in Germany. I was marveled by the castle and I could only dream that one day I would visit this wonderful place. My dream came true last month and I never thought I would share the experience with my dear husband. The weather was perfect!

Neuschwanstein was the home of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. It took over 17 years for the castle to be completed and unfortunately the king only lived there less than six months before his unexplained death. The castle is amazing but unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures of the inside. This castle served as the inspiration for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle.

At the main gate:

Hohenschwangau Castle

Hohenschwangau is very close to Neuschwanstein (within walking distance). This was the childhood residence of King Ludwig II and then later became the hunting residence of the royal family. They still display various hunting trophies along the spiral staircase of the castle. This castle is smaller but all of the rooms have outstanding murals that tell part of the Bavarian history.

The Bavarian Seal:

View from the castle's courtyard:

The castle's kitchen:

Dinkelsbuhl, Germany and Reykjavik, Iceland

Our last stop in Germany was Dinkelsbuhl. This is a small town surrounded by old medieval walls and towers. The day we visited Dinkelsbuhl was the first day they had set up their Christmas markets and there was a celebration with the arrival of St. Nick.

With Gramp at the front entrance:

The architecture is so cute, it almost feels like you are back in time:

Cameron and I shared a pizza looking dish for lunch:

The kids had fun riding the carrousel:

Arrival of St. Nick:

Iceland

We flew to Iceland and spent a day in Reykjavik. It was snowing when we first got there but it was not cold. Iceland has its own language, Icelandic, but almost everyone speaks fluent English. Cameron made the hotel reservation at the Hilton and we were able to upgrade to the executive suite!

We found this when we walked in to our room:

We woke up the following morning and headed down for breakfast. It was still dark outside and it was not that early, so we asked the waitress what time the sun came out. The sun starts coming out around 10-ish and it is out by noon!! Due to the lack of sun light and time, we decided not to go to the Blue Lagoon but to go shopping instead. We walked to the nearby mall, which is one of the largest in Reykjavik, and to our surprise it was very empty. We wanted to buy the traditional Icelandic wool sweaters. The sales associate where we bought our sweaters told us that people usually wake up around noon on Saturdays when the sun is out!

We love our sweaters! They are made out of Icelandic wool. They are water-resistant and extremely warm. I’m glad we got them and Cameron suggests they will last at least 20 years! Hopefully we made a good investment.

Views from our room:

We really enjoyed our trip, not only because we visited many sights but because we got to share this wonderful experience with our family.

Garmisch-Parkenkirchen

We drove close to six hours from Hutschenhausen to Garmisch-Parkenkirchen, a town in southern Germany not far from the border with Austria, and we stayed at Edelweiss Lodge & Resort. Our ETA was midnight and as we were driving thru Austria, we were stopped by the police in a checking point (they might have been looking for drunk drivers). Anyway, the policeman starts speaking German and fortunately Matt was able to ask him if he spoke any English; luckily he did. We were there less than a couple of minutes and on our way to the hotel.

Garmicsh is such a cute town. It hosted the 1936 Winter Olympics and they are getting ready to bid on the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Edelweiss Lodge:

After getting a good night sleep and getting up early, we went on a tour bus to Munich (an hour away from Garmish). We drove around the city and were able to see where the famous Oktoberfest takes place, different architectural buildings, the Hall of Fame and Statue of Bavaria, the statue of Maximilian, among other things. One of our destinations was to tour the Treasury in the Munich Residenz, where they display various priceless objects from different periods.

We then walked to the Town Hall; the building is amazing: Gothic Revival architecture and it’s main tower has a huge coo-coo clock called Münchner Kindl. We witnessed the 15 minute performance at noon – this is definitely a tourist attraction!

The Münchner Kindl:

All these little creatures dance around at the sound of the bells:

Statue of Mary and Jesus outside Town Hall:

We walked inside St. Peter’s Church which is the oldest church in Munich – it dates back to the 8th century:

At the end we had lunch at Hofbrauhaus; we enjoyed great German food, great music and all the adults (except me-for obvious reasons) enjoyed good German beer.

The famous 1 liter beers:

I'm just pretending, this was actually Matt's drink: