The long-awaited Christmas update

So... I never wrote about Christmas. And I haven't been very good about blogging lately. :(

But here's a very very belated report on my family's Christmas visit, because it was super awesome and shouldn't go unblogged!

Mom arrived on Dec. 17th, which was a Wednesday. Because she is Superwoman (did you know that my mom is Superwoman? I don't always tell people that right away...), she came to school with me on Thursday to meet my kiddos and bring them some Christmas sweets and see what the school is like where I teach. It was super fun, the kids loved her! Afterward, we did a little shopping and wandering around Alexanderplatz and the Christmas market in the Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg before having dinner back in Pankow and crashing. The next day was Friday and I don't teach on Fridays, and since I was a bit under the weather and the jet-lag was catching up with her, we had a day of vedging on the couch watching movies and snuggling (but no sugar plums). After that I don't really remember what we did day for day, but it involved lots of Christmas markets, having Simone over for barbecued chicken and cornbread (hooray for Mom's home cookin' in a foreign country, tastes even better!), eating at fun places including the pancake place in Pankow (wee alliteration!) and Tutti Gusti, the Italian place in Charlottenburg where I ate all the time during my year of study abroad. They remembered me! It was so cool to go back there! We also did all the Christmas shopping for the whole family. That is, we not only picked out stuff to give my dad and brother, but we also picked out stuff to give each other and for my dad and brother to us and each other. This wasn't a big year for presents for us, but that was cool because none of us really wanted anything that badly except to be together and have fun, and we had that one covered! Before the boys arrived we also made sure we got to watch our favorite Christmas movie, It's a Wonderful Life.

Then the boys came on Tuesday. We had gulasch waiting for them, and afterward they pretty much crashed, especially the bro, who's trick for dealing with jetlag was to stay up the entire night before and stay awake until it was somewhat close to bedtime in Germany. The first couple days were pretty quiet, since they got here the day before Christmas Eve. We roasted a turkey (more precisely - Mom roasted a Turkey, and I "helped"), which was amazing! And we had a great little Christmas tree and a couple of presents which Mom and I had picked out. :) And of course we watched Elf. And we ate lots of Brötchen. Brötchen are just plain bread rolls but because there's a bakery on every corner here, you buy them fresh and they cost like 12 cents a piece. Even though they're quite simple, they're very tasty, primarily for the "I'm eating fresh bread on a regular basis" effect. Mom and Dad never really managed to learn how to pronounce the "b-word" though. This provided entertainment for me and my bro.

After Christmas we ventured out into the city to see the Berliner Dom, Alexanderplatz, the Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamer Platz, the Reichstag, and of course a couple Christmas markets, including the one at Schloss Charlottenburg (palace). We took the boys back to Tutti Gusti, and we also discovered the Nicolai Viertel (St. Nicholas Quarter) around the Nicolai Kirche (church), which is wonderfully charming! My parents also had a "date night" and treated us to the symphony and to dinner at Tony Roma's at Potsdamer Platz! Sounds strange to eat at an American "place for ribs" in Germany, but this was our favorite restaurant as kids and the one in Brentwood closed like 8 years ago or so. We also were invited to Kaffee and Kuchen (coffee and cake, the 4th meal of the day in Germany) at the Heimlichs'. Our last sight-seeing endeavors included Checkpoint Charlie, the TV and Film Mueseum and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

And then they had to leave... much too soon...

(Fortunately I was able to spend New Year's Eve with Simone, her boyfriend and another friend of his, so that I wasn't too lonely! We had a great time too, and made raclette!)
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