My christmas story:
So ofcourse as always we had to wait at the airport...big surprise. But Jojo's (pronounced yoyo, it is a nickname stemming from a last name) plane was about 3 hours late and unfortunately we didn't know that before we left for the airport. So we had a nice road trip, got to the airport, figured out how late his plane was, dealt with Katy's christmas fiasco, kind of, and went window shopping. Then we waited some more and finally the plane arrived. yay! We added even more to the car, which was really unbelievable because we already had so much stuff in the car, but we added all Jojo's stuff and Jojo and managed to make it all work. Drove the rest of the way to Bonn pretty much uneventfully, but by the end I was exhausted and just about falling asleep in the car. Viki's mom made us a great dinner of pork, some bread thing that you steam, red cabbage (i think) and fruit salad, but it was all really good.
We were all tired and pretty much all slept in the next day and just relaxed. I made it a point to help Viki's mom with breakfast and other meals or to help cleanup afterward because she was always making everything for us which was very sweet. Everymorning we had a table full of breakfast that was really incredible. That day Viki's friend Roland got into town and the four of us (Viki, Katy, Roland, and Me) went to the Christmas market in Bonn. Viki, Katy, and I had already been to 2 or 3 and been rather unsuccessful but I managed to get pretty much all my shopping (I really only got stuff for the kids here, and Glòria and Ferran) done, which was excellent. While there we met up with Roland and the five of us took off for an Ice Hockey game between Hamburg and Koln. The girls were rooting for a different team than the guys, but at this point and I can't remember who was rooting for who, but I think Hamburg won...I am just not that into ice hockey i guess. But we got there really early and had a lot of time to kill so I have
a lot of pictures from the hockey game...I think I spared you from them while making the album because they were mostly all the same...after the hockey game we decided to go out for a little dancing and whatnot, so we found a bar, but both Jojo and Roland were dealing with jetlag (having both just gotten back from Australia in the past 3 days) so we called it a fairly early night and went home.
I actually pretty much made a habit of sleeping in while in Bonn except one day when i woke up early and went for a run. it was absolutely wonderful. Viki described the way to me, and i think i might have followed it. her mom also described another way and i don't really know if i went the way either of them intended me to go...in the end i went farther then i meant to because even though i took the same path back that i took out i managed to get a bit lost. i ended up taking a detour through some german woods, then thought i was close to their neighborhood so i got out of the woods only to find out that half the people i asked for directions (which consisted of saying the street name) didn't know what street i was talking about...great...but since i am here posting this, you can rest assured that i made it back. in the end i made a huge loop in the middle of the path i was supposed to be on, then got back on the path and miraculously made my way back, i really was grateful, you have no idea. but i was really glad to get the exercise in since the house had little plates of cookies and sweets calling your name at every corner. Shortly after breakfast that day Viki, Roland, Katy, Jojo and me all went ice skating. It was a lot of fun, i always have a great time when i go. and for the first time i tried hockey skates, strangely that was all that was available there (it was only a temporary rink, but still). it was pretty fun though. That night Jojo was having a small dinner at his house, so we made a small appearance. Katy was leaving early the next morning and we were all super tired, so we didn't stay long.
This day we got up at 4 in the morning to take Katy to the airport. I didn't have to get up as Viki was driving Katy, but I didn't want Viki to have to drive back alone so I went with them. Viki and I came back and crashed for a while...then we got up and had breakfast. Later that day (December 23rd) Viki's grandparents came, from Ofortsin, so we cleaned the room Katy and I had been staying in since viki's grandparents were going to stay there, and I moved my stuff into Viki's room, which really made it more of a disaster area because we were attempting a 5000 piece puzzle on the floor. (just to let you know, we unfortunately did not finish the 5000 piece puzzle in 6 days, we did managed to start and finish a 1000 piece puzzle though). That day Viki's younger brother, Max, also arrived from...Hamburg maybe, i don't remember, somewhere else in Germany though I think. That night we all (Viki, Max, her parents, grandparents, and me) all went out to a fun dinner that involved the "circus" and dinner. We would be served a course of the meal and then get to see a solo performance. The performance involved balancing, a trapeze artist, a clown, audience participation (viki's dad and grandfather went on stage at one point and later viki and her brother went on stage). it was really a lot of fun, her family was really sweet, dinner was great, and the show was pretty cool and funny.
The whole time I was there her family made me feel super welcome and i was really happy to be spending the holidays with them. My family has never had a very set or specific christmas tradition, so it was interesting to take part in the holiday with a family with a much stronger tradition. Christmas eve was when we really celebrated the holiday. We all slept in, had a nice large breakfast and then spent some time relaxing. Jojo came over so he and Viki could exchange presents. then we talked him into staying a bit longer and helping us with the 5000 piece puzzle. Viki's mom brought us tea and cookies while we were working on the puzzle and it was really fun. The tree had only arrived two days before and so it had yet to be decorated (it was a real tree and they get it at the last minute so it is still wet, they use real candles instead of christmas lights, so that way if one is misplaced, the tree doesn't really burn that fast). So later in the day Viki got out all the christmas ornaments and her, jojo, and me decorated it while her mom was busy cooking and getting things ready for dinner. Then Jojo left and we all got dressed up and went to church around six. Mostly it involved singing a lot of German christmas carols, which was fun. Then we went back home and had dinner, which consisted of Goose, the steamed bread stuff, red cabbage and a bunch of other things. i was really full. Then we lit all the candles on the tree, sang a couple more christmas carols and opened presents. Viki's parents gave me a pyramid (the little things that you put candles in and then the heat from the candle turns them), her grandparents gave me a beautiful necklace, and Viki gave me some perfume and a key chain. It was really nice relaxing night. Then after dinner we had crepe sussette, they have it every year after opening christmas presents.
well, this is already super long and i am not even done, but i am super tired, so it will have to do for now, i will write more another time. here is the photo album:
http://drexel.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2042354&l=963fe&id=10500847
