Our First Christmas Markets!

It's been 6 long weeks since my last post because, well,  life inevitably throws you some curveballs. The first three of those weeks were spent recovering from my ankle injury and had us sidelined from sight-seeing. Then three weeks ago we sadly lost my mother-in-law to an illness she fought long and hard against. She was one of the main reasons I started writing this blog, so that she could experience a bit of what we get to do and see over here. She loved to travel and had taken several trips with us as a family back in the states. I know that if her health had permitted, she would have been one of the first to hop a plane across the ocean and come explore Germany with us. Just about every Monday, I could count on her to message me to ask if we'd been anywhere over the weekend and when the pictures would be up on the blog. So with every new place we see and every new thing we experience, I will always think of her and wish she were on the other end of this blog reading about our adventures!

We got back from our quick trip home just in time to recover from jet lag, spend a week being sick, then start going to Christmas markets! Since the moment we found out we were moving to Germany, everyone we know who had lived here before started talking about Christmas markets and how much we were going to love them. Laurel and I have been especially anticipating December's arrival so we could go find out what all the fuss was about. So this weekend the four of us went to our first Christmas markets!! They were just small ones in our local area, but we fell in love with them nonetheless.

The history of Christmas markets goes back to the late Middle Ages. The Christmas markets (or "Weihnachtsmarkt") sell food, drink, and seasonal items from open-air stalls, and they are just they most magical thing ever, especially at night when they are all lit up. Don even enjoyed himself, and Austin said he didn't mind going, and that's a lot coming from my two sportsmen!

Here are a few pictures from the markets we went to in the towns of Weiden, Amberg, and Grafenwoehr.

 

Puts you in the Christmas spirit, right?? Now that my girl has finished her up first semester of college and has the rest of December off, she & I will be hitting up some of the bigger markets, and I cannot wait!! So y'all can just prepare for Christmas market overload this month :)