Weigel Family Travels: So far, so good

Happy Holidays! We're behind this year with our cards, so hopefully the pics on the blog will suffice until we get some postcards in the mail. Christmas is celebrated here on Christmas Eve, and das Christkind (Christchild) brings the presents. Santa Claus and das Christkind worked together to find us here in Ansbach this year;-) It was the first Christmas in Germany for the kids, and they adjusted just fine. We were hoping for a "real" snow (one that sticks), but we haven't had any luck with that yet. The kids' got sleds and ice skates (pretty typical household items here) for Christmas, so we're still hoping it will get cold/snowy enough to put them to good use in the nearby forest which boarders a large meadow and a couple of ponds that usually freeze over in winter and make for nice ice skating.

Today marks the end of our 3rd full week here. Three weeks is the typical amount of time we spend in Germany each year in summer, at least since Hayden was born. I was admittedly a little nervous about the longer stay this time, but so far it's been easier than we expected. Knowing that we have plenty of time to see friends and family and still travel has made everything and everyone much more relaxed. Three weeks might have seemed like a long time to be away when we came in the past, but when it's the only time each year you have to visit friends and relatives who live so far away, those three weeks are always very packed, and we always leave knowing that we didn't have quite enough time to spend with several folks here who want to visit with us/see the kids. We've always had fun here, but until now our visits have always been very hectic and full of a year's worth of obligations that are impossible to fulfill in such a short time. The change of pace this time is refreshing.

Another bonus this time around is that we have our own kitchen. As some of you may or may not know, when we come to Ansbach--a town about the size of Auburn--we stay in a rooftop apartment above Robert's parents. We live in town, not far away from downtown (about a 15 minute walk to the pedestrian zone) and the set up is much like it is in bigger cities in the states. The apartment we live in looks like a 3 story townhouse from the outside, but each "townhouse" is actually a series of flats with their own entries, and the entries are are connected by a common stairwell. So, on the 2nd floor are Oma and Opa (Grandma and Grandpa), and on the 3rd floor are the Weigels. This 3rd floor apartment has had a series of renters in the past, but ultimately it was purchased by Oma and Opa about 10 or so years ago. The "kitchen" from the original 1961 apartment was long since out of use and had been used more for storage than for anything else, so we always shared Oma and Opa's kitchen while we were here. Thankfully, as a Christmas gift to us, Oma and Opa had the kitchen fully restored for us this year, and this has been quite a treat! We do a lot of cooking, so having a kitchen of our own has made a huge difference this time around. We are living surprisingly comfortably in the 750 square feet of living space, and although everything is much smaller than what we're used to at home, it's also very cozy...and I have a lot less space to keep clean. MAJOR bonus!

Santa was in Ansbach!

Cleaning brings me to another bonus regarding the health benefits of doing laundry here. The laundry room is in the basement, and four flights of stairs are quite the workout when you're doing laundry for a family of five. I thought I'd miss the gym, but between occasional jogs and laudry, I might return to Auburn fitter than when I left;-)

I think that about covers it for now. We had a little snow overnight, which is a pretty sight from this rooftop apartment this morning. It's not enough snow for sledding, but it's pretty nonetheless.