German Easter Egg Tree

I wonder if people think that it's weird that I've completely skipped over St. Patrick's Day and went directly to decorating our house for Easter.  It's not that I don't like St. Patrick's Day.  I just couldn't wait to get our first German Easter egg tree up.  I mean, I'd hate to let the 60+ Euro I've already spent on eggs go to waste!  Plus, it's so exciting to get Sina in on the fun too.

I didn't know this, but evidently Germany is regarded as the birthplace of modern day Easter icons like the Easter bunny and tree.  Children were told stories of the Easter bunny, or Osterhase, who hid eggs and chocolates for kids to find on Easter Sunday.  German immigrants to the United States brought these traditions with them and spread it all over.  Here in Germany, people exchange eggs as gifts and Easter egg trees are very popular.  As a matter of fact, I did a search on Google and found these amazing pictures of egg trees.  I couldn't believe it.  People hang thousands of eggs in their trees outside the house.

Sina and I went on a long walk today to collect branches for our tree.  I took a glass pitcher, stuffed it to the brim with pink and green Easter grass, shoved our branches in and voila!  We have our tree!

I decorated it with the eggs I bought in Maulbronn last weekend.  I also put on some lady bug and bumble bee ornaments as well as some old egg ornaments (from a flea market) that I got in Waldenbuch last year.  We're planning on going to Prague for an Easter market next month, so we'll definitely be adding to this collection.

Sina loves it.  She kept saying, "Ooooooh!" each time I put an egg up.  When I stopped she said, "More!".

Along with this, I have decorations in our doorway, Easter decals on our windows, and fresh tulips all over the house.

The first official day of spring is March 20th, but with the kind of weather we had today, I'm thinking it's already started.  And it's kind of funny to think that the mid-40s feels like spring to us here.  No wonder I'm in an Easter kind of mood.

Anyway...happy Saturday you guys!

{Egg}static!

What a weekend!  Sina and I definitely kept ourselves busy entertaining friends and going sightseeing and shopping with them as well.

Back in the day when my parents were stationed here, everyone wanted to go back to the States with schranks (German furniture--they're mainly big closets/wardrobes/some with shelving and lighting), Hummel figurines, and cuckoo clocks (some people still like these).  Heck, my parents still have some of these things in their house now.  So do their friends--many of whom are retired military folks that were stationed here years back.

Not me.  I've made it clear that I want two things and two things only-- (1) Christmas ornaments/decorations (which I scored big time on last year during the Christmas market season); and (2) Easter egg ornaments/decorations. 

Folks...it's Oster Markt, or Easter Market, season here in Europe!  Just when I thought that I'd had enough fun during Christmas season, Easter is just around the corner and I jumped at the first opportunity to scope out an Easter market about 40 minutes away from here.  We were here for Easter last year.  Not sure what I was thinking not attempting to do this back then.

I'll post more about this tomorrow, but here's a sneak peek...

Two of my lady friends, Sina and I spent the day at a kloster (cloister, or monastery) in the city of Maulbronn and splurged on some of these hand-painted, hand-crafted eggs, or eier.  What a blast!

More pics to come tomorrow!

Hope you all have an {eggs}traordinary week!

Frohe Weihnachten! {Stuttgart Xmas Market, Part II}

Last Friday, we took the Finch Family to the Stuttgart Christmas Market since Malu and I had such a blast the first time we went.  We had a slight hiccup that morning.  We were actually supposed to take the train to Strasbourg, but it didn't quite work out.  For our large party, it was going to cost us almost $500 to take the intercity train all the way down there.  Heck no...not for a two-hour drive that would only cost us almost a full tank of gas.  So, since we were in downtown Stuttgart anyway, we settled for going to the Christmas market just a short walk from the train station.  How convenient!  Strasbourg was going to have to wait another day.

The problem with going to the Christmas market on a Saturday?  The crowds.  I mean, it was hella crowded.  But not crowded enough to ruin the afternoon/evening.  We had such a great time.  We actually stayed out until the late evening, which either family normally doesn't do because of the babies and their bedtimes, the hassle of it all, etc.  But we braved it anyway and it was totally worth it. Because I took so many pictures...I had to narrow them down to a few that I thought everyone would enjoy.

It was rather chilly that day, but it was perfect because there was no rain!!!  Anyway, we immediately set out to look for some gluhwein and to start collecting our gluhwein cups.  Every place has a different kind of cup or mug and we probably picked up about 3 or 4 that day.  What's nice is you pay a deposit on the cups when you buy the drink.  If you choose not to keep the cup, you just turn it in and get your deposit back.  It's the same with some of the dishes that your food gets served in.  I actually walked around with a dish full of spaetzle (noodles) at one point.  People looked at me weird, but hey, I paid a deposit and turned it in when I was done!  We did some shopping, some munching, and--to be honest--a lot of gluhwein-ing.

And we all actually learned to say Merry Christmas in German that day.  Frohe Weihnachten! 

Madisen, the cute 4-year old belonging to Team Finch, is absolutely adorable.  She loves getting piggy back rides from Malu.  They posed in front of the life-size nutcracker.  The German Pyramid Windmills are a mainstay during the holidays, or you can see them year round at a local Kathe Wohlfahrt store.  This is a giant version of the windmill perched atop a Kathe Wohlfahrt kiosk at the Christmas market.  There, you can purchase miniature ones.  They are so ornate and intricately decorated.  Heat from candles at the base turn the windmill at the top.  I'll be buying one of these before I leave Germany...for sure!

At night, everything is lit and you just ooh and aah at the splendor of it all.  One of the best parts of the evening was listening to a live choir inside the Altes Schloss (or Old Palace).

 We stood amidst a large crowd in that palace and people around us were dancing and singing joyfully with the choir.  It was especially fun when we sang Jingle Bells.  The other best part of the evening was ice skating with Madisen.  Yup...there was an ice skating rink out there.  I hadn't been on the ice in..well...ages.  And Madisen chose me to take her skating.  Needless to say, I had to call for backup.  I snapped a cute picture of Madisen and her mama, Mattie.  Easy peasy for Mattie...she "skated" in her normal shoes!

We decided to go and warm up at a restaurant and have some dinner.  The pick?  Sushi!  I also hadn't had sushi for ages until then.  It was dee-licious!  While we were there, I was able to take a picture of little Mackinley, the newest addition to Team Finch at 7 weeks old.  What a cutie.  And there's Malu and Madisen with our yummy sushi!

One thing was for sure...we were all exhausted when we got home.  It's not easy being out all day and carting around three kids.  Still, we got our rest and headed out to Strasbourg the next morning.  I promise...I'll be telling you guys about that too!

In the morning, Malu, Sina and I will be heading out to link up with Team Finch in their neck of the woods.  Yup, we'll be spending Christmas weekend with them.  Guess we just can't get enough of those guys!

Please keep us in mind as we travel on the roads.  And everyone enjoy your Friday!

Creating Christmas Traditions: Advent Music Box & Ornaments

{Advent Calendar}

I don't really remember doing the Advent calendar countdown to Christmas when I was growing up.  We did the Advent candlelighting at church and that was special enough, but I wanted to start doing this for Sina just to make the holidays extra fun and to give her another reason to look forward to this time of the year for years to come.

Enter the German Advent calendar music box...we bought it at the Stuttgart Christmas market two weekends ago. Sina already received a chocolate Advent calendar from Malu's unit's Christmas party, so I didn't want to fill it up with more chocolate.  Instead, I loaded it bunches of boxes of raisins, which she enjoys.  As she gets older, I'll be getting more creative (i.e. small toys, little notes, maybe some cash), but for now, she looks forward to getting her little red raisin boxes every evening after school.  As soon as we get through the door, she walks over to her music box and pleads for me to make it play.  This thing cost us a pretty penny, but check this video out.

When the music plays, she mostly starts dancing.  And that look of anticipation...makes my heart melt.  I love this girl!  I'd say we're already getting a return on our investment!

After she got her raisins, she walked on over to her little chair, sat in front of her Christmas tree and snacked to her little heart's content.

Minutes later, I popped the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer movie in and she just sat there looking as cute as ever, kicking her legs up in the air.

Priceless.

{Christmas Ornaments}

I'm starting a collection of ornaments, not just for our family tree, but for Sina. A friend of mine has collected ornaments for her three boys for years so that when they're on their own, they won't have to go buying new ones--or they can add to the many they'll already have. Each ornament will hold some sort of significance for all of us and I can't think of anything more special than that. I've been scouting the Christmas markets we've been to already for some cute ornaments. We've only been to two so far and look what we've got. Some have even been given to us by friends and family.

Starting from the top right:

I received a couple of cookie ornaments from my boss' wife.  Apparently, she found them at a Christmas market, so I immediately set out to find some myself.  Someone's gonna get one of these next year!  By the way, Frohe Weihnachten means Merry Christmas!

At the Strasbourg Christmas market, I snagged the one with the pretzel and the stork for Sina.  The word Alsace refers to the region of France that Strasbourg is located.

At the Stuttgart Christmas market, I grabbed some traditional German straw ornaments.  I got Malu the guitar shaped ornament there as well.

The Pohutukawa Angel ornament was sent to us by Malu's cousin in New Zealand.  The Pohutukawa tree flowers at Christmas.  The angel's skirt represents the flower of the Pohutukawa tree, which is bright red with yellow stamens.  Sounds kind of like our Christmas poinsettias, but these flowers are more feathery and even more beautiful.

The Finch Family got us the glass Santa ornament.  I love it!

I love the girl and guy frog ornaments from the Stuttgart Christmas market.  They have nothing to do with Germany (other than being made here), but they are so darn cute and they match our red and lime-green Christmas balls perfectly.

And one more from Strasbourg--a replica of the Strasbourg Cathedral and their infamous stork.  More to come on the Strasbourg Christmas market soon!

And this is just from the past two weekends.  If we keep this up, we'll definitely have to put up more than one Christmas tree in the house every year!

These are but a few Christmas traditions that we're starting for our little family. 

What are your family's Christmas traditions?