Booths were filled with goodies, food, hot drinks, & crafts. Here are many kinds of candied nuts, bee's wax candles, and candies made of marshmallows.
In some of the markets the city provides all the booths but in others such as Frankfurt, they are individually decorated and very cute.
Each market has unique decorations...the one in Wiesbaden
had a huge pyramid in the center of the market:
The Frankfurt market has this incredible merry-go-round!
Here's a picture of Paul at Rudesheim...
This picture shows how crowded the market in Frankfurt was
and this was on a weekday night!
One unique market we went to was in Ronneburg.. it is held in a castle and is a medieval fair with many people in medieval costumes. It is dark with fires in pits and booths lit by candles ...very different and interesting!
Bev is the Primary Chorister and had fun teaching some
Christmas songs to her kids. They sang for the congregation
on December 16th!
She was also in charge of decorations for the Sr. Missionary Zone Conference held on December 5th. These are advent centerpieces...the Germans light one candle on the first Sunday in December, 2 candles on the 2nd Sunday and so on. They were everywhere to be purchased so they just needed bows added to be beautiful centerpieces. Finding candycanes was another challenge!
On Christmas Eve many of the Senior missionaries went downtown to hear the church bells from 9 cathedrals ring from 5:00 to 5:30. It was crowded but fun!
Here is one of the cathedrals.
Christmas Eve we spent with friends having dinner and playing games. The Livingstones are the directors of the YSA's for the area.
Christmas Day we enjoyed a fabulous Brunch for all the Sr. Missionaries
We went home and SKYPED and then went to dinner at the Francois' home with Gilles (French) Larissa (Russian) and their 3 darling boys. Tibault
Benoit, and Guillaume. Then it was back home for more SKYPING with our kids and grandkids. It was a wonderful and memorable day.
New Years was spent with friends in downtown Frankfurt who live on the 6th floor. After lots of food and games we watched the sky come alive with 1000's of fireworks exploding right before our eyes...amazing!!!
It was a great start to 2013!!! Can't believe we come home in 4 months!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
