The Magic Hat

We had a fun busy weekend that felt as full as Santa's sack on Christmas Eve. I have a sneaking suspicion this post will feel that way too. Friday night hubs and I had planned to knock out a little shopping, but he called on his way home from the office and asked if I wouldn't prefer a glass of wine and a lovely Italian meal at one of our favorite restaurants instead.

Why yes...yes I think I would.

So we did. And it was fun. And not totally unproductive in that I think we do need to just stop the madness every now and then and enjoy what's right in front of us. It was a lovely evening, much lovelier than any mall or shopping center on a Friday night three weeks before Christmas could ever hope to be.

We each had a fairly long to-do list for Saturday which included baking and decorating and a trip to the hardware store and then another trip to the hardware store and maybe a third trip to the hardware store, but we also penciled in a fun midday break. Our little town has some German roots and in early December they host their own version of a German Christmas market.

Oh, it makes me so homesick for my other life. This is the first year I haven't been to a picturesque little European market since 2003. Sigh. Such happy memories of times spent with friends and daughter2. Big sigh.

Our little market makes for a pretty good substitute. We met the very lovely German woman who started the market ten years ago and she knows a thing or two about what's needed to make small town New Jersey feel like a charming German village for one weekend in December. For starters you need a beautiful setting...

add vendors manning stalls selling handmade German smokers...

lots of wonderful food, a few thousand of your nearest neighbors and of course some Christmas music to keep it all festive.

Consider this next photo my entry in the Christmas Photo Challenge for today. Our prompt was 'something warm and tasty' and stroopwafels definitely qualify.

If you've never tried one you must...they're a Dutch treat, waffles made from thin layers of batter with a caramel-like filling.

Set one atop your steaming cup of coffee and the center gets gooey and even more delicious. Know what else is delicious?

Gluwein in a specially designed mug...this is key if you want your market experience to be authentic.

And now I must say a word about the hat. I jokingly call it the magic hat because whenever hubs wears it we make new friends. It's like a magnet. As we made our way thru the crowds he was stopped over and over and over again and asked about his hat. No less than five people took his picture. Several were German and they told us about their childhood homes across the sea and how it came to be that they were eating bratwurst and sipping German beer in the New Jersey countryside.

Hey, even Santa needed a closer look...

The hat is special. It was purchased several years ago in a teeny tiny town in the Austrian Alps, this one in fact-

The wonderful little shopkeeper insisted he take the edelweiss pin to make the hat complete and so it began. He started adding a pin most everywhere he traveled and now that hat is chock-a-block full of flags and emblems and memories. A very special keepsake.

Is this post long? Sorry. I told you our weekend was full. Besides all of the above and a whole lot of decorating in between we also managed to squeeze in two parties, one on Saturday night and another on Sunday afternoon. The Sunday afternoon gathering is an annual event held at the home of hubs former boss.

She and her husband raise money for a local food bank at this event and its possible her hubs walked a llama thru their gorgeous family room. He and my hubs are like two peas in a pod. Not literally of course because her hubs is uber-uber tall, but in spirit? They are so kindred.

Thus concludes the weekend. You are welcome.

Guten Morgen

Wow. It was a weekend plus, but here I am, home again. I've been in Munich. And Nuremberg. And Salzburg. And let's not forget the almost full day I spent in Terminal 5 at London Heathrow. Let's just say England's transport system is easily overwhelmed by snow.

I had plans to fly to Munich to meet up with six friends for a weekend of talking, laughing, and shopping at the German Christmas markets and we definitely hit the ground running. Once I got there anyway. I flew out Wednesday night and was supposed to make a connection in London at noon on Thursday but sadly all flights to Munich, including mine, were cancelled. All but one which was going out early evening and thankfully I happened to be standing in the right place at the right time and got a seat on that flight. Many thousands were not so lucky.

So I arrived in Munich (finally!) and in spite of having shopped in Harrods twiddled my thumbs in Heathrow for some 7 hours my bag did not make it. Hey, that's what friends are for, right? We were all staying with my friend A.M. at her lovely home in a suburb of Munich and everyone contributed to my wardrobe on Thursday...long johns and a hat from one friend, warm socks from another, a turtleneck from another and deodorant from another. I'd been in my same clothes for a couple of days so these things matter people. And take note, I had almost no makeup so those pics from Day 1 are a little sad. We had plans to go to Nuremberg for the day on Friday so A.M. said we could leave a note on her door for British Airways to please deposit my bag with a neighbor. I'm sure she could have worked out the wording herself but in the end we felt it was best to ask her German neighbor to compose the note for us so there would be no miscommunication. My bag was there when we got home that night so yay!

We rode the train from Munich to Nuremberg which is an old walled city filled with history and a fabulous Christmas market.

Course you can't ride a German train for two hours without a pretzel so AW bought this for us to share...

The markets consist of a couple hundred stalls full of German crafts and Christmas decorations and lebkuchen and of course gluwhein because baby it's cold outside!

Gluwhein is essentially mulled red wine and it warms you up right down to your tippy toes.

Did I mention the food? Because there are lots and lots of food stalls with all sorts of delicious treats to try and resist...

Or not...

This is the classic 'Nuremberger'...yum!

One of my favorite sites in Nuremberg is the huge Gothic pyramid that sits in the cathedral square. It is stunning...

Nearly every European city has a beautiful cathedral and Nuremberg is no exception...I never get tired of seeing these amazing old churches.

This is getting long so I think I'll save Salzburg for part zwei tomorrow. Before catching the train back to Munich we had a fun dinner out in a little Italian restaurant where we raised our glasses to friendship...

Friendship born while living far from home...

And now-two continents, five countries, seven separate cities.

To friendship that remains.

If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops

No, I did not just quote a Barney song in my post title. We never watched Barney when my girls were little.

Can you tell I'm trying another Not Me Monday post today?

I think they are fun to write although they confuse some of you readers out

there....the idea is to post about something that really happened but write as if it didn't.

Read along and pretend you'll understand.

We did not have a low key weekend here and it certainly has not rained every single solitary second since Friday afternoon. My husband did not go up and down the basement steps at least 847 times to be sure the walls and floor were staying dry.

Speaking of the hubs...he did not arrive home from Belgium on Friday bearing gifts. He knew I would never want a beautiful tapestry to hang on my stairwell.

Or two smaller wall hangings.

And he can never talk anyone into anything so there is no way the sales lady would have just given him two embroidered pillow tops.

And he did not go to Belgium at least once a month for the six years we lived in England yet wait until we lived on this side of the pond to actually buy a tapestry. We always plan ahead and do what is easiest.

My husband knows I don't have a sweet tooth so it would not occur to him to bring home a box of Belgian chocolates.

And of course we would definitely not break into the chocolates over the weekend because we will be with our girls for Easter and naturally they would want us to share.

And we did not once think back to last Easter when we enjoyed a sunny and

wonderful weekend in Brussels, Brugges, and Ghent.

We would never say we wish we were sitting on the square soaking up the

sunshine and a plate of moules -frites in Brussels.

A weekend of torrential rains in NJ is oh so much better.

We for sure did not go out to dinner in the middle of a monsoon Saturday night. Who does that? We did not run into a detour because the road was flooded and I would never have taken us the long way round because I have an excellent sense of direction and never need to rely on my GPS to get us anywhere. And because we've been married for 25 years hubs would not be surprised by this. He would never question my logic in planning a route. He was the driver so of course he would consult the map before we left the house.

We didn't go to a German restaurant and eat some delicious sauerbraten. And I had not been thinking all day about what wonderful German dessert I would order and then be too full to order dessert at all. I did not try pickled herring and I did not love it. And we did not once mention how the restaurant reminded us of a favorite place in Munich.

(Munich, 2004)

You know we never ever talk about life in Europe.

We are so not like a broken record.

On Sunday we did not have to wait around for Loews to deliver some shelves for the basement because the non-stop rain did not motivate us to finally get all the boxes off the floor down there. And you know when I say us I am not talking about me. Seriously.

And I did not wake up to another gray and rainy day today.

And I am not going to feel grateful because the snow piled six feet high on the edge of the driveway is now down to a measly two foot pile.

And all this rain means spring will not be beautiful and green.

And I am not an optimist.

Santa! I know him!

Okay so who doesn't love Elf?

Our little town hosted a German Christmas Market this weekend so yesterday hubs and I spent a couple of hours walking thru the stalls there. Our little town sits on a beautiful lake and the market was set up on the boardwalk. All the key ingredients were present....a few German crafts, lots of German food, frigid temperatures, gluhwein to keep you warm, lots of snowflakes falling, and of course Santa.

There may not have been a World Heritage Site cathedral like you'll see if you visit the market in Cologne...

or the remains of the Wise Men like you'll see if you go inside the cathedral in Cologne....

and the stalls may not have been strategically placed and beautifully lit just outside the magnificent cathedral like the ones you will see if you visit Cologne...

and you won't have a whole gang of good friends who are willing to examine every Nutcracker, smoker, and pyramid like you had when you visited the market in Cologne, but...

there is a fun sign to mark the entrance....

there is Bratwurst which is essential to Christmas Markets everywhere...like the one in our little town...

and the one in Cologne....

and while the markets are really festive in Cologne....

things are pretty festive here too....

There may not be a magnificent cathedral...

but there is a view like this one...

which is also pretty nice.