The trees of Nerotal Park
now has finally come! It has fallen all day, first in huge, blustery flakes and hours later, in softer, slower drifts. However it falls, I'm a fan! I hope it continues for at least the next month and a half...
This morning, as the flakes really began to fall...
Slowly starting to build up in our garden by midday...
By late afternoon, everything was covered in fluffy whiteness!
I've been waiting for this unofficial kick-off to the German holiday season with much anticipation. Between the snow and the Christmas markets, there is a sense of the season that never really happened living in California.
Part of it is the weather (I remember one Christmas day biking with my family on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific - in little more than a sweatshirt, pants and a beanie!), but there has become this increasing pressure of political correctness that has made it not okay to outwardly celebrate any one religion's winter holiday, for fear of offending all the other people who celebrate something else.
Frankly, it also seemed ridiculous listening to Christmas oldies talking about frightful weather and sleigh bells, when we never experienced any of it.
Even nature knows it's holiday time!
Here, the tradition of Weihnachtsmärkte is older than America itself (by hundreds of years) and ensures Christmas is larger than life for a whole a month long. These markets are packed on a nightly basis and one often ends up sharing a standing table with strangers while enjoying a steaming mug of Glühwein and Wurst mit Brötchen. Other than with closest friends and family, I can't think of any holiday experience I had that came anywhere close to this. Just another reason I love where we live - we came to the right place!
The Wiesbaden Sternschnuppenmarkt
(our Christmas market - named for the beautiful stars that decorate the booths and light up the sky)
Luckly, our first houseguests of season were able to make it to the markt on their very last day in Germany; I'm pretty sure they enjoyed it. Warm, spiced wine, sticky-sweet Schokokuss and great new friends - how could anyone not?
Obviously catching on that this is the time of year to visit, we are welcoming another guest next week, a friend I have not seen since college and reconnected with through all the gloriously easy social networking that allows me to stay connected with everyone, even half a world away. Can't wait to show her the German holiday season!
*Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische
