Christmas day!

It was a lazy day to start with. I woke up around 10am and came downstairs. Our neighbour, Heinz who is a little bit crazy with here for coffee and to exchange presents. He stayed for a while and talked to us. After an hour or so, Julia's Oma came over for lunch. Heinz left and then we exchanged gifts. I gave a handmade glass Christmas decoration and she gave me a print of a painting I said I liked when I was at her house. She also gave me a lovely bracelet.

We all got dressed... And then set the table for our Chrustmas lunch. When everything was ready, Julia's dad cut the ducks up using garden clippers... I thought it was hilarous, so I took a photo. We set the table and put everything out. We ate soup first... I'm really not sure what it was, perhaps chicken? I know it had little alphabet noodles in it though. Then we ate salad with salmon, prawns and cocktail sauce. Then came the duck! We ate it with red sauer kraut, the apple and chestnut stuffing from the duck and these German noodles things...

We sat around and talked for a while, basically to avoid going out into the cold walking. After a while, we all got up and went outside. We walked through the village and then down a track near the railway line. Miak found a log which later broke in half. It was nice because the sun was shining down.

We came home and sat around the table for ages. We talked, drank coffee and ate biscuits. We talked about the trip to Berlin that Julia and I are going on. The coffee machine also broke down, so Julia's parents got out the old one and got it working. Julia's Oma was still here, but a family friend came over to exchnage presents. She sat and drinking coffee for a little while. Everyone left after a bit and we went into the lounge to sit and relax. I got into my pyjamas and then Julia told me at 9pm we were going sledding. The family was wathcing Ice Age 3 together when we left. We walking down the street and met some of the other girls. It was -10 degrees when we left the house. We walked near all the paddocks at the back of the village and near the track line, then found a perfect hill. After going up and down it a few times, smashing into bushes and so on, we walking up further to near a play ground. We went down with giant mountian of snow that was in the middle of it and then walked to another place. It was sort of like a really hilly street at the end of the village. It has a lot of corners in it. We went down it a few times and then had to walk the whole way up again. At about 11pm, we all headed home. Julia and I sledded down the streets home and then finally gave up because it was too slow.

We came home and took off all of our snow clothes, which were really quite attractive. I got to use my hot water bottle for the first time and took it to bed with me. :)

Merry Christmas! Frohe Weihnachten!

We all woke up at 10.30am or later, slowly getting ready to do things. I came downstairs and the baker had already given by all the house and sold bread.

We sat down to eat, but Julia was still sleeping, so Paul got the dong and took it into her room to wake her. She eventually came down and eat with us.

After breakfast, I showered and we brought the tree inside and put it up. We spent the next hour or so decprating it and putting on the candles. Julia and I had brought down our gifts the night before and put them on the Fussball table. Hannah played piano for a while and then I showed off my non-existent talent by played a Christmas carol myself. I put my little penguin decoration on the tree and everyone thought it was cute, so we put it on the top of the tree.

We put out the Nativity scene that Julia's dad made when they were little and then the tree was finished completely!

We sat around the house, cleaning a bit and gettinge evrything ready to go to their Aunty's house. At 2pm we drove over to Cölbe where she lives and sat and drank coffee and ate biscuits together while talking. Once everyone was there we handed out presents. I got shampoo... A sleeping sheep, a handmade knitted hot water bottle cover and a homemade candle holder made from a beer bottle. We had to leave quite early because we wanted to go to the church in Marburg.

We went to a service at the Elizabeth church in Marburg. We got there 30 minutes early but it was already full. We sat right at the back on little chairs. We had to sing lots of Christmas songs and then they spoke about the story of the Grinch. The lady behind Hannah and I seemed to love singing a bit to much. The service was over in 50 minutes and then we all walked through the snow, to the car.

We drove home and then started cooking dinner. Hannah, Julia and Paul went to feed the horses while Julia's mum and I got all of the presents out and under the tree. We sent Julia's dad away too while we brought the wheelbarrow into the house and hid it. I had to go back outside and cover up all the wheel marks in the snow. We closed the door to the lounge and no one was allowed inside.

We cooked dinner and I made a salad, everyone helped set the table and in no time we were ready to eat. We had schnitzel, chips, mushrooms sauce and salad, then chocolate pudding for dessert. We ate slowly and then finally we were all allowed into the lounge room once this special bell rang...Christmas is a bit different here, Santa doesn't come, the Christkind does...

We all opened out presents slowly. I got a Nirvana CD, an artwork of the planning of the Marburg town hall, chocolate, a notebook, a scarf, a cardigan, a homemade hedgehog and striped leggings that I thought were awesome and wanted a pair to match Paul.

Everyone one played with their presents, especially Paul who got a punching bag, a remote control car and a Lego Star Wars plane. Hannah got an iPod touch and I helped her try to set it up, but it was so confusing in German. We listened to a lot of different music, first Christmas songs, then classical music which is where the dancing came in, then I tried to put on Marilyn Manson, didn't work. I tried Johnny cash, but the CD ended up ebing Judas Priest.
We listened to some Johnny Cash in the end, some South American music and some Fleetwood Mac.

Julia's dad gave up in putting together the Lego plane, so I stepped in and helped Paul. We ended up finishing ti in no time and it was a lot of fun.

I also got to see our Christmas dinner once again... Lovely, two dead ducks.

Shopping just before Christmas!

This morning we were all planning on waking up early, before 7.30am... I set my alarms and did wake up, but went to bed. Everyone else woke up at 8am and I got a wake up call then too.
I quckly got dressed and went downstairs. Julia's mum, Julia, Hannah and I piled into the car and drove to the supermarket, Tegut. We walked around and I got to look at the cheeses because we still can't find my favourite one from last time I was in Germany. We finished shopping and bought everything then loaded it into the car.

We drove into Cölbe to buy a wheelbarrow and then we had to sqeeze it into the car, but it fit well.

We went home and on the way we saw a green chair sitting on the side of the road, like hard garbage. We took it with us in the wheelbarrow.

When we got home, we all unloaded the car and then finished the biscuits Julia started making the day before and making some chocolate crackles for Christmas presents. We ate breakfast together, bread rolls with cheese and the like.

After breakfast we finished making the biscuits and layering on the chocolate. Julia and I ended up with slightly burnt fingers and with chocolate everywhere.

When Julia and I finished the biscuits, we drove into Marburg with her dad and went Christmas shopping. We parked at their Oma's house and then walked around buying little gifts. We ended up at the jewellery shop on the other side of the city and Julia's dad walked back and drove the car over because the line was so big in the shop. We bought another gift and then waited for her dad. We quickly jumped into the car and drove off.

When we drove into our village and their was a big Mercedes Benz truck broken down blocking the whole road. Julia got out and ran home because she was late for training. Julia's dad used to work with the man that was repairing the truck and spoke to him a bit. We had to reverse the car and drive the long way around to the after side of the village.

We got home and lunch was nearly ready to eat, so we sat in the kitchen and eventually had a carbonara style sauce with pasta. We sat and talked, then Julia's parents went and napped on the couch before Julia's dad went to work and Julia's mum started the Christmas cleaning.

The rest of the afternoon I spent knitting, helping clean and wrapping the rest of my gifts for the family. I drank coffee with Julia's mum and folded the washing with talking about Australia compared to Germany and so on...

Hannah had a friend over and we ate dinner together. We had bread with all the different cheeses. There was also mozarella... Yum. Paul was very ngry throughout dinner and I tried to cheer him up with a lollipop, but he was still mad. It provided us with a lot of entertainment throughour dinner.

I sat with Hannah and her friend and talked for a while, whilst knitting of course. I started my scarf today and I am nearly half way. Julia and I soon went to one of our friend's house and brought her our Christmas presents. We spent a while there and played with her rabbits.

We ran home and then I played UNO with Julia's mum and Paul. Julia's dad came home and played with us for a while, but he had to go back to work. Paul went to bed and then Hannah and I sat, watching Mama Mia and knitting. We sang along a lot and then evntually went to bed after 12.

Tomorrow is Christmas eve and we decorate the Christmas tree, then visit family and the family wants to take me to the Elizabeth church in Marburg if we have time.

I got a little four leaf clover incased in glass in my advents calendar. :)

Knitting socks...

I woke up at 10am this morning, showered and when I came downstairs, Julia's dad was drinking his coffee. I ate cereal and then tried to tidy up my room a bit. Julia's borther was awake, but no one else woke up for a while. I hung around the house and then sat on the couch for a while. Julia had training at 1pm, and woke up just before she had to leave. I borrowed some gift wrapping supplies from Hannah's room and started wrapping all my gifts for Christmas. They are not very well wrapped, but I think I did a good job.

Julia's mum came home from work and we quickly ate leftover chicken curry and rice from the day before. We had to leave quickly and pick Julia up from training, then drive into Marburg so Julia could go to the doctor.

While Julia was at the doctors, we walked around the city a bit and bought last minute Christmas present and some socks, because everyone had ran out of them. I bought some Christmas present for Julia's aunties and then I was done with all my gifts! We walked back to Julia's Oma's house and on the way we saw a fire truck with men hammering down the iciles that were hanging from the buildings.

We went inside, sat and drank lemonade and ate chocolate. We waited for Julia to come home and then we left after a while.

We drove slowly through the city, the traffic was horrible and it took forever to get out. We drove through Cölbe and the traffic was better, but the roads and so narrow because of the snow. We drove to a little florist that sold Christmas trees and tried to pick one out. Julia's mum and I decided on one, but everyone else thought it was ugly. The trees are so different to in Australia, I'm used to seeing huge, full trees... We shoved it in the car and drove to our next destination.

We were planning on going to by wool, but the place Julia's mum likes to buy it from is dangerous to get to because the roads are so slippery. We are going tomorrow instead. We got to go to this place called SB Union. It is like Costco in Melbourne, the restaurants buy all there supplies here and you need a special number, just like in Melbourne. We walked around and all we were reall excited about were the lollies. We found giant straws, massive amounts of seafood and peanuts! They also sell huge amounts of everything else, lollies, gerkins and then of course, firework which are legal in Germany between the 29th-31st of December.

We came home and unloaded the car, I got to carry the lovable Christmas tree to the house and placed it in the snow outside so it stood up. I think it is going to stay there until we decorate it on the 24th.

We came home and we were all starving, so we made pizza and left it in the oven. In the meantime, Julia's mum and I drank coffee together because she says that I never want to drink coffee with her and we ate little Lindt chocolates, but no one can know. We hid them from everyone else. Our pizza was ready and we ate it all, then Julia's mum and I went to one of the neighbours house to learn how to knit socks... Before we left, a giant truck decided to drive into the village and then turn around in the tiny streets here... That was interesting.

We went over to our neighbours house and tried to learn how to knit socks... We learnt that Australian's knit differently to Germany, but I think I just might knit strangely. For socks you end up having 5 needles to make the circle. It is so difficult trying to knit with them all in the way. We also found out that I pearl backwards... It was very strange and complicated, it gets easier to knit, but then worse when you get to the heel... I don't think I will get that far, or I will just end up making one sock.

We walked home at about 9.45pm and Julia's borther was still awake watching Bonanza. I sat down and watched with him, then he went to sleep and we all watched TV.

I got a little German writing book in my advent calendar today, just after I bought new notebooks as travel diaries because I'm about to finish mine.

Christmas in 10 days!

This morning was a nice day, I was meant to sleep in until 10am, but I decided to wake up at 9am anyway. I came downstairs, made myself breakfast and wrote a letter to a friend in Australia. I got ready for school and then had extra time, so I wrote more of my letter. Julia and I caught the train to school and then walked there.

Most of the other kids had language classes during that period, but we walked up to our classroom with some other friends and sat outside. There was a French class in the room and they were making crepes. Our room smelt like crepes for the rest fo the day.

We had History next and we went into the room during our 20 minute break. We sat in our spots and talked. During our History class, we watched a DVD about German history and some of the background of the Kings that they had. I ended up listening to the film and drawing in my notebook.

For our next class, we had to walk to the science rooms and up all of the steps to the Chemistry classrooms. Our teacher was running a little bit late, and we ended up in a different classroom to last time. It was like one of those lecture rooms, with teared seating, except it was a tiny room. The students got their tests back that they had done 2 weeks ago and then our Chemistry teacher, who is our homeroom teacher too, handed out the Secret Santa presents. Lots of people weren't there, so it was bit complicated.

We got out of class a little bit early and Molly and I caught the bus to the main train station. We saw Hannah at the train station and she stayed with us until we had to catch our train. She was waiting for a friend before coming home. We caught the train with some of the other girls in our village.

When Molly and I came home, Julia's mum and brother were home. Lunch was nearly finished and we helped finish the salad and set the table. We ate potatoes, pork chops and salad.

Paul's cute snow flake decorations.

Julia's aunty came over and had coffee with us, then another family friend too. We all sat at the table and talked. I decided it was about time that I started making Christmas present, so I made some bowls out of vinyl records for Julia's 'sort of' uncle. Everyone was really surprised at how they worked out, but it is my secret.

Everyone left after an hour or so and it was time to get dressed and leave for the Christmas concert. We planned on catching the train into near school, but when we got to the train station, there was no train. We quickly walked home and got driven into the middle of Marburg. We got soft drinks from the supermarket and then chicken burgers from McDonalds. (Julia's favourite... We don't have them in Australia. They have sweet chilli sauce in them...) We missed all the buses to near school and would have had to wait. Julia voted that we walked because it really wasn't too far. We walked and it was quite nice, except for the cold. We arrived just on time and saw some of our friends who were either helping out or performing.

We sat down and watched the different year 5 band play and sing, then slowly the older kids, the choir and the bands. There was a break in the middle and we talked to some friends and ate pretzels. Another exchange student from Canada was playing trombone in one of the bands. At the end of the concert everyone sung 'O du Fröhliche', there was words on a screen, except they were too small to read. Molly and I sat there while everyone sang.

We caught the train home from near the school. The walk there and the train ride was quite entertaining, there was a lot of christmas coral singing along the way. We came home quite late and I watched television with Julia and her dad for a while before going to bed.