2nd Christmas Day

Dec. 26, 2012

Not too exciting today!!  We didn't even get up until 10:30!  Even Mr. Morning Person himself.

It is Germany's "2nd Christmas" which is a big holiday and people spend the day with family and friends.  We needed some things at the store, like Kleenex, since Lea used an entire box yesterday because of her cold.  So Brad and I ventured out to Marktkauf.  We figured since there were no cars in the parking lot that it was closed!  So we drove around near our house a bit.  We took the little road that we walked on the other day during our nature walk.  It's very secluded and pretty (well, it would be pretty in the summer!)  We can see what looks like a castle from here so we drove to see what it was.  It IS a castle!  It is in Wikipedia (so may or may not be correct info!) and they say it is not open to the public and a family lives there that has been there since 1500 something.  Darn.  I wanted to see it.

I lifted this off of the internet.  Beautiful!  Wellenburg.

We came back home and picked up the girls to go out for lunch.  There is a Doener place in Goeggingen (well, there are several.  They are everywhere.)  It was SO GOOOOOOD we almost passed out.  Brad has had many over the years and this is the best!  It is like a gyro but made with turkey.  It is Turkish and there are many Turkish people who live in Germany.  Here is some on the spit:

These dudes made their own flat bread for the sandwiches, too!  It was so fresh and delicious.  The girls even like it and they can't even have the creamy sauce!  Here is my sandwich, half gone :)

Lea and I had orange pop, Lainie had apfelschorle which is very popular in Germany and is a mixture of apple juice and fizzy water.  Brad had Roteschorle which is the water with apple and cherry juice.  The brand name of these was "Alaska" which is kinda funny.  It is made by a brewery who makes Schwarzbraeu beer, as far as I can tell.  The website is all in German so I may be wrong! But I did manage to tell the owners, in German, that Brad has had many Doeners here and this is his fave!

OK enough about the food.  It was a colder day here, but still not cold.  Yesterday was 65, so today being in the 40's seemed cool.  Nice and sunny!  We saw tons of people out walking.  Not sure if they were just getting exercise, or going somewhere!  Only restaurants are open, so who knows.

Here we are walking in downtown Goeggingen

We came home and relaxed.  We had some soup for dinner which was interesting because it was in a can and our can opener would not work.  I had to go next door to the landlord's house and ask for one.  I felt really uncomfortable because it's a holiday, but I was hungry!  And they should provide us with a can opener NOT from the dollar store :)  I just don't want to offend anyone by not knowing their customs, ya know?

At some point in the day we played Lea's new Uno game from Santa.  Wimpy Kid version.  It was fun!  Brad watched a documentary on Hulu, Lea watched her episodes and Lainie and I finally got to see the Survivor finale.  Skype worked really well when we talked to my parents.  Brad and I took a walk at about 9 pm.  Pretty good day!

Seems like a boring day, but it was still great in my book!  Time with my favorite people in all the world!  Now it's off to bed to finish my book.  I am thankful for lazy days like this.