It's Miller Time!

Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012

What an incredible day!!  Here is a sneak peak of the evening:

It's our Anne!!!!!

I had an exciting morning of laundry and cleaning the house.  Necessary but not fun!  Then Brad and I took a long walk.  We live in a really cool area!  (If only it wasn't winter, I said 3000 times.)  We walked down to the river near us.  Along the way, we found these interesting little garden plots.

There are probably 50 of these little sites.  They are all separated by fences and most have a little shed in them.  Some are very cute and decorative, some look like little farm plots.  They have numbers on them.  We assumed they are little garden rentals for people with small lots at home.  We later asked the Millers (more on them later!) who said that yes, they are rental garden spaces but probably for people in apartments with no outside space at all.  They are typically owned by a garden club type of group and you must qualify to have one.  If you have a house with outdoor space, you don't qualify.  We think some people spend lots of time at their gardens because some are quite charming and have patio furniture.  Here was my fave:

We walked on a trail next to a very fast river that has a dam.

There are woods surrounding the river and trail. We saw a few others out running and walking dogs.  It would have been soooo pretty in the summer!

It was very windy so I have a moustache

Indian grass?  In Germany?  lol

We walked through the muddy woods to try to find our way back home.  We found evidence of early German settlers:

Somewhere along the way, I dropped the camera case.  So we had to backtrack a bit.  What a dork I am.

We got to the part of the trail that is right near our house, and discovered the most adorable chapel!  Right there, open, candles lit, a book to sign and say what you thank God for.  It was so charming!  (gotta come up with new words for German stuff.  Charming and quaint are getting over used by me.)

Inside, with candles lit

A Christmassy decoration on the altar

The outside...we noticed tonight that it's lit up on the outside at night with Christmas lights

What a discovery!  I don't know who owns it or built it or takes care of it, but I really love it!

We walked back down our street and I then lost my hat.  Brad was nice enough to go get it for me.  I love that guy.

Nice boy

Our street...we live way down at the other end.  This street is actual size.

We came home and had lunch.  Lainie made Schupfnudeln which is the dish she had at the Christkindlesmarkt in Augsburg.  It is potato noodles and sauerkraut.  (All ready made, just heat and serve!)

12 hours later and our house STILL smells like sauerkraut.

We relaxed a bit (OK, I napped) then got ready to visit The Miller Family!!  Anne stayed with us this summer for about 3 weeks.  She quickly became a member of our family that we will treasure forever!  She was back home from Munich (where her grown up life is) right near where we live, about 10 minutes away.  We were invited to dinner with her family: her parents Anton and Ursula and her little bro Jakob.  We were SO HAPPY to see Anne!!  And finally meet her family after much email correspondence!

Sisters!

Their house is beautiful!  Anne has the coolest staircase up to her attic bedroom, designed and built by Anton!

You know you always wanted one.

We had some delicious cakes (yes, cakes, yes, we had a piece of each!) and talked.  We got to know Anne's family and got caught up with her.  Oh, we have missed her!  She was literally like sunshine in our lives!

Look closely...they have unusual guests visiting baby Jesus!

Pretty tree with many homemade ornaments, 100 year old ornaments and real candles!

We all had such a great time.  Anton even got out his old guitar and he and Brad played.  We moms and kids played a fun game called Qwirkl.

We had a really good dinner of homemade sweet potato soup and some pickled and raw veggies, cheese and bread.  Then we went to church where Ursula's choir was singing.  It was a really cool service.

Churches are generally not heated in the winter.  We were cold, but had our coats of course.  Even the choirs and kids in the service had on coats and hats!  It was unusual to see this.  There were tealight candles placed in precarious places and Lainie spilled some hot wax on her hand, of course.  *sigh*  She is fine :)

We went back and played another game, talked some more and said our goodbyes.  We can't wait to hang out with the Miller's again!!  Such a great day!!!

What a great family!!