Em's Adventures: Snowball fights and Christmas cheer!

Merry Christmas!!

It's been a while since my last post, so there's a bit to cover in this one!
In the weekend Johannes' mother (who doesn't speak a word of English) and his niece came to visit for a couple of days. We also went Christmas tree shopping which was a first for me! They were both really lovely and his mum was always trying to say English words. It was because it forced me to try and speak German if I wanted to say something :)

Anna's dream for the last year or so is to be a proud iPhone owner. She almost had enough money and was determined to get it before Christmas, so on Monday I went into the city with her as her biggest fan so she could go busking. She played Christmas carols on the violin for two hours and made 70 Euros!! She did so well and I was so proud of her :') She ended up making enough money to fund the rest of her phone, so she was a very happy chappy on Christmas Eve!

The main part of Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve on Germany, which was cool to experience! We woke up in the morning to find that the whole living/dining room and kitchen area was blocked off because Carolina and Johannes were decorating it! (I should add that the house had very little Christmas decorations before this point!) At about 1pm we went to a family friend's Christmas get-together and had yummy treats and gluhwein! It was really nice (despite the rain) and everyone was really lovely! When we got home we had a bowl of spaghetti and pesto and got ourselves ready for church (a big part of German Christmases). The church was just around the corner and was hundreds of years old. The main part of it was some kids doing a nativity play which was really cute! We also sung German Christmas carols which I really liked! I enjoyed church a lot - however, I was crying loads throughout the whole thing. I think it was because it was the 'official start' of Christmas and there were so many families there. But once we got back the homesickness was gone and I was ready to take on the rest of the German Christmas! It was such and amazing atmosphere at the house, I couldn't believe it! Anna, Marie, and I were waiting in the entrance way where it was pitch back. We then heard the German version of Silent Night start playing and the blankets that were separating the rooms slowly came down. We saw the living/dining room lit by loads of candles with subtle decorations everywhere - it was so breathtaking. In the corner was the Christmas tree that was lit by real candles and had gold and white decorations. It made me so emotional because it all felt so Christmasy!! After we had all looked at everything we started the traditions! Marie read out the Christmas story for us, then we all to a sip out of a gold and silver bowl that had been in the family for generations, saying Merry Christmas to each other as we passed it around. I started crying again there because Carolina started cry and said "Thank you for being a part of our family." It was so sweet! We then got to unwrapping presents, I got so many goodies and I think the others liked my presents for them too! After that I skyped with the fam and brought them down to say hi to my host-family :) I think Christmas in Germany seems to be a lot more emotional and family orientated than New Zealand, which was really nice to experience - although I did miss the kiwi Christmas with the sun and the beach!

Today Johannes, Marie, Anna, and I drove about 2 hours to the nearest hills to Hannover (which is completely flat!) in search of SNOW! The first place we tried didn't have any but it had soft hail which Johannes llabelledthe 'pre-snow'. We drove a little bit further and guess what? WE FOUND IT! It was like out of picture! The big Christmas trees were coated in snow and the ground was a crisp white - I just couldn't get the grin off my face! When we got there we had a big snowball fight which was loads of fun!! I had such an amazing time! We then came home to our hot Christmas meal that was really tasty. After that we played a board game that resulted in lots of laughs!

Tomorrow at approx. 1:30pm I'm off to Copenhagen to see Caroline (the exchange student who lived with us for eight months)! I'm soooo excited to see her again and catch up on two years of separation!

I hope everyone is well and bursting at the seams from all the Christmas food!
Merry Christmas!!