Frohe Weihnnachten aus Deutschland!! Merry Christmas from Germany! At last I post again!! Hope you all enjoy these pics from this past week. Lana arrived on Wednesday 12/13 and we have been having a fun time! And Glen & Julie even got to go on a date (and do some gift shopping) this past Saturday while Renata & Grandma Lana hung out at home! Yay! A much needed date after a 5+ month hiatis... Then, on Sunday we all traveled far and wide on the trains to get to Rüdesheim (am Rhein) where they hold an annual international Christmas Market. Rüdesheim is a medieval town on the Rhein but is on the opposite side of the Rhine as where we live so we had to take a round-about way to get there by train but it was a fun adventure! Lana treated us to a nice meal at a traditional German restaurant and Renata got to ride on a few rides (including a choo choo train) and go to a petting zoo that included rabbits and guinea pigs running around a little pen with miniature buildings! We even got to eat Spanish Churros with chocolate sauce and a "to die for" dessert dumpling filled with cherry and topped with vanilla sauce & chocolate shavings!!!! We hope you're salavating!!!! LOL! We miss you all and love you all! We will be thinking of you as we celebrate our German Christmas this weekend - Love, Julie, Glen, Renata & Lana xoxoxoxo

Hi Everyone! Well, it's been a long time since we've blogged and I wouldn't blame you'all if you have stopped looking for new pics by now! Things got a little crazy here after our move to Budenheim what with setting up the apartment, Glen starting school, Renata starting "Spielgruppe" (preschool) and me learning how to get around in our new town and how to drive to the grocery store here!! So we are quite settled in at this point and have now been in Deutschland for 4 months (WOW!) - it still amazes me to realize we are at four month now. In just a few weeks we will be awaiting the arrival of Grandma Lana! Yay!! Here are a few pics of the past week and most of them show us at the local St. Martin's Parade. He is a saint who is very celebrated here in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. All the children bring their homemade lanterns (with special holder and light) and walk the parade route with their lanterns and "St. Martin" on horseback leading the parade (watch out for the poopie)!! At the end of the parade they give each kid a special St. Martin pretzel (sweet and covered with sugary icing). Glen & I also bought some glüwein to keep us warm (it is a hot mulled wine). They even had a non-alcoholic version for Renata - which she loved, of course! Anyway, hope you all enjoy this set of pics and I'm going to try to be better about our postings. Happy Thanksgiving! Love, Julie, Glen & Renata

When we left the Zoo some people from Holland asked Glen to help them push start their Skoda from the Czech Republic. Proof again how international Berlin is!



We got to go in the Gedächtnis Kirche memorial church on the Kurfurstendamm.



































Next to the Brandenburg Gate they are currently finishing work on the New (Old) American Embassy It used to be there before the soviets took that section of Berlin over after WWII. The Americans didn't want to build it there when the capital moved back to Berlin in the 1990's but they worked a deal to reroute traffic so that cars don't go directly pass it. There will also be no front door to the new Embassy people will enter through a fortified tunnel on another street.






















These pictures show us on our last full day in Berlin. At the new Holocaust Memorial we reflected. We saw the Brandenburger Tor "Brandenburg Gate" And the girls posed in front of it under the Pariser Platz sign. We also had an excellent breakfast in Holger's neighborhood at a Russian Jewish restaurant. In the subway U-bahn Julie took a picture of how even in public they separate all their garbage.