Bike Tour

Raphael and I had cabin fever and needed to get out of the house. The sun was shining and it was the first real warm day since sometime back in fall. Spontaneously we decided to ride our bikes to a town south of Munich. I had always heard that this town is very picturesque and I thought it would be fun to explore it. And the ride would be along the beautiful river Isar.
You can faintly see the Alps on the horizon. This was a fun an exciting discovery after literally climbing up a 20 something percent grade to get to this plateau. After 3 1/2 hours and a few detours, we finally made it to our destination...only to realize that I had already been there. (oops -didn't realize that on the church retreat we had gone here to see its Christmas market) But it was still lovely, and we pigged out on a variety of kuchen (cakes) at a local coffee shop before trekking back home.

Work Place

Here is my desk at the office. I share a room with another young girl who sits across from me. My boss sits in the room next door. Pretty simple and bare.

Team Dinner

On Tuesday, Dec. 12, I was able to rejoin my former co-workers for a Christmas team dinner. I was nice to spend time with them. I miss having so many girlfriends to chat and laugh with. We ate together delicious Greek food not far from my old apartment.

2nd Sunday of Advent

We light the second candle of Advent today and I try to remember that this busy season is really a time to prepare our hearts for the Christ child's coming. The children at church led the service and their message was an appropriate reminder "JESUS is the reason for the season". I pray that we will spend as much time preparing our hearts as we do our house and gifts and all the other festive things that happen in this time.

We made garlic herb bread tonight for dinner because we have at least 5 loaves of bread. Raphael attended his CDTM Christmas party on Friday and they had a lot of bread left over. So after Saturday's clean-up, Raphael became the recepiant of this lovely prize. I call this my Christmas bread because of the festive colors.

Raphael is study for his first exam on Tuesday. He has to do a lot of reading.

Passport Photo

Raphael and I learned how to tie a tie. We are preparing to take a passport photo for the application for an immigrant status number so Raphael can apply for a green card in the US.

Preparing for Christmas

So Mom, we (or I should say "I") tried to make the yummy turkey soup that you can create after the Thanksgiving binge. It didn't turn out like the way you make it. It was glued to the sides of the pot when we pulled it from the fridge to eat it.

Raphael is working hard on the computer.

You can see our Advent's wreath (I took some branches from one of our hikes in the Alps) and in the reflection of the mirror you can see part of our Advent calendar. This is typical for children to have little bags on a string and hung on the wall or over the fire place. The family I work for tells their kids that a little angle comes and puts in a surprise each night if they are good.

Thanksgiving

The table is laid. Gooble, Gooble
This was a crazy puzzle! One thousand pieces, but I think 500 of them were solid slightly varying shades of blue. We bought it because it reminded us of our honeymoon to Rome (and it glows in the dark) but if we had known what a chore it would be, we may have changed our minds. We did eventually succeed.