A Christmas in Brehna

Christmas weekend was a time I will always remember.  It was the first Christmas I spent with Robert and his family.  Friday afternoon, Robert and I drove two hours to his parent's house in Brehna for our Christmas weekend together. In Germany, we celebrate Christmas on the 24th from morning until late late hours into the 25th.  Our Christmas Eve was celebrated with lots and lots of family.  Robert's parents (Lothar and Renate), his sister (Peggy), her husband (Ilia) their son and Robert's nephew (Elias) and then his Aunt and Uncle (Thomas and Ingrid) and their daughter Katarina.  It was a fun evening filled with more laughter than I have heard in a very long time :)

We began around 5 O'clock opening gifts from everyone.  My first gift from Robert was a HUGE box.  I opened it, and inside was another wrapped box, unwrapped that one, and inside was another wrapped box, and so on until I finally opened 6 boxes and was  on the seventh.  A small box, inside was simply a note that read, 'ha ha ha.'  Everyone laughed and so did I.  Afterwards, Robert brought in my 'real gifts.'  Below is me holding a really adorable card Robert made me from hand.  I loved it

After we all finished opening our gifts everyone headed into the winter garden where Robert's mom, Renate, prepared this beautiful table for us to begin our meal

From Left to Right there is Robert's Uncle Thomas, brother in law Ilia, cousin Katrina, sister Peggy, mom Renate, Robert, me, and his Aunt (mom's sister) Ingrid !  We had just finished eating and were talking and enjoying everyone's company  

 Us Girls :)  We later laughed about how in all of the pictures there is always a bottle of Bacardi in front of us (the girls) whenever a picture was taken.  This was ONLY funny because none of the girls drank it.  Only Robert and Ilia were drinking it with coke.  But somehow, it always found it's way all the way over to our end of the table ??!!!

 After eating and a little chatting, we  started playing a game called 'Activity,'  girls against boys.  One girl or boy had a card and on each card was a word, you either had to act without words, describe or explain, or draw whatever the word was.  Without ever actually SAYING the word obviously.  We played this same game 4 rounds through.  The girls won 3-1.  Of course !!!  It was SO much fun !!!

 Here is Robert's mom and his dad sitting together around 4:30 in the morning after we had finished playing and his Aunt, Uncle, and cousin headed home.  They actually live two houses down from Robert's parents, so it's quite convenient for them :)

 Saturday morning we woke up early.  This was pretty crazy because we had gone to sleep shortly before 6am, yet woke up at 10.  I had the genius idea of putting on warm clothing and going outside.  Lucky for me, Robert's mom had tons of snow pants, warm clothing, and hats for us all to wear !! Us being Robert, Elias, and me.  We tried to make a snow man, but the snow wasn't dense enough and was too fresh.  It wasn't good packing snow at all.

We then decided we should find somewhere to go sledding. About 3 minutes from the house, we found somewhere!!!  Here are a couple pictures of Robert and his nephew Elias sledding together.  They had such a fun time and there were so many smile, laughs, and screams (the good kind of course !!!)

 On our way home, I decided it would be fun to have a snowball fight.  Though as I said before, the snow was terrible for packing, there did happen to be random balls of snow laying almost EVERYWHERE.  It was insane, but I was thankful for it in the fight.  Elias and I threw snowballs the whole way home!!  Look at the huge snow ball I have in my hands !!

 After we were all tired out from being in the cold cold winter weather, Robert's mom had prepared for us my favorite meal of all time.  I have decided that if I knew I was going to die, this would be the last meal I would ask for.  Klöse, red cabbage, and gulasch.  There was also duck, boiled potatoes, gravey and brötchen.  The picture is what I ate though.  YUM !!!

 After eating, Robert's sister's family headed home (they live in Berlin too)  Robert and I were exhausted and so we took a long nap until 5:30 in the evening. Robert's mom and dad took a mid day nap as well.  After our nap, we had some evening bread with noodle and potato salad and relaxed around the table together.  It was a very relaxing Christmas day and I must say I enjoyed the entire weekend.  It was completely different than a Christmas I am used to, however, I enjoyed it all the same :)

I hope that your Christmas too, was packed with fun, family, laugher, and love.