first advent

On Saturday we went out for our first taste of the Christmas markets starting to open up! I love these markets! They are filled with wooden booths with vendors selling all kinds of goodies from Christmas decorations to Gluhwein (a hot spiced wine) to bratwurst and all kinds of crafts!

We visited the Buehl market...



...and this year our tiny village of Oberweier had their very first tiny Christmas market...



That night we got our Christmas tree up.



Most of our decorations are stored away in America, but I brought my pretty tin starts and we've added some red felt decorations and a few wooden pieces we got at last year's Christmas markets. And this year Karl added some new candle lights.



The four Sundays before Christmas are the Advent Sundays. This weekend we celebrated the first advent with a traditional advent wreath.

Each Sunday you light a candle to represent the advents: one candle on the first advent, two candles on the second, and so forth...



I made it on Sunday afternoon from things I had bought the day before: a fresh wreath, some fresh leaves and berries and things for decoration, some candle holders designed to stick into the wreath, and candles. Each candle is a different size since one candle will burn all four advents but one candle will only burn three, etc.

It think it turned out pretty!



There is no where in the world I would rather be for Christmas than Germany! I love celebrating the season here! I can't wait to share all the other wonderful things about Christmas in Germany with you!