Greetings from cold and snowy Berlin!

It's been a cold start to 2009 here in Berlin--I don't think it's been more than a degree or two above freezing yet! We put the feather bed on our bed--the Diplo-cat approves. We find it comfy, too.



Monday night/Tuesday morning we stayed up to watch Ohio State play in the Fiesta bowl, and our neighbors came over. It was a great game, but the last couple of minutes didn't go so well for us, and we were disappointed.

David watching the Bucks score a touchdown.

It's been very cold here, and there are chunks of ice floating in the river, as you can see in the picture. We took all our Christmas stuff down last weekend, except our snowflake lights since we figured those could stay out all winter. This is a view of our apartment from a nearby bridge--our baloncy is the lower of the two with blue lights.

Things have been busy for both of us at work, now that everyone is back from vacation. Friday night we attended a Happy Hour for the First and Second Tour Officer group at the Lir, our favorite Irish pub. Saturday Christy went to see Stasi-Die Austellung, which is an exhibit about the Stasi area East Berlin. Saturday night we tried out a new burger joint, called the Meat-burger. With a name like that we were expecting a hole-in-the-wall burger, fries and beer kind of place, but instead we got a fancy-cocktail bar atmosphere, with a burger menu. The cocktails are good, and the burgers were actually decent too, but the service was not so great and the two aspects of the restaurant just didn't blend together that well. We don't think that it will be replacing The Bird, our current favorite place to get hamburgers. However, on the way to the restaurant we did discover an English Comedy Club, so that has great potential for a future evening out.

It will be another busy week with Christy taking a quick trip to Frankfurt for work, and David attending a hockey game Tuesday night.

Welcome 2009!

Happy New Year's to everyone! We enjoyed the quiet between Christmas and New Year's, and welcomed 2009 in style on the balcony of the embassy overlooking the big Berlin New Year's bash at the Brandenburg Gate.

The Saturday after Christmas we headed to the Ku'damm. We took a tour of the burned out church.

At the embassy, hanging out in the cafeteria waiting for the fireworks. We were worried about getting through the crowds and chaos to get to and from the embassy, but it wasn't nearly has bad as we expected.

Paula and I getting ready to head upstairs--mini bottles of champagne in pocket! It's actually "Sekt" in Germany.

This is how close we were to the Quadriga and the Reichstag.

It was so much nicer to be above the crowd instead of in the crowd this year.

David and John enjoying the view.

it was very cool

I like this picture because you can see the fireworks in the sky and the Reichstag Christmas tree in the background.

David with Christina and another David--they all helped organize the event.

it's hard to capture fireworks on camera

in love on New Year's

Christy and Susan in front of the Quadriga

On New Year's Day we invited Susan and Fran and John over for dinner. We made ham (since we didn't eat it on Christmas) and pieroghies and green beans with pine nuts. Christy pulled out the wedding china.

Thank you to Casey and Greg for the new vegetable dish and salt and pepper shakers!

We displayed our stockings and all of our Christmas cards on the corner china cabinets this year--thanks to everyone for the kind words and Christmas wishes!


We didn't get snow on Christmas or New Year's, although it was quite cold. But on January 2nd we woke up to a light sprinkling... just in time to commute to work.


wintery view from our balcony

Christy's snowy walk to work. The Spree hadn't frozen over on Friday but this morning (Saturday) we woke up to a mostly frozen river.

We are looking forward to an exciting 2009.... we'll be ending the Berlin chapter of our lives and getting ready to head to the Carribean! We wish everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous year!

Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! We got out of work at noon on Christmas Eve, and David came to pick up Christy and the three packages that arrived in the mail (thank you!) at Clay. After a quick nap we headed to the 4:00 family Christmas eve candle light service a the American Church, then it was over to Johns for some Christmas eve festivities.


our tree with the presents under it

we brought pieroghy for an appetizer


the men hung out in the kitchen while the ladies relaxed on the couch
sitting down to Christmas Eve dinner

close up of the delicous prime rib

On Christmas Day we slept in and opened presents. Then we relaxed and Christy made pancakes for David. It was actually sunny for part of the day (first time since we got back from California) so we snuck out for a quick walk. Then we headed over to another neighbor, Kathy's for Christmas dinner, Italian style. Christy's favorite was the appetzier--figs stuffed with goat cheese, topped with a piece of parma ham, drizzled in honey and balsamic vinegar. mmmmmmmmmmm.....

Kathy concocted a delicous cocktail from fresh cranberries.... it matched my sweater!

Christmas dinner table

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and look forward Christmas 2009 in the good old US of A!

relaxing weekend

We are enjoying the chance to sleep in and have a quiet weekend! As you can tell, we're catching up on the blog. Friday night we enjoyed a Christmas party for work and then headed to the Marine House to hang out and wish one of our marines fairwell. Saturday was relaxing. We went to one last Christmas market--Gendarmenmarkt, because it's famous and we hadn't been there yet. Then we decided to head to Ka De We for a late lunch before heading back home for dinner. Our neighbor John came over for dinner and made a delicious salad with frisee, bacon dressing, and poached egg. We enjoyed an amazingly moist and tender chicken that David cooked in the crock pot, and Christy made the risotto, with lots of advice!
Christy got tired stirring the risotto for 45 minutes and decided to sit down!

Ka De We has their own beer.

one of the displays inside Ka De We

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Machaks of Ohio visit Part III-- Dresden

After a day relaxing back in Berlin and baking some pieroghy, the four of us set off on the train again, this time to Dresden to check out the Streizelmarkt, the oldest Christmas market in Germany.

This is Christy's favorite picture--kissing under the mistletoe.

We're not sure if it's Columbus, OH, or Columbus, GA, but we'll take it....

They still take Deutsche Marks? In 2008?

Christy climbed up to the "Balcony of Europe" to get some good views.

This was the view across the River Elbe.

Overlooking the Frauenkirche Christmas market.

cool church

The "Long Walk"--the mural had scenes of history going back to the 1200's

The famous Frauenkirche

it was the pyramid festival weekend

there were giant nutcrackers, too

They had Gluhbier, in addition to the traditional Gluhwein. David wasn't impressed. Manly men don't drink hot beer.

At the Streizelmarkt

David's parents enjoying the Christmas market

Dresden at night




there are some really cool buildings--the photography doesn't do them justice

another giant pyramid, at the Christmas market across the river



more of Dresden at night

In front of the Frauenkirche--this one's for the Crums!

Dresden was a lot of fun, and the Christmas markets were better than the ones in Berlin, we thought, because they had more booths with the traditional wooden carvings--pyramids, smokers, and other things--from the Erzgebirge region of Germany. Also, there were a lot of pottery booths. It was mostly East German pottery, not Polish Pottery, but very similar.

We thank the Machaks of Ohio for a wonderful visit!!!