Schwetzingen Christmas Market

Schwetzigen is a cute little town with a famous castle and park is only a 30 minute tram and bus ride away but we never went to see the Christmas market there together with a friend and neighbor.
It had started to snow again so it looked really pretty

  

After watching a magic show in the falling snow we tried some indoor activities just to get warm again. It turned out there was a really nice section for children where they could paint simple clay figures = which was really nice

Mia painted a candle holder with dolphins

 Outside it had turned dark and the snow was falling harder

In the courtyard of the castle there were nice stands with artwork

The first Snow

Friday it had been snowing a lot and even though not much stayed on the ground in Heidelberg we decided to go up to the Königsstuhl - the 563 m high mountain overlooking Heidelberg - to see if there was some snow up there. Also, we were hoping for some sun since it was foggy in the city
At the bus stop not far from our apartment the red sled looked a bit out of place

At the halfway stop for the funicular up it already looked better

On to then we really had a bit of snow and some blue skies

At the bus stop in town we had met a Indian tourist and invited him to get a free ticket for the funicular that comes with the job ticket. He took a group photo of us and did some live broadcasts with is smartphone back to Chenai

On top was a mix of fog and blue skies

Mia wanted to try out her sled of course

The we walked a bit into the woods

It really looked beaitiful

No steep slopes for sleding though

A little break with hot tea - with a bit of extra for the adults - and some hot chocilate

Also a bit of sleding was possible at that spot

Further down it became more foggy

Half way down we took the funicular down back into the city and checked out the Christmas market

The city was very crowded but somehow we managed to met two sets of friends

The Thanksgiving Gathering

This year we managed to continue the long tradition of a Thanksgiving gathering of the old LSU friends. It was only a small group since not everyone cold make it but it was still great to be able to get together again.

Instead of a turkey we had a Chinese hotpot - or fondue chinoise as they say in Switzerland according to Antje

Veggies or meat are cooked in a pot of hot broth right on the tabe

Antje had made some traditional pumpkin pie

A great evening with old friends

The broken Bed

After we fixed a major crack on Mia's bed it cracked again a week later when a friend who was visiting sat on the wrong spot. Luckily we managed to flip the bad side part around and glue and screw the small beam where the mattress sits on back on.

With some extra metal braces it should be now stronger now than before

Nussecken

When we got invited for coffee and cake from some friends it was a good opportunity to bake something ourselves to bring a long. Nussecken were popular 30 years ago so we tried them again.
With butter, sugar, apricot jam and lots of hazelnuts  it can't go wrong

 
The next morning it was time for some finishing touches