Wintertime in Magdeburg

There is snow on the ground and like good bears, Brendan and I have been hibernating. We get a daily dose of sunshine and snow enjoyment, then return indoors to our cozy cave. All our plans for traveling during this winter break fell by the wayside, and I blame the cold. I want to hitchhike and spend lots of time walking around the unfamiliar cities we visit, but when it is wintertime the biting wind pushes me home to the warmth of the great indoors. So here I sit, wrapped in a blanket, like a cozy little ladybug .

In the background you can see the lovely tree that Brendan brought home for us in the background, and our smoking man in the forefront. The little smoking man was a gift from our friend Frank when he came to visit for Thanksgiving. He smokes a little cone of incense (the smoking man, not Frank). The lovely candle was a gift from one of the classes I teach.

We have so many expansions of Carcassonne now that it's not easy to play them all at once. We have been honing our skills so that when our Seattle friends join us here we will be able to compete. They are the ones who introduced us to the game, after all. In the background you can see the beautiful guitar Brendan gave me for my birthday and our pet tiger.

You'll see graffiti like that all around Magdeburg. On January 16th there will be some sort of an anti-Nazi demonstration, with different events taking place all over the city. Brendan and I will attend.

That's the little Christmas tree I made before I knew Brendan would be bringing one home. We still kept the presents under this tree, though we put the decorations on the other one.

This is the playground near our house and I took this picture primarily to show our Seattle friends where their little one can play. The ping-pong table is barely visible in the background, though recently it was impossible to play on. Not because of the snow, which we expected and brought along a brush to sweep away with, but because of the fireworks residue from New Year's Eve.

This is the building behind ours. I thought the icicles looked cool.

This is a snow-covered bicycle.

And this is our pride and joy. This snowman was with us for a sadly short while. First, he was defiled by a dog. That I could handle. But then he was toppled and we found him in pieces. His nose is still missing.

Happy 2010, everyone! This is our wedding year and I am getting excited! 10/10/10 is marching ever closer, perhaps to the tune of Pachelbel's Canon. Nah. How cliche would that be?