It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

 
This weekend, Dan and I went to the German church in our neighborhood for a good old-fashioned Christkindl Markt!


This place was brimming with my favorite kind of people: GERMAN PEOPLE.


They served us some hot spiced wine and fruit cake, just like the kind I had in Germany!


They were selling all kinds of German desserts and goodies, so we got some ginger cookies, and Dan picked up a few pine cones for the road.


You see, Dan loves Christmastime, and since we have lived together, he is in charge of decorating the apartment for the holidays. Due to the expense and lack of storage space, we decided to forgo a tree this year (we always say maybe next year!). Instead, we walked around every tree place in our neighborhood looking for the cheapest nicest wreath.


Dan hung up the wreath inside our apartment so we get that Christmas-ey tree smell all month long. I wrapped a little red ribbon on it. And no, your eyes do not deceive you: that's my husband making a flower arrangement out of berries and tree branches.


He put up the lights, decorated the windowsill with the branches and pine cones and hung up the stockings. This, of course, happening while Christmas tunes blast from the record player and apple crisp candles burn a festive and homey scent.

I did my part by making some snickerdoodle cookies. As Dan says, there can't be Christmas without cookies!

Some other fun things that happened this weekend:
1. Dan played in a Seinfeld trivia contest and lost, despite weeks of watching Seinfeld re-runs. I am glad we no longer have to watch Seinfeld re-runs.
2. We went to Jason's apartment and ate some Japanese "miracle fruit," which makes everything--from sour cream to lemons--taste sweet. That's my kind of drug!
3. Danielle invited us over for a lovely waffle brunch, and we got to see her adorable Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
4. Nell and Adam gave us a New Orleans cookbook as part of a wedding present, and I finally cracked it open this weekend and made a huge pot of chicken and andouille gumbo. It took about three hours to make (apparently, this was an abridged recipe). It was good, but let me tell you: that stuff is not healthy. Neither is eating 20 Snickerdoodle cookies in 24 hours.