Happy New Year!

Can you believe it is 2009 already?!!  I certainly can't!  However, it has arrived and we hope that it has gotten off to a good start for everyone.  Here in Frankfurt, our New Year started with a bang... literally.  In order to celebrate the occasion, the thing to do here is to light off fireworks.  So of course that is what we did... as well as everyone else in Frankfurt it seemed, as the fireworks could be seen and heard all around the city for quite a spell after midnight.  

Growing up in Texas and North Carolina, Daniel and I were accustomed to setting off fireworks for the appropriate holidays, but since we've lived in California for the last few years, it had been quite a while... with the danger of wildfires always looming in the Golden State, the general public is not permitted to light off fireworks.  After living through the last two devastating wildfires in San Diego county, I totally understand why!  But now that we are here in Germany, it was fun to get to set off our own fireworks again... while I mainly stuck to the sparklers, I know that Daniel especially enjoyed lighting things on fire and blowing stuff up :) 

I apologize for the blurriness of the pictures... I am learning that taking photographs at night is a fine art.  As you can see, we had a good time ringing in the New Year, and the fun would continue on a couple of days later...

Daniel and some of the guys at work decided that another enjoyable way to begin the year would be to go skiing.  Therefore they arranged an outing to the Black Forest, which is in southern Germany about 3 hours south of here.  So well before sunrise this past Saturday, a group of us headed out... me and Daniel, our friends Matt and Heather, Daniel's boss and his three kids, and another co-worker all made our way to Feldberg to go skiing for the day.  While I was less than thrilled with the early morning departure, by the time we made it to the mountains, I knew it was worth it... the drive up to the ski resort was beautiful as every inch of scenery was blanketed in snow.

Once we got to the ski resort, the "excitement" began... when everything is in German, figuring out where to park, where to rent equipment, and where to buy lift tickets becomes very interesting.  Needless to say, it took us quite a while to finally hit the slopes but once we made it up there, the view made it all worthwhile.  The sun was beaming down and we could see for miles... it was just gorgeous!  

As the day went on, it seemed more and more people had come to ski.  The lines to get onto the ski lifts resembled those of a popular roller coaster at an amusement park... they were pretty much packed.  In contrast, the slopes were actually pretty empty... because everyone was in line!  We think it was so busy for several reasons.... it was New Years weekend and people were probably still on vacation; it had also snowed recently plus it was a beautiful, sunny day.  Lastly, ski resorts over here are a bit different than back in the States, at least here in Germany... they only have a few slopes at each place and the runs are not very long.  So it all added up to a very busy ski resort... but we still had a lot of fun!  Even despite the freezing temperatures.  In the middle of the afternoon it was -7 degrees C... that's a balmy 19 degrees F.  Like I said, it was freezing!

When the shadows started to grow longer and longer on the mountain, we knew it was time to head home.  The walk back to the car turned out to be very nice... the light blue sky faded into a pale pink as the sun set.  It was a peaceful, pretty end to the day.

Although we had a good time down in Feldberg, I must admit that Daniel enjoys skiing a little more than I do.  He loves the thrill of speeding down the mountain, and the cold air in his face makes him feel alive.  He is even going skiing again this week while he is down in Switzerland for work!  I, on the other hand, prefer being able to feel my extremities.  Plus I don't really like wearing so many clothes that I can barely move or not being able to keep up with my running nose.  But it is all worth it in order to spend some quality time with my husband :)  In addition, I love the beauty of a snow-covered setting.  Since winter here in Frankfurt tends to be gray, gray, gray, I enjoyed being up there in the mountains because everything was so white.  It made me wish we could have a little snow in Frankfurt to brighten the mood.  Well, my prayers must have been heard because this morning I woke up to several inches of fresh snow coating the ground!  It was so beautiful I just had to go out and take some photos at a nearby park this afternoon.

Something about snow is just magical.  I am so enchanted with it.  Maybe it's the way it purifies the landscape in an envelope of white.  Granted I have never really lived where snow is commonplace so I haven't had to deal with the headache of driving in it, shoveling it, or dealing with it for an extended period of time.  But I sure think it's pretty :)  Maybe, just maybe this snowfall will stick around a while.

Well,  it seems that I have rambled on for long enough.  It looks like January is going to be a pretty boring month around here for the most part, so I don't think I will have anything too exciting to blog about, but I will try to be creative!  Again, we hope 2009  is off to a great start for all of you.  Until the next post, take care and God bless!