Happy Holidays!

Nut cracker anyone??

Today is a very exciting day for us, especially Aggie.  Her sister, Ann, and her brother-in-law, Kurt, arrive this afternoon!  Our plans with them consist of the following: 

• We will be meeting them in Munich, Germany (they flew into Munich from Cincy), eating good German food, drinking good German beer, and soaking in the Weinachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) scene.  Then we are heading to Salzburg, Austria.  
• We will be in Salzburg for a day/night to check out the scene there, and then we are going to St. Anton, Austria.  
• St. Anton is a ski resort town, famous for the skiing and partying.  We have lots of fun outdoor activities planned....skiing, sledding, drinking, dancing, etc.  
• After a couple days in St. Anton, we come back to Zurich for a few days and then they head off to conquer Rome.  

We will be sure to report back and take lots of pictures as to how this roadtrip goes!

In the meantime, let me fill you in with what's been going on around here.  So, we have some great advertisments that have been up recently throughout the city.  Only in Europe right?  This one in particular has been causing some traffic jams.

And we went to Luxembourg a few weekends ago (Dec 6th weekend).  Luxembourg was a ton of fun.  We left on Friday morning and arrived in the late afternoon.  First things first, we went to the grocery store and I restocked my crates with tasty Belgium and German beers.  (It's hard to find really good refreshing brews in the grocery stores here...at least for a reasonable price!)  Once that was taken care of, we headed to our friends' apartment (Laura and Robbie), where we were staying.

The four of us went on into town where the Christmas market was in full swing.  There were tons of vendors and food stands and a group of carolers singing Chrismas tunes.  We meet up with some of our other friends, Brendan, Eoin, Sorcha,  etc, etc.   After the market we headed to a bar and hung out there the rest of the evening.  It was tons of fun and a great night for all!

Saturday, we all shook the cobwebs out of our heads and caught the train (45 min ride) to Trier, Germany for their Christmas markets.  We love going to Trier because it has that "college town" sort of feel to it, the bars and restaurants are really cool and the prices are cheaper in Germany than in Luxembourg!  

We walked the town and checked out the market, met up with some friends at a bar and then headed back to Luxembourg around 8pm.  Later that evening, we rallied for an hour or two and met up with everyone again at a local pub - Scott's - in the grund.  (The grund is the enormous valley that runs through the middle of Luxembourg, despite what Josh might think.)

Sunday we headed back to Zurich and on the way stopped in Colmar, France.  (Colmar is one of the towns in the Alsace region of France where many of the world's best white wines come from.)  Anyway, Colmar's old-town area is awesome.  Imagine a ginger bread house, now make 300 of them, build a little town and that's what Colmar is!  The whole setting was really quaint and (I hate to say it...) cute.

We got home that evening around 6pm and then prepared for the work week.  

Otherwise, what else has been going on...

The Zurich Christmas markets are in effect. They put up a gigantic tree in the middle of the Hauptbahnhof and cover it in Swarovski crystal - and no one touches / bothers / tries to steal  it...only in Switzerland.

And I have gone skiing a few times with my buddies and ran another race.  

The weather here has been crazy!  It just keeps snowing, and snowing, and snowing.  

So, that's all for now.  We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!