My first "White Christmas"

So today is not, in fact, Christmas but Christmas Eve or "Heiligabend" as it is known in Germany.  However, "Heiligabend" is the big Christmas celebration day in Germany, so it's kind of like Christmas.  In about an hour I'll head to Louisa's house (a teacher of mine) where I'll be celebrating with her family.  We'll go to church in the late afternoon, eat a big meal and then they will open presents.  Even though it doesn't really feel like Christmas to me, it seems more like I'll be "observing" a foreign, German holiday with a foreign family.  I am excited about spending it at Louisa's house since her two sons will be home, one of which studied in Canada for a year and is on break from his Civil Service period in Bolivia and the other lives in Australia with his Australian wife and child.  Bonus points: the wife doesn't speak much German, so I have the perfect excuse to speak some English!

In addition to the 2-3 inches Hannover got last Friday, it snowed about another inch on Monday night, which has now melted a little bit and resulted in a pseudo-white/slushy Christmas.  Walking back from the grocery store I almost had a major wipeout since there is about a 1" layer of ice in some places.

Well, I should probably get ready to head out, but I wanted to wish everyone a Frohe Weihnachten!  That's "Merry Christmas" in German, just in case you didn't catch that.