Off to Duesseldorf

Well, I didn't have to wrestle Skip to get him to stay home. It only took a stern talking to. He did spend most of the afternoon on the phone, but he did sleep most of the morning and didn't have the crowded, cold commute on top of an already-sore throat.
He seems to be bouncing back.

Maddie is excited to see friends. I hope she won't be too disappointed when she realizes how many of the people she knew there are no longer there.

The forecast on both CNN and the German wetter.de both report no rain for the whole weekend. It will be cold, but dry. Yay! Must be living right.

Feeling really fortunate to be able to make this trip at this time. We have missed the friends we made in Kaiserswerth, and we wouldn't want to miss the Weinachtsmarkts. Nobody does Christmas cheer like the Germans!

Because of this weekend trip and our trip home, Maddie's missing out on the Christmas activities at church, and I fear that Christmas may be too much about Santa this year. In Germany, we went to a church of mostly ex-pats, so all the Christmas music and pageants were done early in December because many of the members would be leaving to visit home for the holidays. But here, we just attend a church where everyone is local, so their Christmas activities tend to follow the actual Advent calendar. And outside of church, I have seen no evidence in England that Christmas has anything to do with the birth of Christ. My German speaking was limited, so I was never in the media loop there. But here I notice that there are no radio or newspaper ads about Christmas Eve services. Or pastors showing up on TV spots to remind us about the reason for the season. We're going to have to do a little more reading and talking about the baby Jesus this year here at home.