Weekend Warriors

We continued our week of "firsts" by having our first houseguest this weekend! Kevin, Jason's good friend from back in Oklahoma, drove down about 3 1/2 hours to spend Friday and Saturday nights with us. Just back from deployment, he had been to Bamberg one other time, but this was his first time staying in our apartment. All my cleaning and rearranging was worthwhile. :)

We had a tacky Christmas sweater party at our friends' house, the Galletta's, Friday night to go to...so we met Kevin on post when he got in and drove a few towns over with 2 dishes of buffalo chicken dip in stow! Here's a pic of the beautiful flowers Kevin brought me since he couldn't make it to the wedding:

Now I said it was a tacky sweater party, but Goodwill does not exist in Germany, and my mom doesn't live here to let me borrow one of her vintage 1994 sweaters, so I immediately went to plan B - giftwrapping myself! It seemed like a good idea the week of, and then I got really nervous right before we walked in to be the only one not in a sweater. My fears were quickly squashed when we walked in and 90% of the outfits were homemade (and fabulous). Needless to say, the gift bag was a hit. I mean, how could you not love a "special delivery", "from the north pole"?

It was a really great time. Jason, not quite ready to wear a legitimate Hallmark gift bag in public, opted for the more classy route, sporting a genuine Gatlinburg Festival of Lights sweatshirt. He owns this, and has worn it previously. In public.

Merry Christmas 2011!

Love, the Stewarts

Please consider this picture of us your Christmas card. I'm so sad I didn't get the time/drive to buy and mail Christmas cards this year...but why mail out a generic card when you can see this gem over and over again every holiday season???

Here is one more pic of some of the girls at the party:

(Beth, Nora, Stacey, Stacey's baby, Laura, yours truly)

What is more fun than wearing a gift bag to a party, you ask? Sitting in a gift bag at a party! Shout out to Jae for cutting slits in the bottom so I didn't have to sit with my arms up in the air all night.

Saturday, after a Call of Duty marathon, I finally convinced the boys to take a walk around Bamberg. It was a rare and BEAUTIFUL, sunny day here! You really have to take advantage of those. First we hit up the Dome, an amazing church up on the hill straight up from our house that was built in the 1500s. We were able to walk right in. I felt like I was in France or Italy. Truly breathtaking. Here are a few pics:

The organ was playing while we were inside...I was in love. I cannot believe this place is literally a 10 minute walk from our apartment! I can't wait to take Mom & Dad here in just a few weeks. Next stop on Jason Stewarts' professional tour of Bamberg was the other big cathedral, St. Michael's. You walk in a random green door on a really plain-looking street, walk up what felt like one million flights of stone steps, and there you are! On top of Bamberg. You can pretty much see the whole city from there. It reminded me of Biltmore for some reason. The little cafe at the top was just adorable, too. I want to take a book up there one day and just spend the afternoon. Another place I can't wait for my family to see.

Kevin & Jason looking down on our little town :)

the cafe!

There it is. Another fairytale scene just a few minutes down the road.

After me saying, "Oh my gosh. This is SO beautiful!" about 100 times, it was time to head back down to Langestrasse, where we live. Did I mention the sun rises after 8:00am here and sets by 4:30pm? Not ideal, but you get used to it. I snapped a few pictures of pretty buildings on our way back. I only got in the way of about 50 people while I kept stopping every few feet to take pictures. Such a rookie. SUCH a tourist. It was worth it.

...and finally back downtown! (sidenote: if you are ever in need of a Bamberg magnet, my husband has a "magnet guy" he can totally hook you up with not far from here.) That last picture is taken on our street. They do Christmas decorating right. Then we hit the Christmas markets for some gluhwein and bratwursts. You can buy pretty much anything at the Christmas markets - candles, ornaments, hats, scarves, wood carvings, food, you name it. The pictures are a little dark, but you get the idea:

Then it was back to 'ole Langestrasse 9 to get ready for the Colonel's Christmas party back on post. We had easily a 45 minute debate between multiple parties on dress code for this shindig. Someone told Jason "dress casual"...but does that mean dress, yet casual? or dress casually? If it meant dress casually, I was about to roll in in my Moline Maroons sweat pants and whatever t-shirt of Jason's was closeby. Thankfully after getting the opinions of some other wives, I decided on a casual dress and boots. Somehow Jason and I didn't get a picture together, but here is one of my sweet friend Nora and I (she dates Jason's BFF here) with our margaritas (which were totally necessary):

After stuffing my face with mozzarella sticks and artichoke dip (again, extremely worried about losing weight), we were off to watch the Army/Navy game at a friend's house on post. Despite Jason's good luck hat, Army lost.

After Sunday morning brunch with Mike and Nora, and mimosas back at the apartment (and a little more call of Duty), it was time for Kevin to head back. We had such a great weekend with him! He is such a gentleman, and I can't wait until Jason and I can go and visit him. We are now accepting more weekend guests! I will even make you pancakes shaped like Mickey Mouse. How could anyone turn that down?