Pre Christmas Chaos

After I "ruined" Thanksgiving, we plowed into the month of December. December always seems to be a busy month - getting ready for the holidays decorating, shopping, wrapping, shipping... Due to the pneumonia, I wasn't up for doing much for the first part of December. Well, really the whole month. Normally I am trying to convince Josh to go to as many Christmas markets as possible. This year I just didn't feel up to it. I really wanted to try to get out to see some markets we haven't been do, but at the end of the week I just wanted to lay on the couch or sleep. The cold air wasn't exactly kind to my lungs either. I didn't enjoy spending time outside, and well, Christmas markets are outdoors. The worst part of recovering from pneumonia? The lingering cough. Every time I started laughing I would choke and start coughing. I laugh a lot, so that meant a lot of coughing... and from a few weeks of coughing my stomach/chest muscles were tired and sore. Coughing hurt.

However. We did get to one Christmas market in December, and it was a new one for us. St. Wendel is located closer to where I work, and I have been told by many people it is a cute market to go to. We have missed it every year do to being busy or being gone when the market it is up. This year we managed to make our way there for a Saturday. I can see why this market it a favorite for some people - the town of St. Wendel is small with narrow, winding pedestrian streets. It was a nice Saturday afternoon.

A minor fiasco in our preparing for Christmas...
I must first say in the time we have lived overseas, we have been very lucky with shipping things. Although sometimes things take more time than I would like, we have always gotten the things we have ordered, and our recipients have gotten packages we sent. It seems in the past few months we have had some bad luck. I sent off a package to a girlfriend in October full of books and candy. It never arrived. It was lost. It seems to have disappeared into thin air. Frustrating. It's not really about the things I sent (they weren't that big of a deal), it is the principle. Then, we had some issues with packages my parents sent. My mom always spoils us, and she sent us four boxes the first week of December. Two boxes got to us right away. One box showed up two weeks later (right before Christmas) and it had been destroyed. The base post office stated they recieved it damaged. The box and all of the contents had major water damage, so at some point in time the box sat outside in the weather. This will give you a good idea...

The final box had issues getting to us and we got it sometime after the New Year. It is frustrating to have that happen. I really don't care about the presents that got ruined or the fact that I didn't get things on time. I am upset that my mom was so upset by it. The entire situation is frustrating.

But. I wasn't going to let my pneumonia or packages ruin my plans for Christmas.