Weihnachtsmarkt in Dresden

Dresden is now one of my favorite cities in Germany. Maggie, Kathrin (coworker from Frankfurt), and I went to Dresden for the opening weekend of the Christmas markets.

Dresden was completely destroyed in WWII. Impressively, by 2015 the entire city will be rebuilt with almost all buildings in their original state. I was so impressed with the beautiful architecture in the city and it was so hard to believe that all of the buildings are so new.

The Frauenkirche (today it is a Lutheran church, but the name comes from its origin as a Catholic church) was just finished a few years ago. The church's exterior is sprinkled with black stones. These stones are the original stones from before the church was bombed. They are placed in the exact location that they originally existed. Incredible.

We waited in line for about an hour to get inside the church and there were hundreds of people behind us that waited for a few more hours to get a glimpse of the newly finished interior of the Frauenkirche.

One of many funny stories about the King... This was the King's walkway from the Church to one of his living quarters. He used to sneak out of church to go see his mistresses during mass!


The entire length of the building was painted with the parade of soldiers, knights, and their King.



The King convinced the people that this palace was a prison. While hundreds of his mistresses that lived here may have considered it a prison, it was in fact another one of the buildings where he kept women for himself.

I was standing in front of the Opera House looking back at the church and the city. Such an impressive skyline...

Lamps lighting the path to the Opera House in the evening.

Dresden Opera House

It has been rebuilt 3 times due to flood, fire, and bombings.

One of the rooms inside the Opera House. Although many of the rooms and hallways are now built with fake gold, imitation wood, and plaster, the interior is still very elaborate.

The stage inside the Dresden Opera House.

My first German Christmas market! It got really crowded with people by the middle of the day, but it was a great experience and I would love to go back next year.

Illuminated Pyramid

More importantly thought, we had delicious fresh baked bread stuffed with cheese and meat right next to this.

There were Smokers everywhere! It was really fun shopping for Christmas decorations here because so many of the decorations reminded me of what we have at home.

Male and Female Crosswalks

I enjoyed tracking down both the boy and girl stoplights in Dresden. I had never seen them before and found them quite amusing. Beware of oncoming traffic when trying to photograph the red ones!

Red Girl = STOP!

Only men have to stop... ok, so maybe everyone.

Green man is on the move!

Cute Green Girl on the go in her pigtails.

Lillian meets Tante Christa

I finally got to meet my beautiful new niece, Lilly.

She was so tiny still. I loved all of the faces and noises she made. I think I could have spent the entire week at home just staring at her.

While Mom was out for a walk, Tante Christa taught Lilly a few new tricks like giving high-fives!

She is so precious.

Lilly with her new cousins, 3 of newest additions to Grandma Majerus's 21 great-grandchildren. Lilly (4 weeks), Jay (just shy of 4 weeks), Ryan (12 weeks).

Kim, Karl, and Lilly. Lilly seems to be amused by her parents.

The girl has more shoes than I do!

And she has much cuter socks.

She was just starting to smile while I was home. Everyone says she is now smiling a lot and really concentrating on people's faces. I think this smile may have just been a little gas...

The latest update on Lilly has been that she now replaced me as Mom's helper in decorating for Christmas. Apparently she enjoyed the Christmas music and decorating with Grandma this week. Looks like she was trying to fit into my stocking.

Abbey and Mike Sanders Wedding

Abbey got married!!! Abbey is one of my best friends. Our adventures began at St. Norbert where we played basketball together. We travelled to some great destinations for games and some really not so grate places. Thankfully, Mom's friendship bread, my Special K bars, endless games of Egyptian Ratscrew got us through most of the painfully long bus rides. Speaking of playing cards, I can't believe we didn't play before your wedding!

By train, plane, and bus... I made it to Milwaukee! We spent the day before the wedding with Abbey getting our nails done, running last minute errands, and catching up with everyone. It was so great to see everyone again!



Abbey and all of her bridesmaids at the rehearsal dinner.

And the big day was finally here! We didn't even have to get out of our sweatpants or leave our hotel room to have breakfast and get our hair done. Everything went smoothly and we almost left the hotel on time to head to the church!

Someone accidentally locked us out of the bridal room, so we had to hide the bride. She was not a fan of being stuck behind a door in the corner, but isn't she so pretty? :)


Just minutes before she became Mrs. Sanders.

Congrats Abbey and Mike!


SNC Women's Basketball reunion at wedding #5 Who is going to be next? My money is on Ellen. :)