Laura Beth in Germany

This year we have had a collection of holidays all squished into one week. It began last Saturday at my colleague's Thanksgiving party in the Swabian forest. Then I went to a Christmas market on my business trip. Then on Friday we headed to Göttingen for our annual Thanksgiving, and after we ate, we went straight to another Christmas market! Here are the highlights in more detail: On Monday night I took a train directly after work up to Bad Soden. There my coworker and I spent 3 days in a sleepy hotel in a quiet area just north of Frankfurt, learning the complicated ways of our company's management system / database (which was developed in the early 1990s and definitely looks like it). Luckily, the program was written in English, so I had no issue understanding what things were. How to use it was the bigger problem. On the eve of our departure, my colleague and I hopped aboard a train and went to downtown Frankfurt to hang out at opening night of the 2014 Christmas Market.

For those who haven't yet heard the news - I just began a new job at Berlitz. Same company, different tasks. My title has changed from "freelance teacher" to "Sales Trainee", which is basically like an intensive internship that molds young career beginners into future leaders.  As of January, the plan is to move me to the new school in Heilbronn. Fabi is also studying and working in Heilbronn these days, so we're considering moving to a town a little closer that way. That would mean saying goodbye to our little hometown here. It's a bittersweet idea. The plus side would be independence, a shorter commute, and the chance to break out and start living life on our own! The downside is that we'd leave a beautiful place, be father away from family (though not that far) and probably have to pay more rent. Today we went for a walk and talked about some of these things, and enjoyed the foliage and warm weather!  Here are a few photos.

The beginning of November has been out of the ordinary; we've had beautiful weather and sunshine! Of course we are suspicious that each sunny day will be our last, and we're trying to enjoy each moment. Soon the cold, dark days (literally only 7.6 hours of daylight) will take over. Yesterday we met a colleague of mine and went to the "Blooming Baroque" palace in Ludwigsburg for the annual Pumpkin Festival . Artists compete to create the most unique pumpkin sculptures there. you can view Germany's and Europe's largest pumpkins, sample pumpkin champagne, buy seeds and peruse the entire gardens + the kids fairytale section for one price. (Since Fabi is a student again, he was charged the Kinder price.) The palace, plus pumpkins. Not the largest, but pretty darn big. Jousting pumpkin knights on their pumpkin horses, fighting for the favor of a beautiful pumpkin maiden. We bought a few beers and walked around chatting, observing the families. We w