Strasbourg – Capitale de Noël

I wasn’t lying when I said we had a wonderful Christmas.

But by the time we put the kids to bed and did our dishes on Christmas, I was feeling a bit down. And exhausted. And we spent a long time talking to our families on Skype, which was wonderful, but I missed them and wished we could be with them. And I laid on Brad’s shoulder in bed and cried for a little while, then felt ashamed that I was crying on Christmas when I had so much to be thankful for.

The next morning we got up and the girls were in a terrible mood. Lucy was crying and screaming so hard I even tried to put her back to bed. Against our better judgement, we decided to go ahead with our plans to drive two hours to go to one more (after)Christmas Market in Strasbourg, France. I am so glad we did.

We put a movie on for the girls in the back seat of the van, and as Brad and I sat in the front and talked while he drove we noticed how quiet it was. When our girls are awake our house is loud and crazy – really loud. Once they go to bed, we always have something to do – dishes, application essays, work, editing, projects, laundry, etc… We were so happy to be just sitting together and talking while our kids were quiet we joked that maybe we should just drive around all day. Our drive there was one of the best dates we’ve had in a while.

Even though the day started out rough, our girls were exceptionally well behaved once we were there. It was early in the afternoon, the market wasn’t too crowded, and the weather was nice. There was a giant Christmas tree, hundreds of food stands with pretzels, candies, cookies, and crepes, hot spiced apple cider, a beautiful city, and a carousel ride for the girls. We didn’t buy anything besides food, but just being together in the city was perfect.

As a bonus, we stumbled on a ice skating rink. For 2 Euro we rented Annika some ice skates and spent an hour on a children’s rink with her. Our little Annika, who is generally afraid of everything is apparently growing up. She was excited to try ice skating and jumped right on the ice without needing any persuasion on coercing. Even when she fell she got right back up, licked the ice off her sleeve, and kept going. I was a proud mom that day.

We ate galettes (savory crepes) for dinner and danced around the giant Christmas tree before heading back home. I had been feeling so sad that I wasn’t with family this Christmas. Doing something I loved that I can only do in Europe was just what I needed. Having a whole day with Brad and seeing my girls smile all day was icing on the cake. It was a day I think I’ll remember for a long time.