The Guynn Christmas in Germany

Last December, the Guynn family met up at our house in Germany to spend Christmas together. Cory, Lynn and our niece, Olive, flew in from London while Kyle's parents, John and Diane, made the long journey from Indianapolis.  While Christmas was pretty warm and definitely not white, Germany is a beautiful place to be around the holidays.  We had a wonderful time together and Kyle and I always love having customers at the Guynn B & B!

Kyle wasn't able to take off tons of time during the visit, so while Kyle was working, we took advantage of the cheerful Christmas markets.  My favorite is the Medieval Christmas market in Esslingen, which we grazed our way around on everyone's first day here.  We also went to the enormous and beautifully decorated market in downtown Stuttgart. 

At the market in Esslingen

A "medieval" ferris wheel in Esslingen

Taking Olive for a ride was a good excuse for Cory to ride the train! 

Kyle was able to take a long weekend off so that we could travel to the quaint town of Garmisch at the foot of the German Alps.  We rented a pretty little apartment and enjoyed the cheerful little town and the beauty of the surrounding nature.  We had wonderful weather for our hike through the awesome Partnachklamm gorge!  Once we made our way through the gorge, we continued up a ways to have lunch on a terrace with beautiful views.  Luckily, we were able to take a cable car down since we were all a bit tired!

Lynn's pic

Lynn's pic

Lynn's pic

We took advantage of the clear skies that evening and headed up via cable car to the Zugspitze; Germany's highest mountain peak. The lighting and views were absolutely gorgeous!

As it just so happens, my cousin and her husband, Christy and Dan, were working in Garmisch when we were there, so we got to meet up with them! They came to our apartment where we enjoyed some cheese and chocolate fondue for dinner.  While the cheese was stinky, it was delicious and it was really fun seeing Christy and Dan!

Garmisch is such a pretty, atmospheric town that is ideal for the holidays!  We spent plenty of time enjoying the colorful painted buildings in the historic town center.

Lynn's pic; Olive loved her German baby from Grandma!

On our way home, we drove right by Germany's most famous castle, Neuschwanstein, so of course we had to stop!  We took a tour of the castle before heading back.

Lynn's pic

We had a nice, relaxing Christmas at home.  I enjoyed doing a lot of cooking, and Olive opened a lot of fun presents from everyone! 

Merry Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa!

I love a good brunch!

The day after Christmas was so warm and sunny, we decided to go to the zoo (along with the rest of Stuttgart)!  While it was difficult finding parking, we had a great time once we got there!  The Stuttgart zoo is a very pretty one!

We took advantage of the sun and did some hiking around our house. I guess if it's not going to be snowy for the holidays, warm and sunny is a good option!

Watching Cory play with his Christmas present...can you find it?

Our last German feast before everyone heads out!

I know I must be forgetting something since I'm so behind on blogging, but we had a great time being together for the holidays!  We really appreciated everyone making the trip to Germany since Kyle couldn't take a lot of time off.  We always love our time when we can all get together in the same country!  This Christmas we are looking forward to having another little Guynn join in the festivities!

Home for the Holidays

For Christmas, Kyle and I were very blessed to be able to go home to Indiana and spend the holidays with our family and friends.  It had been a few years since we were home for Christmas.  Our first Christmas in Germany, Kyle's family came to our place, and we had a nice cozy holiday together.  Last year, my cousin Erin and her husband (back then boyfriend/fiance) were here for Christmas, and then we traveled to Indy shortly after.  We are very lucky to have always had family here with us, but it's not quite the same as being home for the holidays!

Kyle and I had been traveling like crazy the couple of months before Christmas.  We didn't have time to see a lot of our favorite Christmas markets locally in Germany, but we did have time to check out one new market that easily became one of our new favorites!  It was in a little medieval town about 45 minutes away called Bad Wimpfen.  They only hold their market for a couple of weekends, so it was crowded, but so atmospheric!  The little half timbered buildings looked like gingerbread houses and yummy smells of glühwein, bratwurst, and sugared nuts filled the air.  It was pretty magical!

We flew to Indy about a week and a half before Christmas.  It was great being there in time for all of the festivities and parties before hand!  We got to catch up with a lot of friends and family that we hadn't seen in far too long!  We got in the Christmas mood at parties with the Guynns, the Joests, the Wilsons, the Nelighs and many of our friends.

The Joests...Nice duck face, Dad!

Olive meets Great Grandmommy!

We <3 the Kruse family!

Hanging out with Uncle Jim!

We were so excited to see our niece, Olive, and our nephew, Isaac!  They change so much every time we see them!  They are just the cutest!

A cute little elf got off the plane from London!

Sadie loves Olive!

Peek-a-boo, Isaac!

Check out Isaac's Deutschland shirt!

Of course you probably know that we have a number of "American" foods that we have to eat when we go to the States!  Some items always on that list are pizza and Mexican food!  We also had some exceptional home cooked meals, like Dad's slow smoked barbecued ribs and Mom's chicken puffs!

We had very nice, traditional Christmases with our families on Christmas day.  It's a lot of fun now that we have little ones to watch with their gifts!  I'm so glad that Cory, Lynn and Olive were also there from London!

Sisters!

Cory was very happy with his own toys to play with!

Kyle just had two weeks off of work, and those two weeks flew by!  He had to leave the day after Christmas, while I was able to stay an extra two weeks.  Kyle wasn't looking forward to going back to Germany alone, but it helped that he had some beautiful snow and Gizmo there to greet him!

I was still in Indy for my birthday and New Year's.  I spent New Year's at a party with our friends Jason and Lydia while poor Kyle was at work!  Since Kyle wasn't there for my 30th birthday, I decided to have a fun girl's night out.  We had a tapas dinner at Barcelona, then went out for drinks on Mass Ave. The girls made it a fun birthday for me!

We had a wonderful time seeing everyone in Indy.  It was such a nice treat being home for Christmas. We look forward to our next trip to the States, when we'll be able to see some sun and green grass!