Berlin, Day 8 (Christmas Eve)

One of our favorite Christmas markets.

1. Christmas Eve is a much bigger deal here in Germany than Christmas itself. Everything's essentially shut down today. But that's OK because my husband and I have "The Ick" as we're calling it, some sort of cold/flu that's got us laying low
2. Fruit tea and Fisherman's Friend cough drops have been lovely
3. Went for a very short and very cold walk while housekeeping did our room, came back to a six-inch-high chocolate tree with cookie ornaments that they'd left for us. So festive! Yay!
4. We had reservations for a nice dinner and were planning to go to Midnight Mass, but both felt terrible so stayed home and in bed. I was feeling sad about missing our plans until we started singing Christmas carols in bed together in our scratchy voices ( my husband to me: "you sound like a squirrel.") We made our own little happy Christmas Eve
5. Couldn't sleep...3:30 AM sat at our window looking down amongst the modern buildings to all the fresh snow that had just fallen on the streets and sidewalks that night, Christmas trees with white lights sparking in windows across the way. All was peaceful and right with the world