I can hardly believe it, but we are in the midst of the holiday season once again. It seems like every year, time flies a little bit faster. We got home from Armenia two weeks ago, and I’m already in the throes of buying and wrapping gifts. I put the trees up last week, and yesterday, we started our Advent calendar.

I usually buy a chocolate calendar and one with booze or beer. But this year, the high-end Belgian chocolatier, Neuhaus (which was founded by a Swiss guy), offered an Advent calendar for couples. Every day, you get two chocolates instead of one. Bill and I are big fans of Neuhaus. I actually used to sell it when I worked for a chocolatier in Williamsburg, Virginia, back in the mid 1990s. I remember being shocked that it was $35 a pound in 1994. Neuhaus chocolate is still expensive, but because I live in Germany, it’s pretty easy to get it, and they make buying it pretty tempting. If you join their mailing list, you can get freebies.

I try not to order from Neuhaus very often, because I sure don’t need the calories. But Christmas kind of makes me nutty, so I figure I might as well order something that goes with nuttiness… Last night, we opened the first door. Bill used the flashlight to find it, because we don’t have the best lighting in our house.

Our annual Advent market is also going on today. It starts at 2:00 PM and runs until 11:00 PM. I remember we arrived here in 2018, just in time for the Advent market, which is just one night. We didn’t go that year. I think we were overwhelmed with moving into the new house and decorating for the holidays, as well as getting over the trauma of moving out of the terrible living situation we were in at the time.

Bill and I have already decided on where our next trips will be… That is, we did two more champagne bucket drawings. If everything works out, we’ll go to Spain and Iceland in 2024. And maybe we’ll go somewhere else exotic and interesting. Maybe we’ll go to Georgia. I definitely need to do a proper trip there. Of course, nothing is engraved in stone until Bill has the time off and I start paying for plane tickets. But Spain is a place Bill wants to visit again, mainly because I think he wants us to move there. And I have been dying to see Iceland. We’ll see what happens.

This morning, Noyzi was begging for tastes of our breakfast. He sure has come a long way since 2020. He’s attached to us, and no longer so terrified and shy. Now, he’s a charmer. I hope in 2024, we’ll find him a friend to play with– preferably one who likes to snuggle. I’ve been missing Arran lately, mainly because he loved to snuggle. This is the time of year for that.

Noyzi sure is an adorable little rascal. He’s always so polite when he begs. We want another dog, but we’ll be hard pressed to find one as well behaved as Noyzi is. I’ll always love hounds, but I have to admit, a street dog with herding proclivities is also a very good choice. He’s certainly less trouble and more trustworthy than most of our beagles have been!

I’ve been having a lot of dreams about Armenia, lately. That trip really affected me a lot. I hope we can go back and see more of everything. Yerevan may not be a very beautiful city– at least not right now– but the big hearted people and their beautiful souls more than make up for the Soviet architecture. And they really have come a long way. <3

Well… that about does it for today. I don’t know if we’ll venture out to the Christmas markets. The weather is kind of cold and gloomy, and I’m expecting at least one more package that will need to be wrapped. On the other hand, Wiesbaden is pretty, especially when it’s lit up for the holidays. So we’ll see.