Today we had a wonderful holiday day. Al and Keith, our good friends from Chicago, spent the night before continuing on today to their families in Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware. This morning our friends Nick, Greg and Mike joined us for a brunch that Brett and I prepared. We exchanged gifts and spent an enjoyable afternoon visiting.

This evening Brett and I went to the Chriskindl Market at Akron’s Lock 3 Park in downtown Akron. It was our second year. The park has about a dozen or so German vendors and craftspeople selling their wares. One of our holiday traditions that I have mentioned before is adding ornaments every year to our trees. We love the German blown glass ornaments made by one vendor.

This year we added a teddy bear, dog, snowman and Christmas tree. We also bought a few birch cut-out wooden ornaments. After 18 years together (and my 10 years of collecting before Brett), we have a large number of ornaments. They come out every year, and I can still tell the story of when I bought each one. I highly recommend this tradition to you. I am such a sucker for a traditional Christmas.