Merry Christmas from Germany

This morning I was feeling a bit fragile. 
In all my indulgence of the night before some wheat must have sneaked in.
Luckily it ceased quickly and around midday we took Christina's big BMW and drove to Weinheim. 
Weinheim is what I call my home town, although I was neither born there not were my parents from there. But this is where I went to school, lived for quite some time and a place I am very fond of.
We walked through the town and looked through some shops before we had the obligatory coffee at the Café Florian. This Café is at the historical Marketplace and is an institution. It is there since I can remember and it was and still is The meeting point in town. No matter how long I have not been there, I always find familiar faces.
After the coffee we went for a short walk into the Exotenwald, a woodland cultivated in the 19th century by an aristocrat who started planting foreign and exotic trees. It is an impressive and very versatile forest now.
After that we finally drove to the next village to visit Pe, my best friend.
The family was already there and it was great to see her parents, Paul and Lissy  as well as her uncle Eti with Inge his wife. Husband Christian and son Julius (2 m high or so!!!) were there as well. The turkey was already in the oven. They are the only family in Germany I know who is doing a turkey at Christmas!
We spent a couple of hours with loads of laughter and old stories, before Neil and I hit the road again to get back to my fathers.

In Germany the 24th is the big day!
We do the presents in the evening and usually have a proper Christmas meal.
When we arrived it was time for Champagne (again) and we quickly got dressed up in order to celebrate the evening.
We unwrapped our presents and everyone was happy.
Neil had a few surprises for me and also instructed his family nicely :)
My father seemed happy about his bottle of single Malt and also Christina, who instructed "NO presents" was happy with the things we brought.
After the presents we had another fine dinner, ate far too much and the wine was the best from my fathers holy cellar. (I think it was a 16 year old Bordeaux).
We retired earli-ish, happy and content.

The photos:
Main: Weinheim - such a pretty town, I know its not a Christmas-y picture, but I liked it so much.

Extras: My Dad (80 next year!), Christina, Neil, Champaign and Whisky. Neil's face is priceless!!! And that was before he had the champaign!

Oh, and we also had a tree .... it is somehow missing :)