Dresden Christmas Market deliciousness: quarkbällchen

Since the end of November/beginning of December, Germany has been a Christmas wonderland. I'm not referring to snow as we really haven't received much of that yet (and I totally okay with that). The cause of the wonder is that the Christmas markets have been in full swing.

There are many traditional crafts to buy and delicious snacks to eat. In Dresden, I found something fabulous: quarkbällchen (little quark balls). They are soft and fluffy doughnut holes that have quark (pure deliciousness, a type of cheese used in similar ways for cooking in which cream cheese and ricotta cheese are used) in the middle. It's not so much that the quark is a filling; it is more like part of the batter. Either way, it's completely delicious. I ate one, since I usually don't eat fried food. However, I could see a person wanting to eat way more than that!

Thus far, I have only seen these at the Dresden Christmas market. I haven't seen any in the markets I've visited in the western part of Germany. I recommend trying some if they're available.

This guy is really happy about serving Grandma's quarkbällchen!

Willie der Weinachts-Stollen

Hoo-ee, am I ever behind on blogging! Yep, that's story of this blog's life.

Anyway, two weeks ago, a friend and I traveled to Dresden to visit the Christmas markets there. We saw advertisements for Willie der Weinachts-Stollen (Willie the Christmas Stollen [sweetbread/cakey thing]). I thought he looks more like a potato, but was amused nonetheless.

Apparently Willie is the star of Comedy Dresden's play about a Christmas stollen who was forgotten and had to make his adventurous way to the Strietzelmarkt (at least that's what Google Translate and my own basic German skills led me to believe what the website's description said).

Germany, just don't do this

In the Deutsche Bahn magazine, I saw an ad for German sandals.

There was a special where the customer would get a free pair of socks with the sandals, and it was illustrated by a person's foot, wearing socks WITH the sandals.

JUST SAY NO to socks with sandals!

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD, Germans*, please please please, DO NOT WEAR SOCKS WITH SANDALS!

It looks super dorky and is ridiculous. Here is my guide to wearing sandals: if it's hot out, wear them. If it's cold enough that one must also wear socks, it means that one needs to wear shoes. And, oh my goodness, if you wear KNEE SOCKS with sandals, I swear that I will faint in agony.


*Germans are not the only ones guilty of doing this. Engineers in America have an alarming propensity toward this.

Oh no he didn't!

My mom sent me this hilarious story about my nephew. I will call him N, for nephew, in this story she wrote about him. My mom is "Gma," since she is his grandma. Here is her story...

My son and his wife dropped off N at my house so I could babysit N. They had fed him so he was all set in the dinner department.  We were having supper and this is what happened next.

N came running into the dining room, bare bottomed, carrying his diaper.

Gma: N, what are you doing?  Why is your diaper off??

N: I went poop!  (I will call it #2 from now on)

Gma:  What? !, You went #2? GIMME THAT DIAPER!!!!!

I quickly took the diaper away from him thinking there was a load in it.

Gma: There's no #2 in this diaper!!  Where is it!!??

N: It's on your rug! (big smile)

I jump up and  look  in the living room but see nothing.

Gma:  There's no #2 in here! (whew)

N:  Look here, Gma, it's behind your chair. (BIG smile)

Gma:  N, what did you do?  That's not where you go potty!!  Come on, let's get another diaper on you.

I take him to the bedroom and start to clean him up.

Gma:  Oh N!  Why is there #2 on your feet??

N:  I moved my poop with my feet!  (grin)

Gma:  Sigh......

So, after a nice shower, PJ's, and a story before bed, AND rug cleanup, things returned to normal.  The End.

Santa just couldn't be bothered

My friend sent me these pictures from the Kaiserslautern Weinachtsmarkt. We both found them hilarious.

Off with his head, then replace it with a piece of paper! And, what's with Santa's black mustache?

I found out who the big bird is!

I did a bit of research (aka guessing, via Google) and found out that the Elwetritsch wandering around Kaiserslautern is actually the mascot of an electric company. There is some sort of promotion going on that if one spots her and (I believe) sends a picture of a good place for her to hide, there is a possibility of winning a car. At least that's what I understood by quickly perusing the company's website. It's something along those lines.

Saw this guy in Dresden

Cute cute cute!

He was on a humongous advent calendar on the side of a Weinachtstmarkt hut.