Christmas isn't Christmas without a tree.

 You might remember this guy from last year, but this year he has a few more ornaments.

It might be small, but it is full of spirit.

My favorite pick up. It represents all our travels.

Who doesn't love a moose?

Justin's new favorite

Our favorite purchase of 2009

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are enjoying yourself no matter where you are or who you are celebrating with.

Cookie-making with co-workers

Two Sundays ago a few of my lady co-workers got together to get in the Christmas spirit. We picked a recipe and bought supplies and had a go at cookie-making. You think it sounds easy, but you try finding baking supplies in German or just finding vanilla extract at all in this country. Either way we knew it was going to be a good time. My recipe was spiced sugar cookies other recipes included normal sugar cookies, chocolate sugar cookies, pinwheel cookies, checkerboard cookies and chocolate chip cookies. We had Christmas music blaring and flour flying everywhere. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon and I can't wait to make more with my big sis when I go home for Christmas!

The goods

The decorating table

Some of the spiced sugar cookies all decorated

The crew from left to right- Kate, Gina, Me and Laurie

What are your favorite Christmas cookies? Have any good recipes?

- Marisa

ISF Entertainment Evening

Some of the students at my school do some impressive things and this past Friday was a great example. Last year a group of 9th grade girls started a student organization with the goal of raising money and awareness for women in Africa. Throughout the year they put together various fundraising efforts with the biggest event being "Entertainment Evening", where students and teachers perform songs, dances, and skits in the school auditorium. Last year I participated by playing/singing an acoustic version of Outkast's "Hey, Ya", which was a lot of fun and the whole evening was quite enjoyable.

This year I decided to play "Live Like We're Dying" by Kris Allen. I also paired up with another colleague from Mississippi to play "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz. It was another great evening and we had a lot of fun with it. Below are videos of the performances.






--Justin

Thanksgiving weekend visitors

We were so lucky this Thanksgiving because we had three visitors come to Frankfurt! We didn't cook a traditional American Thanksgiving, but we had a darn good time and threw in a few American things. Our visitors included Jason Tatum, our college buddy who is doing campus ministry in Birmingham, England. He works near the University of Birmingham at a place called Canvas, you should check it out. Another guest was my Georgia Tech volleyball teammate none other than, Katie freakin Mohs. Katie works for Siemens and took a job in Nuremberg, Germany this past August. This was our first of hopefully many get togethers. Nuremberg is about 2 hours from Frankfurt by fast train. Last but not least was my other Georgia Tech teammate Ulli Stegemann. Ulli is German and lives in Munich.

The whole gang (minus me)

The weekend included many laughs and lots of good times. We enjoyed schnitzel, schnapps, farmer markets, Christmas markets with Gluhwein, touring around Frankfurt, beer, naps and some American football. It is always great to see familiar faces. You know how it is when you are around people that know you. When I get controlling and pushy, yes it happens, good friends just laugh and call you out.  Or when I get over-excited they just smile and say that's Marisa. Thanks guys, you are true friends!

We had to!

GTVB Reunion!

All of us sprawled out in our tiny apartment watching the GT vs. UGA game the morning after on Justin's computer. I am not going to even comment on the game.

I had such a good time with these three and I hope they did too. That being said visitors are always welcomed at the Jackson's.

-Marisa

Das was?

Translated to English- Is that it? And I have to say NO WAY! I finished up my first German class last week and I have to say I really enjoyed being in a learning environment again. Yes it got annoying going to six hours of German a week for two nights a week three hours at a time, but I can confidently say I can now put a whole German sentence together. My teacher, Michael, was great and made the class really fun. We had people in the class literally from everywhere and for some the only way to communicate was in German. 

On our last class all of us that were left went out to dinner. From a class that started with 16 it ended with 6 or 7 committed students.

I have to say starting a new job and learning German has definitely been exhausting at times, but totally worth it. I will be taking a break now for the holidays and to actually study what I learned and then I hope to get in another class probably in February. 

-Marisa