I had been looking for a Christmas dress for Reese for a little while now and kept coming up empty handed. I checked the selections at both Ramstein and Vogelweh when I was there and all the ones in her size were ugly and if I saw one that I did like it was way too big. A few weekends ago I almost broke down and bought one at the BX just because I knew that if I didn't send the fam a picture of her in a traditional little Christmas dress my mom would ask why I hadn't gotten one, you know you would have mom, but after I had carried the dress around the store I just couldn't go through with it so I hung it in all its hideous glory back on the rack. (I'd like to insert an apology here to anyone who might have seen these dresses and thought they were gorgeous).
Since we were still dressless this weekend we headed over to Trier to give the German stores a try, which is where my Christmas nightmare truly comes in. I don't know why I wasn't thinking that the walkplatz and the mall would be a nightmare of German crowds, but I was just imagining a regular amount of people. There was only one parking garage that still had spots available when we got to Trier at 10am and from the time we first saw the sign advertising 122 available slots til we finally pulled up to the lot, the sign read 60 slots. There were soooooo many people there for the Christmas market, and apparently to do their Christmas shopping, that we could barely manage to get from one area of the walkplatz to another, not to mention my Christmas cheer was going out the window as store after store there was not a single dress, let alone holiday dress in the baby section. I seriously wonder where Germans buy baby clothes because all I saw in up to roughly an 18 month size were pajama like outfits, but whatever.
We decided to take a break from the madness to get some lunch and all we were looking for was a place slightly off the walkplatz where we could all sit down and not be bombarded by people for a few minutes. Instead we found all that we were looking for and more in a place called Lousiana just behind the main area of the walkplatz. It's the German version of a stereotypical American restaurant and we LOVED it. The word big is everywhere, "Big American Buffet Breakfast" and "Classic BIG Burger" we were cracking up. Our favorite phrase was "Traditional Big American Apple Strudel" we didn't realize there was any such thing but it looked delicious. We both got amazing, and true to the advertisement, big burgers with super yummy cajun fries, not to mention BIG colas with ice which doesn't often happen in Europe.
Our escape into the American stereotype energized us to get back out and get to task, so we hit up the mall where we found an H&M kids and a dress that while not the traditional christmas dress you would imagine picking up at JcPenneys, will still serve our needs and is quite cute. I'm still looking for some accessories for it as attempts to find a little black headband or bow for her hair were fruitless as was my attempt to locate a black shrug or sweater to go over the dress, but I will not be deterred. We're headed to bitburg to look for anything that will work. Needless to say when we got home after that amazingly long day, we decided to lock ourselves in our house where no one could enter the "BIG American zone of personal space" that I like to maintain.
This past Saturday our friends wanted to go to the Trier Christmas Market and despite our experience last Saturday we decided to go back and soak in the Christmas spirit. Luckily, it was actually less crowded this time than it was the last time. We wandered through the stands looking at the crafts and of course had to get a Nutella and banana crepe to cap off the evening.
Merry Christmas everyone!!
