Merry Christmas!

Hope you all have a very merry Christmas!

St. Goar

It's been one of those weeks, so I thought I'd present a few more pictures from Germany. These are from our final stop - a little river town called St. Goar. (And this weekend, if we finish decorating, some more house pictures.)



A path through the woods, climbing up to the castle above the town.



Looking at the Rhine from halfway up the hill.





Two views of some of the castle. There's a portion of the castle that is in very good shape (in fact, it's been renovated into a very nice hotel), but this obviously isn't it. :-) It was fun to climb around in, though!

New school

Finally, after more than three years in Chicago, we've found an aikido dojo we like! And it's less than a mile from our new place, so we can even walk there. (Although for weeknight classes, I end up going straight from work and walking from the El station.)

I am remembering, however (after a couple classes), how out of shape I am! I have sore spots where I don't even remember moving during class... but I also remember that this, too, shall pass - once I go to class regularly for a couple of weeks.

The dojo has a website if you're interested in seeing it. No pictures of the class space, though - which is a shame, because it's really nice.

Let it snow

Well, after a week in downstate Illinois for a hearing, I raced the storm back to Chicago. We didn't get nearly the snow the forecasters said we would (of course), but I was still glad I didn't get caught out in it! Some pictures from Friday morning (out our front window):

And we're slowly getting settled in - one thing we've finished (functionally, anyway) is the guest room! Picture below:

Sable is watching for guests to come visit...

We even have a guest bathroom!