Dear Scott,

Are you set for Christmas?  Where are you spending the holidays?

Our roof party went great!  The weather was good, no rain and the sun was out,
it was just a little too windy.  But we were grilling in our private garage,
which is opened only to the North and the wind comes from the West and South.
Every seemed to enjoy the party, lots of beer, sekt, and wine was had by all
(that seemed to warm them all up too)  And most all of the bratw_rst and bread
was eaten!  Angus managed to stay warm and dry until the last 30 minutes.  We
had had a lot of rain, which left a lot of deep mud puddles where the trucks 
had
been driving on the land.  He suddenly showed up in the garage totally soaked!
Looks like he jumped and missed the land, landing in a puddle that was like a
lake to him!  I had brought a large thick cloth bag for him, I knew somehow 
he'd
manage to be in the mud...so I bagged him up and put him in the truck until we
could get him home and washed.  We now have a Christmas tree on our roof of 
our
house...looks neat!

Friday, we layed sewer pipes (in a drizzling rain) for the rainwater.  It runs
down the gutters then into the pipes buried in the ground, until it reaches 
our
huge rainwater reservoir under the warehouse.  (Water is very expensive here,
just for our little garden and apartment, the bill was 2,500 DM for the year.
Soon we will be watering an acre!)  The gutters were working just great too!  
It
was quite a muddy river down in those ditches where we were laying the pipe 
with
all the rainwater coming off the roof onto us.

Well it is finally cold here, REALLY COLD!  Looks like our winter has arrived.
At least most of the windows are in the house, all in the office and 
warehouse,
the final tiles should be on the roof be the end of tomorrow (but the roof is
closed with wood) and best of all the HEATING IS WORKING IN THE OFFICE and
breakroom!

Yesterday we celebrated our one year anniversary for our civil service wedding
by working somemore on our building.  We took bratw_rst, bread and wine and
grilled out in our utility room!  We then dined in the breakroom, while 
sitting
on a big bundle of styrofoam in front of the radiator.  It was really nice,
there's actually a great view out that window overlooking the rolling fields
(that are still GREEN!).

Then for the evening we went to the Christmas market in our town and dined at
the Rathaus (the restaurant acrosse the plaza from the actual Rathaus that we
married in...Rathaus means, government building...Courthouse).  To tell you 
the
truth, A?mann's is better, but they are closed on Sunday evenings.

Melissa and family are all set to be here next weekend.  Can't wait to see 
them!
 We finally got our tree finished yesterday morning.  Armin was being 
extremely
difficult about the lighting on the tree, but he finally got lights (after
buying 4 different sets) that pleased him, so I then decorated.  I have to 
admit
he does now have the best possible looking lights, even if the tree had to sit
there for 3 weeks while he searched the stores!

We hope you have a nice easy week and a great Christmas vacation!  I have a
confession to make, since I have just realized that I have not mailed my
Christmas cards...it looks like I may not get that done this year, please
forgive me!  I hope to do better in the future.  It is still so difficult for 
me
to function in this tiny apartment, I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE OFFICE AND HOUSE TO 
BE
FINISHED!!!!

Take care!

Connie, Armin and Angus