Roberts Abroad

So, Dana and I, as you may already know, spent most of the month of December in Germany. Dana turned 30 on December 11, which was the primary reason for our trip. However, since it was Christmas time, we had plenty of good old German Christmas activities, too. Like this, for example: This is me playing Santa Claus. Nobody else in the ward was able to be old St. Nick for the primary kids, so they talked me into it. The costume was just about the cheesiest Santa costume you could imagine. The beard and wig were so fake, I mean, just look at the photo. I was afraid they were going to break, and all the kiddies would see through the sham, and be traumatized forever. The beard didn't even attach to my face. It just hung there from my ears, like some fuzzy white bib. Anyway, the kids seemed to like it, and I had a fun time doing it. It was my first performance as Santa, at least in full costume.

The time we spent there was very full of activities. Since we are there so seldom, we try to pack as much visiting and socializing as we can into our two-week vacations, which ends up not leaving us very much time to play or have fun. This time, however, I was able to get away for a night and go climbing with two of my buddies, David and Silvio, in a cool old water tower that has been converted into a climbing gym. It was a lot of fun, but I learned two important things: 230 pounds is, actually, very heavy; and skinny guys are not always worse at strength sports than big guys. In other words, I was worn out after four climbs, while they could have climbed all night. Thus, I have decided to start going to a climbing gym in Utah, to get at least into the kind of shape where I could climb a rope ladder if I needed to.

One of the spiritual highlights of the trip was a visit to the Freiberg temple. This is the temple where Dana and I were sealed seven years ago. The trip was especially cool, because we did sealings, and the man who married us was the sealer for our sessions. It was like a renewal of our vows, almost. It was very, very cool. So this picture is of Dana and her mom (Rosi) and dad (Frank) in front of the temple. We are very proud to have been married in the Freiberg temple. It has such a cool history, being the first temple built in a communist country and all. Also, it was the only temple ever to be built without a Moroni on top. The Moroni was added later.

While we were in Germany, we got to hang out with our friends the Duerrs a lot, which was awesome. They are some of the coolest people we know. This picture is, from left to right, Kristina, Lena, Silvio and Noah. It was so great to be able to just hang out with them. We feel really blessed to have so many great friends on two continents. Its too bad that we can't just all live within a 10 minute drive of one another.

OK, so this is a picture of one of Dana's favorite places in her home-town. This is the Voelkerschlacht Denkmal. I wish I could hear some of you trying to pronounce THAT one, lol. For simplicity, the people there call it the Voelki (full-key). It is this gigantic concrete and stone monument to a battle that was fought against Napoleon, where several of the local distinct peoples came together to defend their homeland, and beat Napoleon back. Its a cool story, and the monument is even cooler. To give you an idea of how big it is, these next two pictures were taken from the top of the Voelki:
Pretty cool, huh? Every time we go to Leipzig we have to visit the Voelki at least once. Dana has a lot of memories from her childhood and teenage years connected to this place. The castle that you see in the second picture is not really a castle at all. In fact, it is kind-of a creepy place. That huge palace is really a crematorium. As in, the place where dead bodies are burned. Wierd, huh? And the forest all around the creepy not-castle is actually this huge city cemetery.

OK, now on to something much less creepy: Dana's birthday! We had two parties. One with friends, and one with family. This is the friends party: From left to right - David and Ramona Baasch, Silvio and Kristina Duerr, Dana and Dan Roberts. There is this cool little restaurant in downtown Leipzig called the Brasserie, and it has become sort-of 'our place' and we go to eat there whenever we go to Germany. Anyway, it was a nice evening with friends, and it was good for Dana to be able to celebrate a little with her old buddies from the Fatherland.

After that was the family party, which was a big production. All told we hosted 20 people. We held the party at Taverne Tabasco, which is a cool little Mexican restaurant that is run by a good buddy of ours named Sotirios. He is from Greece, but has lived in Germany for a long time. He is seriously one of the nicest, most generous people on the planet, and a really good cook, too.

Dana's brothers and sisters all pitched in to get her a gift, and this is what it looked like: Her sister Conny really went the extra mile putting it together. The black umbrella and red feather boa are really just props. The real gift is inside all the little boxes. There were 30 tiny boxes, each individually wrapped, that contained various sums of money that all the siblings pitched in to give Dana. It was a touching gift, and Dana loved it.

So that was our trip. It was busy, and didn't really feel like vacation, but it was great to be back among the family and friends we love in Germany. Dana took turning 30 with style and grace. I think she still looks like she did when I married her. I mean, she pretty much looked 45 then, too.

-ouch! Dana, stop hitting me!-