A Georgia Girl in Germany

Even though we weren’t at home over Christmas, Santa still managed to find us. I think the notes the kids left at home explaining that we’d be in Rome helped.

After seeing the movie “The Polar Express,” Benjamin decided he wanted “an oval bell” from Santa’s sleigh. Santa obliged and gave him a beautiful bell as well as some Kid K’Nex toys. Benjamin noticed that his new bell wasn’t truly oval, but was happy with it nonetheless. I think he decided to ask for an oval one since our widescreen TV stretches the movie images to fit the screen, which gives the illusion (at least on our TV) of being oval instead of round.

MacKenzie asked for a dog, and received an electronic one -- no mess to clean up. I think this is what led her to ask for “a dog that doesn’t run on batteries” this year. Maybe one of these days Santa will be able to grant her wish, although I’m certainly not complaining.

Zachary was ecstatic to receive a Nintendo DS -- which helped him pass the time during the remainder of our bus trip.


Benjamin was a wonderful traveler, especially with how much we kept him going. This is his Christmas afternoon nap, before we headed back out for supper. Now, that’s one tired boy!


European hotels are rather different from American hotels. We stayed in a 4-star hotel, and this was the size of the room -- large enough for two single beds and room to walk on one side of each, then a sitting chair and desk on the opposite wall.

Even the bathrooms are relatively small. What you don’t see is a sink with very little countertop space and the shower (no tub). Benjamin was the only one of us who decided to use the bidet. I think it was more of a novelty than anything else since he only wanted to use it that one time. It didn’t seem to bother him, he just wasn’t interested in a repeat use.

No complaints though, since we didn’t go to Rome for the hotel room. Besides, all hotel rooms look the same with the lights off.