Track My Child: Living in a Wintery City

Although I have never lived anywhere with a proper winter, I always assumed I would love it. I do. I wish I could live somewhere that is this cold all year. There are a lot of advantages: you never have to worry about keeping your lawn green, cut or weed-free, and yet, it's still beautiful. People don't worry so much about what they look like - everyone looks like a 300 pound bear when they are wearing their winter clothes, so whether you do Pilates every morning, or eat pie, no one knows. In fact, the pie helps keep you warm. People drink a lot of hot wine to keep warm. Here it's called Glühwein, but it is basically mulled wine + anise + cardamom. People eat a lot of cookies and cakes in the cold weather, which means that I get to bake all the time. People here own their own ice skates; I wish I had ice skates - and knew how to skate - and play hockey. In the winter, young children are picked up by their parents with sleds. Two or three small children climb on the sled and the parents just pull them home. There is a really good coffee shop near our apartment where a lot of parents go. The other day M saw multiple parents park their strollers, with kids inside, out on the sidewalk while the parents went in and got coffee. It is nice that people aren't worried about child-snatchers here. Obviously there are downsides to everything about Winter, but it's still the best season.

M likes to look super cool when waiting for a train.

But the other day he made really some delicious Murgh Palak:

I have been taking some pictures of Weinachtsmärkte (Christmas markets), unfortunately my camera is not very good in low lighting, so you all'll have to make do. Weinachtsmärkte are set up from the end of November thru the first week of January and consist of booths where people sell handmade winter things, Bratwursts, Glühwein, and there are carollers, pony rides, loads of Christmas lights, and games for kids.