Weihnachten - December 25th, 2018 — The McNeill Experience

December 25th, 2018

Brandenburg Gate Christmas Tree

We had an amazing week filled with joy and Christmas Spirit. We had so many fun little adventures this week, the best way to tell our story is with an instalment of The Week In Pictures.

The week started with some Christmas dinners for Chad’s work and new friends made during 2018.

Saturday brought another Christmas Market into our lives; the Gedächtniskirche [Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church] Christmas Market. Some might remember this place as the site of the tragic terrorist attack that took place on December 19th, 2016, killing 12 and injuring 56. Like many of these truck based attacks there was no rhyme or reason to who was hurt or killed. All we know is that no one effected deserved what happened that beautiful Christmas evening.

At each entrance are temporary steal barriers and the entire place has been lined with concrete blockades since the attack due to the church being a heritage site. We paid our respects to the fallen and effected.

It was an overly simple and easy gesture on our part to enjoy the festivities on Saturday. However, it was nothing short of brave for the survivors of that horrific day to pick up and continue the tradition that been going on here for nearly 35 year in an area of the city that has had a Christmas Market of some type for over 100 years. Terrorism wins when good people stand by and do nothing or when the masses huddle in fear.

When we had our fill of the market we came in from the cold and had a nice lunch over looking the zoo and saw some great Christmas decorations.

One of Logan’s projects over the past weeks has been collecting stamps from the grocery store in pursuit of a Lego set. On Saturday he finally had enough stamps and selected the Lego City Special Transport set to build with Dad.