Fredricksburg, Texas

My Dad's family is German.. OK.. well his Dad, my grandfather is German. My maiden name is German... Bauer which means 'farmer'. Kinda funny that is what my family does... they run a ranch.. Bauer Ranch.

Every year it is a tradition that we visit the Old German town of Fredericksburg, Texas. Founded in 1846, the town was one of the first historically claimed towns by the Germans. In fact many people that live here still speak the German dialect.

We go every year for the parade... and to enjoy good German food.

The parade this year was wet and cold. The rain misted us for about a hour before it decided to full on pour down on us. We sat outside for as long as we could to enjoy the parade.

Joshua had to have a light sword.. because you can never have too many.. This is like our 5th one.

The parade is beautiful. I have no idea how they get all these lights to come on. Battery Operated?  That is a lot of batteries if so!  Either way, the parade was just as beautiful as years before.

That night we ate at my favorite restaurant, Friedhelms.. They have the best German Schnitzel ever!! And I love the fact that all the waiters and waitresses dress up in old time German clothing.

The next morning we ventured out to Rathskellers German Basement restaurant. Everything was great there. Joshua has the German doughnut holes, which tasted nothing like actual doughnut holes. They were more like a cross between a gingerbread and a cake... but not very sweet. Joshua did not like them and ended up sharing a dish with me.

After breakfast we walked the streets and shops of Fredericksburg.. and of course we always have to stop at the candy shop.

and Joshua has to ride the famous antique horse...

We always do our part and donate what we can....

The streets are beautiful. The shops were kept in their original condition. I love the look of a old small town.

Check out Joshua's new fire watch that Granna bought him...

We went to the Christmas store where Joshua goes straight for the kids section. His favorite?  The books! We must own every book in that store... except for the Angelina Ballerina one...  and he had to have it, so we now have every book in the store!

We took a little break at the wine house.. where Joshua was probably the only child they have ever seen on the inside of that store..   we sat.. we ate.. we drank.. water.

Yes, here we were in a wine store and we had cheese and pizza with a expensive bottle of water.

The grandparents drank the wine...

Fredricksburg town square...

And our house... our beautiful log cabin this year.   It was a great house. 5 bedrooms upstairs. 1 downstairs.

The only problem there were 2 bathrooms and 11 people.     Not good.

Yes, Aunt Karen and Uncle LeRoy stayed with us, Granna and Grandpa, Uncle Ryan and Mandi, Aunt Kathi and Uncle George, and of course, Joshua, John and I. 

There were waiting lines for the bathrooms.

The house was beautiful though and had a old rustic charm. There were like 100 closets and hiding spaces in there. It really was a great house. I actually liked it better than some of the other houses we have stayed at.. if only they could build another bathroom .. or two.  It was decorated for the season .. and at night, there was a display of snowflakes that shined upon the house using a projector. When it first came on, Joshua was excited that it was snowing and hurriedly ran to the door, to only see the wet rain.. no snow.

Even Charlie the elf followed us on vacation....