Sunday we took our first outings with our Baby Trends Expedition LX jogging stroller. In the morning, we bundled Mackenzie up in her Eskimo outfit and went out to walk the dog. It was a bit of a bumpy ride, especially on the unpaved paths, and Stefan is already looking for ways to pimp our stroller with shocks. Maybe we can find some spinners for it too. No, not really.

But I was caught “brushing my shoulders off” that same day as we headed into the Christmas market in Windecken. Maybe it was just the fresh air going to my head 🙂 No really, just a dumb photo of me.

But let me also take this moment to completely get sidetracked: I’d like to point out that I am wearing Vans here…and they are the greatest shoes for pregnant women EVER! No laces, you can just kind slip them on, awesome designs. LOVE them.

Back on course now…

The market is touted as “a culinary Christmas market,” which meant we had to go investigate. A claim like that just cannot. And with it only being held two days each year, our time was limited. Usually we would visit a Christmas market at night; they look more romantic and charming then. But since it’s been extremely cold the last few days, we didn’t want to subject Mackenzie to that.

The Christmas market has about 30 stands, many of them located in the main market square of Windecken, which is rather quaint and full of fachwerk houses. About half the stands are food related and you can get everything from brick oven fired mini-pizzas to smoked fish, from currywurst to crepes. And that is quite an array of food considering the offerings at most Christmas markets. But I guess I still expected something more, with a bit more style or imagination. There wasn’t even chocolate-covered fruit. But you can buy some crafts made by students at the local schools…or let your kids ride on the little train that the kids can ride…not that it really goes anywhere but they still seemed to be enjoying themselves.

The place was packed and it wasn’t necessarily fun to have the stroller along. Maybe we should have been using it as a weapon like so many other people do here. It’s a really good thing we didn’t take the dog because it would have been a bit rough in those narrow streets. Perhaps the Baby Bjorn carrier would have been better for that type of event…

We took Mack out on the evening walk in the carrier and it was much nicer. I can still mostly zip my jacket up with her in there (for now anyway) and we were certainly transferring enough body heat back and forth to keep everyone warm. Cause did I mention it’s freezing here? Literally. We had a light dusting of snow yesterday morning and everything is covered in frost this morning. Brrr. But I’m really enjoying using the carrier and think we will get a lot of wearing time clocked in the coming months.

Here’s a new photo of Mack for you to enjoy…in yet another of the adorable outfits from her “Aunt” Katie. It’s a bit big – but so are most things on her at this stage. But she sure is a cutie 🙂 Yeah, I’m partial – but that’s to be expected, right?