Hi Ingrid and Listers, We too still keep to the special traditions brought to the USA and our church by our German ancestors. We have a beautiful brass candle stand on our church upon which is twined with greenery and 3 purple candles and 1 pink rose candle for the 4 Sundays of advent and one very large white Christ candle that is lit on Christmas Eve. Each Sunday, which we will begin tomorrow, is the lighting of a candle. Then each following Sunday the first candle will be lit again, until all 3 purple ones and the pink rose one and the white candle are lit on Christmas Eve. In our homes we have one single electric candle in each of our windows and a set of 5 candles we lights each week in our front window. Even though I am now 52 years of age, we still have an advent calendar in our home and each night we open one of the little windows. I was fortunate to travel to Germany in the summer of 1999 on a tour group with my church and at that time I found several lovely advent calendars that I can use for the next few years. We have also begun our Christmas baking. This morning my mother stirred up our Lebkuchen. Tomorrow I will stir up, roll out, cut and let dry overnight, our Springerele. I will be using 5 wooden Springerele molds that have been in our family for 100 years now. Each year these molds are lovingly used. They are now one of my most prized possessions. Christmas in our home would not be complete without dozens of Lebkucken, Springerele, Pfefferneuse, Spritz, Cinnamon Stars, and numerous other cookies, all made by my mom and me. My grandmother and her sister, my great aunt, taught me how to make Springerele when I was about 5 years old, and I have made them every year since. I look forward to more great stories. Karen JENTER Michigan USA