November 19-25

Monday November 19

Quiet, normal morning. Met with HR's 1st grade teacher for a parent-teacher conference in the afternoon. She said she can tell HR is really beginning to understand German better and that now she needs to start applying herself to the classwork and doing what she can by herself. HR has a bit of a tendency to daydream and not pay attention when she should (this is nothing new!) so we'll have to have a little discussion about how best to use our time during the school day. All that said, the teacher is still pleased with how quickly she's catching on to everything and is happy to have her in class. HR also is beginning to interact a lot more with the other kids and participate in the games and play during Sport and recess. Good to hear!

The weather has been mild but every once in a while we have a day that feels like real winter weather is just around the corner. The leaves are mostly on the ground or swept up by the street cleaning machines. Here's a few shots from our balcony to compare to previous shots. Watching the seasons change really makes our year here real!

Tuesday November 20

Met with my friend, SL, for the 3rd week now for Kaffee and conversation. This time it was just the two of us again. We easily filled up 2 hours with talk! Learned some more about her family and shared some more about my own. Also filled her in on our crazy schedule at home and how it's busy here but just different and that I *love* not being in a car all the time!  Also discovered that she's a runner too, so next week we're going to meet to run together on Tuesday morning. Yeah!

Mom, you'd enjoy the fact that SL's work is a home based knitting business: she knits and felts slippers for all sizes (really cute ones for kids that she puts animal or car features on). She also makes scarves, socks, sweaters, skirts (felted!), and other knit clothing. Some of it is ready-made in her "store" and for others she does custom work. So when we meet over coffee, she's always knitting--except today because she's working on a pattern where she has to count so much that she can't talk at the same time!

Tonight I'm headed to Beuel for a rehearsal with my friend MD's Musikkreise (Music Circle). I'm singing on their Advent concert on December 1. J is teaching his seminar at the Law school so I have a babysitter coming to stay with the girls, the niece of a friend.

I've been working on plans for MK's 12th birthday party--she turns 12 on 12.12.12!!! I also have tentative plans for a little celebration for Grace. Have to figure out how I'm going to make the cakes or if I'll order one or both from a bakery.

Wednesday November 21

A pretty typical day: GE to Kindergarten, some grocery shopping. Discovered that I'd won two prizes with the tickets we bought to support the St. Martinzug's parade a couple of weeks ago. The school kids and Kindergarteners sell these little tickets for .50 cents and each has a number on it. Then there's a raffle for gift certificates at some of the local businesses. We won a gift certificate to the Leyenhof Biohof market (my favorite where the fresh Kale is!) and a gift certificate for "ein Brot" (one bread) at the organic bakery. Don't know how much the Leyenhof certificate is worth yet, but I'll go next week and see! Yeah for us!

Went to my Laufen Training (running group) in the evening and had a great time. Am now feeling comfortable enough with the other women and the trainer to join in the joking and ribbing that goes on. No training this Saturday because the trainer is running a 106 km race! We'll meet again next Weds.

Thursday November 22

Beautiful sunny morning! GE and I enjoyed the tail end of the sunrise as we rode to the Kindergarten. She has been particularly cheerful about going to KG this week and is saying the names of children as she sees them or as we say good-bye at the end of the day. She talks about "my friend, Seeyar" or "my friend Nehle". So sweet!  She's also regularly eating the lunch food. Today she told me she ate it and that it was yummy but that she didn't know what it was. But she ate it by dipping her Brötchen into it. Sometimes she says she liked the chicken or noodles but that it had "fruit in it". Not sure if she means little chunks of tomatoes or if she really means fruit! So funny.

I've been eavesdropping on the other moms conversations as we wait for the KG to open their doors at pick up time. I often can hardly follow the local German's because of their thick dialect but I'm starting to pick out some common phrases. Today's: Sounds like "daht vay eh net" which means Das weiss ich nicht! Now, who told them it was OK to leave all the consonants out?!

After picking up GE, I rode by the house of one of my running friends and picked up her daughter, R, to come over to our apartment to play. She's in the 2nd grade at the same school as ME and HR. She's met ME before and I thought it might work well for her to play with both of my girls since she's in between age-wise. She disappeared happily into their room and they played from 2:30 to 5:20 with nary a peep! When her mom arrived we walked together with the kids to the Pauluskirche for the first Krippenspiel (nativity play) practice. ME is going to be the donkey and HR is one of the sheep. :) ME has a couple of lines she'll have to memorize which she seemed a little scared by at first but then read them out nice and clear and only made one small mistake in pronunciation. That's my girl!

Friday November 23

Picked up the rental van from the airport and did a big shopping run before the girls came home from school. Then we packed a few things for the weekend. MK took the bus to her dance class and the rest of us finished packing and loaded the van, then picked MK up in Bad Godesberg and headed to Haiger to visit the RW and GW! We hit a little Friday evening traffic and it was raining, but we arrived in decent time and GW set out a wonderful Abendbrot spread for supper. The girls dove into the toy supply in the attic playroom that I remember from my family's visits (the W's have four children too and my sisters and I were all about the same ages, except for their youngest, AK). Later we tucked our girls into various and sundry beds and then the four of us adults sat around the coffee table reminiscing and sharing a bottle of wine. I told J later that it was like sitting around talking with my friends, not as if we were talking to my parent's friends!

Saturday we slept in a bit (except for the little girls who were up around 6:30 and were kicked out to go play in the attic), enjoyed a variety of Brötchen with GW's homemade jams and jellies (apple, currant, strawberry with rhubarb and Holunderbeere which we know as elderberry) and Nutella (of course!). GW and I went into town to a thrift store and scored a whole basket of handfolded Fröbelsterne (for example: http://www.froebelstern.com/) with strings attached and ready for hanging on a Christmas tree. Plus I found several boxes of candle holders with little clasps for attaching to a tree! A few Christmas presents and a couple of kitchen items later...

Lunch was more traditional German food: Frikadellen und Kartoffelpuree (meatballs--sort of; more like individual meatloaf--and mashed potatoes). I tucked GE into bed for a much needed nap while the older girls watched the beginning of Das Doppelte Lottchen ( Das Doppelte Lottchen), the original "Parent Trap" film. They were able to follow it for the most part although I had trouble understanding some of the low German!

I woke GE up after an hour or so and we all headed outside for a bit. We drove to a park on a hillside overlooking Haiger, but there was a Treibjagd underway with hunters walking about with their rifles making noises to flush out the Wildschwein. So we decided it would probably not be the best place to let the kids play and instead headed back to town to the school playground where there was fantastic zipline and open space to run.  A little Kuchen for the girls when we got home (to tide them over until dinner) and then...

Dinner was another traditional meal: Raclette with potatoes, tomatoes, bread, meats and cheeses ( Raclette). Super yum! As you can see there wasn't much left when we were done. HR: "Mom, can we do this every night for supper?!" which GW thought was just wonderful and made it all worth the effort.

After the kids were in bed, we enjoyed another bottle of wine and some homemade Schlehe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_spinosa ) liquor with Champagne while munching on hazelnuts, peanuts, and walnuts (all still in the shell). Another late night...

Sunday November 25

Another lovely breakfast of Brötchen and jams, etc. then off to church with R&GW. The service included a special story-time for the kids and then they were invited to the Kindergottesdienst time in another part of the church. Our plucky girls went right along. After the service we went back to their house for lunch: Schnitzel mit Pilzrahmsauce (pork in a mushroom cream sauce) over rice, a fresh Feltsalat salad, and green beans. GW's sister arrived to visit and took a couple of pictures of all of us together, then it was time to load up and head home. The sky had cleared so we opted to take the cross-country route instead of the Autobahn again. Gorgeous countryside and blue sky. We had to make one stop for HR to recover from mild car-sickness, but still made it home in a timely fashion. Monday morning I returned the car after one more large shopping run.