December 18-25

Tuesday-Friday

Oops, been falling behind on writing! It was a fairly uneventful week, yet somehow very full. I baked a lot... I think I'm still somehow expecting the hordes of family from home to be around to help eat it all when it's just my cousin who will be here to share! I didn't make double batches of anything like I would at home and I didn't bakes gobs of mini cranberry breads, but I was still busy in the kitchen every afternoon. :)

Wednesday evening was the Christmas Gottesdienst for the elementary school. HR and ME both went with me. Thursday ME and HR went to the Nativity play practice. HR is a sheep and they don't have to speak, so she hadn't been going to the other rehearsals. When she came home, she said "That was fun! I want to do that every week now. Ok, Mommy?" I had to explain that there are only a couple more rehearsals and then the play will be performed on Monday and then it's over. Deflated HR. Someone at the adult choir reminded me that there is a Wednesday afternoon youth group for 6-12 year olds and that perhaps now that ME and HR's German is coming along that they might like to join in that. I think after the Christmas break, I'll suggest that they try it...

Thursday after school the girls helped me make Gingerbread cookies per my mother-in-law's traditional recipe and Friday the girls cleaned the apartment while I made my grandmother's sweet roll recipe (baked in my neighbor's oven, rather than my little convection oven). Everything turned out pretty well, so the "taste" of Christmas will be familiar and sweet!

Friday evening I went into Bonn to rehearse the Mozart Messe again. This was a rough "dress" since there won't be another rehearsal before the concert on the 26th. The soprano soloist is an American woman with a thick American accent. I could hardly understand her German! Wondered what the Germans thought of that... Wonder what her sung German is like--how can you sing well in German with well formed vowels and then not try to do the same in the spoken language?! I'll never get that.

Tomorrow a.m. I'm picking up the rental car (and missing my Laufen training again! :( ) and then we've decided if the weather is "nice" (i.e. not raining), we'll go to Ahrweiler again and see the Weihnachtsmarkt there. I also have to squeeze in a run to the grocery store...

Saturday December 22

Picked up the car (a new Renault Espace this time--smaller than the VW Maxivan and bigger than the Ford Galaxy; should be just right for getting our big luggage in for the ski trip to Switzerland but not so big that it's hard to park/maneuver), then got a load of groceries before heading home for a quick lunch. Then we all packed into the car and headed to Ahrweiler again, hoping to check out their Weihnachtsmarkt (last one before they get taken down!). It was lovely. It spit at us but never really rained (remember, we tried going to Ahrweiler once before and got rained out by a wind/heavy rain storm) and the Weihnachtsmarkt was sweet, small, and not terribly crowded. We ate our last Weihnachtsmarkt specialties (roasted candied almonds, fire roasted salmon with potato Reibekuchen (fried shredded potato pancakes), and one thing we hadn't seen at the other Weihnachtsmärkte: Hirschgulasch (Deer gulash) with potato dumplings. Super yum!

Sunday December 23

A quiet morning. We didn't go to church since tomorrow there will be 2 services and two of the girls have atrocious colds. Instead we straightened up a bit (not very Mennonite, cleaning on a Sunday, I know; we had done the main cleaning on Friday but it needed another run over), played, and relaxed. In the afternoon ME and HR went to the church for the final Krippenspiel practice then our neighbor picked them up and they played with her daughter, R, for a couple of hours after the practice. Meanwhile GE and I walked (I walked, GE rode her Laufrad), to the U-Bahn station to meet my cousin, MM, who was arriving from Hamburg. Feels truly like Christmas to be anticipating a family visitor! Her trains were all on time and we only waited a few minutes at the U-Bahn until she arrived.

We put out a big German Abendbrot spread for supper and then relaxed together into the evening.

Monday December 24

I got up early to put together a baked oatmeal casserole, stuck it in the little oven and went for a run. When I came home everyone was up and about. I decked out the table with sweet breads (cranberry, banana nut, lemon poppy seed, and sweet rolls) and the baked oatmeal for our Heiligabend breakfast. Then I cleaned up and headed out to brave the grocery stores for our supplies for Christmas Eve meal and Christmas Day. It wasn't too bad. It was busy but nothing like a Walmart the last week before Christmas. Maybe because there are so many little grocery stores and everyone is spread out among them instead of concentrated in one...? I was planning to get a roasting chicken, but when I went to the meat counter, there was a small young turkey! I think it will even fit in my little oven...Otherwise, I'll do it in my neighbor's oven since they are in England for the holidays.

At 2:30 I went to the church with ME and HR so they could get ready for the Krippenspiel. J, my cousin MM, and the other 2 girls came later. I saved some seats since the church filled up quickly. There were so many people they had overflow in the fellowship hall with a video feed!  The service was music interspersed with the acts of the play (which was really well done!) and a short sermon.

Grace checking out the huge Krippe (Nativity Scene) at the front of the church.

HR in her sheep costume. We were encouraged to not take pictures during the play (which I regret not ignoring) and they dashed off afterwards before I could get them in front of the Krippe for a picture. Had to settle for pics in the "green room" with their giant St. Nik chocolates (thank you presents for taking part in the play--with extra sent home for the sisters!)

ME, donkey ears in her hand (she even had some lines: "Eee-aw, mach ich!") and the extra chocolates for GE and MK.

Afterwards the girls went home and were given a snack while J and I went back to join the adult choir for the second music service at 5. MM came to that one too. Afterwards we headed home and set up the Raclette machine for our Heiligabend supper: variety of cow, sheep and goat cheeses, prosciutto and Blutwurst, salami and ham, boiled potatoes, sliced tomatoes, zucchini, onions, 3 different crusty breads, and smoked trout and salmon... I forgot to take a picture before we dug in, so you'll have to settle for the aftermath...

We decided to mix our traditions a little: instead of opening presents Christmas morning, we opened the ones under the tree on Christmas Eve (the German tradition) and planned to open the stockings on Christmas morning (American tradition). We started with reading the Christmas story in English and then in German. We lit the candles on the Christmas tree for a few minutes to ooh and aah, then everyone helped to blow them out. Then one child at a time got to open a Christmas present from under the tree (the big "kids" too). Plus I set out a plate of Christmas cookies, because we hadn't eaten enough for dinner (just kidding).

Tree lit with the real candles!

MK with a new wooden hand model which she can pose and practice sketching different hand positions.

It's not Christmas if Daddy doesn't have a pair of new boxers on his head.

Afterwards everyone went quickly to bed. It wasn't as late as I'd thought it would be, but we still slept late (after 8!!) on Christmas morning. When we finally all crawled out of bed, I set out the decorated "Christmas Tree" sweet rolls, tea and coffee, and more sweet breads, including the little Stollen I'd picked up as the one store bought addition to our traditional sweet bread repertoire. The girls opened the stockings which were mostly edibles and little Christmas decorations from the various Weihnachtsmärkte we had visited. All the trash was gathered up, the rug quickly vacuumed before the crumbs could get ground in and then it was time to play and relax again. I'm making the big meal in the evening so we'll just have a light lunch (too full of Christmas breads to eat lunch anyway!).

Christmas morning table sent. My new teapot with tea candle stand! It's wonderful--keeps the tea just the right temp all morning.

These are usually in the shape of a Christmas tree, but the pan was smaller and I miscalculated how much they'd rise, so it all sort of smooshed together. Still tasted great though and the kids didn't care that the "tree" looked a little funny!

One of GE's new little ornaments. Can't see it well in this pic but there's a little bluebird sitting inside the star.

J's new ornament from the Ahrweil Weihnachtsmarkt: a wood cut out of a little village scene.

Another one for J: an innkeeper with 3 beers that say "Prost"! (from the Bonn Weihnachtsmarkt)

A gift from our neighbors and my running friend S. A whole family of sweet little clog-wearing figures.

From J to me. It says "Frohe Weihnachten"

An Igel and Igelbaby (Hedgehogs)

The manger scene from the Bonn Markt with the Kreche figures that fit our Kreche set at home--there was a stall at the Bonn Markt selling them!

HR's little angel sitting on a shooting star.

For HR from the Bonn Markt.

HR's ornament with little rabbits from Ahrweiler.

The only bummer: MM woke up with a stomach bug and had to dash to the toilet. She's ensconced in bed with some sparkling water and a bowl! :( Hopefully she'll feel like sitting up to the table this evening. Tomorrow a.m. she takes the train back to Hamburg.

Christmas Day evening: dinner was a success. Cranberry sauce, apple sauce, roast turkey, gravy, green beans, mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, and my favorite stuffing recipe: wild rice and mushroom with pecans made even more spectacular by my use of a German sourdough bread instead of the white country bread! The little turkey was just right (only 5.2 lbs!) and there were no left over mashed potatoes (and no one complained they hadn't had enough). MM sat up to the table but didn't eat much. Here's hoping if it hits us, it does so quickly and all at once so that we don't have it in Switzerland!!

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends all over the world! Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and well wishes on this adventure of ours. Can't believe it's half over!

December 11-17

Tuesday December 11

GE is 4! Hard to believe we welcomed her into our family in the wee hours of the morning 4 years ago. She's such a precocious, self-aware little person. And to celebrate, she slept in her underwear and stayed dry (without even an extra trip to the potty in the middle of the night!) Woohoo! Might not ever have to buy Pull-ups again. Now there's something to celebrate.

It's COLD again (-5 Celcius) and snowing on and off. Supposed to continue that for the next several days. I don't ever hear the weather forecasters predicting an accumulation, but it does make for messy streets. Rode my bike to the Kindergarten this morning very carefully. It's one thing to slide around in a car on the slushy/icy street and an entirely different situation with a bicycle--especially one laden with precious 4-yr-old cargo!

After dropping GE off, I rode to my friend SL's to join her for another long run through the Rheinaue. Snow blew around us from time to time and we had to dodge icy spots on the sidewalks, but we stayed warm running and talking--only my left foot toes got very cold because I didn't manage to miss a slushy puddle and my shoe got wet.

MK is home sick today. I felt a little yucky yesterday--thick, scratchy throat--and today it appears it's caught up with MK. She's cuddled into bed with her new book (birthday present from our neighbor) and a cup of warm tea on her bedside table. My nose is a little extra runny but my throat is much better today. Rehearsal tonight for the CityProjekt Chor so I hope I'm up to par!

My friend MSD lent us a boombox and a gigantic box of cassette tapes with stories and music in German for the kids. However, their German isn't quite good enough to understand them well enough to be drawn in and held by the stories, so the I've quietly commandeered the boombox for the kitchen where I have WDR 3 on in the background pretty much all day. I'm reminded of my mother-in-law's house where NPR or some classical music station is playing around the clock. I've been baking so much and having the radio playing makes it all feel so "at home"! Love WDR 3--they play a great mix of orchestral, chamber, vocal, and solo music without too much talking. There are occasional news and weather updates and personal interest stories or short explanations about a composer or musician, but mostly, just music. Makes me miss my Christmas CD's though... Now is when I'd have my Cambridge Singer's Christmas playing non-stop while I bake cranberry bread and sweet rolls!  Speaking of which, I'm going to make some attempt at both next week "borrowing" my neighbor's kitchen after she's left for England. Can't have family visiting (my cousin MM has confirmed that she is coming down from Hamburg to stay with us for the 23-26) and not have some family recipes!  I'm working on what to make for our Christmas meals. I think I'm going with Raclette (thanks to MSD who has also lent us her extra Raclette machine!) for Christmas Eve and for a pretty traditional spread for Christmas Day: roasted chicken (they don't have huge turkeys here!), mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, cranberry sauce (there are fresh cranberries at the Leyenhof Biohof!), applesauce, and bread. Not sure what I'm going to do about pie... Might have to suffice it to have lemon poppy seed tea bread, cranberry nut bread, and sweet rolls. Oh, and of course, I'll have to make a batch of gingerbread with the girls... Too much to do, not enough time!

Wednesday December 12

MK is 12 today! On 12.12.12, in case you didn't notice that right way. And she's home sick again. Bleh. I have a horrible cold too. I think I will be skipping my Laufen Training group tonight. I have to blow my nose so much I doubt I'd get very much exercising done. Besides my glands are swollen behind my ears and my sinuses feel like they're grown too large for my face. Ugh.

Copied from my Facebook status (feeling too lazy to re-write it here):

Just heard my 4 year old (GE) trying to speak in German to our landlord who was replacing the broke toilet seat. When she got stuck because she didn't know the German words that she needed, she said "Ach, ich kann nicht!" (Oh, I can't do it!). Oh, but she can!!!! So cool. First time I've heard her switch into German when she knew she was speaking to a German rather than just plowing ahead in English. She's also been singing "Vier Jahre, vier Jahre" over and over: "4 years, 4 years". I guess they must have been telling her that lots in Kindergarten yesterday!

While our landlord was here, I spoke to him about the stove top too. One of the heating elements has been finicky: sometimes heating up, sometimes just staying lukewarm. Of course, it's not suppose do that, but he wasn't sure how simple it would be to repair/replace it since the type we have is completely built in (and ours is quite outdated, so it might not even be manufactured anymore). He said he has another oven-stove combo stored in the attic but he wasn't sure if they'd be able to build it in to the current kitchen. He's scheduling an installer to come and take a look at the oven and our kitchen and see what can be done. What will I do with a real oven?! Small chance I'll have it in time for Christmas though...

Thursday December 13

Still sick. MK and I both laid low as much as possible. I took GE to Kindergarten and got a few groceries and then went home. I didn't go to choir in the evening and we just had a quiet time of it.

Friday December 14

Starting to feel better although still sort of "wiped out". MK was up early as usual, so she went back to school.

In the afternoon we all loaded onto our bikes to ride to MK's school for a Christmas party with her class. Nice affair although far too many sweet baked goods! The little girls were bouncing off the walls. The class homeroom teacher read out the names of each of the classmates and then read from a "Golden Book" what the other classmates had written about them using the letters of their first name. MK was: Musikalisch, Aufmerksam, Ruhig, Young (musical, attentive, calm, young).

Saturday December 15

We hustled everyone out a little after 9 a.m. to go to the Servatiuskirche to choose a Christmas tree! J carried it back on his shoulder. MK and I went to the grocery store for a few things. We set the tree up and hung our few ornaments up... Really starting to feel like Christmas! The girls love it. :)

 We ate an early lunch and then took the train to Köln to meet my friend VM and her husband CN. They took us to a quaint smaller Weihnachtsmarkt on the south side of town, then we took the U-bahn to the Altstadt and went ice skating. The big girls quickly got the hang of it (after some rather spectacular wipeouts!). VM helped HR and I held onto GE. The little ones were starting to sort of get their balance about the time the grownups had had enough! Maybe we'll try it again in Bonn. By then everyone needed some food and we needed to make our way back to the Bahnhof. We took a route that led through the famous markt on the plaza in front of the famous Dom. The throngs of people were pretty amazing. We could hardly push our way through! CN carried GE on his shoulders through the crowd and I held HR's hand with her tucked in behind me so I could "plow" a path through the people. I understand now why my friend doesn't care to go with her little guys in a stroller! She'd never make it through.

Köln Dom towers peaking over the roof line.

ME in the center. She got so warm she took her coat off!

VM with HR

Everyone was tired when we got home. ME still had plans to go to her friend Y's house for a sleepover, so I accompanied her on bike (it was dark). Her parents invited me in for some tea and so I spent another hour talking with them in a mix of English and German (they're Russian). Learned some interesting things about Russian culture and Siberia!

Sunday December 16

I sang some solos for the Advents service at the Pauluskirche: a Mendelssohn aria for the prelude and "He shall feed his flocks" variation for soprano (not alto-soprano as is usually done) from Handel's Messiah. It was well received and thankfully my cold never reached my voice, so although I had a lot of sinus stuff going on, no one else was the wiser!

Around 3 our babysitter arrived to stay with HR and GE while the two older girls went with J and me to see Der Hobbit in 3D and in German! When we arrived MK's friend, C, was just coming in with her mom to see it too. They had tickets in the same row (German's sell reserved seating at the movie theater!) but a few places away, so C and I traded seats so that MK could sit with her. There were 35 minutes of previews and ads and then it finally got going! J had just finished reading The Hobbit to them in English a couple of weeks ago, so the story was still fresh in their minds. They were both able to follow along without too much trouble.

Monday December 17

A typical Monday. Everyone off to school, then meeting SL for coffee/tea, this time at her home. We talked for nearly 2 hours, then I had to hurry off to get some groceries before heading home to meet HR. No dance or tutoring for the girls until after the holidays, so everyone was home for the afternoon. I baked a batch of cookies (a dairy-free German chocolate version of Peanut Butter Blossoms) and the girls played.

Tuesday December 18

Felt queasy yesterday evening and during the night--discovered this morning that my black beans were bad and realized I probably had some mild food poisoning. Bleh. Went straight from dropping GE off at Kindergarten into Bonn for a few last-minute Christmas items. Then hurried home to meet HR after school.  Baked a batch of lemon poppy seed bread and a batch each of chocolate cookies and oatmeal almond butter cookies. I've finally figured out what settings to use on my mini oven to get the right outcome! No failed recipes this time. Yeah!  I'm taking one loaf of poppy seed bread to the choir "Gemütligkeit" on Thursday evening, giving another as a gift, and saving the 3rd for us.