It's Official!

Last night when David open his e-mail I knew instantly something good had happened. He finally got the message he had been waiting for. It is official, all the paperwork hoops have been jumped through, all the red tape barriers have been broken. Dave is now a grad student. Way to go babe, we are so proud of you!

Wordless Wednesday -Frankfurt Christmas Market

Holy Smokes!

I was sitting at the computer this morning when a movement in the snake cage caught my eye. Yes, I said snake. Child number 3 got a snake for his birthday. Mom got a snake cage with a padlock for her peace of mind. Snakes, in my opinion, are my cuter when there is absolutely no chance of escape!

Snakes are basically boring pets. Ribbon spends all day, every day, laying very still under a bit of bark hiding from the world. Check out the video below to see what was going on today. Sorry about the quality of the video. The only camera at hand was my point and shoot Olympus. Great little camera, and I love that I can take it into the pool, but it isn't the best video camera ever. Better than nothing though.



Holy Cow, I had no idea she could move so fast. I guess it is time to buy a new fish!

In case you are wondering Ribbon is a ribbon snake. She (pet store guy said it was a she) is about 2 feet long and as big around as a pencil. Really she is cute for a snake but the one time she got loose, I suddenly found myself balance atop the sofa shrieking like a girl, hence the padlock. She is completely nonvenomous, and harmless (unless you are a fish).

This video is basically real time. The only things I cropped out are when I filmed the wall for a few seconds because I was watching Ribbon not the camera, and when I put my finger over the lens, see reason above. I had to pull back a few times because I didn't want to get her upset and have her barf the fish back up. She has done that before and it is gross! From start of the hunt to slithering back to her hidey hole was less than 4 minutes.

Movie night

“Movie night” without the big TV is not the same. Since the TV blew four capacitors and no longer turns on we have resorted to Shannon’s 13” apple to watch movies. The kids don’t seem to mind though and with any luck by next week’s movie I should have the new card for the big one.

Clean Shoes

"Don't forget to clean your shoes!"  This was Colin's announcement of the evening.  It was a weird announcement because Colin never cleans anything voluntarily.  Thank goodness someone had clued me in at Cub Scouts Monday or I might have been worried I had the wrong kid. 

Tomorrow is December 6th.  Here in Germany that means Sankt Nikolaus will be paying a visit to leave a treat in the shoes of good little kiddos, and a prickle for the naughty.  My kids are flexible, they are quick to adopt any and all local customs that promise a chance at extra goodies. Tonight they prepared for Sankt Nikolaus by making sure their shoes were clean and ready to be filled.  Colin in particular really worked hard at cleaning his, even the soles are clean.  

Wonder what they will find in the morning, a treat, or a unpleasant surprise?  Maybe both since they are good and bad in turn. 

Cinnamon Bear, or Life Without TV

The TV died last week, actually my husband assures me that it is merely in ICU and should recover nicely once the capacitor transplant is complete. You have to understand that I have 4 children, while my husband has two extra babies, his 40 inch flat panel LCD TV and his Nikon D40. So the problems with the TV have been somewhat traumatic. To compound the trauma this is the season where we (the kids) watch endless Christmas videos while Mom (that's me) frantically tries to get everything accomplished without losing it and turning into a screaming banshee. Banshees aren't exactly filled with Christmas spirit and can turn unexpectedly violent when provoked by whining children.

Thank goodness for the computer and internet. It has saved the day! I found The Cinnamon Bear while blog surfing last week. Cinnamon Bear is a radio show originally broadcast in 1937. Each day starting on November 29th a 15 minute episode of the story was broadcast with the final episode on Christmas Eve. The first day the kids thought it was lame, by day three they were listening quietly (miracles DO happen) and begging me to play the next days episode early. It isn't too late to add this to your family holiday, just double up a few days to get caught up.

Youtube has allowed for a few minutes of peace when I really need them. If you search Christmas Cartoon Classics it turns up a treasure trove of Christmas classics from long ago. Such wonders as Christmas Comes But Once a Year (1936) and Jack Frost (1934) are just a few keystrokes away. This is youtube though, so some parental oversight is required.

Christmas music can be found on the internet too. Mikes Radio World has been providing me with a link to home since we moved overseas. I still listen to many of my favorite hometown radio stations even though we are in Germany. In addition to the many station links from around the world, this time of year there are Christmas Music only feeds with holiday music from many different countries. Instead of watching TV we are listening to a lot of holiday music and breaking out the board games. Maybe we will just leave the TV broken a little longer.

**For a chance to win some international Christmas music on CD head on over to Live From Waterloo and check out the contest.

Wordless Wednesday--Schloss Heidelberg

A Castle and a Christmas Market

Saturday we went to the Heidelberg Christmas market. We could have gone to the one in Frankfurt but we wanted to go someplace new. We didn't actually know where the market is held but we knew it was set up near Heidelberg Castle and we were pretty sure we could find a castle.

I don't know if you are aware, but castles are big. Really really big. From a distance they look impressive in a pretty fairy tale sort of way but up close they are just huge. We didn't see the market so we decided to explore the castle first then go looking for the market later in the day.  After all we had the whole day with out the kids.  We could do what ever we wanted.  From one of the terraces in the castle we could see the Christmas market set up in the town below.

The market was fun, if a bit touristy and crowded.  We wandered around looking at the stuff for sale.  Lots of Christmas decorations, knitted hats and scarves, candles, and of course lots of food and drink. I drank some gluhwein (traditional mulled wine, warm and yummy) and shared a pastry with Dave.

I am glad we didn't take the kids with the crowds it would have been hard to handle. There were some things for the kids to do though. There was ice skating, don't you love the little penguins for the tiny ones to hold on to so they don't fall? A little train named  Rio Grande, we thought this was funny since we are from Texas where the Rio Grande is located. There was also a merry-go-round. And of course there was food and kinderpunsch for kids to enjoy. 

After we had our fill of crowds and Christmas cheer we set off to explore the shopping scene. There were lots of fun shops to explore. It made for a relaxing afternoon. We ended the day with a visit to a bookstore, an English language used book store, my very favorite kind. I found a new used book to read and we headed home. We will be back to explore the castle with the kids another day.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Friday was my 41st birthday. The boys surprised me with a handmade birthday card before they left for school. Dave took the afternoon off and we spent some time exploring and discovered a new pet shop with much more reasonable prices. Yay! The cats and snake will be happy, so will our budget!

Since we have so much left over food I didn't get the traditional cake instead David and I walked to a bakery and bought an apple pastry. David decided that 41 candles would probable set off the fire alarm and only put 5 candles on the pastry, 4 candles in a group for 40 and 1 off by itself. Colin loved the pastry, the rest of us not so much, but there was lots of left over lemon cake and pumpkin pie so there was no complaining here!

For a present I got a 1000 piece puzzle which will come in very handy since the TV choose this morning to up and die! David thinks he can fix it he just needs to order the part. In the meantime we keep saying we need to cut back on the TV time in this house so I guess that starts today!

I am getting my real present today. After I finish this post I am going off to my first German Christmas Market, alone, just David and I, with NO KIDS! We are taking the camera so check back tomorrow for pictures and maybe you can visit us next winter and go to the market with us!

Thanksgiving Cont...

When all the cooking was done and the kids came home from school. (Yes, the kids went to school on Thanksgiving, this is Germany and Thanksgiving is an American holiday, and do you know how much easier it is to cook that much food without kids underfoot?) As I was saying when all the cooking was done we had a feast fit for a king!


We managed to get a picture of everyone acting reasonable mature. This is a major accomplishment considering the ages of our kids.


All too soon the normal behavior resumed but, how boring life would be if they acted like little grown ups all the time!


And then came the best part of the day....dessert! Pumpkin pie, my favorite and Lemon Pound cake (with fresh whipped cream and raspberries, forgot to get those in the picture, ooops) for the strange little critters in my life that think pumpkin is poison. No problem! Shortly I will have left over pumpkin pie and coffee for breakfast. Yum!

Real Men Fry Turkeys...

...but a real woman can make the whole Thanksgiving meal even if the box with all her cookbooks vanished somewhere between Texas, Indonesia and Germany! What's on the menu today?

Roast turkey with gravy
Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows on top
Stove Top Stuffing
Canned Cranberry Sauce (ick!)
Fresh Johannesberry Sauce (yum!)
Green Bean Casserole
Homemade dinner rolls with real butter and creme honey
Pumpkin pie
Lemon Sour Cream Pound Cake with whipped cream and raspberries

Wordless Wednesday -Snow Bear

Guest Blogger: Phileas Frog

You might have noticed that Colin had a cute little frog with him in some of the pictures from the snow yesterday. The frog is his class mascot Phileas. Phileas hails from Dublin Ireland. He takes turns spending the weekends with different class members. This weekend he visited with us. We all enjoyed Phileas's visit and are glad he shared our excitement at the snow. I think it may have been the first time he experienced snow as well. Phileas keeps a journal of his adventures. This blog entry is an excerpt from his journal.

Slide Show First Snow

We had a blast today. The Snow here in Frankfurt had melted away by 11:00AM, so we decided to head up to the Tanus Mountains about a 45 minute drive from here. Most of the pictures with a lot of snow you will see in the below slide show are from that area.

We hope you enjoy!

Snow!

About thirty minutes ago I woke up to the happy screams, "Snow! It snowed! Looked at the snow! Wake up! There's snow! Can we go make a snow man?" There is a very light dusting of snow turning every thing white. There isn't enough to make a snowball much less a snowman, but there is snow.

While David made coffee I grabbed the camera and staggered down the stairs, all three flights, to take a picture of the snow before it melts away. David grabbed a bowl and handed it to me as I headed out. No one handed me a coat, and I am not all that functional before coffee. I must really love my kids because without coffee or coat I stood outside in the cold snapped some pictures to remember their first snowfall, and scooped up a bowl of snow from the picnic table for the kids to feel.

Update: It is now day light, the kids are outside playing in the snow. We took pictures of them until the camera batteries died. I will get some pictures up later today. They are too cute.