Nikolaustag

Nikolaustag was Monday, which made for an eventful day. The day started with Adeline and Emmie opening our door to leave for school and finding their boot full of goodies and a present. The girls were excited to discover nuts, fruit, and a few little items stashed in their boots. At school, St. Nikolaus visited them, too. In kindergarten, Emmie sang songs with him and her stocking had been filled with fruit, nuts, and chocolate. Emmie was so happy about her treats in her stocking, she carried it all the way home. Adeline also received a bag full of nuts, fruit, and chocolate from St. Nikolaus. She commented on his appearance of dressing like Santa and how he was tall like Daddy, but skinny like Mommy.

Eric also received a gift from St. Nikolaus on his Lufthansa morning flight. He received a tasty sandwich, a clementine, lebkuchen, and a Lindt chocolate packaged in an small appliqued cloth sack.

On Tuesday morning, I visited with my lady friends from church. We had a fun time conversing about living abroad, winter vacations, and planning for the Christmas party on Sunday.

Adeline got to find out what was in stocking #7 in her classroom as this was her number for the Advent calendar in their classroom. She was so happy to find a little stuffed tiger to hang on to her packback.

Wednesday afternoon, we baked peanut butter kiss cookies. After three dozen cookies of baking one sheet at a time, the girls were finished in the kitchen, but I still had a few more items to make to complete our cookie tray.

Wednesday evening, Melanie and I attended our 2nd cooking class on making edible Christmas gifts. When we arrived to class, the lights were on, but the stoves did not work. After a half hour and numerous phone calls, the stoves were on and we were underway making our treats. Melanie and I made a honey, apricot mustard, Glühwein jelly, and a Christmas liquor. After 25 minutes of us holding the electric handmixer to beat the Christmas liquor ingredients which are similar to eggnog, we were happy this was the last item to make. We ended up with 10 different recipes for drinks, spreads, and condiments and had numerous little jars to bring home to try it all out. The evening finished with punch and poppyseed eggnog accompanied with cake before heading out in the snowy weather.

Thursday morning, we woke to a Winter Wonderland. We had another huge snowfall and the snow covered trees and buildings were beautiful. I was happy I had no place to go except to the girls' school as the roads were difficult to drive on as there was ice underneath the snow. After school, we went sledding near their school. Emmie has learned how to slide down head first on her belly on the hill from watching the other kids. This is hilarious to watch as she does better in the snow then she did on the slip-in-slide. The girls also made a snowman in our yard later in the afternoon.

Eric made it home safely in the evening after a delayed flight, but not until he informed the taxi driver to take him to his house as the driver wanted to drop him off at the corner due to the snow mess on our hilly street.