Tis the Season for...

Friday evening, the girls built their Gingerbread house with Eric. They each decorated a side of the roof and then the front lawn. I believe the same amount of candy that decorates the house was  consumed during the construction of it. 

We spent Saturday afternoon at the Mainz Weihnachtsmarkt. The Christmas Market is a very nice market set in the historic city center. We arrived early to enjoy walking around and browsing the various stands with Sarah and Jorge. The festival also has a very old nativity wood nativity scene and a large pyramid from Eastern Germany. Click for Mainz Christmas Market pictures  The girls picked out a doughy snowball covered in white chocolate while we sipped on our hot beverages. When the sun went down, the city looked very pretty with the festival lights. We had a nice time in the festive atmosphere to pass the cold day.

Sunday afternoon we spent in downtown Hofheim as they were having their Christmas Market this weekend as well. Hofheim's market is small with numerous local vendors, but seeing people we know as we were strolling through the festival made it fun. The Wendel family joined us as we spent the afternoon sipping on Gluwein and hot orange juice. Adeline also saw a few of her classmates which brought a smile to her face. While the girls were eating their nutella crepes, we sat around a bonfire to warm our toes. The evening weather was pleasant to be outside, so we took our time journeying home to enjoy the sights and tastes of the season.

Let it Snow!

Monday began with a huge snowfall. Eric returned home early Monday morning after his morning flight was cancelled and then stayed home as his early evening flight was also cancelled. The girls had fun playing in the snow at school. Adeline chose to walk to dance, which was very pretty walking through town with the first big snowfall. In the early evening, Eric and Adeline went sledding.

Tuesday afternoon we celebrated the Advent season with Emmie's class at her school. The children sang holiday songs for us to start the festivities. We had a fun time enjoying the various sweets and treats brought in and socializing with the other families. We made Christmas wreaths to share with everyone. The green cookies were bright on the table with the other cookies, but this just made everyone more curious as to how they were made. When I told them the recipe, they were amazed at how easy it was and how pretty they looked even with the silver sugar balls since I could not find red little candies to decorate them with.

Eric dined at a very nice restaurant in Sweden with his colleagues Tuesday evening. The restaurant's "No Menu" concept resulted in an eight course meal with an accompanying glass of wine for each course.   The portions served were petite, but artistically displayed and full of flavor. The courses were as follows: bread plate with cheese bread, pumpernickel raisin bread, and a sourdough bread; pumpkin soup with venison heart; pork cheeks; inverted sushi with whitefish; lamb; tenderloin with gravy; melon sorbet; and orange marmelade.  The chef also would not inform them ahead of time what they were eating and drinking till after each course was over which created interesting conversation around the table. Eric did correctly guess that one glass of wine was a late harvest Riesling from the Mosel. Bloom in the Park met their goal of ensuring it is a unique experience when dining with them.

The weather turned frigid for the rest of the week. The forecast showed a thermometer in the blue zone since the daytime temperatures were in the negative Celsius. In addition, the sidewalks and streets have ice on them, so it is not easy getting around town. One of Emmie's classmates cannot park by their house on the hill due to the ice on the street. The girls had friends over in the afternoons to pass the time which worked for me as I did not have to go out again.

First of Advent

We woke up to snowfall Friday morning and what a fabulous way to get into the holiday spirit. The snow fell in large flakes in the morning, so the girls were able to enjoy it during their school breaks, but it melted by the afternoon.

Saturday, we hopped a train to Stuttgart to meet up with the Dagefoerde family. We had our own compartment for us to enjoy our lunch and the journey. The train's view was  gorgeous and peaceful with the fresh snowfall in the forest. However, about 45 minutes south of Frankfurt there was no snow, but the sun was shining. We arrived in Stuttgart on time and walked around the Christmas market with Nele, Jonas, and Finja looking at the different wooden items for sale amongst other numerous gifts. We also stopped to enjoy some Gluhwein and Kinderpunch.  

In the afternoon, we went to Esslingen. It brought back many good memories of living there a few years ago. After a rest at the Dagefoerde's home, we explored the Middle Age Market. They have candles and torches lit in the evening amongst their wooden stands, serve food made in wooden ovens or over an open flame, and sell items related to the era. To top our evening off, we enjoyed some fried apple rings and then some more seasonal beverages. The girls feel asleep as we were on our train from Frankfurt to Hofheim. 

Sunday morning at church, our family was asked to do a reading and light the first candle of Advent during the family service. After a few Christmas hymns, we were called up to the front. Adeline started the reading about Hope and Eric finished it.  An additional candle is lit during each subsequent week. By the fourth Sunday all of the candles will be lit except for the middle one, which will be lit on Christmas, celebrating Jesus's birth. There are many beautiful advent wreaths around town to celebrate this occasion as the advent wreath is big tradition practiced here.

Making Cookies

Eric woke up to snow in Sweden on Tuesday morning. We have not seen snow yet, just the colder temperatures and heavy raindrops.

This week's highlight was making cookies with Emmie's kindergarten class on Tuesday morning. The kids made two batches of cookies. Both were of chocolate flavor and one type required cookie cutters and the other type were shaped into little balls then pressed down with a fork. 

Emmie first worked at the table with the boys using the cookie cutters. She also was very good at remembering to get the rolling pin from the kitchen and using it everytime there was no more room to make more cookies.

While these cookies were baking, she went into the kitchen with the girls to make the ball shape cookies. We made over 6 dozen cookies with the kids. These cookies are for the upcoming school festivities in the next couple of weeks.

Even though it is not December yet, the girls started their advent calendars this week. I set them out on Wednesday while they were at school. I made a sweet one with candy and a Playmobile one.  When they came home they were very excited to open them. They are happy we all have advent calendars now as Eric has a gummi bear one, also. This will help them to know when we will fly to the US for Christmas based on how many doors are left to open.

Unfortunately, the snow has stayed in the north as Eric waited for over an hour and half just to take off from the Copenhagen airport Thursday evening. In addition to boarding late, the take-off was just not going to be on time as they waited in line for deicing, then after waiting for the 12 planes in front of them to take off, the airport decided to plow the runways when it was their turn.

We both came home at the same time as I was out at a social event in downtown Frankfurt. It was hosted by CKRS, the company who helped us locate our apartment. I had a nice evening in the Swedish boutique mingling with other international people who have also moved to the Frankfurt area. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

With no morning parade to watch or day off of work for Eric, we still have numerous reasons to celebrate Thanksgiving this year while on this side of the ocean. We celebrated on the weekend as this is when we could be together to count our blessings and enjoy our feast. 

 First off, we are thankful for Sarah and Jorge for doing our shopping for us as many of the traditional items cannot be locally found. Sarah made a superb decision in acquiring two turkey breasts, as I am not sure a whole turkey would fit into the oven.

With Melanie scouting out some fresh ingredients and shopping around, I was able to prepare a feast for us to enjoy with the Wendel family. Fortunately, it was cold enough outside to keep the foods I prepared ahead of time on the patio. With planned out oven usage, the turkey was first in the oven, then in went the sweet potato and orange casserole the girls prepared, and finally the rolls got their baking time. In addition, the crockpot was convenient for warming the mashed potatoes and serving them as I was out of serving dishes. 

The girls made Indian headbands to get into the spirit as we prepared the children's table and adult table for dinner.  We gathered around the table and thanked God for our family and friends, along with the food, our health, and the sunny day before we ate. I set the meal up along the counter tops and it was a good thing I did not make any more more dishes as I had very little space left. Adeline really enjoyed the feast as she had two full platefuls of everything. 

After pleasant conversation and tidying up the kitchen, we made room for my first pumpkin pie. It went over well, so thank you to Libby for making it easy to make one. 

We had enough leftovers to enjoy hot turkey sandwiches on Sunday, and another smaller Thanksgiving dinner for us gals during the week.

Instead of watching football, we went to the park as the sun was out in the late afternoon. The girls enjoyed riding their bikes around and playing on the equipment with Eric. They could not get him to go on the steep slide, but they did convince him to take a ride on the zip-line.

We are thankful to the Lord for the many blessings and opportunities we have been given this year, for our family and friends who are near and far, the love and support from everyone as we have taken this journey, and the everyday goodness that comes our way to brighten our day. We wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

Stromausfall

Even though the daylight time is getting shorter, our activity calendar seems to be getting longer. 

In Kindergarten, I came home with new notes everyday about upcoming activities and items needed for their Christmas socials. This will be fun baking with the children and learning traditions here.

I met this week with Adeline's teacher for teacher conferences. The meeting went well as Frau Kühner also invited another teacher to sit-in during our discussion to help translate when needed. Adeline is a sweet student who is doing well in class. She is reaching out to others and the others are responding to make connections and relationships which makes her teacher very happy. The children cheered for Adeline this past week when she spoke completely in German during their sharing time of what they did over the weekend. Adeline is also doing great in math as her teacher showed me her math tests taken during school. 

On Wednesday evening, Eric and I had our "Night Out" events. Melanie and I attended a soup cooking class put on through the local education. We arrived to the small group of 9 women and 1 man (we noticed we were the youngest), learned of the various recipes to be made, and then chose our cooking station. We chopped, sautéed, and got our first soup cooking on the stove when the electricity went out. The teacher initially thought it was a circuit breaker, so she checked the switches and this was not the cause. They popped open the bottles of champagne and wine, and sliced the baguette while we waited for the power to return. Somehow the baguette bag also caught on fire from the tea light candle to add to our evening excitement. We eventually learned the entire street was out and it was due to the workers digging and hitting a line. Stromausfall is a rare occasion here, but happened to occur on Melanie's first girls night out and it happened later in the evening, so we could not even go shopping as the stores were already closed. After cleaning up, we were bummed as the finger foods from the soup ingredients did not fill our stomachs, but we laughed looking back at the events throughout the night and had fun just being together. 

In Sweden, Eric went on a team outing with his coworkers.  He has been elected to plan these events and this was their third one since he's been there.  Previously, he set up going to some local amateur drag races and a bowling night.  They always precede their events with a nice dinner and this time they went out to a local wine cellar, St. Michel.  Afterward, they went indoor rock climbing.  This was Eric's first time rock climbing. He did alright, making it up 2.5 of the 3 walls they tackled, all around 30' high and including an inclined wall.  His long arms and legs helped him.

The European Central Bank is next door to Eric's office in Frankfurt. On Friday morning from their office window, they watched all the dignitaries coming to bail-out Ireland being escorted in and out with a battery of police and security. He said it was somewhat interesting seeing it happen.

Friday afternoon, we had happy hour with Eric at his office. It was a nice gathering with his colleagues and their families. It was neat to see the city all lit up from their office windows. They even had one conference table set-up for the kids with numerous Christmas sweets and activities. 

Operation Christmas Child

This past week we spent gathering our items for the shoe boxes we packed up for Operation Christmas Child. Adeline remembered us doing it last year at Woodside, so this was wonderful that ICF was also participating in this project for the children. 

It was good adventure for the girls to search through the aisles for the items to fill their boxes with. By the time we found the crafts, various hygiene items, small toys, and other little goodies to fill our two girls' and one boy shoebox, we had visited over four stores. The girls each wanted to do a box representing themselves and then a boy one for Colby. Fortunately, Melanie had an extra shoe box to contribute as I did not have any more. This was also a good project for us to do this week since it was cooler and raining. 

Friday afternoon, we wrapped the boxes up, so they would be ready to take to church.  In the evening, we started watching The Chronicles of Narnia as it was damp and raining out. 

Even though it was overcast, the temperatures had warmed up Saturday afternoon, so Emmie led us up to the woods to view the baby pigs. She knew the way since her class has been visiting them bi-monthly since they were born in early September. 

In the evening, we finished watching The Chronicles of Narnia. We had to pause it a few times so Adeline would not spoil the scene for Emmie as her and Eric read the book over the summer.

Sunday morning, the girls were very proud to carry their boxes to church. They added them to the top of the pile with huge smiles knowing another child is going to be very happy opening their box.