Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends. We had a wonderful Christmas Day. One that we were lucky enough to share with new friends AND family.

The kids were fairly kind to us and waited until 7:30 am to fly down the stairs.  Mrs. Claus had honored her tradition even in Germany, and had left each of them a book or two under the trees in their rooms.  Santa had overfilled the stockings and left fun presents for everyone.  I may have been guilty of over compensating a bit since we were away from home.  There sure seemed to be plenty of presents under the tree!

Scott, Joanie, Missy & Steve

In one of those "It's a small world" scenarios my cousin Scott, his wife Joanie and their daughters were visiting their very best friends from the US who also live here in Starnberg. Seriously, what are the odds?  Terry and Paul and their kids are our new friends and have been helpful with sharing survival in Germany tips.

My mom and Scott's mom are sisters, making all of us "Thomases"

Thomas Great Grand-Children
AJ, Olivia, Anna, Rebecca, Audrey, Sophia, Rachel (in front), Stefanie & Dominic

The bonus of course was being able to share Christmas Day with them.  It was most definitely a full house!  Scott and Joanie have five girls and Terry and Paul have three kids. Their kids added to our four do indeed make twelve. 12 kids ages eight to twenty made for a fun afternoon and evening for everyone!

Instead of going the traditional route of putting the youngest kids at a table by themselves we mixed things up a little. We put all twelve "kids" at our dining room table and then setup an "adult" table in the corner, right before we ate. This turned out to be the perfect solution. The kids all had a great time at their table, evidenced by the fact that they lingered over their meal happily chatting for over an hour. The grownups had our own kind of fun at our table. It was terrific!

Missy, Joanie, Scott, Paul & Terry
(Steve is of course behind the camera)

Terry and I split the meal which made feeding 18 people much less overwhelming.  I also managed to continue all of our US dessert traditions.  Steve brought me cookie supplies from the US and we managed to find all the ingredients for grasshopper pie (mint) and chocolate silk pie.  There was some seriously searching involved but we tracked down that crème de menth and crème de cocoa. The cookie trays were full, we had red and green m&ms aplenty and delicious pies to end our evening

Christmas Crossword and Answers

I'm finally getting around to posting our Christmas crossword and the answers! (click on the puzzle to enlarge it) We hope you try to solve it without cheating!  If you didn't get one in a Christmas card this year and feel hurt, let me know, I'll try better next year!  :)

ANSWERS

Across: 5-rugby, 6-varsity, 8-photography, 12-ferrari, 14-dirndl, 15-drive, 18-confirmation, 19-stevesjob, 20-tenth, 21-germany, 22-safetypatroller, 23-yoga, 24-visit, 26-parakeet, 27-aj, 28-eagle, 29-rachel, 30-garda, 32-tennis

Down: 1-niagarafalls, 2-munichinternationalschool, 3-internationalbaccalaureate, 4-lederhosen, 7-dominic, 9-oktoberfest, 10-eleventh, 11-eighth, 13-sixth, 16-volleyball, 17-soccer, 19-stefanie, 21-german, 24-venice, 25-starnberg, 31-drink

Happy Christmas Eve (birthday)!

Christmas Eve and my birthday!  Since I highlighted Steve's I guess turnabout is fair play.  44 on the 24th seems like a good combination to me!

Dominic, AJ, Stefanie & Rachel

I started the day with a delicious breakfast in bed courtesy of Stefanie and AJ.  This is a tradition they seem to really like, they even got up early so I wouldn't have to wait... After a leisurely morning making sure Christmas prep was done it was present time.  As usual Steve made sure I was properly spoiled as did all of the kids.  Next we headed to lunch at the Hotel Schossberg right on Starnberger See.  (Lake Starnberg)  The weather here in Germany is unseasonably warm, in the high 50s.  The lake was smooth as glass and it was beautiful looking out over it while we enjoyed our lunch.

I must mention that we find it ridiculously ironic that it is sunny and springlike here in Germany while everywhere we could possibly be in the US for Christmas (Ohio, NY or Delaware) has snow.  A week ago I all but guaranteed our Christmas would be white while we were digging out from 10-12 inches of snow, but it was not to be!

After lunch we walked around out by the lake just enjoying the weather and view.

Once we returned home we started shifting out day towards Christmas Eve festivities.  Since it was my birthday Steve insisted that I not help with the cooking.  (He really had to twist my arm)  So, I read, relaxed, face-timed with my family, and the kids and I watched Christmas videos and started a jigsaw puzzle.   A perfect afternoon.

Steve made some of our traditional dinner for Christmas Eve.  Mushroom soup is the standard and it was delicious, he also did shrimp, salad and a little German stuffed potato something.  The stuffed potato something was supposed to take the place pierogis since we couldn't find them.  It wasn't the same, but that is perfectly OK, it was good to try something new.  On the list for next year is make our own pierogis - we'll see if that happens!

After dinner it was time for church.  The church on our corner, St Ulrich was having mass at 9pm which was perfect timing for us.  We love being able to walk to church; well Steve and I do, the kids aren't as impressed.  The church was beautifully decorated and mass was lovely. But we are all looking forward to when we can understand more of the mass and part of the homily.  In the meantime iMissal on our ipads allows us to follow along in English!

When we returned from church we did one last birthday thing - cake!  The kids sang and we all enjoyed cake that was homemade for me by Stefanie and frosted by Rachel.

Afterwards we did not have to chase the kids to bed.  They knew Santa and Mrs. Claus couldn't come if they were still awake.  Rachel wrote a lovely letter to Santa and left him a yummy snack of Christmas cookies and milk.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Oberammergau and Ettal Monastery

Rachel, Stefanie, Dominic & AJ
Notice AJ's feet, he's not that much taller than Dominic!

We wanted to go to a Christkindlmarkt today but didn't want to deal with the crush of people in Munich. This decision led us to Oberammergau a cute little village about 45 minutes away. Oberammergau is known for wood carvings and the Passion play they perform every 10 years. Next performance? 2020.  

Rachel & Missy
Enjoying Kinderpunch & Glühwein

While it is a touristy place, it is adorable and filled with cute shops and a lovely little Christmas market. We will have to go back, because since it was Sunday, those darling little shops weren't open!  

The kids had a little Christmas shopping to finish and were all happy to find the perfect items. Steve and I were happy to walk around, sip on some glühwein and take a look in the wood carving museum. There was even a man working on an angel while we were there. This type of carving definitely takes skill and an incredible eye. He was just chipping away at a block of wood, no pattern, no markings just working with his vision.

Dome Fresco

The miraculous statue is inside the glowing part in the center of the Tabernacle.

Afterwards we drove to Ettal where a beautiful monastery is located. The monastery was built in the early 14th century and contains a miraculous statue of Mary & Jesus. It is tiny compared to the tabernacle that surrounds it and therefore hard to see. You cannot approach the altar or tabernacle so squinting or zooming in with your camera is the best bet! The monastery was amazing. It is the kind of place where you just can't believe what you are seeing. Then to think that it was created nearly seven hundred years ago is just unbelievable!

We finished our afternoon with a typical Bavarian meal at the Klosterbraü Restaurant across the street.  Delicious!

Bonus of today's visit - the kids had fun.  Our experience with teenagers has been that it is often like hanging out with Cameron from Ferris Bueller's Day Off - they don't think we see anything good.  Not today.

Snow

So it snows here.

Yes, I knew that. I did. In theory. However the last 10 days or so have been a real eye opener.  It has snowed every day.  Every. Single. Day.  Not kidding.

I like the snow, I might even say I love it, as long as I don't have to go anywhere. In fact, I like walking and running in it.

But the driving. Have I mentioned we live at the top of a winding hill and that the kids go to school at the top of another winding hill? Just to recap, that means down one scary hill, through town, up another scary hill.  This makes the girl who is uncomfortable (to put it mildly) driving in the snow nervous.

Sure, they plow the roads, but when it snows all day they aren't clear. They are slushy and messy. Because of this I have a new appreciation for snow tires. I'm not sure I have ever driven with snow tires but now I'm pretty sure I'll never want to drive in the snow without them.  Really.

Thankfully my sister talked me through my nervousness today.  She even wrote about it in her own blog and connected it to her Daily Advent Calendar.  If you haven't seen her calendar, check it out here: http://melaniemowinski.com/

Oh and the shoveling. We are running out of places to put the snow.  Luckily I have two teenage sons who make fast work of the snow. So far they have shoveled me out every morning.  Of course on days like today I re-shoveled the car out at noon and then again at 530 when it was time to pick up the kids.  Really.

And why was I shoveling the car out of the snow? Our garage is too small for the minivan. True Story.

Frühstuck mit Santa!

AJ, Rachel, Santa, Stefanie & Dominic

Since the kids were little we have gone to Breakfast with Santa.  We have been to the country club in Ithaca, Tower City in Cleveland, Winterthur in Wilmington, the Knights of Columbus pancake breakfast at St Joseph's, and most often of all at the Middletown Volunteer Hose Company. The firemen put on a great breakfast and collect toys for needy children too!

This year I was a little more challenged to find a spot until I walked by the Hard Rock Cafe in Munich. There was a poster on the window. Frühstuck mit Santa!  Woohooo! So I made a reservation. Granted, at this point in time I may have been the only one who was excited.

The food was great and my the kids were very patient during the magic show which they had to endure because I insisted they were getting a picture with Santa and he wasn't coming until afterwards.  The show was definitely geared to the five and under set, not the 11 and over group we had sitting at our table.  However, the five and under crowd was very amused and hilarious to watch!

While no one sat on Santa's lap or for that matter even lingered near him, we did get our picture!

Christbaummarkt!

AJ, Stefanie, Dominic & Rachel

Time to find a tree. Just like in America we had options, we just had to do a little more research and translating to find them!  We opted for a tree farm versus a garden store or the local home improvement store.  We found this website http://www.pickyourownchristmastree.org/ and it really helped us find a place!  Isn't that awesome that they had links for foreign countries?

Steve, Stefanie & AJ

Dominic, Rachel & Missy

Although there were closer farms to our house, they unfortunately don't open until the 3rd weekend of Advent.  This is because many Germans wait until right before Christmas, some until Christmas Eve in fact, to put up their decorations.  Since Steve was going to be in the US for two weeks that left us with the first weekend of advent to find a tree.

GPS is potentially my favorite thing here in Germany.  We never would have found this farm without it and it was perfect!  There was a wonderful Christmas market with hand crafted Christmas goodies and tasty food.  After exploring, we found the wagon that took us to the Christmas tree farm. It was huge. It had snowed too, so we hiked up and down the hills through the snow looking for the perfect trees. The kids were eating icicles right off of the branches, like popsicles.

Thankfully at the top of one of the hills a little "hut" was selling gluhwein and kinderpunch. This warm mulled wine/punch is delicious especially when you are out in the cold. Also, it really warms you, it doesn't seem like that could be possible but it really is.

Missy, Rachel, AJ, Stefanie & Dominic

AJ & Dominic

Dominic

After what seemed like hours we found two trees. For our living room we settled on a precut tree for a more symmetrical look. For our basement family room we chose a cut your own tree.  This tree definitely has more in common with Charlie Brown's tree, but it looks sweet.

AJ

We have found that there is an extra bonus having two teenage sons.  They not only cut down the trees but they carry them too.  They even assist with tying them to the roof, although Steve closely supervises that!

We climbed back on the wagon for the ride back to the market.  After so much time out in the cold it is amazing how good a steak simmel (roll) and waffles taste while standing next to a fire.

Dominic, Rachel, Stefanie & AJ

Winter Run

 Winter is here. This means I need a little more motivation to get outside in the cold and run.  Luckily, the bike trail near our house makes this infinitely easier.

I usually run before the kids go to school. Now that it's dark in the morning that means running on the sidewalks around our neighborhood.   This is a great hilly run, however after a snow, it seemed more than a bit dangerous for someone who tends to be a little klutzy.   Dark roads, black ice, snow and curbs are not a winning combination for me. I waited until the kids went to school and ran on the bike trail instead.

The bike trail is awesome.  It is beautiful and safe and well used.  Seriously, look at the scenery.  As I ran down the hill to the trail this morning I was so glad I got out the door.  It was just breathtakingly gorgeous.

Oh and this bike trail?  It leads to a Biergarten.  5km and you are sitting next to a little lake sipping a beer.  Come visit!    

Photoshop Magic

My kids are in cahoots. Nearly every time I try to get the four of them in one picture someone makes a goofy face. It is so much worse than when they were little. But this time I choose to use the power of technology (usually their strength) to win!

Happy Birthday Steve!

Today was Steve's birthday!  He didn't want to celebrate but we thought he should anyway.  Thanks to all our facebook friends who sent him messages to wish him a happy day!  We thought we would share a few pictures from his day!

The girls found this little deer (dear) in a shop in Starnberg (our town).  They thought Dad should have a buck for his birthday since he wasn't able to go hunting this Thanksgiving like he normally would!

Dominic carved him an "S" bottle opener and AJ found him an antler paperweight.  AJ gets extra sneaky points, he left his present in Steve's car with a card for Steve to find when he went to work in the morning.

I'm pretty sure in the end he enjoyed his day!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We celebrated Thanksgiving a day early here in Munich.  Since the kids had the day off from school Steve took the day off too so we could make a whole day of the celebration.  Tonight on the actual day, we will eat delicious leftovers and watch the Macy Day parade and a little football.  

Do you like my special plates?  

We started our day with breakfast from the bakery and delicious hot chocolate.  A new favorite treat is hot chocolate made by mixing steamed milk with a block of chocolate on a stick.  It's fun and so heavenly!

Waiting for them to learn that whether or not they cooperate
when I take the picture I'm still going to use it!

Next it was time to cook.  Some cooking shortcuts are not readily available here.  The missing items that affected us most were: canned pumpkin, evaporated milk, ready made pie crusts, cream of mushroom soup, fried onions, canned sweet potatoes, stuffing mixes, unsweetened chocolate and of course brown sugar (which I learned how to make right after we moved here).  However, I have found substitutions or new recipes to deal with each and every one of these missing ingredients!  By the way, it's a good thing I didn't make that list of "can't find in Germany" before now...

Seriously, all three of these pots are for the green bean casserole!

We started preparing on Sunday by baking cookies, Monday was cranberry sauce and shopping day, Tuesday was pie day.  Pumpkin pie, from scratch, apple pie, always from Steve's mom's recipe, and chocolate silk pie. Today, everyone helped with the cooking and the final product was definitely satisfying.  Everyone had to help because "from scratch" cooking is definitely more labor intensive!  We even tried the turkey a new way, cooking from a frozen state; and yes, it worked, and even better, was quite tasty.  Why would we cook a frozen turkey instead of defrosting one?  Mainly because there is not room in our refrigerator to thaw a turkey for three-five days.  Really, this 12lb turkey barely fit in our freezer.

While dinner was cooking the kids frosted cookies and we watched Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving.  Frosting cookies during the Macy Day parade is our usual tradition so we just had to mix it up a little.  They also had a little homework to do, no additional day off tomorrow.  Although they did try to convince me that "no one" was going to school on Thanksgiving.  Considering less than 20% of their school is American I find this unlikely.

Our final dinner consisted of: Turkey, old-fashioned bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, butter-pecan sweet potatoes (these were terrific and a new favorite, for any meal), homemade green bean casserole, gravy, corn, salad, rolls and cranberry sauce.  Well not really the cranberry sauce, we forgot it in the refrigerator so we will have that with our leftovers.  Things can't be perfect.
  
After dinner, the kids did the dishes and I did not help at all.  I loved that.  Truly.  Afterwards we watched a movie and had dessert.  The pies were scrumptious and we all went to bed happy!  

Pies!

While we miss all of our family and friends on this special holiday we are truly thankful for what we have and that we are together.  We wish everyone we know a Happy Thanksgiving and now that we know how to do it in Germany, let us know if you're coming next year!

Sports!

Sports

Tonight we went to the MIS Athletes Recognition night for high school sports.  It began with each team in its own classroom with the coach speaking about the team and a short video presentation.  We had three varsity athletes so that was a little tricky.  Rachel went to Stefanie’s room, I went to AJ’s and Steve went to Dominic’s.  Afterwards there were team presentation in the auditorium.  Everyone does not get a trophy here.  One coach’s award and one most valuable player award per team.  However, we were surprised because one DelRosso did bring home a trophy tonight!!!

All four kids played a sport this fall. We had decided before school started that this would be a great way to meet more friends and be active at school even if that meant not knowing anyone when they went to try-outs. Lots of opportunities to embrace inner courage here. 

And as an aside, I can relate a little. I almost didn’t go to the first MIS Mom’s tennis day because I was afraid. What if I’m not good enough?  What if I don’t know anyone? What if I suck? What if everyone else plays all the time? And then I thought, my kids all tried out and are playing a sport, how am I going to explain to them that I wimped out on going to play tennis? So I went, had a great time and now have friends I play with every week!

Sports are a bit different here.  In general the international school community is not as competitive as the American system.  Most kids don’t play sports year round on travel teams so the level of play is just different.  A bonus for us here is that they are all at one school which means one place to pick up kids after practice and one recognition night.  Logistics are easier.  

Dominic decided to give rugby a try, something different after many years of soccer.  He liked some of the kids playing and we had heard great things about the program.  Not only did he make the team but he started all season and has really learned quite a bit about the game.  Thankfully he plays on the wing which means he isn’t always in the middle of the ruck, but it is still really hard to watch him get tackled.  No pads in rugby.

AJ had to make a choice between volleyball and soccer since both are played in the fall here.  He chose volleyball which he really grew to love this past spring at Charter.  He also made the varsity team and had a great season.  He’s already looking forward to next year and what he will be able to do as a setter.  

Stefanie also played volleyball.  While middle school volleyball is played in the spring, high school girls is played in the fall.  The school’s website said if you were 13 you could play high school sports so we, incorrectly it turned out, assumed lots of kids played from the middle school.  Since volleyball is Stef’s only sport we had her try out.  She was the only 8th grader, and she made the varsity team.  This was a big deal and she did great all season.  Stefanie is also our family’s winner of a trophy - she received the Coach’s Award.

Rachel chose to stick with soccer, her sport of choice.  She played on her grade’s middle school team and had a great season.  While she has most recently been a defensive player she did start switching to offense and played quite well.  She was asked to play with the 8th grade team for their end of the year tournament in Frankfurt.  This was a fun opportunity for her since 6th grade students don’t usually travel overnight.  

A highlight of playing in the international community is that the competition is other international schools.  Dominic went to Zurich and Zuoz in Switzerland, AJ visited Frankfurt and Warsaw, Stefanie went to Zurich and Vienna and Rachel made a trip to Frankfurt.  The kids usually play a Friday game, spend the night with a family from the school and then play a Saturday game and come home.  At the end of the season there are tournaments that last three or four days.  

We also house students when teams visit our school.  So far it has gone really well.  We had lovely girls from Austria and some fun British boys from the Zurich school.  The British boys played monopoly with our kids, it was fun to watch and we enjoyed the internationalness of our American kids playing Monopoly with British boys who live in Switzerland at our house in Germany.

Four kids in four sports does make for a busy fall, but it’s just like what we did at home which provided great familiarity. We are glad they played, and they are glad they played.  

Suß oder Sauer

I have been asked by many friends if Halloween is celebrated here in Germany. The short answer is yes. The longer answer is not by everyone and not all Germans love it. I have been told that five or ten years ago there wouldn’t have been any Halloween.  

An awesome part of celebrating Halloween in Munich is that it is in the Bavarian part of Germany which is mostly Catholic. In fact some Catholic Holy Days of Obligation are actually holidays.  One of these is All Saints Day which falls on November 1st. This makes celebrating Halloween in Germany particularly terrific because the kids don’t have to go to school the next day.  Really, what could be better than people giving you candy and then getting to stay up late eating it!

Rachel, Stefanie, AJ & Dominic

We had about 30 trick or treaters at our door and 90% of them were German little kids who did not speak English. They knew to try our door though, the four jack-o-lanterns (the only ones I saw) on our gate were a big clue. As a side note, jack-o-lantern pumpkins were just piled up in the corner of a field. We picked our four and left our money in an honor box posted next to the pumpkins.

Some kids know the english phrase of “trick or treat” but many just said Suß oder Sauer” which literally translates to Sweet or Sour. While I tried to get them to say “trick or treat” it was quite hard with the little kids. Most kids don’t start English until the fifth grade so unbelievable as it may seem, they know less English than I know German.  

Within our international school community different areas of trick or treating were organized. AJ volunteered with friends at one where they had a haunted garage, a ghost walk and trick or treating. 

Stefanie and her friends trick or treated where AJ was. A key difference to the US, the kids rode the train on their own to the neighborhood and returned when they were finished.  Kids are much more independent here and in general it is quite a bit safer.  Stefanie continued her trend of non-scary costumes as Minnie Mouse while surrounded by ghouls and zombies and devils. 

Rachel had a sleepover party with friends, where they played spooky games and dressed up and trick or treated through the community. The neighborhood where she was has many international families who embraced trick or treating. She had a blast and unlike her sister completely loves the creepy and scary aspect of Halloween. She was a princess zombie.

Dominic completely abandoned Halloween activities and met friends in Munich for the evening.  They had their own kind of no school the next day fun!

And since the kids had their own plans, what did Steve and I do?  We gave out candy and then met friends for drinks.  A fun evening for all of us.