St. Nikolaustag

December 6th is St. Nikolaustag in Germany. Nikolaus was a 4th century Greek that was known to be quite religious from an early age. Interesting tidbit - he was one of the Bishops that signed the Nicene Creed. He was also known for secret gift-giving and would put coins in the shoes of children, thus becoming the model for Santa Claus.

Traditionally in Germany, children place a shoe or a boot at the front door or by a fireplace on the eve of St. Nikolaustag (Tag = day). In the morning, they find small gifts or candy filling their shoe. So we decided that "When in Rome, do as the Romans do!" and had the boys place a shoe or boot by our front door. Noah and Josiah chose their boots in hopes that they would get more stuff. Micah chose one of his church shoes as they don't stink as much. If you are going to eat candy, you sure don't want it tasting like stinky feet, right??

Noah's class presented a play on the evening before the 6th. It was really fun to watch him in this play as he memorized his lines in German without knowing all of what he was saying at first. I forgot my camera so don't have any photos from the play, but he got to be one of the wise men and gave his gift of straw to Baby Jesus.

~ Boots by the Door ~

These chocolate eggs are quite popular with
children as they have a chocolate shell on the
outside and then a prize on the inside. The
boys have been itching to buy one of these
just about every time we are in the store
together. Josiah was so excited about the egg
that he took it to school with him on the 6th.

We had not tried these chocolates yet either,
but these are favorites among the kids as well.
They remind me of malt balls only more moist.

We have never done something like this
before but decided that the boys would
really enjoy having some extra cash to spend
at the Christmas Market. They were all very
excited to have this much to spend without
Tracy and me saying, "No!" So far, all the money
they have spent has gone to Schmalzkuchen - for
2 Euros, you can get a very large serving of
Schmalzkuchen, which are little fried dough
balls with powdered sugar sprinkled on top.
Very yummy indeed!

~ Schmalzkkuchen ~

This is what they woke up to on the 6th - chocolates and money in the shoes
and two packs of gum on top. When I give out gum, it's a half a stick at a time
if they are lucky. They love being able to make their own decisions about
gum! And I guarantee they don't ever chew just a half of a stick at a time
when it's up to them to decide. The little packages behind their shoes are strands
of colored Christmas lights. We had lights with us but didn't plug them in correctly
and ruined them the first time we used them. They are thrilled to have working
lights in their rooms each night as they go to sleep.

~ St. Nikolaustag Morgen - St. Nicholas Day morning ~

Christmas Cookies at Sonja's

Saturday afternoon (12/1) we joined quite a few other people in making and baking Christmas cookies at Sonja's house. Sonja is in the OT department with Tracy and has made us feel quite welcome here by inviting us to several events since arriving. One of Sonja's roommates, Johanna, loves to make cookies and has the philosophy of "the more, the merrier!" Their apartment was jam packed - wall to wall people with many different kinds of cookies being made. One of the neat things in living here this year is getting to meet people from all over the world. Tracy spent some time talking with a guy from Iran. I heard French being spoken at one point and wondered for a moment if I just hadn't really learned any German at all! It took me a minute of listening to realize that it was indeed another foreign language. I know we can do this very same thing in North Carolina as there are a lot of internationals living there, too, but this year has really tipped the scales with meeting people from other countries - not just Germany.


This was shortly after arriving - there were still many more to join us! We made
sugar cookies with frosting and were glad to find out the Sonja had many cookie
cutters; otherwise we would have used a glass and made just plain old circles.

Frosting the cookies - we had blue, green and white...I didn't realize that we only
had two colors when we left our house. The boys weren't disappointed though since
they still got their fill of sugar. Really doesn't matter in what color it comes!

Noah eating one of far too many cookies! He complained of a tummy ache
and a headache latter that night....I wonder why??

Joel showing his dinosaur with blue stripes. Of course, he filled in the empty spots
with white. No sense eating a sugar cookie with only little stripes of frosting, right?
Random - he's been wearing this shirt and one other for two weeks now and has
two weeks to go with his cast/sling for his shoulder. He has to wear a button-down
since he can't lift his left arm. You can see just a bit of it sticking out of the collar.
He's been a real trooper! No complaining from him. One benefit is that he hasn't
had to take his turn at emptying the dishwasher.

Once we finished our cookies, the table was used by several others for rolling
out their cookies. The only other American there allowed the boys to help him
shape his Snickerdoodles. You can just barely see behind Noah's and Josiah's
heads a couple of branches of a pine tree. I have been wondering what people
do with these as I see a lot of them being sold all over town. I found out! They
hang them on the walls and dangle a few tree ornaments from them.

Johanna is making her cookies using a mold - very time-consuming and very pretty!

Weihnachtsmarkt

Let the celebration begin! The Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) opened this past week in the City Center. The area near the old Rathaus (Town Hall) has been transformed into a Winter Wonderland. Words don't quite capture how festive the area is. Lights galore. Christmas trees tied to every pole that can be found. Stalls selling any kind of treat that you might want to eat. The smells are so inviting - Brats, stone-baked pizzas, cotton candy, caramel popcorn, sugar-glazed nuts of all kinds....it's like going to the State Fair only at Christmas time. We decided to make it our goal to go for dinner as a family at least once a week and went last night for the first time. It sounds like a lot of eating out to me but really, it's only set up for another three weeks. Wow! Christmas is around the corner!

~ Noah and Josiah eating their Brats ~
We think it so funny that Brats are served in buns that are always
about two inches too short at either end.

In the background of the photo is the Altes Rathaus - lit up with a very large
tree in front of it. The little stalls are all around the Rathaus - there are hundreds
of them! And then there are lights hung in the streets - the one in this photo
announces that you are at the Weihnachtsmarkt.

Everyone chose what they wanted for dinner - last night was Brats and pizzas.
And then we all chose one dessert - cotton candy for the boys! Tracy and I
shared some really tasty English walnuts coated with some crispy kind of topping.

~ Noah with fingers dyed red after consuming so much Erdbeer (strawberry) cotton candy ~
All the boys decided on a different dessert for next time since their fingers
were frozen after licking all of the sugar off of them!

Each street in the city center has lights to announce the street name and then
decorative lights on further down the street. I might finally learn the names
of the streets this way. I still won't be able to pronounce them so that a
German person will understand what I'm saying though!

I love how there are Christmas trees everywhere! There
is a tree on every and any post available. It sure does make
the area so festive. Some of the trees have even been decorated.

Over the River and through the Woods....

We have much to be thankful for this year. I was just reading this morning in Deuteronomy 2 about how "He has known your wanderings through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing." We've only been in Germany for five months - nothing compared to the Israelites. And Germany is far from a wilderness. That being said, there are many times that we feel like we are in a wilderness. Only in our apartment do we not feel like outsiders. These verses were an encouragement to me that God has been and will continue to be with us every step of the way. And that includes holidays.

It didn't feel like Thanksgiving week last week. It didn't feel like Thanksgiving day last Thursday. That is until everyone arrived for the meal. We were blessed to have four other families join us for a Thanksgiving meal in the late afternoon. Some of the families we have gotten to know just a bit through our church, and some of the families we met that afternoon. Each family offered to bring a part of the meal, one that is a family favorite from home.

The week of Thanksgiving, I had a few of the boys help me with making name cards for the table. We mixed paints for brown and orange and had a little assembly line going to make them all. Then the day before Thanksgiving, I sent Josiah and Noah out after school with a bag and asked them to fill it with anything that looked like Fall to them. I used what they brought home to make the centerpieces for the tables.

The overflow table for the younger kids. This
is our living room coffee table.

We used one of the school desks to add more
places for all of the adults and toddlers.

Josiah and Noah found plenty of fallish looking items.

The Brown family has been in Germany over two years already while Ken is working on his PhD. They just had their fourth child a few weeks ago. Andrea figured out how to make green bean casserole from scratch last year for Thanksgiving so offered to bring that dish along with a couple of pies. It was the best green bean casserole I've ever tasted! (Apart from my mom's, of course.) So I'm looking forward to that recipe. Andrea's fresh pumpkin pie was incredible and served as a very tasty breakfast Friday morning after the kids went to school. Diane, Andrea's mom, was in Germany helping with baby Hannah for a few weeks so we were able to get to know her that evening as well. She was a great help to me in the kitchen as I made the turkeys, potatoes and gravy. I didn't have a meat thermometer and wasn't about to buy one for a single event so she helped me determine the right time to pull them out of the oven. Them - yes. Germany doesn't sell much of anything in large sizes or quantities so I ended up buying two turkeys to feed us.

~ Andrea with baby Hannah ~

~ Miss Diane making the gravy ~

Susan Bobb was able to come with her son, Ben. Her husband, Jamie Clark, had to attend a work function that evening in the south of Germany so ended up not being able to make it. He did enjoy the leftovers though. I got connected with Susan prior to moving to Germany via a mutual facebook friend from our Penn State days. Susan has been very helpful in answering any and all questions that we've had...including a recent call asking where the ER is located! Joel broke his shoulder playing soccer and needed to be seen the Monday night before Thanksgiving. That is one of those things that we probably should have figured out before we really needed to find it! Just thankful it wasn't ambulance worthy. Susan made the best chocolate chunk walnut cookies e.v.e.r....along with yummy sweet potatoes and a few other things. Notice what I enjoyed most??

~ Susan and Ben ~

Justin and Jenna just moved here recently from the Princeton area where he recently completed his Master's. They have one cute little son, Isaac. We basically met them Thanksgiving Day though I had briefly spoken with Jenna about Thanksgiving one time in late October. They are in a state of determining how long they will be here and what is next - he is on a Fulbright this year but is hoping to possibly do PhD work in the Munich area. Jenna made the stuffing, or dressing since it wasn't really stuffed. And it was incredible! It had cranberries and sausage in it making it so very tasty. I already got that recipe from her. :)

~ Ken and Andrea on the left are talking with Justin and Jenna ~

Nicola and her daughter, Cecilia, joined us for the evening as well. Nicola is British and is married to a man from Brazil. So why Thanksgiving with us? While growing up in Brazil, Gabriel's family got to know some American missionaries and ended up celebrating Thanksgiving with them. Gabriel became a Christian partly through the ministry of this American couple so he holds their traditions dear and enjoys taking part in Thanksgiving celebrations as a result. The afternoon of Thanksgiving, Gabriel ended up having to take a train to a job interview and missed the evening with us. We sent enough leftovers though so hopefully he still was able to enjoy the meal. Nicola brought bread that was so light and fluffy - I heard that it comes from a Turkish market in the city center. I will need to find that market soon as it was very good. And the boys are still enjoying all of the various drinks that Nicola brought to share.

Nicola and Cecilia are in the bottom left of this photo.

The kids' table - Ben on the couch, Micah Brown and Noah at
the front of the photo and Samantha and Josiah off to the left.

Knowing that we would have a lot of young kids and not many toys, Tracy and I asked Josiah and Noah to help entertain all of the kiddos. Joel was out of commission for helping and Micah has taken this role so many times previously that we thought the younger two are getting old enough for this, too. By the end of the night, Noah asked to go to bed. He was plum worn out!

Josiah and Noah used their bedroom as a place to entertain. It
is conveniently located right off of the kitchen so was close to
the rest of us. Andrea brought their computer for the kids to watch
 a movie at one point. This was a helpful tool for Joj and Noah!

One of Susan's Thanksgiving traditions each year is to make a gingerbread house at the end of the festivities, a kick-off of sorts for the upcoming Christmas holidays. She brought everything with her to make one with the kids, and I can safely say that it was a highlight for all of them.

~ the initial assembling of the house ~

~ patiently waiting for all the "cement" to dry ~

~ Noah Brown and Cecilia ~
These two were precious to watch - someone would give them
a piece of candy to put onto the house but inevitably it would
end up in their mouths.

Susan very patiently helped each of the kids add to the design.

~ a photo to show how much all of the kids were into this activity ~

~ The Masterpiece ~

Though we would have preferred spending Thanksgiving with our cousins in Pennsylvania, which is where we usually are for this holiday, we did enjoy the evening with these new friends. It's interesting how quickly a strong connection is formed with other Americans when living in a foreign country. We all shared stories of our adjustment to Germany and laughed over things that we have done that aren't normally noteworthy, such as the pronunciation of German names. This Thanksgiving, we were thankful to celebrate with new friends and enjoy wonderful food together.

Our last few days with Grandpa and Grandma

Wanting Dad and Mom to have a chance to relate with a couple their age, we invited Fred and Marta (and their granddaughter, Eva) over for dinner one evening. We met this couple through our church and have had quite a good time getting to know them. What a treat to hear stories of their childhoods, learn more about Germany and basically enjoy an evening of fellowship together.

The boys made a card tower with Eva while the adults talked. I
forgot to take a picture of Dad and Mom with Fred and Marta....
guess that means they'll just have to come back!

Halloween is not highly celebrated here. It is on the rise though, much to the chagrin of the older generation. Because we knew the boys would be disappointed about not trick-or-treating, we opted to buy pumpkins and carve them on Halloween instead. Grandpa got into it just as much or more than the boys! Noah's pumpkin carving was modeled after one that we saw in Rothenburg - using the stem as the nose.

These were the only four pumpkins we could find to carve!
So glad there were at least four to be purchased!

We proudly displayed our pumpkins on our steps and as a result,
we got a few trick-or-treaters. Dad and Mom had enough quarters
to give to the first set of kids. We didn't have anything to give
to the next set of kids so we decided to move the
pumpkins inside for the night - with that many pumpkins, people must
have easily concluded that Americans lived here! (Notice Grandpa
in the background of this photo - he's reading the news on the iPad!)

That evening, we allowed the boys to watch a movie while the four of us went to St. Jacobi's church in the City Center for a worship service celebrating Reformation Day. The program was based on Psalm 116 which shares about our salvation and response to God as a result. The music was absolutely beautiful - a combination of an a capella choir, hymns accompanied by a pipe organ and a few soloists. We sang along with the hymns as best we could...though we didn't really grasp much of what we were singing. This is the case pretty much every week at church though. Slowly we are making sense of it all. It's been a longer process than anticipated.

I didn't have my camera for the evening
so snatched this photo off of the Internet.
It was a packed house for the worship
service - we barely were able to get seats!

Our last day together happened to be my birthday, 40th no less! Wanting to make another memory, we decided to take the train to Hann. Münden, which is short for Hannoversch Münden. A friend recommended this little town as it is close by and yet is known for its black and white timbered houses, as some Germans call them. The town has over 600 houses that are the Fachwerk (half-timbered) houses. It is also where the  Fulda and Werra rivers meet to form the Weser.

Looking down a typical street in the town.

Our crew checking out all of the Fachwerks.

We could see some castle ruins on a hillside.

A beautiful old church right in the center of town.

Of course, a trip to a new town wouldn't be complete without
stopping by the local bakery! On our walk, the boys found a
really cool park and wanted to go back to it. So the adults sat
and enjoyed a nice chat while the boys ventured off to the park
before we caught the train home.

We caught a late afternoon train back to Göttingen just in time to bike from the train station to Zum Szultenburger for the best German Schnitzel that we have experienced yet. We forgot when we left the house that it would be dark when back home...and so forgot some of the lights for our bikes. As a result, we kinda walked and kinda rode (if such a thing is possible) to the restaurant. You can be fined for riding without a light, plus it's just not safe to do. It is fairly common to see people riding on one pedal off to one side of the bike so as to quickly hop off should a Polizei come along. I have not mastered this "method" of ride-walking and am not sure I'm going to give it a try either! The rest of my family can quite effectively ride this way. It does take a bit of balance.


Zum Szultenburger offers about 25-30 different Schnitzel dishes.
We all chose Schnitzels baked with cheese and other
toppings. It sure was nice to have these leftovers the next night
when I returned from the airport. So yummy!

Cheers! Prost! Grandma and Grandpa could not leave Germany
without trying a mug of dark beer. Grandma's favorite!

On November 2nd, we all walked with Grandpa and Grandma to the train station. I then rode with them to Frankfurt to catch their flight. We had enough time to get in one last bakery before they departed! After they went through security, I headed back home on the train not even realizing that their flight was delayed out of Frankfurt for three hours. The airplane needed mechanical work. I'd say a pretty important reason to delay! This delay caused them to miss their connecting flight at JFK - so they ended up spending the night on cots that Delta provided. Due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy, it was too difficult to get a hotel so cots were the next best option. I can only imagine how tired they were! I'm sure home was a sight for sore eyes by the time they finally got there.

For our family, Saturday was a sad day for all of us - we so enjoyed our time with my parents and it was hard to see them leave. Plus we did so many fun things together that to go back to the normal routine of life seemed boring in comparison. Yet we are so thankful that they made the effort to come for a visit and are very glad for the memories.