Silvester ~ New Year's Eve

Flabbergasted. A good word to describe our reaction to how Germans celebrate Silvester, or New Year's Eve. This is the one night of the year that fireworks are legal in Germany. And believe me, they make up for the other 364 days in just one hour's time! It was craziness here...and the boys LOVED it! They have all decided that we need to come back for Silvester again.

We were told by many that fireworks would be for sale in every store starting on the 27th. This is the first day that stores are open again after Christmas. They are sold for five days of the year and are seriously in every store that you can imagine. We went as a family on New Year's Eve to purchase our loot - the one time that everyone was excited about going to the grocery store with Mom!

The boys came home from the store and immediately sorted out off of the
fireworks onto one of the school desks. They proudly displayed the loot
at the entrance to our apartment...just in case guests wanted to take a gander! 

Colin and Rachel, who also came for Christmas, returned from Paris on the 30th so joined us for the evening, as well as Jamie, Susan and Ben, who returned from Salzburg just before coming over for the evening. We had quite a spread of finger foods to enjoy as we waited for mid-night to arrive. Jamie brought along the game, Die Siedler von Catan, and taught the boys how to play. They enjoyed the game so much that we asked to borrow it for the rest of Christmas break. Ends up that we still have it and play it about every day together! We would like to get the English version when back in the states.

Shortly before mid-night, we heard the beginning rumblings of fireworks. We bundled up in our coats and joined every Tom, Dick and Harry on Lotzestrasse for the next hour of insanity. It was like nothing we had ever seen. I am serious when I say that everyone was outside setting off fireworks anywhere they felt like. The madness lasted a solid hour....that's a lot of fireworks! By 1:00 am, it was hard to see very far for all of the smoke.

Jamie works to get a sparkler lit for Ben to enjoy.

Everyone is gathered around the school desk trying to figure out what to light first.

Colin was finally able to get a sparkler for Ben.

And Ben is not too interested as it was just so loud outside! He finally did
warm up to the idea of lighting them off and was able to enjoy the festivities.