Danke-sgiving

Despite what I'd initially thought, we did end up doing a little something for "Thanksgiving" over here yesterday.

Because Jason is vegan, because the kids don't eat "Thanksgiving food", because we are 5,000 miles away from home and family, because there's no Macy's parade, no Charlie Brown special, no American football (gasp!), because it was just a regular ol' Thursday in Germany, because, because, because . . . I did not anticipate doing anything "special". Other than my usual silly festiveness:

Popcorn drumsticks for the boys' afternoon snack at school:


And a "Turkey Sandwich" for the kids for breakfast made from a bakery croissant, spread with Nutella, bitten off pretzel legs, raisin eyes, and apple slices for feathers. (Autumn got bananas).


Sure, we eat as a family every day. We are thankful every day. But, Thanksgiving was also Jason's favorite holiday back home. So I started to feel bad. Yes, he had to go to work and the kids had school and the boys even had tae kwon do, but I decided I'd whip up a Vegetarian Thanksgiving side-dish feast.

After German class (like I said, it's a regular ol' Thursday), I picked up Autumn from Kita and we headed to the grocery store for some ingredients. I even got "Princess beans" for my green bean casserole:



Did that make my princess any more likely to eat it? Or even try it? Um, no.



But she helped in other ways:




(Those were before we discovered our fall tablecloth and napkins we brought from home which you'll see later.)

She danced around to the music I had playing and spun around on the kitchen floor while wearing an apron. I asked her at one point to open the drawer with the trash can for me (my hands were full of potato peels) and she said, "Well then I won't be able to do my dance recital anymore." Priorities.

I made stuffing from scratch! I should probably call it "dressing" as I don't stuff anything but my face. ;)


There's my bread drying out all day. I didn't have "poultry seasoning" and I didn't have 3 of the spices to whip up my own, so at the grocery store I found 2 of the 3 but had a hard time finding "sage". When translated I'm not sure if it gave me the word for the spice or if it was more like "advice" kind of sage. But then I saw "poultry seasoning". So, since that was only one jar vs. 2 jars and one missing one, I went with the pre-made "poultry seasoning" but duh, I'm in Germany, so it had quite a lot of curry in the mix. Oh well. It put a unique twist on the dish.

I made green bean casserole but, as we don't usually do processed foods like canned cream of mushroom soup or Durkee's French Fried Onions (not that they'd have that here, anyway) I had to do that from scratch. With soy milk. I French fried up some of my own onions, even. For real. I put them on my half of the casserole. And noticed that a Hidden Mickey was left behind on my cutting board:



A Danke-sgiving miracle. :)

To go with the stuffing and green bean casserole, I made glazed carrots, sweet potatoes (just cubed and boiled since any sort of "casserole"/soufflé was very non-vegan), and mashed potatoes with soy milk (blech) and garlic. Autumn and I bought rolls from the store. No one in the family really "must have" cranberry sauce, but I did see fresh cranberries in my local market, no problem.

Then, I made pie.

Definitely not vegan but Jason said he'd eat a little if I made it. I hate pumpkin so I went with chocolate pecan. You can't easily get "corn syrup" here (like, at all) but no worries as I had switched to using maple syrup in pecan pies once we stopped eating so much processed foods. I made my own whole wheat crust (with butter and milk!) and filled it up with other non-processed ingredients other than a little bit of brown sugar. But, I don't have a pie plate here. Or a round pan of any kind. Plus, a full sized pie? For just me and J who is vegan most days of the year?

I went with a half recipe in my loaf pan:


Ha ha! But it turned out great! Even two of the kids tried and liked it (and they never like pie!).

Anyway, Jason picked up the boys from tae kwon do for me so I could cook (usually on Thursdays we eat out / get delivery) and we sat down to dinner:




You can see white and red wines there and then some Robby Bubble Party Getränk for die Kinder. And also, yogurt and quark as, like I said, the kids don't like "Thanksgiving food" although they all had a bite of everything on their plates to try.

We, of course, did our "What We're Thankful for...." bit that everyone in America was doing and, while were eating, we called a couple family members on Face Time to "eat" with us.

Before bed, the kids remembered that we needed to let Santa know we've moved. That way he'd know where to send our Elf on the Shelf. So Easton shot off a quick email to the big guy:


And sure enough, Wizby was back this morning!

But we sure missed being with any family yesterday. My family back home had a smaller than usual gathering:


And they even had my kind of fun recreating old pictures:




Totally jealous. We hope all of our American friends and family had a blessed Thanksgiving! We're thankful for all of you!

Autumn's First Week of Kindergarten

Finally.

FINALLY.

This week Autumn finally began going to "school". Remember, "Kindergarten" here is not at all what we think of as Kindergarten in the States. It's really not school. It's really not even school prep (like we think of "preschool" as being). Kindergarten is a German word already, right? Meaning? A garden of kinder (children). So, what is a garden of children over here? Daycare.

Yep. This stay-at-home-mom now sends her child to daycare. And it's largely paid for by the government. That was part of the big ol' delay in why she's been home with me since May: we needed a "voucher" from the government to give to a Kindergarten.

First I wanted the boys to get a school, of course. Then they did. I also used this time to apply for this voucher. It takes at least 2 months to get the voucher, according to their website. Parents apply when they are still pregnant, actually. Then we had to move. And then I began the search for a Kita ("KiTa" a combination of Kinder and tagestate and is what people usually seem to say here). I needed a place to be either close to home, Jason's work, or the boys' school.

And one day, playing at the park right next to the boys' school, there was a sign about a "free place" for a "2009 girl". Yes, they get this specific. This is not America, folks. So yes, they totally discriminate based on age and gender when trying to find the right balance for their garden. Anyway, I have a 2009 girl! So I had Jason call them. They sent us an application (in German) to fill out and they said they could probably get back to us right away. They never did. Hmmmmpf.

Time went on. Still nothing.

Then a dad from the boys' school said, "Hey, I happen to know of a Kita that is in _____ that is looking for a 5 year old girl, should I pass along your info?" And I was all, "Yes! Definitely! Please!" and then he came back with, "One thing though . . . it's a Waldorf school, would you still like to proceed?" and I was all, "Oh, the Waldorf in ____? Yeah, we already applied there. They must not want us." But he had a contact who was sure Autumn would be a good fit and he'd pass us along.

Again. We never heard anything for awhile. And eventually I got an email saying that "No, there was no place for Autumn."

And then suddenly the next day they asked if we could come for an interview. I guess we passed because a couple of days later Autumn was offered a spot only, first we had to get through Autumn break, and then another boy had to start, and then Autumn could start. November 18th. (Happy birthday, G-ma!)

She woke up super excited that morning after having slept in foam rollers. She put on her new dress and sat down to breakfast.



I had a Schultüte for her, just like the boys' got on their first day of school. In fact, I had bought all the stuff for it back when I was buying the stuff to fill the boys. I had it waiting near her breakfast spot.



She was excited to dig in.



We posed for her quick picture...I often do her hair on the train so we can save time at home.



And then we were off:



The boys start school at 8:00 and Autumn is supposed to start between 8:15 and "half past". So, the plan is to walk to the boys school, then walk through the park and down the road to get to Autumn's Kita. It takes about 10 minutes.

We got there and no one was in the first room and we didn't know what to do. But we noticed this welcoming sign:



Then a mom and her two kids walked in. She was so friendly. Like, super friendly, excellent English. Offered me her email address right away and told me she was off all that day if I needed anything and she ran me through what Autumn should do: change into her house shoes, go to the bathroom and wash her hands. At that point one of her teachers came out and Autumn rushed right in. They all seemed surprised she wasn't sad at all. I wasn't. Duh, she's 5. She's done two years of school and she was desperate to start going back already. Heck, she was all registered for full day kindergarten back in Colorado.

Anyway, Autumn went off right away and she and the other 5 year old were allowed to go in a special "big kid" loft area and they played. I had to stay there in the room, but not really interact with Autumn. I folded some napkins/towels and cut some slices of birthday cake. Another new child was also starting that day and his mom was there cutting slices of fruit.

They played, they cleaned, they had snack which Autumn did not have any of. Then they had a special birthday celebration for a couple of the kids. Autumn did eat the cake. ;) Then we went to get ready for the park. They go to the park every day, no matter the weather. So, Autumn borrowed some rain pants and got herself all ready:



The other 5 year old in the group actually helped one of the one year olds get into her outside clothes and all the while I was thinking how much Autumn will also love that gig. Maybe soon.

Because Autumn was doing so well, they sent me away for the park time. I snapped this as I left:



I had one hour and fifteen minutes and then I'd come back. They sort of wanted us to leave after I came back but Autumn was desperate to stay. So they let us. We had a fabulous lunch of autumn vegetable ratatouille over cous cous and a red beet and pear salad. Seriously delish. Autumn ate a tiny bite of cous cous and spit it right out. But she tried.

Then it was time for the little ones to have their naps so they did send us away for the day. They're afraid of too much too soon. I appreciate that.

The next day they wanted me to drop her right off with a quick goodbye and then come back for the park time. So that's what we did. Of course she did just fine other than being hungry because she didn't want any of their snack. At the park I noticed she was being a little excluded by the other 5 year old. You see, obviously this other girl has major seniority. She's been there since she was 2. Her two year old brother is in the group. Technically Autumn is older--by 3 days. And I'm thinking this girl feels threatened or annoyed by Autumn's constant English speaking. That day, after the park, they had us leave. Again, too much too soon and she was hungry.

On Thursday I woke up not feeling well. At all. Jason took over and took the boys to school but Autumn and I decided to stay home. I wasn't sure I'd be able to go get her in 2 hours time.

But Friday we were good to go again. Jason came along with us this time so that he would know where the school is and the morning procedures and all that too. We take turns taking the kids to school. It's nice. After we did Autumn's "quick drop off", Jason and I went out for coffee before he had to head to work. Lovely. I ran by a new-to-me grocery store and then headed to meet my little miss for park time.





She was being majorly excluded by the other 5 year old. She was even asking one girl to play, that girl agreed, but then was stopped by the other 5 year old. :/ Autumn began pouting about it and the teacher saw, asked me what was going on, and then went to talk to the other girls. They said they were going to finish their quick game and then play with Autumn. Yeah right. That time never came. And when we left the park Autumn cried that she never got her "surprise". I guess each time she came near the one yelled at her. I'm not sure what they yelled but Autumn seemed to think they were working on a surprise for her. :(

She's got to pick up the language soon.

But she's excited to go each day and never wants to leave when they want us to. On Monday she gets to stay through lunch but they're worried that she's going to think Kindergarten is a place where she has to feel hungry all the time and they don't want that for her. Hopefully she'll learn to eat their stuff, learn their language and find her spot in this already formed group.

Saint Martin's Day

When we first interviewed at Autumn's new Kindergarten, they told me about the upcoming lantern festival for "Martinmas" like I'd know what they were referring to. A Christian tradition. They seemed genuinely surprised that this is not something we do in America. And because we don't do it in America, I thought I'd clue you in on the small details I was able to glean about this "holiday". I apologize for the poor quality pictures. I remembered my real camera . . . just forgot the memory card still stuck in the computer back home. Oops. Thank goodness for smart phones, eh?

Anyway, St. Martin's Day, or Martinstag, is usually held on November 11th and much of Berlin celebrated on this day. For whatever reason, Autumn's kindergarten had to postpone until the following Saturday (the 15th). Part of the celebrations (here in Germany, at least) are a lantern processional. It seems to be big in the various "Kitas" around the area as we passed several celebrations on our way home on Tuesday. I think much of the time they start at the school or a church and then walk in the dark with their lanterns. I don't know why there are the lanterns, to be honest. I was able to gather something about this being the time when "winter" is starting basically so the days are shorter than the nights and I guess we're bringing some light? I think they used to have bonfires or something too? I don't know. It's lanterns now. They'd had a "lantern workshop" for the parents which I opted not to go to because sometimes hearing everything in German all the time is kind of exhausting. So I didn't go and instead, we headed to Toys R Us and bought Autumn a lantern for the occasion:



In the case of Autumn's Kita, we met down at a foresty lake. It's the lake we went swimming at earlier this summer. We bundled up warm and hopped on the train with Autumn's store-bought lantern and a battery operated tea light and I hoped her Waldorf school wouldn't look too poorly upon us for such "unnatural" things. (They didn't.)

While on the train, Easton filled us in a smidge on what he'd learned about "Saint Martin" in school from his German teacher. I guess Martin was a soldier and then he became a monk and one evening he was out riding a horse wearing his giant cloak that also covered part of the horse too on a really chilly night and came upon a beggar and Martin whipped out his sword and the beggar was thinking, 'Oh no, I'm a goner' but Martin used it to cut his cloak to give to the beggar to keep him from freezing to death. And then maybe he became a bishop. Martin. Not the beggar.

Anyway, after our train ride we got to the edge of the Schlachtensee and met up with everyone. The Kita teacher offered Ah-Toom (how they say her name) one of their lanterns but she declined in favor of her horsey one. So they gave a paper lantern on a real wood stick to each of our boys. It even had a real candle inside. Boys and fire. Woo hoo!



Then we began our procession. The Germans all sang songs they know by heart for this occasion. I recognized words here and there and sang "This Little Light of Mine" quietly with Autumn. It was really neat to be walking this quiet path on the edge of a lake and looking forward and behind me to see all the little lanterns bobbing along in the dark with the soft a cappella voices.

The lake is not small so we got to some point and they sang again and then we all turned around and headed back. When we reached the starting spot, they set up tables with drinks. I don't know what it was. We didn't have any of it. And then everyone put their lanterns all in a big mass:



Then they passed out baskets of small breads (many with raisins, not sure if that is significant) to all the children. I guess we were supposed to say a thanks or maybe sing another song and then you're supposed to break your bread in half and give it to your neighbor (at least that's one of the Kita teachers explained to me in English) but none of the kids seemed to do that and just started to eat. Then each adult got some too. The teachers and a few others made sure to break theirs in half and share with one another perhaps symbolizing Saint Martin and the beggar each having half a cloak? I honestly don't know.



After that we decided to sneak out. It was wrapping up and we'd seen a few other families make their quiet exits as well. The kids were starving (they didn't like their breads for whatever reason) and home wasn't terribly close. But we had participated in a German tradition. And that's pretty special as we're living abroad and all. Perhaps next year I will understand more about all of it and can fill you in further. Until then, there's this if you're interested.

#FotW25

Fall of the Wall. The Berlin wall, duh. 25 years later. They had signs up for weeks inviting you to take pictures and hashtag with the above. So there ya go.

Back in March or so when it first came up that, "oh my gosh, we're considering a move to Berlin", I realized that this year would be the 25th anniversary of the wall coming down. And I thought, "I bet that's going to be really special".

And it was.






Berlin set lit balloon lantern things all along where the wall once stood. I think I read that it was 8000 balloons over 15 kilometers (a little more than 9 miles). They had this "Lichtgrenze" (light border) up for the whole weekend: Friday to Sunday.



 Then on Sunday night November 9th, which was the actual anniversary, they were going to release these light balloons into the sky. Each balloon had a little tag on it, each with it's own unique patron from wherever in the world who wanted to sponsor a balloon with their story of how the wall--or the fall of it--affected them. I didn't read any. I don't know if you could. Anyway, we knew we had to be there for this. It was like, "When in Rome Berlin", you know? Like, Jason had to go out when Germany played in (AND WON!) the World Cup this year. I mean, come on! So, even though it wasn't till 7:30 p.m. on a school night, we bundled up and headed out. It was soooooooooo crowded where we got off the train at Potsdamer Platz. Even so, we bumped into a colleague of Jason's! Ha! He offered to take some pictures of us. Jason politely declined as some random couple had traded photo ops with us and our phones (but none turned out well!). Grrr. I wish we had taken him up on it.


Anyhoo...

We walked around for a bit before we decided where to park ourselves for the release. It was going to start up at the Brandenburg Gate at 7:20 and go off sort of like a domino effect in each direction. So, we weren't too far away from the Gate and were right there as they floated up to the sky.



Then, of course, it was time to leave.

For everyone.

We headed back towards the Potsdamer Platz station only to find that it was closed and Autumn was at risk of being trampled. I can't imagine what it's like for small people like Jason (ha ha ha) or the kids to be just randomly dragged through insane amounts of legs with absolutely no idea what is going on around you. You just trustingly hold on to Mom or Dad's hand and go along with it. But, we had to stop. No one was being rowdy or anything, but it's still hordes of people who can't see my small people dangling from my hands. So, we decided to walk to the next train station further down. Only, lots of people had to do that too. We waited and the first two trains that came by, we couldn't fit on. Finally Jason had this idea to get on it going in the other direction (completely opposite from home) just to get away from the crowds. So we did. We got seats that way and got all the way over to the station by the TV Tower (Alexanderplatz). Jason had thought to catch an entirely different train at that point but I was like, "Dude, lets just go back the other direction". So we did. It was crowded and there were no seats, but we got on. As we got closer and closer to the gate, however, more and more people were trying to shove themselves onto trains. Like seriously I was having to push back with all my might as people were pushing with much of theirs to squeeze into any inch they could find. But my small kids were there too. And of course, someone from the door couldn't see them so they just think, "There's room!" when there wasn't. There were serious shouting matches in German as people who could see our 3 small children would shout back to the shover-on-ers, "Kleinkinder!!!" and other "nicht" sorts of things. And it seemed like people would back off then. Like, they wouldn't hesitate to smoosh in with a bunch of adults all crotch to crotch, but when they heard there were kids in the throngs then they would be like, "Oh fine" and step back. Eventually we made it home and Easton has decided it wasn't worth it and when it's the 50th, he won't go back. I told him, "You'll be in your 30s then so that's fine, I won't make you go" and he then moved on to say how he'd tell his wife how he went when he was little and such. Ack! Crazy to think about.

So, a few highlights for me from the event:

1. When the Minion balloon went tumbling through the sky with all the other lichtballons. As it was a big event, of course vendors were out there selling things like mylar balloons. And when all the white lit balloons were being released, someone also happened to let go of their Minion balloon and the kids and I had a big laugh watching "Dave" or whoever go bumping through the other balloons.



2. When the crowd near us erupted in cheers when one of the initially-failed-to-launch balloons near us finally made it's way to the sky.

3. When nice Germans on the train created and offered "safe" spots for our kids to stand in to give them a little more breathing room away from someone's bum or when they offered to let Autumn sit on the lap of someone who already had a seat (in a non-creepy like it might be in America sort of way). Sometimes the trains can be an ugly, gloomy sort of place but that night everyone was feeling the unity spirit again, I guess, and people were being rather kind. And I'll leave it at that, I guess. Just wanted to make sure I got this down to some degree for whatever future sort of journal this acts as for our family. Ciao!

When Can I See You Again?

A montage of my mom's, grandma's, and sister's trip out to Berlin.

A Peek Inside

Oh my gosh, y'all.  I'm so sorry it's been so very long since I last posted.  Lucky most of you are on Facebook with me to stay somewhat up to date. 


So, we moved.  And that has been huge.  There's just so much involved with a move, right?  Especially without a car.  Plus there's still all the day to day stuff of getting the kids to and fro, buying groceries, making food, laundry, cleaning . . . it's a lot even without throwing a giant international move into the mix.


We also had visitors for parts of 11 days.  Hooray!  My mom, baby sister, and grandma were all able to come stay with us over my mom's (and our!) Fall Break.  And it was wonderful and too short.


Also the enormity of what we've done has finally started to catch up with me.  At first it was novel and fun and we had a furnished place.  And now, it's finding all our furnishings, beginning German classes, finding a school for Autumn, dealing with issues at the boys' school, and continuing to cook and clean and be a mom and wife and all that.  So, I'm embarrassed to admit it, but, finally the stress has caught up with me and I'm having health issues.  Not enough to keep me from doing things, but enough to where I'm like, "I need to just not add one more thing--blogging--to my To Do list". 


But I'm here now.  Briefly.


To show you a few small peeks inside our flat now that we're living in it and all.  It's so far from done, though.  And my best camera lens broke long ago (like a year and a half now) but anyway, I don't have a great lens for photographing the rooms.  I'll do it all again when more is done around here and I'm ready to show you a more complete "tour".


Oh...side note.  We heard from House Hunters International.  Like, for real.  We had emailed them way back in May as Dalton was on an HGTV kick and asked if we could be on the show since we were moving internationally and all.  Then a couple of weeks ago I heard from one of the casting guys!  We emailed, we Skyped, and now that I understand all that's involved, I'm not so sure anymore.  I hate being in the spotlight, does my family really need our 15 minutes of fame?  Do I want exes and other people we don't have in our lives able to just flip on the tube and be all, "OH. MY. GOSH.  My first wife!"  Plus, there's this big ol' questionnaire I now need to fill out.  Do I want to spend all that time "selling" ourselves and our story to maybe get picked?  Then, if we did get picked it's five 10 hour days of filming.  Jason would have to take off work.  We'd have to hire help for the kids.  They would move everything out of the flat.  Everything.  And they'd move it all back in.  I'm sorry, but I just got all this stuff in here.  I'm sure they know what they're doing and do it all the time.  But goodness.  Where would we stay while all our stuff is out?  Would they patch the holes in the walls that Jason was finally able to drill for our curtains?  Anyway... I'm really not so sure.  And yesterday "Joe" (the casting agent) emailed again being all, "So did you get my application?" 


Ugh.


Oh yeah.  Back to the flat.  Okay, here is just a brief peek. Our dining table.  This is the same "dining room" table we had back in the States.  It used to be my sister's.  We used to use it in our more formal dining space being that we were in America and we do things like have 2 dining areas.




This is looking into the living room.  The turquoise graffiti door is to the boys' room.  But, this is our new IKEA sleeper sofa.  And a chair.  The rug is from home and was meant to go under the dining table like we always had it before, but it no longer fits in our smaller space.  The "wood" pieces are also from home.  From Target.  I like them as that first one on the left is also a filing cabinet (we have no "office" here like we once had). 




This is the view into the living and dining areas as seen from the boys' door.




And this is the boys' door on their side of the doors.  You may remember these doors were glass.  Clear glass.  Not good for privacy or for light.  So, I bought this perfect wallpaper (it both matches their bedding AND is sort of "Berlin-y").  It was a little narrow so I also bought some teal Washi tape to tape it up there with. 




On the living room side of the door, I found the perfect wrapping paper at Woolworths (yes! a Woolworths...how long has it been since you've seen one of those?!)  Anyway, it was only 1 Euro per roll and it perfectly matched the décor I had been going for.  HAD.  Yeah, I ended up going a different route after I struggled to find matching curtains.  So . . . yeah, I need to fix that.  Eventually.




See how nicely it would've worked with my original plans? 


I still really like the light aqua color combo, but truly, I struggled to make it work.  And I really loved the purple stuff we ended up going with.  Yes purple is my favorite but I don't have to talk Jason into it.  He likes purple too.  Remember, LSU is purple and gold. ;)


So, the curtains need to be hemmed.  And I need to find more sheers...currently I only have 2.  I have been to 3 locations of the same store to find 2 more.  And, well, it's not going well.

But, hanging the curtain rods didn't go well either.


SO. HARD.  These walls are seriously concrete.  You need, like, a jack hammer.  Jason had to borrow a drill and each bracket requires 2 holes, right?  And each window needs 2-3 brackets, right?  And then each hole took like 20 minutes.  PER HOLE!  He stood on Autumn's bathroom stool on top of one of those high dining chairs and vibrated himself nearly to death trying to get the holes drilled.  And you can't drill (or make other loud noises) on Sundays in Germany.  Or after 6 pm.  Or from 1-3 pm.  So, from 8-9 he'd drill.  Come home at lunch and drill.  Come home and drill from 5-6.  For days.  Days.  Needless to say, we don't have curtains in our bedroom yet.  We have IKEA wardrobe boxes blocking out the light.  And I put up an adhesive curtain rod in the kitchen.  Which have fallen down 3 times now.  And we back to a hotel and I can see all of those people in their underwear, I don't need them to see me in mine. :) 


So, yeah.  We also have no light fixtures.  Because we'd have to drill.  And it's a total nightmare.  I went to the grocery store on the corner and when I came out I went, "Oh, Jason's home." BECAUSE I COULD HEAR HIM DRILLING.  I couldn't even see our building and yet I could hear him drilling into the stupid made-of-diamonds-or-something wall. 


Okay.  Well, I'm all frustrated again and now I have to go.  It's time for German class.