Our New Mailing Address

Hi Everyone! Here is our new mailing address:

CMR 480 Box 537
APO, AE 09128

And phone number:
07157 53 4554 (for those of you in Germany)
49 7157 53 4554 (outside of Germany)

The SILENT Play-Date

Yesterday our kids had our neighbor's kids over for a playdate. Our landlord is our neighbor and his daughter's family lives upstairs from him and they have 3 children. Anyways Jordan has been wanting Mahreit (not sure about the spelling but it sounds like MA-REET) to come over and play since he first layed eyes on her. She is the same age and has two older brothers. One who's name is Celas (C- LAS) and think he is 9. I honestly have no idea what their Mom's name is or the older brother.

So I was coming home from picking up Jordan from school and when we pulled into our driveway the Mum opened her windows and asked if the kids could get together and play. I have a million things on my to-do list this week because we are hosting Charlie's work people tomorrow night for a Christmas party. But, I couldn't say no on the first time, so I said yes. I think Mahreit wanted my kids to play at her house, but Jordan was a little apprehensive about that. So Mahreit and Celas came to our house. Keep in mind that Germans are so trusting and don't think at all like myself (the nervous American Mum!) Their Mom doesn't even know my name (well maybe she does from her father (our landlord) but I don't speak German and the kids came over unattended. That's right.... she doesn't know me from a hole in the wall, but the kids came over by themselves. As most of you know, I would never do that unless it was an absolute emergency. But, as an American, I am programmed to not trust strangers and so are my children.

Mahreit and Celas don't speak English and my children don't speak German, so it was a silent playdate. All of the children can count in their foreign language and Jordan knows some basics like colors and he can meet and greet and say how old he is. They all seemed to have a great time and my kids are eager to play together again, so a lack of language isn't bothering anyone! It was hilarious though, because at one point Ava came downstairs and said that she keeps asking the girl how old she is and she isn't answering her. I had to remind Ava that they don't speak English and she doesn't understand what Ava is asking her!

I am definitely feeling pressure to learn some more German As soon as the holidays are over I am going to register at our village hall as a resident of Waldenbuch so that I can try to get Ava and Brady in a local German preschool. If they pick up the language perhaps I can learn from them!

Momma's got a new Best Friend.....

...... and it is most definitely not the refrigerator. It's about the size of a dorm fridge, but at least it is a NO FROST! With 4 kids, this beauty doesn't quite cut it, so the Army delivered an American-size fridge that is currently located on the first floor. My parents are coming for Christmas and I have a job for Charlie and my Dad..... they will be moving the big one upstairs and stuffing it in my laundry room.
Can you guess who my new best friend is after looking at these stairs? We have 3 floors, so 2 flights of these and this type of staircase is pretty standard in Germany because they build up and not out. After climbing them multiple times a day, I have figured out why the Germans are typically so trim.

Oh, and it is not the electric blue paint that they painted the staircase with. After experience at Hornbach (German equivalent to Home Depot) I am hoping that maybe it was intended to be a navy blue and came out a little too electric.

Here she is!!!! She doesn't have a name yet but she really is my new best friend. With Beckett crawling I really needed something to keep him locked into our living/dining/kitchen area. I put it up yesterday and I think it is love at first sight. She's not the most beautiful, but very functional and her handle matches the electric blue handrail on the stairs. What more could I want?

We are still in the process of unpacking the final boxes, but it is beginning to feel a bit more like a home. When the final boxes are empty and the pictures are all hung, I will take some more pictures to share with everyone.

The Feast of St.Nikolaus

In the midst of our boxes the kids managed to celebrate St. Nikolaus Day on December 6th. In Germany and other parts of the world, on the Eve of December 5th they put their shoes (Nikolaus-Stiefel) outside their doors and Nikolaus and Servant Ruprecht come to check on the children in the middle of the night. If their behavior over the last year was good, Nikolaus fills their shoes with small treats. If they behaved poorly over the last year a tree branch is placed inside their shoes. Servant Ruprecht brings fear to many of the children because as legend has it... he would beat the naughty children to bring out better behavior.

Our kids were happy to find treats in their shoes in the morning! It seems as though Nikolaus is helping Santa Claus out because our letters to Santa were missing out of our special North Pole mailbox in the morning. We can only assume that Nikolaus is delivering them to the North Pole for us.