This afternoon I attempted to put together the gingerbread house pieces I had bought. I put together the house a bit wrong and of course the instructions were all in German so that didn't help. After the kids saw what the house looked like only Amber wanted to decorate it. Oh well, I tried!
Monday I had a meeting in the morning at a woman's house for organizing the Wine Tasting we are doing in Jan, with the PTO.
At school this morning it was icy and wet outside and once we got inside the school, Sean slipped down the same stairs twice, poor thing.
I like our Monday afternoons since Amber and I have a longer time to do things together, before all the after school commotion begins. So today we baked some Christmas cookies. These are the ones we call Santa cookies (since we normally leave these for him) and they are peanut butter cookies with the hersey kisses on top. Good thing the American Woman's club was selling the hersey kisses at the Bazzar this weekend, b/c they don't have them here otherwise.
Today at ball skills the boys played cricket. That is something they wouldn't have played at home!
Tuesday Amber was going to do a makeup at her gymnastics class today, but she wasn't feeling too good after school, bad cough. And she actually asked to take a nap. I know my kids are sick when they ask to take a nap! So I called them to tell them she wouldn't be there. I spoke in French to the lady to tell her, and she answers me in English "I don't speak English. I give you to my collegue" Ok I was speaking in French. So much for that!
Little Christmas tree stands have started popping up around town. Mostly small and medium sized trees here.
This week is the big 4th and 5th grade musical on 2 evenings so the 4th graders don't have any homework this week. That made Jacob's week!
Jacob had his first basketball practice tonight. Here the sport is not that popular and so the team is 4-6th grade. The have practice 2 times a week and games on the weekend. I am not sure that the 4th graders always get to play in all the games and no away games as they are in different countries so the kids have to take a bus and get housed with familes from the other school- kind of cool! Here it isn't quite as organized as at home. When they have a home game with a team from a different country we have to house 2 of the boys.
So practice is right after school. They go and change into their practice clothes and have practice for an hour.
Wednesday Amber was still coughing so I kept her home from school. Jason was able to drive the boys to school and they are old enough to just be dropped off in the parking lot on the side where they have people helping the kids out of the car.
Amber and I had a nice peaceful day at home and got a lot of things done here, ran one errand to go get a special ingred. for something I am making for a party next week but was at the import store. We made brownies for the reception after Jacob's musical tomorrow. And Amber got a nice 2 hour nap in!
Today at school Jacob's grade performed the musical for the rest of the lower school. And I guess during this the fire alarm went off. So all the kids had to go outside with no coats on and then the kids in the musical either had bare feet or socks on so all of them were freezing outside on the wet ground. There was no fire thank goodness but bad timing for all the kids. I guess it was the Kindergarden class that burnt something and then the fire alarm went off. Jacob's socks were soaked after that so he took them off and just wore his tennis shoes the whole day.
Tonight they performed the musical for the families so we all went to that. It was very nice. It was 4th and 5th grade together so about 160 kids. It was 1 1/2 hours long with no breaks. They did a great job. Sean had seen it earlier in the day and still really liked watching it again and Amber did pretty good during it as well. It was called Pirates of the Curry Bean.
Since today was Dec. 1st, the children got to start their advent calendars. We bought them in Switzerland on our way back from Italy. So every morning when they open a little door they get a piece of chocolate. Not a bad way to start each day (: I need to find one of these in a 12 month calendar for myself!
Later I met some friends out at the mall for coffee. It was nice, but I left early and rushed home for French only for the teacher to call me and tell me she was going to be 1/2 hr. late.
At coffee the girls were telling me all these things I am suppose to be doing, like putting some stuff in my washing machine and my dishwasher b/c of the water here to help prevent mineral buildup. Great my machines will probably explod! I need an instruction manual to live here.
Amber didn't want to stay the whole time at gymnastics today so we left early. Jacob had bball practice and then we rushed home for him to eat dinner and get ready for round 2 of his musical. Jason got home early enough to stay with the other 2 so I could just go with Jacob. After the musical they had a little reception for the kids in the cafeteria. We brought in brownies. They did a great job!
Friday was coffee with preschool parents and off to the crazy store. Friday it is so crowded mostly elderly people. Now that the holidays are here the stores are all open on Sundays too.
So the kids love having the elf here but it is actually quite a task for me. I have to remember each night for the elf to get into something. So the story goes that once the children fall asleep the elf flies back to Santa and reports to him how the children behaved that day and when he comes back to your house he gets into something. When the children wake up the next morning they have to find the elf. I am already running out of ideas and I have a whole month to go! Sean just loves the elf and writes him notes every night. So far I haven't forgotten this year yet, but last year I remember waking up in the middle of the night and realizing I hadn't moved him yet and running downstairs to take care of an elf! So if anyone has any good ideas please let me know!
Saturday we drove about 2 hours away to visit the Christmas markets in Strasbourg, France. This is one of the oldest known markets in France, dating back to 1570! They have a huge cathedral in town and it reminded me a lot of the one in Colgone, Germany/
Amber and Sean on the merry go round in the helicopter.
The town has these beautiful stores/houses all decorated for Christmas.
Today it was packed with people as you can see.
We had a fun time. We got there around 10:15 or so and the markets opened at 10 and most of the garages were already full. We ended up finding a spot on the street and just paid the meter for a ticket to put in our car. Amber was mad this is what we were doing today so after about 10 min. she laid down in the stroller, put her hat over her face and fell asleep for about an hour. It was great! We walked around and saw a lot of the markets and sampled different foods/sweets/hot chocolate. We picked up a few ornaments and Christmas items so it was nice. It was a cold day today and when we were walking back to the car it started to rain. On the way home Sean fell asleep.
This morning when I went downstairs in the basement to get something out of the fridge there was this awful smell. It was this cheese I had bought. The cheese aisle at the store almost makes me gag. It smells like moldy cheese/milk- yuck. So here of course they have their own cheese deli like counter for all the cheese people buy here, and then also a refrigerated section of cheeses where I bought this one from. Then the milk is one the other side and the eggs are in a small aisle in the middle of those 2 aisles.
So for dinner I thought we would try this cheese. It is kind of like a fondue. You put this round cheese in a wood dish into the oven and warm it up, then cut it open and put it back in the oven until it is bubbling. Then you can dip bread, potatoes, veg. or whatever you like in the cheese. It was quite good. Had some wine with it and the kids had some other things with it and it was a nice warm meal after being outside all day!
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