Twenty-Ninth week in Germany
Monday was usual as we were all tired and did not want to get up in the morning. We stayed up pretty late the night before decorating the tree. Monday mornings I usually spend the morning trying to get the house back in order and put all the folded laundry away. Monday afternoons I have my German lesson and this one was no different than any other Monday. That evening, one of Greg’s friends from work, who was visiting from the US, had dinner with us. It was very nice to visit with him.
Tuesday morning was both the Toddler Group Christmas Party and Avery’s Kindergarten Christmas Program, at the same time of course. We dropped Bailey off at class, staked out some seats, took Avery to class and went back to the “Hall,” (that’s what they call their multi purpose room) for the performance. We went back and got Bay out of class to watch Avery. She was also helping with Bryn while I was trying to video tape the performance. I was very impressed. We raced from the performance downstairs for Bryn’s toddler group party where we were just in time to see Santa and get a present from him. It was really nice to visit with all the toddler group moms and dads especially since some of them will be heading back to work in January and I will not get to see them as regularly anymore. We picked Avery up from school and went home. We picked Bailey up and had frozen pizza for dinner. Greg had a work get-together to go to so we took advantage of the easiest dinner possible. Turned out to be frozen pizza.
Wednesday morning while dropping the girls off at school, one of the moms in Bailey’s class came up to me and said that her son had made a gift for Bailey but he chickened out at the last minute and was afraid to give it to her. She also invited Bailey over for a play date. I said that I would talk to Bailey about it and see how she feels about it. That day after school, Bailey had girl scouts and they were caroling at a Senior center so someone dropped her off at 5:00pm or so. I gave her the gift and she thought it was so cool. She was thrilled about the prospect of having a play date with Maxim. Wednesday night is also homework night so it was a busy evening. Wednesday was also the night we were able to put aside our creative differences and create a Happy Birthday message to Evan after many, many attempts.
Thursday was to be the play date which was significant because apparently if you are having a play date with a boy, you cannot wear a skirt or a jumper to school. You have to wear pants that you can play fuβball (soccer) in. Unfortunately Bailey had already worn all of her school pants that week. What a dilemma. It took us so long to get ready that morning, we were running quite late. We agreed that she could wear some active pants because it was so important that she dress the part. All went well and the play date was a huge success.
They played fuβball and after that they played Monopoly and had hot chocolate. Avery also had a very successful day at school where she took a book to school called, “That’s Not My Fairy,” and read it aloud to her class. I highly recommend the book. It is very cute. I had to bake some cookies and make sandwiches for Avery’s Christmas party so I had to cancel my German lesson. I can only bake when Bryn is asleep, otherwise it is the biggest disaster. We picked Bailey up from the play date and found out that Maxim’s mother lived in Ann Arbor when she was Bailey’s age and went to Eberwhite Elementary School. What a strange coincidence. We went home, made pasta for dinner and then Greg got them ready for bed 
while I went to Book club. The book this month was, “The Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency.” It was a quick and easy read. I liked that it painted a positive picture of Africa instead of most of the other books I've read. It was actually the first book I have read completely since moving here. All of the other book club books I didn’t quite finish before the get-together. It was a very nice evening with some women that are becoming really good friends of mine. I was happy to have an evening out by myself.
Friday morning was Avery’s Christmas party, we had cut sandwiches out with circle and star cookie cutters and we made candy cane sugar cookies. I was up at 6:00am making frosting and frosting the cookies with white icing. Then, Avery wanted red stripes so we made stripes with red sugar. They turned out pretty cute. The party was a huge success. Avery loved it. Friday afternoon, Greg took a half day and we scheduled a babysitter to come at 4:00pm so we could go Christmas Shopping. It is so hard to do when you don’t have a parent or a neighbor to watch your kids for a couple hours to run out and grab a few things. Thanks to the moms and Renee for previous years when I took you for granted. We got a few things but I was hoping to capitalize on the fact that we had a babysitter and get everything done. Fortunately, we had some time to ourselves.
Saturday, pancakes - american style since I was making them. Then, shopping, shopping, and more shopping. We ended up getting so much done. That is significant because I was getting pretty stressed. We accomplished so much that it cut my stress. Our Ward Christmas Party was at 4:00pm. It was nice but was difficult to understand.
Sunday, we made it to Church on time amazingly enough. I had to conduct the music today in Relief Society. When you don't recognize the hymn by looking at it because it is in German and you haven't read music since Middle School Band, it was intimidating. It was 4/4 time. It was a blessing!
Tuesday morning was both the Toddler Group Christmas Party and Avery’s Kindergarten Christmas Program, at the same time of course. We dropped Bailey off at class, staked out some seats, took Avery to class and went back to the “Hall,” (that’s what they call their multi purpose room) for the performance. We went back and got Bay out of class to watch Avery. She was also helping with Bryn while I was trying to video tape the performance. I was very impressed. We raced from the performance downstairs for Bryn’s toddler group party where we were just in time to see Santa and get a present from him. It was really nice to visit with all the toddler group moms and dads especially since some of them will be heading back to work in January and I will not get to see them as regularly anymore. We picked Avery up from school and went home. We picked Bailey up and had frozen pizza for dinner. Greg had a work get-together to go to so we took advantage of the easiest dinner possible. Turned out to be frozen pizza.
Wednesday morning while dropping the girls off at school, one of the moms in Bailey’s class came up to me and said that her son had made a gift for Bailey but he chickened out at the last minute and was afraid to give it to her. She also invited Bailey over for a play date. I said that I would talk to Bailey about it and see how she feels about it. That day after school, Bailey had girl scouts and they were caroling at a Senior center so someone dropped her off at 5:00pm or so. I gave her the gift and she thought it was so cool. She was thrilled about the prospect of having a play date with Maxim. Wednesday night is also homework night so it was a busy evening. Wednesday was also the night we were able to put aside our creative differences and create a Happy Birthday message to Evan after many, many attempts.
Thursday was to be the play date which was significant because apparently if you are having a play date with a boy, you cannot wear a skirt or a jumper to school. You have to wear pants that you can play fuβball (soccer) in. Unfortunately Bailey had already worn all of her school pants that week. What a dilemma. It took us so long to get ready that morning, we were running quite late. We agreed that she could wear some active pants because it was so important that she dress the part. All went well and the play date was a huge success.
They played fuβball and after that they played Monopoly and had hot chocolate. Avery also had a very successful day at school where she took a book to school called, “That’s Not My Fairy,” and read it aloud to her class. I highly recommend the book. It is very cute. I had to bake some cookies and make sandwiches for Avery’s Christmas party so I had to cancel my German lesson. I can only bake when Bryn is asleep, otherwise it is the biggest disaster. We picked Bailey up from the play date and found out that Maxim’s mother lived in Ann Arbor when she was Bailey’s age and went to Eberwhite Elementary School. What a strange coincidence. We went home, made pasta for dinner and then Greg got them ready for bed 
while I went to Book club. The book this month was, “The Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency.” It was a quick and easy read. I liked that it painted a positive picture of Africa instead of most of the other books I've read. It was actually the first book I have read completely since moving here. All of the other book club books I didn’t quite finish before the get-together. It was a very nice evening with some women that are becoming really good friends of mine. I was happy to have an evening out by myself.Friday morning was Avery’s Christmas party, we had cut sandwiches out with circle and star cookie cutters and we made candy cane sugar cookies. I was up at 6:00am making frosting and frosting the cookies with white icing. Then, Avery wanted red stripes so we made stripes with red sugar. They turned out pretty cute. The party was a huge success. Avery loved it. Friday afternoon, Greg took a half day and we scheduled a babysitter to come at 4:00pm so we could go Christmas Shopping. It is so hard to do when you don’t have a parent or a neighbor to watch your kids for a couple hours to run out and grab a few things. Thanks to the moms and Renee for previous years when I took you for granted. We got a few things but I was hoping to capitalize on the fact that we had a babysitter and get everything done. Fortunately, we had some time to ourselves.
Saturday, pancakes - american style since I was making them. Then, shopping, shopping, and more shopping. We ended up getting so much done. That is significant because I was getting pretty stressed. We accomplished so much that it cut my stress. Our Ward Christmas Party was at 4:00pm. It was nice but was difficult to understand.
Sunday, we made it to Church on time amazingly enough. I had to conduct the music today in Relief Society. When you don't recognize the hymn by looking at it because it is in German and you haven't read music since Middle School Band, it was intimidating. It was 4/4 time. It was a blessing!
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