Life: Idiotropic

Spring is officially here marked with beautiful blue skies and a shower of floral confetti in the air. Some of the streets were covered in small white, yellow, and pink petals from nearby trees. It's beautiful here. The fields are getting ready for planting, more people are out and about, all the windows are decorated with flowers and ribbons, and it is finally above 50 degrees.

We celebrated its arrival with day after day of outside play. The kids had forgotten what outside looked like, I think. Luci still insists on bringing her coat everywhere even when it's warm... I think she still expects the shocking cold when she leaves the house.

We had two days at the park this week... on Wednesday we went to a new park with our Spanish friends and stayed there three hours playing. The language was absolutely no barrier for the kids. They all had a great time - even Tiara who is making friends with Beatriz. They know only a handful of words of eachother's languages, but still have a great time together. This park was nice with horse stables right next to it, so the kids enjoyed seeing the horses run around. On Friday we went back to the horse park for a couple hours in the morning, went home for lunch and rest, then took our friends to a park near our house that they hadn't been to before. It is huge and has a lot of different activities for all the age levels. We were there for over three hours, so the kids were absolutely exhausted at the end. They all had fun. About halfway into our fun, we heard some music and all the local kids took off running. Sure enough, an ice cream truck was driving by. This ice cream truck sold real Italian gelato - no prepackaged concoctions, just real, scooped ice cream put together right there. He did sundaes too. All the kids got a scoop - at 50E cents, there was no reason to say no and it was very good - just like gelato I've had before. The lemon is the best. Every playground that I've been to so far has been different. They are very creative and fun. Even my Spanish friends think that they are much better than the ones in Spain. There are swings that go in a circle like a carousel, swings that go up and down like a teeter totter with one person on a swing on one side and another on the other side. They have slopes with hills for riding small cars down, and tall bumpy slides, and swinging bridges, and tirolinos (I don't know the English word - you sit on it and then it goes really fast down a line, then comes back a bit.... like a chair lift on a slope). At the park on Friday the girls played with their Spanish friends, some German kids, and an Italian girl. I think the adults all enjoyed seeing the kids all together - 4 nationalities together on a tire swing all laughing and talking. It was very sweet.

Our backyard is getting more use now too and I think Tante Tinny is enjoying that. On Thursday evening we spent an hour in the backyard letting the kids run and visiting with Tante Tinny and other neighbors. The kids love Tinny and talk to her as if she understands. They all show off and act silly to get her attention. It is nice for them, with family so far away, to have an older adult here. They need that non-parental attention.

Ballet days are like a nice vacation for me now with the weather so nice. On Tuesday I took Elise with me and we took a walk around the green band in Sittard, a nice green space circling part of the markt square. Between the green space and the markt is this large space of gardens, all divided up with fences. Some are run down and some are cared for... some are planted with vegetables and flowers, and some contain sheep and chickens. It is interesting being right in the heart of the city so hear sheep bleeting, but somehow it fits. We went after our walk to get gelato at my favorite little cafe. The owner is Dutch, but speaks perfect English and is very friendly, so Elise had her ice cream and I talked with Ani. I really enjoy talking to the Dutch because they are so genuine and friendly and I always learn something. Ani's shop is my regular place now. Of course, I won't get ice cream all the time, but she makes very good coffee. When you order coffee here it comes with cream, sugar, and a cookie. At Ani's place, you also get a small cognac glass with egg liquor topped with whipped cream and a baby sized spoon to eat it with. It's very good. Egg liquor is very popular here. You will find it as a filling in chocolates and many other desserts - even as an ice cream flavor. I enjoy it, but the color and consistancy is just like egg yolk which, to me, is not very appealing.

Saturday was Arianna's first soccer game! We arrived at 0930 for the season's opening ceremonies that didn't start until 10. The girls got their uniforms. Luci will wear hers and cheer the team. She doesn't want to play which is fine with us - we just wanted her to learn a little and to be exposed to something new. I think she enjoys being at the practices and games even if she doesn't participate. Arianna, on the other hand, is very outgoing and is doing an amazing job! The coach was shocked. Her first game started at 1030. They kept wanting to sub her out to give her some rest, but she kept going and kept up the entire game. Many times she was right up in front of the herd. She didn't get much time with the ball, but she did throw it in once and that was fun for her. The game ended in our favor - 7 to 1. There is no official score keeping nor winners at this level because they all want to promote the fun and teamwork of the game, but the coaches and parents are keeping score... just because. Some of the players are very good for their ages. You can tell who has soccer playing parents and who doesn't. Some of these kids are headed towards stardom... they are really powerful players. I am pleasantly impressed with the ability of the coach to balance those "star players" with the others allowing all the kids a chance to get to the ball and encouraging them all to work together. I think Arianna will get a lot out of this. Her team is the Mighty Dragons and her coach is a Canadian. We love the team. All the players are great as are their parents and Coach Mohtadi is teaching them a lot.

After the game on Saturday we took the kids to Schinnen for hamburgers and let them play. It happened to be the day of the bazaar too so we went to see that. Every year GK and Schinnen have a bazaar and they are amazing. Mohammed was there. Apparently, he is THE guy to buy rugs from here. He has a shop in Konya, Turkey and has made friends with many of the AWACS folks, so he comes up here for all the bazaars and is the most trusted seller here. He is very nice and will teach you a lot about the rugs. I was amazed at how casual they are about them, walking on them, picking them up and just tossing them to the side. The silk rugs are so soft, they actually feel like rabbit fur, but a small silk rug - about 2'x3' is $1000. I was told that there is actually a law in Turkey that a weaver is only allowed to make one silk rug in his lifetime because the knots are so small and the weave is so tight, that you can go blind making too many of them. The market also had beautiful French antiques, Polish pottery and Polish crystal, Irish wool sweaters, Indian beaded shoes and purses, a lot of jewlery and leather, and beautiful Belgian tapestries. We didn't get anything, but it was fun to look and make mental notes for "next time."

Yesterday was the International Children's Festival at the base. This year the Turkish people here sponsored it. There was a lot of food - just the normal carnival stuff... hamburgers and hotdogs, cotton candy and popcorn. They had the big inflatable slides and trampolines for the kids, face painting, and other crafts and games. My girls never got away from the inflatables until the dancing started. They loved the big slide. Towards the end, a group of Turkish dancers came and performed three traditional dances in full costume. It was beautiful. Elise and I were watching them at first and pretty soon, my other three girls had all joined us. They all loved watching the dancers and listening to the music. Most of the music was live - played on traditional instruments there. The male dancers did some amazing dancing - very fast and with a lot of twirling and jumping. The contrast to the slow graceful movements of the brides made them even more spectacular.

























After the festival we went straight to Pee Wee's - an indoor play center for children - to attend Federica's birthday party. Federica is one of Luci's Italian friends. We were only one of three American families there. All of the Italian men speak English as they speak it at work here and the women speak a little. They were all very warm and friendly. We'd only been there a few minutes when they gave me a cannoli to try and some almond milk. In Italy, they have almond cream or paste that they sell in cans and then they use it for baking or can add water to it to make it into milk. It is very, very good. I think I'll have Kirk get some next time he goes to Italy. Federica's mom did all the cooking... there were the most delicious paninis I'd ever had, a pizza with paper thin flakey crust, quiche, lots of snacks like nuts and chips, and three desserts in addition to the cake. The birthday cake was the traditional Italian cream cake with a lemony custard filling. Perfect! I will definitely get that recipe. The party started like the traditional party. The kids all ran off and played, the adults sat around nibbling and talking. I learned a little about places to travel in Italy and tried to understand some of the Italian spoken. When it was time for cake we all gathered around and they lit a little sparkler in the cake. After, they insisted that all the adults gather together with the kids for a large group photo. Then when the kids had eaten and run off again to play, the adults all toasted with Asti. We were all there 3 1/2 hours - only leaving because the place was closing. Ahhh... I love the non-American parties when people are relaxed and don't run off at the two hour point. It is so much more natural and comfortable to sit and enjoy company without paying attention to the clock.

Anyway... today is back to normal. School is starting up again after 2 weeks of spring break, and I am having a quiet day with very little errands to run. Tonight is soccer practice again... M/W soccer and T/TH ballet... Saturday games... life with kids keeps me busy... until next blog... ciao!

Many eggs and several hunts ago I started a blog on Yahoo, but since no one seemed to receive my invitations to view it, I have decided to go somewhere else and try again. So... here I am. We'll see how this goes.

This Easter weekend we had great plans. Great plans, it seems, even in Europe are prone to hotel availability, illness, and weather. So, the original plan was to go spend three days and two wonderful nights in Leuden, Netherlands visiting the Keukenhoff Gardens, the cities of Delft and Gouda, and of course, the Mauritshuis Museum in Den Hague to see the Vermeer paintings. Our hotel search was amazing with so many beautiful options that were not horribly priced, but each one was booked entirely - the perils of last minute planning and spontaneity. In the midst of the hotel dilemma Kirk's ankle mysteriously swelled up and turned purple - a malady that is still plaguing him four days later, Tiara decided to eat two helpings of Velveeta queso dip for breakfast and had a very "green" afternoon with a bucket by her side, and a lovely group of dark grey clouds hurried their way from the Atlantic over to our neck of the woods for a visit. The entire region was plagued with spotty rain and some storms and so our trip was put off and our Easter became another quiet weekend in Gillrath.


On Friday, we discovered a new playground not far from our house that the kids loved. We were all going a bit stir crazy. It seems this last couple months the weather and our daily lives have gotten in the way of any real interesting outings, so I absolutely needed not only to get out, but to actually communicate with some sort of adult-type person. As good fortune would have it, our newly discovered park is a favorite of a wonderful woman that I'd met months ago. Our kids are on the same soccer team and we just hadn't had time to talk. We spend about an hour longer at the park that day because she and I were both enjoying the adult conversation. It was wonderful. Tiara stayed home with her bucket and missed pizza night. Today I casually mentioned Velveeta cheese and she appropriately made a horrible face and said "no thank you." I think she's been cured for life.




Post park play included the traditional, but oh,-so-horribly-messy, dying of Easter eggs. It was fun and the kids got creative. Later as we were putting them to bed and Kirk was reading the next chapter in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Elise quietly left the room. She came back about five minutes later, crawled up in my lap, and showed me her bright green hands saying "Easter egg." Yep, she's got "two" written all over her. I hope she survives it!




Saturday was a bit melancholy at first since I'd hoped to do something interesting and the weekend just wasn't looking too exciting, but Tiara had ballet at 1 and it was observation day, so we went to see her dance. She did a beautiful job. The class was pre-Pointe. Yvette teaches 90% in Dutch, but makes clarifications in English as needed. I learned some new Dutch vocabulary and Kirk pointed out the German words he recognized after class. It was nice to see and hear the class and I was particularly impressed with the foot/toe strengthening exercises that they were doing. Sittard, the city where Tiara dances, has become my little get-away. It's a very nice city with a nice market and city center, so I enjoy my times away taking Tiara to class and exploring. Kirk had never been to that part of the city, so it was nice on Saturday to take him there too. We walked all over the market and surrounding streets. I think he enjoyed that true European feel - the small pedestrian only shopping areas - the sounds and smells... it's all so beautiful. Almost every child we saw carried a big bunch of green cotton candy. Two girls dressed in pink bunny costumes were walking around the streets passing out chocolate eggs to all the children. My girls got two each. There were live musicians and a lot of holiday displays. It felt very festive. At the other end of the market we saw two tall teenage boys in brown bunny costumes passing out larger chocolate eggs. Once again, the girls were all too happy to accept the small gifts. We ended up having lunch at a Tapas restaurant on the markt, sitting right on in the open square people watching. We saw quite a few couples and groups of adults enjoying quite meals while their kids played soccer in the open area in front of us. It all felt very comfortable and safe. Afterwards we went to the Eis Cafe for some yummy Italian gelato. A very "sweet" end to our day.


Easter morning was delightful. The kids not only slept in, but forgot that it was Easter, so they woke up and ran off to play instead of searching for their baskets. Kirk and I enjoyed some quiet time together looking through the Super Sontag paper and having a nice breakfast. Since it was raining pretty hard, the Easter bunny decided to hide all the Easter eggs in the living room. Eventually Tiara came down the stairs with her sisters close behind her asking if the Easter bunny had been here yet. We opened the living room door and the kids ran in as though escaping from a cage. Their eyes got big. "The Easter bunny came!" was the universal cry. And Kirk and I laughed and watched as they all plopped down in a circle on the living room floor with their baskets. The each went through each one excitedly emptying them onto the floor piece by piece. Elise was the only one who kept everything in her basket. Instead, she kept standing up and trying to carry it, staggering around repeating, "Heavy, it's heavy." About 15 minutes later, the older three were still looking through their baskets, opening things up and testing out their new treasures, but Elise had seen, from across the room, a brightly colored "Easter Egg!" She ran over to it, picked it up, shook it excitedly while grinning ear to ear and ran back to show me. Her sisters all took notice and also jumped up realizing that where there is one Easter egg, there probably are more. Within seconds they realized that the Easter bunny had brought their annual hunt inside and they were all looking around, laughing over the eggs they'd found, and breaking them open to see their contents. At the end of it all we had about 80 Easter egg halves strewn from one end of the living room to the other.



The afternoon was quiet. They were all on a chocolate high and seemed very happy playing with each other. I cooked a simple dinner... no "real" ham this year as I forgot to get one at the commissary and neither the Natex nor the local markets have real American-style ham. It's crazy too, because almost everything here is made from schinken (pig meat), but I can get about 50 varieties of ham sausage/deli meat/pate... but absolutely no big ham. We settled with my usual rosemary blue-cheese scalloped potatoes and a nice sauté of white asparagus and little tiny ham strips that I found at the Natex. I'll cook the real deal next weekend just so I can use the hock for soup. After dinner the kids wanted to eat the mini MnMs that the bunny brought. I asked them to wait and then it got very quiet. Kirk and I were talking. The kids, we thought, were playing nicely together. A few minutes later Aria came down telling me that she couldn't find her MnMs. None of them were in their baskets where I'd left them... up high. I looked at Luci. She blamed Elise. Elise couldn't reach them. Arianna explained that Luci got them down for Elise. Supposedly Elise ate all three packages of MnMs BY HERSELF! Hmmm.... highly suspicious. They are learning to cover for each other and blame the littlest. I found two empty containers later stashed behind Luci's bed. The third is still MIA. Needless to say, they didn't get any more chocolate that night!


All day yesterday we heard the train whistle coming and going every 45 minutes or so. The Gillrath steam train was running. Each time, the kids would stop what they were doing and run to the window to see it as it crossed a road very near our house. Today it ran again, so during a sunny patch, we went down to the Selfkantbahn to get on the train. Last time we'd gone was for the Nikolaus train when St. Nick actually gets on the train and hands out treats to the children. This one was just a train ride. It was beautiful though and it felt great to be out. In the grocery stores, markets, and bakeries all times of year, you can buy brightly dyed hard-boiled eggs. Today as we stepped off the train, the girls all got excited to see that there were real colored eggs nestled in among the flower beds by the train track. Other children were picking them up, so we let them each pick one. We followed the crowd to a near building where they had old train memorabilia and model train parts for sale, then we got ice cream at a nearby shop and enjoyed walking around outside until it was time to go. On the way back we stood outside at the very back of the train and watched as the train went through little villages and the neighboring farm fields. We saw a lot of people walking together. We saw windmills and old buildings. We saw a lot of pheasant. And, as if this train was something extraordinary, we saw people turning out all along the track taking photos. Every time the train stopped even for a moment, people would jump off and take pictures. It is an old train and it has character, but I think that small town pride has taken a particularly strong hold of this one and it is very sweet. (http://www.selfkantbahn.de/ -- look for the small British flag at the bottom right hand corner for the English translation)

Tomorrow is back to some sort of reality. Kirk goes back to work and I start week 2 of spring break - a second chance at a little fun if the rain finally lets up a little. The kids all had a week off for Carnival in February and now two weeks off for spring break - it all seems a bit excessive... but then, Europeans take their vacation time VERY seriously and the Americans try to follow suite. We'll do a bit better once Kirk is done with training... some days I feel like I just moved here. We're settled... but still, not quite.

Phew! It's all over... until Sunday. Two Easter Egg hunts down and only one more to go. I spent much of Friday and Saturday baking and cleaning and decorating to make this place look Eastery and festive. I baked a bunt cake, took a fork around the frosting and then up the sides to make it look like basket weave, then filled the middle with green coconut and those speckled chocolate eggs, then stuck in a woven pipe cleaner handle to make a adorable Easter Basket cake. It got rave reviews. So, Easter basket cake, about 40 bunny cupcakes, chocolate bird nests, and a ton of other stuff made our house full of preschoolers on a sugar high. I think we've almost recovered. Sunday we had a nice turnout. We'd invited 40 kids and thankfully only 16 showed up. We hid 250 plastic eggs in our yard and gave the kids a limit so it would be fair. They had a great time! The pinata and games went over well too. The only glitch is that it started to get cold and windy, so Kirk ended up moving all the stuff I had set up nicely outside into the house and the entire gaggle of sugar high kids and parents moved indoors for painting, crafts, more games, and food. Arianna, Luci, and Elise had a great time. Elise has learned already that her basket is quite an asset. She wants it every day now just in case she might find a chocolate filled egg hiding somewhere. The parents seemed to have a good time. One of my Spanish friends came with her kids. They'd never seen the plastic eggs before - neither had our Brussels friends who came. They'd all thought at first that I was going to hide real hard-boiled eggs. Yuck. I told them that our kids, at least, would never eat that many hard-boiled eggs! Anyway... after the two hours plus, the kids with their parents headed home. Our friends from Brussels stayed for dinner which was wonderful - they are such great people. We're planning a trip to the Belgian coast with them in June.

Tiara brought home a letter from the principal today congratulating her on another quarter with straight A's and an invitation to the straight A breakfast that they'll have after spring break! This is the second consecutive quarter with straight A's since her 2.5 years of home schooling and Kirk and I are so very proud of her accomplishments. Tiara is excited too. She showed me the letter right away while jumping up and down and smiling ear to ear. She turned in her application today to be in the science fair which will be her first one ever. She wants to explore optical illusions, but hasn't come up with a hypothesis yet. She's getting quite a reputation at school now. Several parents and teachers have complimented me on my polite, sweet girl, and one parent who works at the school hassled her about not being in the spelling bee. Now, Tiara and I both know that spelling is NOT her talent, but the others don't have to know that and she feels great to have the acknowledgement from others that she is doing well. Aside from school, ballet is going well, she had a sleepover this last weekend, and tonight she was on the phone for over an hour with several different friends.

Arianna and Luci went to a swim party last weekend and have another one tomorrow. They LOVE swimming and want to go everyday. I will probably enroll them in lessons this summer after soccer ends. Wednesday was their first soccer practice. Their coach is Canadian and the team is mixed with American, Canadian, and Dutch children. The ages also range from 3 (Luci) to 7. Last year they tried to put all the young ones together on the same team and apparently the coach couldn't handle it, so the teams are mixed and so far it seems to work. Arianna and Luci aren't at all intimidated by the older kids and seem to fit in well. They both enjoyed the practice and listened well to "coach." Arianna kicks the ball great. Luci has wonderful aim and kicks well, but will always stop about 3 feet from the goal, pick up the ball, then run into the goal. They'll have to work on that. Still, they are very cute and had a good time. Yesterday they both brought home notes from school... a case of head lice was found in each of their class rooms. My head itches just thinking about it. I never had to deal with this with Tiara. Lucky me. It grosses me out and I do hope that we'll miss this batch. So far they are "nit free," but with an incubation time of 2 weeks, I have a bit longer to check scalps and fret. Since we all use the same 2 brushes, I can be sure that if one of the girls gets it, then all 5 of us girls will get it. Oh, the joys of motherhood.

Elise. What can I say? She's absolutely adorable in every way! I think, knowing that she's my last one, that I'm savoring each moment with her a little more. And her personality makes that easy. But, instinct is telling her that she is almost two. I know that she has no concept of age or time, but her internal clock has struck 2 and just a month away from her birthday she has begun to answer each question with a resounding "NO!" and reacts instantly to any "no" from me by hurling herself onto the floor all curled up face down in the fetal position in a full-fledged pout. It's lovely. So glad it's my last one to put me through this phase. And it's just beginning. Oh well. She's still irrestistably cute. I think I'll keep her around a little while longer. Her favorite sentences: "Where's a bink?" "Where's a bunny?" "I don't know." "I like it." "I don't like it." "Dat's Aria's?"

Well... tomorrow is another swim party and Tiara's pre-pointe class and major baking on my part. I need to run and blow dry my pinata... our big Easter Egg hunt is Sunday and there is still a lot of work to do!

Tchuss!

p.s. The photo on the left was taken on Wednesday the 5th after school. Arianna and Luci had their Easter parties at school and came home with cute little paper baskets that they made stuffed with candy. Luci's face was painted to look like a bunny. Aria opted out on that one - the paint tickles her face and she doesn't like it.

December 18th, 2005 - That weekend was the last weekend that the Gillrath steam train ran. The train runs for occasions throughout the year like Christmas, Easter, and the Sparglfest (asparagus festival – I guess that this area is a big grower for white asparagus). For the last few weeks it had run and I’d heard it was a nice thing to do, but knew very little about it. I did knew that St. Nikolaus met the train, so I really wanted to go for the kids. We went on Sunday and it turned out to be a wonderful outing. It had snowed the day before, so there was still snow covering the ground making everything very storybook perfect, lightly dusted with powder. Each window was decorated with a sprig of evergreen and a few ornaments. In our car there was a stove with an iron gate around it for heat. At one stop the conductor came by and added kindling to the fire. It was very nice. The train took off promptly at 13:00 sending billowing swirls of steam streaming behind and into the fields as it passed. The steam was beautiful against the landscape with the open fields and tall windmills. I knew from the train schedule that the ride would last almost 2 hours, but had absolutely no idea how far the train went nor how that 2 hours would be filled. A few minutes after we’d left the station, Kirk noticed a horse drawn carriage. We peered out the window through the houses and saw this quaint old fashioned carriage driven by a man in a long black coat and a very proper tall black hat. The carriage came out from behind the houses onto a dirt road between the crop fields and there we saw clearly St. Nikolaus in the back with Black Peter. (Black Peter is the helper to St. Nikolaus. The good children get gifts while the bad children get lashes with the sticks that Black Peter carries with him). The train came to a stop. Everyone aboard was looking all around excitedly out all the windows trying to see, stirring with anticipation of what would happen next. Parents stood with cameras poised at the door. Kids wiggled in their seats and asked why we were stopped and when is St. Nikolaus coming. Then, the door opened and St. Nikolaus walked through with his long elegant robes and tall papal style hat. The Black Peter followed, dressed all in black with a black hood like a henchman, handing bags to St. Nikolaus as he got to each row of seats. The kids faces all lit up. Arianna exclaimed, there’s “Kirk Nikolaus!” When he came to our seats he kindly shook each girl’s hand and then gave them each a large plastic bag of goodies. It was such a wonderful treat! Each bag contained a Clementine, a large chocolate Santa, and a thick 8” tall tasty bread baked into the shape of a gingerbread boy. St. Nikolaus went through each car full of children, then had his own car to ride in for the rest of the trip. The carriage left and the train started up again. It steamed on for 30 minutes more and then stopped. People started getting off. We were confused. Why were people getting off? We didn’t know there would be a stop! Kirk asked around and got the impression that we had a 30 minute break for shopping. We got off the train slowly, wandering with the crowd, a little flustered that we were stuck who knows where and without many Euro for shopping. The crowd wandered over the track behind a row of trees and over to a large white tent building. We thought we were walking into a giant flea market. I was thinking how odd it was that we were brought to this place for what seemed like captive shopping. Curious and amused we kept walking. Piano carols and voices came from the place as we got closer. I was pleasantly surprised upon entering to find the tent filled with rows of tables set neatly with coffee cups and saucers and coffee pots. In the corner there was food for purchase, cherry covered waffles, rostbrats, and other treats. We got Gluwein and cocoa. In the front of the room was a 20+ foot Weinachtsbaum next to a stage where St. Nikolaus and Black Peter sat. The pianist played lightly on the piano. A Penzey (caught me as funny as I’d seen the same system in the states – very modern in such an old setting) sound system stood mid stage. The train conductor came to the microphone making an announcement. Immediately the German children formed a line at the stage. All was in German, so it took me a while to understand. St. Nikolaus asked each their name and age, then their talent. At this the child would bravely perform their talent into the microphone. Many of the young ones counted or did their ABC’s. The older ones sang songs and one girl brought a small recorder and played into the microphone. As soon as they were finished, St. Nikolaus would reward them with a Snickers bar (at the American Christmas party the kids got German kinder eggs, here, they got Snickers bars… funny). Arianna really wanted to go up too, but Kirk wasn’t quite ready to lead her though that… may be next year. Arianna is picking up German phrases very quickly. The other night she said, “Daddy, what does ___ mean?” The lines are where 4 German words went. I don’t know the phrase nor how to spell it, but she has heard it and pronounced it perfectly to Kirk who immediately recognized it and gave her the English translation. She’ll be speaking German before anyone. Anyway… the train ride was wonderful. We all piled back onto the train after about 30 minutes and had a very pleasant ride back. The train stopped again in the same place where St. Nikolaus came on and there sat the carriage waiting to take him away until the next train came.

We got back at 1445 and went out to get our Weinachtsbaum (Christmas tree) that same afternoon. I’d been really worried that I wouldn’t be able to get a large tree. All the trees I’d seen had been so short and sparsely branched. A fruit and vegetable stand in our town just a few blocks from the train station sold Christmas trees, so we stopped there. As Kirk and I went in my eyes got big seeing some very tall beautiful trees. Kirk joked in German that his wife wanted a big tree, but that since I didn’t speak German, that he would have the upper hand. I told them that I wanted a “gross” tree (large) and motioned tall and wide with my arms. We looked around and a few minutes later a nice man emerged from the back holding a perfect tree. To Kirk’s dismay, I excitedly proclaimed, “I love it!” and the tree became ours. In its stand it is about 8.5 feet tall leaving room at it’s top for the star I couldn’t find this season for its top. We brought it home and began to decorate it. I bought the 220 watt lights so once I had those put on, the girls helped me decorate. I put out all the non-breakable ornaments for the little ones so they decorated (over and over again) the bottom 3 feet of the tree. Tiara and I decorated the rest and Kirk put on his airplane ornaments. Elise had fun pulling ornaments off and putting them back on. Arianna and Luci did their share of rearranging too throughout the next week. It’s beautiful – a perfect mix of ornaments both hand-made and bought, old from my childhood and new from my girls.

Yesterday I was cranky from being cooped up in the house, so I had the little ones ready to leave the second Kirk and Tiara came home. We drove 5 minutes away to the local castle, Trips Burg. The "water castle" built in the 15th century and then expanded in the 17th century was built on four islands surrounded by water. There are beautiful pathways extending far beyond the castle for biking, walking, and jogging. We saw people there feeding ducks and gorgeous swans. Now I know where we'll go when we have stale bread. The swans were storybook in their elegance with perfectly orange beaks and bright white feathers. We even saw one black swan with a red beak. The castle isn't huge, but it's still a castle and is beautiful with it's surrounding water and stately manner. Part of it has been modernized with new windows and is used as a care facility for the elderly. The other parts are closed off to the public, but the trails all around are heavily used. We walked quite a distance enjoying the scenery. Not far from the castle down the path is a wonderful old reflecting pool. At first I thought it was just a pretty pond, but it has a perfect oval shape with gorgeous oaks planted around it. The reflection is amazing - perfectly glass-like. Kirk said that oaks are planted around reflecting pools and the branches and cuttings thrown into the water, so in the summer with the heat, the tannins from the oaks turn the water black and thus give off a near perfect mirror reflection. We'll go to this castle a lot. It's close and the girls will enjoy walking and riding their bicycles there in the warmer weather. I have to get more photos of that reflecting pool... I've never seen anything like it.

Tiara will want to go back too. She saw a ton of dogs there and, as you know, she LOVES dogs. Here is seems that owning a dog is like owning a pair of socks. You just have one. I think bicycles are the same way actually. I have never in my life seen more dogs and bicycles than I have here. People walk A LOT. I see people walking their dogs constantly. Wonderfully bundled up ladies with scarves and warm woolen hats will walk by with their bags for groceries, then 40 minutes later I'll see them walk by my window again with their bags full. The girls love to see all the dogs in all shapes and sizes getting their daily walks here too. Germany is VERY dog friendly. Last week when we went out for pizza, a man came in to get some food and brought his dog with him. No on gave him a second glance. Dogs are allowed in restaurants and grocery stores and are taken everywhere as one would haul their children - may be more so. The bicycles are wonderful too. They have very strict laws so all bicycles are equipped with one headlight and a horn and reflectors. It's so nice to see so many people of all ages out riding their bikes and in any kind of weather too. After being in Oklahoma for so long where you only saw your neighbors during the two temperate months of the year, it is refreshing to see so many people outside.

Today we drove around a bit. The kids and I decided to check out a wild animal park nearby, but it was very quiet and no one was there, so we drove around and explored a bit around our new village. I almost got run over by a big truck. They have narrow roads here anyway and in some places they make an S shape with sidewalk areas jutting out into the road on one side and then the other... I think they are there just to slow down traffic. Unless there is a sign, then there are no clear rules, just first come, first served. I got there first, so I entered it, but a big BIG truck thought it should go too, so it kept on going and would have hit me if I had not have driven onto the sidewalk. Now I know a new rule: always wait for the big trucks. They don't care who they hit. We went to the Extra, a big grocery/knick knack store in Gangelt. It was nice to look around. The shopping carts here (at all stores) cost one Euro. At IKEA, the are only 50 Euro cents, so I have one of each coin in my purse to use. The carts are all neatly stored locked together. You place your coin in a slot and once the coin locks in, then the cart comes loose from the other carts and you can use it. If you want your coin back, then you simply return your cart, lock it in, then your coin pops out. A Euro is a little more than a dollar, so needless to say, they have no stray shopping carts rolling all over the lot and there is no need for an employee to spend his time collecting them. Another thing (something that I forgot about today) is that they don't bag anything. No paper nor plastic. You bring your own bags or carry it out yourself. You load it into your cart or bag yourself. Again, it is very efficient (for them) and saves on bags and employees. Most stores have cloth bags you can purchase for a Euro. The Extra was nice. It was a decent sized grocery store but also had a random selection of household things like a drug store might have. We got a couple pastries to try at the backerei inside. So far all the grocery stores that I've been to have a little backerei counter right outside the checkout stands, so you pick up your freshly baked items afterwards and pay for them separately. Right by the door was a little stand with Dolmas, herbed cheese, stuffed peppers and many other Mediteranean delights. The nice man there gave each of the girls a sample of some creamy white cheese and I ordered some dolmas to go. There are a lot of Turkish people here in Germany, so it's not uncommon to find Turkish restaurants and food stands here.

When we first got here we saw enormous piles of sugar beats laying in the fields all around. Geilenkirchen and the surrounding areas. Slowly the piles are disappearing as trucks take them wherever. I guess the local apple juice plant uses them for their sugar and it is the main crop here. I've heard that the locals aren't fond of them -- the large melon-sized, potato-like vegetables often tumble off the truck onto the road and irritate drivers who have to swirve to miss them. In this cold, they are near frozen and would not be pleasant to hit with your car. I saw quite a pile of them on the road on the way to pick up Kirk and Tiara today and can understand why the Germans would get annoyed at them.

Today Tiara brought home her folder from school with all of her work in it. She is excelling at school! I am so proud of her. All of her work is A+ work and she got 100% on her biography poster/oral report project. The kids voted for the top 4 and Tiara made it into the top 4 too! She was soooo excited especially being the new student. Next week is a school dance. She's excited and nervous. Only a couple of her friends have dates and Tiara is hoping that no one asks her. She's not quite ready for that, but she is excited to go and hang out with her friends. They are also doing secret santa's next week and she got her friend's name, so that is fun for her. I am thrilled that she is doing so well academically, but equally as happy that she is fitting in and making friends there.

Next week will be the last week before the Christmas break. Tonight I'd hoped to take Gillrath's steam train to see St. Nikolaus, but everyone was too tired, so we'll do that next weekend. Tomorrow we're going to Cologne again and Sunday we're meeting some friends in Aachen. I'll send more photos and a little note when the weekend is over. Monday we'll start moving and email could be hit or miss. Have a wonderful weekend. I am thinking of you all. I tried to get the Christmas packages out today, but the post office closed early. Nice, eh? So, now we have an appointment (didn't know I could get an appointment at the post office... not bad) on Monday before they open. I think I'll start doing all my mailing that way! So... with some luck the packages will arrive before Christmas and if not, please know that they are coming and we are thinking of you all. Tiffany

In about one week I should be able to get my tree and set it up in our new house. I am excited and ready to smell that wonderful pine smell in my home. I haven't seen a u-cut place, but will ask around. There are many roadside stands or signs pointing to a small road advertising "Weihnachtbaum." So far they all look very small. They look like the traditional noble firs with the sparse shelf-like pruning style. Our ceilings are so high in our new house and we have a wonderful front room window opening out to the street, so I really want to get something tall and impressive. Wish me luck!

This is my last week here in the gasthaus. Next Monday we'll move into our house. We're not sure what our phone or internet will be there yet. It takes 10-14 days after you put in the request to get anything done here with that. Seems that inefficiency is international and all the inefficiency in Germany is kept at Deutch Telekom - the phone service. There are people who are already in Oklahoma and elsewhere that have left here months ago and still have service (that they have to pay for) here. Oh goody - something to look forward to!

I'm starting to go a little stir crazy here... really wanting a routine. It's not far off, but until we have both vehicles, it takes a bit of planning and an early morning for me to have the van. It's cold - not horribly cold, but too cold for me to want to walk much with the kids during the day. They have been playing wonderfully together. I'm really proud of them being so resilient through all this.

Last night I wanted a real meal and our toy refrigerator* was sadly empty, so I went to the local supermarket by myself (ahhh, the joy of solitude). It is a small place, but has a decent selection of things and a nice little bakery counter in the front. I walked up and down the aisles to look and see what was there. There was an amazing collection of sauce mixes and other cooking shortcuts. Some looked really good. Among the cereals I found Trix and Choco Krispies. I also found an inordinate amount of chocolate. There was chocolate in the cereal aisle - actual chocolate bars! (I'll have a chocolate bar with milk for breakfast any day!) There were also chocolate bars/candy in the baking aisle (and not just baking chocolate), the dairy aisle, and a few other aisles in addition to the candy aisle. It was amazing. I truly think that there was a grouping of candy and chocolate in every aisle there - even among the breads! What I can't buy there: Mexican food and Asian food. There are no tortillas, fresh cilantro, refried beans or tomatillos. There is no tofu or yummy Asian sauces. I can find Italian imports, but that's about it for foreign food there. There are not prepackaged meats there like there are in the U.S., so you go to the deli counter where they have fresh meats adjacent to the sliced meat area. I looked there a lot not really sure what I wanted and how to pronounce things and I was not really feeling very adventurous with language anyway. I saw what looked like very puffy cooked hamburgers in the back corner of the case. I asked the woman, "was ist?" leaving off the word das that would have made that phrase "what is that?" I don't know what I was thinking. The woman very kindly answered me IN GERMAN. So, I was back where I started, staring at a meat case with absolutely no idea what I wanted. Still, I was curious, so I pointed again at that puffy thing and said, "eins" meaning one. I then ordered "zwei cordon bleu und zwei paprika" (this is when my hand again started pointing vigorously towards what was a pork roladn with paprika on top). "Ist alles?" she asked. I knew to answer, "ya, danke shoen." That concluded my adventure. I'd picked up a few other grocery items including a beautiful white cyclomen that had three flowers with one pink petal each. There is a nursery nearby with long rows of greenhouses through which I can see hundreds of beautiful cyclomen plants in red, pink, and white. I went to the counter and paid. The man was very chatty and smiled. I smiled and said nothing but the danke shoen at the end. It bothers me. I really want to learn German and to be able to communicate. In so many ways I don't feel like I'm in a foreign country, but at home I love to talk to people and meet people when I'm out. I always talk to the cashiers when I'm out shopping. It feels strange to nod and smile so dumbly in reply to what seemed like friendly chit chat. It will come, but I'm impatient.

Tiara is going to try out a ballet class next Thursday. The teacher is British and took classes at the Royal Ballet Academy in London. She seems very nice. The class Tiara is going to try only has two other students. They are both Canadian girls who have been dancing 9 years each. I'll also try her at a couple schools in Sittard and another one here in Geilenkirchen.

Elise is talking a lot more now... starting to copy words and has a few little phrases she says a lot. There have been a few times recently when she has said something and I've thought it was Luci talking.

The coffee here is good and very strong. I actually add sugar to some of it to take the edge off. I like it, but sometimes I think I'm drinking tar.

December 6th is a big holiday here for the children. It is the day when St. Nikolaus comes by and fills the shoes of all the good boys and girls with candy, fruits and nuts. It's called St. Nikolaus Eve, so last night before bed, the girls set out their boots before bed. I heard Arianna yelling from the bottom of the stairs when she awoke this morning. Then the bounding feet came up the stairs. "Luci, Luci, come here. We have candy in our shoes!" Elise sat up immediately with the noise, crawled out of bed and started to stagger towards the stairs. It was the call of the wild... they knew chocolate was near! Tiara was thrilled with a German fountain pen with an ink cartridge. The little ones loved their bubble pipes and pens. They all loved the chocolate gelt and Koala Kripies. We've been prounoucing St. Nikolaus the German way. This morning Kirk asked Arianna where all the candy came from and she said "Kirk Nikolaus!" We all laughed... little did she know what she said... Kirk's middle name is Nicholas!

Well, that's it for now. Tomorrow looks like an uneventful day. Kirk needs the car, so I'm stuck again. Friday I'm taking it though. I think I'm going to go to the castle here and may be drive over to my village and take a walk there. The weekend will be busy. You'll get a full update when that is over - a lot of activities planned. Love you all and look forward to talking to you soon.

*It's smaller than a hotel fridge and no, this tiny fridge will NOT hold a gallon of milk! They don't even sell gallons of milk. And in Oklahoma I'd buy 4 gallons at a time! Here the biggest you can get is a quart size. Pathetic. The kids will go through one of those in a day. Next week I will get a real refrigerator, so that will be nice, then I can have it well stocked and do a little more cooking for everyone.

The last I'd written, I'd just gotten my license to drive here which was quite liberating, but scary. I've now adjusted and am a very happy driver here. Getting to know my way around is the only challenge. The right of way and odd street signs are starting to become second nature. I'd gotten my license on Tuesday, so on Wednesday I had the car for a half day and drove around on the base, exploring and getting my bearings. I checked my mail for the first time (Kirk usually does). It was a challenge as the post office box has a combination lock and I haven't opened a locker since high school, so I had forgotten how to use locks like that! Still, it felt great to be out and doing normal errands. The little girls and I also parked near one Natex store and walked around to investigate them all. The Natex is like a BX for the Nato forces (a general store of sorts), except that this one is actually divided up into several smaller specialty stores. There is a Natex that has toys, linens, home decor, jewlery, makeup, electronics, and more. What is fun is that since they are geared towards serving NATO forces, they carry items and brands that all NATO countries have/would enjoy, so there are some nice and interesting things there. Officers in foreign military also hold a higher status/prestige, so many items are high end. I can't shop there every day, but it does have beautiful things there and it's fun to look. The clothing store follows suit with many European high end brands, but interesting fashions and a few very pretty things. I love the Scottish wool sweaters there. The Natex also has a drink markt and a bicycle shop where they also sell tires, then they have a wonderful grocery store with all the things we'd need plus an excellent wine selection and chocolate selection. I will have a lot of fun trying new wines. Many are very good and very inexpensive. Kirk just got a bottle of Crimean champagne. I've heard it's great - we'll open it on our first night in our new house.

After all my looking around that day I picked up Tiara and Kirk and we drove to Schinnen (in the Netherlands) to do a few things there. I drove - my first time driving that far. It was great. Some of the roads there are a little confusing for me. There is a one way road going into the base and then you have to take a completely different loop around a deer farm to get out, but we made it. On the way home we stopped at the little pizza place just across from our new house in Gillrath. They toss and make the pizza right there in front where people watch and they give their guests shots of Marsala wine - yum! We ordered a couple different pizzas and some tortellini - all was WONDERFUL! It kind of reminded me of Gaspare's in San Francisco... very thin crust with toppings almost thicker that just melted in my mouth! The only difficulty is that the owners/cooks are Italian who speak German as a second language, so by the time they get to the English menu translation, it was pretty poor and even the German translation wasn't spot on. To them, peperoni means pepperoncini peppers! So when I ordered a margherita pizza with pepperoni for the little girls, I was surprised to see it arrive meatless and covered in little green peppers. The girls picked the peppers off and we all stuffed ourselves though. I ordered the gorgonzola pizza - their translation: moldy cheese. Bet that one doesn't get a lot of takers! I'm thrilled that they are only across the street and am sure that we'll eventually have their menu mastered pretty well. May be I'll offer to help them with their English one once we've been there a while.

Yesterday I picked up a friend of mine and we drove to the IKEA in Herleen (also in the Netherlands). The kids loved it. They played in these little egg shaped chairs that spun around in circles and had little shades that pulled down. We had lunch there after. They serve meatballs and salmon and a lot of other yummy things. The kids meals were only 2E, so we got those. They came with a lot of food and ice cream too. Arianna and Luci like the machine. You put the cone into the slot and the machine raises it up, fills it perfectly, then lowers it for you - no waste, no mess! Herleen seems like a nice town, so I know I'll be back to explore. There is a nice thrift shop there too and so many Europeans want new modern things that they are getting rid of wonderful old stuff which can make the thrift shops a real treasure trove for someone like me who likes old and eclectic. We also stopped at Brunsum yesterday at the NATO base there. It has a nice indoor swimming pool, so we picked up a schedule. I got my library card and took the girls, so they checked out a bunch of books. I also stopped at the craft center. They have an enormous kiln and the guy in charge (who happens to look a lot like Grizzly Adams) just got another kiln for glass slumping and a few slump molds, so I hope to learn that while we're here - making vases, bowls, and other things by slumping (kind of like fusing) colored glass!

Today we took the kids to a Christmas party on base. It wasn't the most exciting thing - just a typical miltary children's party, but it was fun. The little girls each did three different crafts and had some snacks. Unlike Tiara who still doesn't really like Santa, they were eager to sit on his lap. The head elf directed each child in turn to Santa's lap, then would turn to the parent when the child was safely out of earshot to ask the name of the child and what they wanted for Christmas. Then the elf would talk into his walkie talkie. Santa was obviously wired. Seconds later he would shock the child by knowing their name without being told and knowing what they wanted for Christmas assuring them that he would be bringing it by. Arianna wanted to bring Santa a present, so we'd made chocolate chip cookies the night before and when she climbed up on Santa's lap, I think he was surprised to see her reach out and hand him a bag of cookies. She didn't know what she wanted for Christmas. I didn't know either. So Santa said he'd surprise her. Santa handed out kinder eggs to the children instead of candy canes. They had a drawing later and both Arianna and Luci got special gifts from Santa Claus. Arianna got a playdough set and Luci got a talking phonics book with letters and sounds. Elise was happy eating her kinder egg and toddling around. Tiara talked to a few friends... she's still getting her bearings with school and the social stuff.

This afternoon Tiara and I joined some friends at the Foroxity theater in Sittard. It's a nice big modern movie theater that place a lot of American movies with subtitles instead of dubbing. We saw Harry Potter. Before the movie we went to get snacks. I got a very good cappuccino. Beer and wine were also available. I was very surprised! They really seem to serve beer and wine EVERYWHERE here! The movie was great. We were sitting in the dark enjoying our snacks, intently watching the movie, when I saw stars, then black, and then it stopped. The lights came on. People got up and left. It was wierd. Then our friends told us it was intermission. Intermission in a movie theater????? Yep. An entire 30 minutes. I guess some had to go refill their beer. So a normal movie after the long preview time and an intermission turns into an all afternoon event. We left at 13:30 and didn't get home until 18:00. There is a nice bistro attatched to the theater, so next time we might just get dinner there.

Well... that's about it for now. We may do a train ride tomorrow, so I'll write then if we do. We are still doing a lot of just settling in things trying to get on track and normalize. The kids are all doing extremely well and are happy. I'm going to get some more photos taken this next week... it is so beautiful here. There are still big patches of snow left in shady areas along the road. The fields are vast and green. The birch trees still have golden orange leaves dangling from their branches and in the distance always you can see the old brick steeples from churches build a century ago. It is still new, but is quickly becoming home. I know now that we won't want to leave when it's time.