Life: Idiotropic

This morning was the precursor to the BIG spaghetti fest that we've been building up to this last month with the yearbook staff. I had to pick up some face paint at the Karnevalwierts, so I grabbed a couple ladies that are new to the area and we made a morning of it exploring the T'Loon shopping mall in Heerlen. Before a mid-shopping coffee break, I went out to my car. An older couple flirted with Elise. I understood them a little and answered back in my limited Dutch. Then I saw them looking at my car as I walked to it. A minute later I turned around to see the lady standing right behind me. We talked for a while - they were so nice. She's Greek, but has been married to her Dutch husband living in The Netherlands for over 50 years. She speaks Greek, Dutch, and German. Her husband spoke a little English, so we talked a bit. They were curious where we were from. Something about this mall. Every time I go there, I meet a very nice older person who is drawn to Elise and communicates with us in some way. It's nice. And every time I end up leaving smiling and feeling happy that I've had one of those moments again when the kindness of the people here shines through.

The afternoon was filled with errands, running here and there, then we assembled at the school to set up for a potential 400 hungry spaghetti eaters. The kitchen staff was busy. I'd never seen such a huge pot of spaghetti noddles in all my life - it was really kind of fun to watch.

My student staff of 12 6th graders made us all proud as they set up, cleaned up after people, helped people carry drinks, smiled, and just pitched in whenever they were needed.

We'd been collecting monetary votes to elect two people for a spaghetti eating face off and those cans sat out until the last minute. Donated baked goods were sold. Face painting and fun place mats with crayons made it fun for the younger kids.

Starting at 5 and finishing up at 7, we finished off our evening with a skit by the yearbook staff (Tiara's on my staff, of course and she did great), a handless spaghetti eating pre-event by 4 yearbook staffers who challenged 4 eager audience members. Then, the Rocky music played while the General and 4 other base leaders came up to the stage to hear the final count. The General and one of the squadron commanders ended up demolishing a HUGE plate of spaghetti with meatballs in front of a excitedly cheering crowd. I circled carefully with my camera. The yearbook staffers stood on the back of the stage ready with warm towels for clean up. Then the General started flinging saucy pasta at the kids with his mouth. Our other contender was so focused, he didn't look up from his plate once - not even when the general finished and threw his empty plate at him.

The event was fun and ended up being a huge success. We are all happy and very relieved that it was over. Now I can focus on the book itself.

So, we profited over $2300 making each yearbook go from $20 each to $7.

Tiara is participating in Odyssey of the Mind this year. OM is an international educational program that encourages students to creatively solve problems and then bring those solutions to competitions on local, state, and world levels.

This is the first year she's done it, but it's been fun. On Mondays they do quick work on their own and in groups given certain tasks and materials to accomplish something specific. On Wednesdays and Sundays she meets with her team to work on their big project for the competition in Heidelberg in a couple weeks. The teams are chosen according to birthdays, so Tiara, being the youngest 6th grader, is grouped with a fourth grader and two fifth graders on her team. It's been a challenge for her just to negotiate those personalities and to assert herself a bit, but it's a good experience. Here she is trying to build a structure using two golf balls and 10 index cards.

This morning I took a couple of ladies who have just moved here recently to Sittard. They are both in that new stage, getting moved into their houses and not quite comfortable driving around the area yet, so I showed them a few things. We parked near the market where I park three days a week for ballet and walked down Putstraat directly to Bagels and Beans for a nice visit with coffee, bagels, and date pie. It was fabulous as always. Every one that I take there goes back and Lillian, the owner, is very nice.

After that we walked around the market. I needed to get cheese, so we found my favorite cheese guy and stood in line. The pesto gouda I get is absolutely amazing. I love it. Elise kept eating the samples of Gaas Kaas - the cheese made from the first milking of last summer - in June of 2006. It was a bit oranger than most Gouda's and very good. We also picked up a regular Oude Gouda and a wheel of Camembert - my new favorite since Paris. My friends wanted to look at purses, so we stopped and the purse seller gave Elise and her friend marshmallow sticks. Marshmallows are very popular in the Netherlands. They are not white and squared off like ours, but in a rainbow of pastel colors and in different shapes and sizes. Some are dipped in colored sugars. Some are twisted together. Some are strung on sticks like kabobs. These were pink and yellow twists and the girls ate them up very quickly. Candy is passed out a lot more here than in the States. People are always giving candy and chocolates to children.

As we were leaving passing by the back of the fabric vendors, we saw a sweet Basset Hound. And, as soon as we saw her, she saw us, stopped in her tracks, then ambled to the very edge of the platform and leaned her nose so far out that I worried she was going to fall down. We pet her for a few minutes. Elise wasn't scared a bit even when the dog sniffed her face.

Next on our tour was the Rousseau chocolate shop in Sittard on Langs De Heij. Once again I took my tourists through the factory, talked to the man who owns and runs it, watched the people make the Easter chocolates and write on large tablets with white chocolate. The lady writing asked if we'd like a taste and squirted out a generous ribbon of creamy white chocolate onto each of our fingers. Elise got her usual chocolate "lolly," and my friends shopped and sampled their goodies in the car on the way home Mmmmm-ing all the way.

From there we did the BisBis - the Dutch junk store/Goodwill type place. I found an antique iron for 5 Euros that is full of personality and an old sled. What a deal! Today both ladies called wanting directions both to the chocolate shop and the thrift shop so they can go back.

So, that was our morning. Just as we were leaving the market, the first, tiniest flakes of almost imperceptible snow came floating down. When we got home, a light white dusting lay all over the fields. It was our first snow.

That afternoon we had our first swim lessons - ever for two.

Arianna and Luci started for the first time ever and both did very well. Arianna, with no fear or trepidation, went right in and swam with Chris. Luci played in the little pool for ten minutes refusing to swim, but slowly, she warmed up to Stephanie, and once Stephanie allowed her to dump a bucket of water over her head, she was in. Luci swam well also and both girls played afterwards in the little pool. Elise played the entire time. She is very happy in the water. Tiara swam too. I think she's happy to be back in the water again.

Since Storm Kyrill sadly cancelled our International Women's Club USA 50's Night last Thursday, we quickly rescheduled for the only date this week that was available - Wednesday. I got the word out quickly and made sure all our volunteers could be there and our party was on!

Photo: My team! I'm the one in the middle with the pink glasses! Tiara wasn't there for the photo, but she was a great help too!

The decorations were amazing! Dani bought old 45 records and painted the centers light pink, then hung them from the ceiling. She also hand painted a doorway and hung a retro screen for people to walk through. One of our members brought old photographs from her dad's high school years and old high school letters to put up. Twisted pink and black streamers lined the dance floor and went up from the center of the tables to the ceiling.

Andrea's husband used to be a DJ, so he put together an amazing collection of music from the 50's, brought his own stereo equipment and set up the entire sound system complete with Grease playing on the screen in the background muted.

We found retro candy online and had Beeman's gum, Bit-o Honeys, candy cigarettes, tootsie rolls, and a ton of other candies on the tables along with a song list from our DJ, a Diner Menu card, and a Good Housekeeping article from 1955 on how to be a good wife.

Kim Rex was supposed to sing the National Anthem acapella last Thursday, but didn't think she'd still be here. She had tickets to fly back to the US today. And then her son's passport got lost, so she was able to come and sing for us. The Anthem was beautiful. Some of the ladies there had never heard our National Anthem sung. One woman told me she thought it was just music and had never heard the words.

A very nice group of American ladies did all the serving. We brought out pickles in bowls, then trays of lettuce and cheese to the tables. Each tables had a bottle of ketsup and mustard just like a restaurant would. Then we brought plates with burgers and onion rings. When everyone was served, I explained what a root beer float is and Kim did a demo so that we didn't have root beer all over the tables. Then ladies came out with a bottle of root beer for each person and glasses of ice cream.

Jeff played music during dinner. At 8, we had the hula-hoop contest - something that I'd previously thought would go quickly, but there were some VERY good hula-hoopers in our group and it wasn't until I made them hula two hoops at a time that we finally got a winner. Then Kim Lynch and her daughter got up and taught us all the Stroll and the Hand Jive and we all danced for a while.

All in all the night was a success with a lot of great feedback. The only glitch (and quite a big one) was that the club inadequately cooked some of the burgers. We were able to get those quickly switched out thanks to my great help and the club manager was alerted to an unknown end as of this posting.

1. Put one scoop of vanilla ice cream in a tall glass
2. Slowly pour root beer over the ice cream until the glass is full
3. Enjoy with a straw or a spoon

In my naivety I foolishly thought that having more children in school would increase my amount of free time. HA.

Today my girls and I, for one hour of the day, were spread out in 4 different places... Luci at ballet, Arianna at Daisy's, Tiara taking sewing lessons, and Elise with me at a yearbook adult-staff meeting.

I'm about to paint my van yellow and black and put a brightly lit sign on top, but then I might get mistaken for a mail truck... they're yellow here. Come to think of it, the taxi's don't stand out as much. The one I've taken since I've lived here was a very normal looking blue BMW.

Still, I can certainly put taxi-driver on my resume now.

Well, Kyrill came and went on Thursday night creating quite a racket through the night and some strong wind the following day, but in our area, it was pretty uneventful. Tinny reported that Monschau didn't fare as well with most of the basements completely flooded, but that stands to reason given it's valley location near a stream.

On Friday night I had the pleasure of attending wine club. I'm not a member as of yet, but a friend was hosting it, so I went and brought a couple goodies to help out. We were spoiled with a wonderful selections of Bordeaux reds and whites and some very good foods. My favorite was the coffee served with a champagne liqueur from Monschau that was absolutely delicious. I don't drink wine much although I do enjoy it and it's better here. Though I still have a fondness for Oregon wines, the wines here are a lot less expensive and very good.

On Saturday we made a movie. Arianna, for two weeks now, has been begging to make a real movie. NOW. She was so heart broken the first time she asked to make her movie and the answer was "not now". We had to make a script, we had to find costumes, and we had to charge the video camera. The next week, she wasn't getting any further with her play idea although convinced that "she knew how to do it." So, on Saturday, she asked to play dress up. Then she got into costume and asked Tiara to do her makeup. So, completely ready, she came to Kirk and I again. "Is the battery charged, Kirk?" "Yes." "Bring it down in five minutes... it's time to make a movie."
Arianna told us what we would do. I was assured a short scene with one line. We all got into costume. Luci was going to be the mean lady, but when it came time for the mean lady to carry off Marie Kitty, Luci realized that she couldn't pick up Arianna and didn't think that dragging her by the collar was convincing enough. So, all of the sudden, Luci got the one line, and I became the mean lady with no script, so I had to improvise.

Scene 1: Morning came. Tiara, the maid, dusted the furniture. Luci, the owner, fed her sweet Marie Kitty (Arianna). Then, while Marie ate, the Mean Lady (me) swooped in to catnap her. Just then another little kitty (Elise) wandered unscripted into the scene, so the Mean Lady grabbed one kitty under each arm and carried them off to her dog-infested castle.
Scene 2: At the Dog-Infested Castle, the Mean Lady interrogates the frightened kittens looking for the secret recipe for Meow mix and where all the tastiest salmon are.
Scene 3: The kind maid finds the castle and comes into save the kittens. She fights the Mean Lady who falls to the floor moaning. The maid rescues Marie Kitty, but the little kitten runs to the Mean Lady who is melted by her kindness and they all live happily ever after.
Scene 4: It is Christmas. Marie opens presents. All is well.

Saturday was also the day of the freak hail storm that caught Kirk coming out of the woods. He was out for a walk while the girls clung to me in a very rare thunderstorm. The clouds rumbled for 20 minutes or so before it all broke loose the in 5 minutes the previously dry ground was covered in white dime sized hail balls. And, Kirk had just come out of the woods about then, walking through the farm fields wondering why the ground was so crunchy. It's the shoes. My previously fashion-uninterested man is now going absolutely bonkers over Lands End shoes, shirts, etc... So, it was hailing and he didn't feel a thing except the crunch.

Sunday was Tongeren Day for me! I picked up Holly at 0630 and we drove the one hour to Tongeren, Belgium arriving when is was still quite dark out. It would have been nice to have a flashlight. The wind was cold and biting and it spit rain on and off, so the crowds were very low. The vendors were a little more sparse as well, but the people that were there seemed a bit friendlier than usual.

Going to Tongeren is a bit addictive. I absolutely love it and would go every week if time and money allowed. The amalgamation of the old town gate and wall with all the little treasure shops tucked around it and the sidewalk vendors lining the sidewalks and streets with every possible aged object engage me. It all seems so story-like and the characters sitting on the back of their trucks have as many stories as the wares they sell. Going to Tongeren is a bit like an open area museum in which you can touch everything. Last time I'd gone I found a piece of Steuben glass that I can still clearly remember. This day, walking along casually looking about the randomness on each table, I found an another amazing glass vase - just sitting there in the middle of an unimpressive assortment of old stuff. I will have to look online to find out more about it, but it was truly special and signed. I got to pick it up, turn it in my hand, and feel it's weight. Then I asked the price. 1300 Euros. And probably worth more. Though it would be fun to decorate my home with all the Tongeren treasures, it is also a privilege just to be able to pick up and touch some of these things that could easily be placed in a museum behind glass.

The photo below is the storefront of a shop right behind a sidewalk antique vendor. It caught my eye and Holly thought it was quite artsy, so I took the photo. Kind of fun to play with.

Holly and I both had fun rummaging through a box of old carved mahogany pieces once used as stamps for type set. I got KT TALES - our initials and will put on a little shelf on the wall. I also found some beautiful hand-stitched, red leather children's cricket balls and later a nice pair of black, carved, wooden shoes with writing inside. On the way back towards the car I saw the chandelier I liked before. It's small, but the strings of crystals are all tied to form a basket with the bulbs inside it. It stood out from the others there, and the price was negotiable, so I think I got a deal on it.

On that same stretch was a man with a counter on which he had some wine glasses and several bottles of wine. He was clearing out a wine cellar. Two bottles of an 1950's French Bordeaux, he sold for 600E each. We had the pleasure of chatting with him and sipping on a 1996 Bordeaux that he was selling for just 30E a bottle. I would have gotten a couple, but he was selling it in a lot of 300 bottles. But these are the fun characters at Tongeren - friendly, open, without presumption. He chatted with us for a good 10 minutes and then invited us to come back for a nice glass later if we had the time.

After dumping our stuff in the van, we went for lunch in an old smokey cafe full of people. The only table left was a large solid round table that would have easily seated 8. We were two, but we sat and invited the group of Dutch coming in after us to join us. They'd purchased a rather comic clown for a friend as a joke. The lunch was light and nice. Cappuccino and a croque monsieur.

From there, Bab's place was just around the corner and I hadn't been in there since I picked up my trunk, so we stopped in.

Babs Nelemans is a petite blond woman in her 70's. She's from Belgium, but is Dutch as she would have you know and has probably smoked at least 3 packs a day for the last fifty years. Her place is thick with smoke, but her spunkiness is fun and she enjoys telling you about the furniture she has in her shop and her customers - many of whom have become friends. She loves to name drop and tells us of all the crates she ships to America and the houses she's flown to in the US to decorate.

She remembered us. Holly's eyes went big the second she walked through the door and saw the 19th c French farm table. I knew she'd be going home with it. The long table had a long drawer at the end that Bab's described as the baby drawer saying that a family would sit down for dinner and put the newborn in the drawer at the end. While Holly stepped out to call her husband, Babs offered me a glass of wine and we sat and talked at Holly's new table. Before we left I reached up on top of an 19C Austrian trunk to get down a dove decoy that had caught my eye. "Do you like it?" came the husky voice with the Dutch accent. "Yes, it's very serene." "Then it's yours, darling. Take it." And it was gifted to me along with its pair. As we walked out and said goodbye, both Holly and I got hugs and three kisses (the Dutch way) from Babs. I think we've made a new friend now.

An aside: Holly picked up her table on Friday with her German landlord. When she tried to pay, Babs said, "we don't pay here," and they all went to the smokey cafe that we'd gone to before for lunch - a long 90 minute lunch with coffee and cognac. Babs and Mike (the landlord) got talking and realized that Mike had bought a lamp from Babs 30 years ago. They both remembered and Babs was able to describe the lamp and the price paid for it! Amazing!


My Monday -

Some days are just strange. Today was normal in some respects and frightfully busy, but among that business were two sights I'd never seen.

The first: I was on the phone with a friend standing in my upstairs office window looking out like I often do when on the phone when I saw two men, dressed entirely in black, bring a body zipped up in bag, out from the apartment and put it in the hearse parked on the street. I know that these things happen, but it was weird to see. Tinny told us that he was an old Dutch man who wasn't in good health. We'd seen him looking out his window some evenings. I wish now that I would have waved. On the positive note, according to Tinny who is very practical in these matters and not at all insensitive as it would seem, there is now a very spacious apartment available immediately if we perchance, know of someone looking for a space to rent.

The second (and less morbid): Today while walking out of the Sittard markt, I saw a bicycle go by. It was a normal looking adult bicycle in most respects except that it had very large sturdy training wheels on it! I didn't get a good look at the rider, but the bicycle was interesting.

We knew Tiara was special when she wanted me to make sushi for her 6th birthday and a couple years later we were taking her to a nice Japanese sushi place for another birthday and pretty much anytime I asked her what I should cook, "sushi" was her first response.

In Paris we ate at a Japanese restaurant that served amazingly delicious food and there, another sushi lover was born. This time, Arianna, for whom I'd ordered only cooked food, decided that Kirk's tuna sashimi and California rolls were better. She loved it.

So for two weeks she begged.

Me: "Arianna, what would you like for breakfast?"

Aria: "Sushi!"

(5 Minutes later, 20 minutes later, 2 hours later, the next day, repeat) Aria: "Mom, can you make sushi now?"

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack all had the same request. Tiara was always smiling and jumping in the background.

So a few days ago, we made the sushi rice which is really the only time consuming part of sushi making. Then I showed Tiara and Tiara taught Kirk and we all made sushi together. Elise and Luci had plain rice. The only thing that was missing was the pickled ginger that I couldn't find at the store, but it was still good.

We will grill some tuna for them next time since it was such a hit and get a little fancier with our fillings.

Sushi sound complicated, but it is very easy and not a problem to make at home. The only trick is that you really need the bamboo mat, but get yourself to an Asian market and you can find one very inexpensively. I don't use raw fish at home for obvious reasons, but grilled fish leftover from the night before and imitation crab are great. The Japanese friend who taught me how to make sushi used tuna from a can and that worked great too although grilled whole tuna is much better.

• Place saran wrap over your bamboo mat to prevent mess and to keep your mat clean.
  
• Put the seaweed wrapper on the mat. I usually put the fold facing up so it rolls easier.
• Spread a thin, but even layer of sushi rice over the surface of the seaweed leaving just a 1/2" area clear on both vertical ends.
• Place your ingredients of choice horizontally along the center of the rice.
• Using the mat, begin at the end closest to you and slowly roll your creating being careful not to get the saran wrap into it.
• Before you get to the end, lightly wet the rice-free end with water to make it tacky.
• Finish rolling and squeeze tight.
• Slice as desired.
• Serve with wasabi, pickled ginger, and soy sauce

Today was supposed to be a busy day with a Chinese New Year's party, the girl's first day of swimming lessons, and my much-stressed-about USA night for the IWC.

But, in the middle of baking the "world's ugliest fortune cookies" with a group of sixth graders, we got the announcement that we needed to hurry because the school was closing early. Then my cell phone rang telling me to pick Luci up by noon. Then I got a half dozen other calls from people.

The entire base was shutting down by order of the General.

I celebrated a rushed Chinese New Year with Tiara's sixth grade class eating fried rice, crab Rangoon, Chinese chicken salad, pot stickers, and a couple other nameless items under the sea of red paper lamps the kids made the day before.

I picked up Luci and tried to contact the club about tonight. Mr. Snackers wasn't there. So I tried to run a couple errands on base, but all the offices were closing. I couldn't even get the mail.

At home it was a barrage of phone calls trying to figure it all out. We ended up getting the word out to all the IWC members that our dinner was postponed until next week. It's a bit of a logistical nightmare, but I think we'll make it work with just a few glitches. I'm glad we have the weekend to tweak things a bit.

Anyway, the wind has picked up. Aachen declared a state of emergency and shut the city down bracing for the storm. The Deutsche Bahn train company stopped all trains across Germany. Police started closing off some roads in Geilenkirchen and telling people to stay home and indoors. The only people on the roads were going home.

Tinny had brought in all the toys and put a tarp over the metal grate leading to our basement with bricks stacked over it. I closed all our rolladn protecting our windows from flying debris.

One German news report called it Kyrill, naming this system that's bringing 105MPH winds - hurricane force winds - all across Northern Europe from England to the Czech Republic. So far there have been over 20 fatalities.

Kirk paced earlier worrying about this storm. He understands it enough to worry. Everyone is taking this seriously - with the exception of a couple Canadians that I talked to. They are so nonchalant about the weather.

The wind is gusting loudly outside shaking the rolladn fiercely. It's a wonder that anyone in the house is asleep.

When we moved to Missouri and we experienced our first tornado sirens, I learned that calm weather is not necessarily a good thing. The weather can be scary, and then that wonderful, peachy sky calm that comes, is sometimes just the moment you're sitting in the eye. So you think it's over and look out the window before the other half hits.

That was the time that Kirk and I were laying on the trampoline outside at our neighbor's house watching the electrical storm flicker across the sky and listening to the sirens on base just a mile away. We weren't real smart.

So, this week, that's where I am, laying on the trampoline in the eye. Last week was crazy running a mile a minute and trying to keep up on projects and catch up on household stuff. This week I should be crazy, but I feel remarkably calm.

Yesterday we had the first truly gorgeous day since we'd been in Paris. It was sunny and blue. People were out in herds - literally. After church in the morning we drove out to Schinnen to get some groceries and every little path through the fields was filled with people on foot, on bike, and on horse, with kids, with strollers, and with dogs. People were everywhere. There is something very uplifting about seeing people walking outside on a sunny day. It just means that life is good.

So, when we got home, we met some friends and walked through the forest near our house for a while. It felt great. The little ones loved it. Tiara and Hadley found a stream to splash in and started making summer plans to take their bikes there and then ride to the ice cream shop. There were masses on the trails. Groups of 10-20 people standing at path intersections chatting - kind of like Walmart on a Friday night in Warrensburg, MO, without the big yellow smiley faces.



We saw our favorite punk rock cows, and being the friendly beggar bovine that they are, and thinking we might have stale bread, they took one look at us and started a full run towards the fence at us. It was adorable, their long bangs blowing in the wind like a 1970's Tampax commercial (sorry folks, that's the visual in my sleep deprived mind and it works).

Yeah... best to end it there. :)

Life is just good. Today was another sunny day. We're all uplifted with a good dose of Vitamin D, a little thing that makes a tremendous difference. The girls are all happy and though it's still cold, it feels great to be outside.

I would love to be finishing up the Paris trip. That will get wrapped up this weekend - I promise.

January has just started full steam ahead with very little time to do anything extra. Yearbook is in full swing with a big fundraiser the first of February that we still have to do a lot of work for. I'm working with the students on the books and getting all their information together. My IWC US night is next Thursday, so I'm trying to get all those details together so the night goes off well. On Tuesday we had some dance lessons so we can do some of our 50's dances without looking silly. Some days I leave in the morning and don't come home until bedtime between volunteer stuff and the kid's activities.

So, I'm not complaining. I'm blessed and I love my life and all the things I choose to fill my time with, but it does leave for a tired me and a few days without blogging, which, is my therapy and relaxation, so I'll get to it soon.

I hope all is well with all of you.

A couple nights ago while cuddling with Elise and trying to get her to settle down, I began to think how marvelous it would be to have a big bag of light green ping pong balls at my side. The next night I laid there armed with a nice round red plastic tomato. Last night I had plastic grapes.

Thankfully, I haven't had to use them yet and I am still on the lookout for those ping pong balls. So that, while trying to get the three little ones to bed, I can just gently lodge a ping pong ball in the direction of the popping, snapping, clicking, kicking child across the room so that the gentle tap of the harmless ball can act as a firm reminder that her mother is in the room and it's time to be quiet.

May be it's just the long vacation and being out of the routine, but the strange nighttime noises are pretty much driving me crazy. Elise will be almost asleep when I hear a wall-shaking YAWN. My reflexive reaction is SHHHHHHH. The reply is always, "I was yawning!" said in the loudest whisper possible.

I know it's a phase. They won't do it when they are 16. I hope. So the problem now is just making it that long without losing my sleep-deprived mind.

(Update: The ping pong dreams have not subsided. At least 1/3 of the nights, I lay there with three little girls loudly whispering questions to me like, "what are we going to do tomorrow," "Can I have a fruit roll-up in my lunch," and "Pssst, Mom, can I have a pony someday?" Shh. Shhhh. Shhhhhh. The other night I did resort to tossing a beanie baby across the room at Luci. It kind of worked - for a couple seconds anyway. Let me know if you find any green ping pong balls.)

I hope you all enjoyed your celebrations.

About a month ago I'd toyed with the idea of staying in Paris a couple extra days so that we could spend New Year's there too, but it was good that we didn't. After all the riots that Paris dealt with over the summer, they cancelled all their big New Year's plans, so there were no fireworks at all - and none over the Eiffel tower, the usual big TV event of the night.

We don't have television, so we didn't enjoy the US celebrations - no Times Square or Dick Clark.

No Dinner For One. If you haven't lived in Germany since 1963, then you won't have a clue what I'm talking about, but, it is a very unique German phenomenon.

Dinner For One is a 15 minute comedy that two British actors did on stage in the early 1960's. A German television producer filmed it for television. Since then, it has become the most broadcasted television show of all time (worldwide) though it's NEVER been aired in either the U.S. or Britain. It is played, in Germany, every New Year's Eve - usually every hour and on every television station. It is entirely in British English, of course, but after years, most Germans have it pretty well memorized. People here have Dinner For One theme parties serving the same alcoholic drinks and drinking them with the actors. It is pretty much unavoidable on German stations this night and it is very funny. With only two actors, the butler goes around the dinner table during the "dinner party" acting as each guest for the senile Miss Sophie, speaking as the long deceased friend would speak and drinking their toast for them with each coarse. So, he is progressively getting more and more drunk and getting very silly.

We were too busy talking to watch t.v. this New Year's, but the "boys" (the grown men transformed into boys the instant they saw the little paper covered popping fireworks and matches) made the evening very festive with the endless light displays.

Fireworks are widely loved here with many BIG varieties available that have long been outlawed in the states, so just looking out the window over our flat farmland is a major fireworks display.

This was the best New Year's we've had in a long time. We spent it with friends and from 1930 until 0130 we talked, ate, and had a little wine. The kids played so well for so long that we barely knew they were there. The fireworks lasted hours -- not only our own display, but those all over the countryside.

Elise ran back and forth from the front yard to the kitchen bouncing as she ran with her ponytails waving around telling us all about the "popping fireworks" and hugging Rudy, the golden retriever, to comfort him. Arianna and Luci loved the sparklers. Tiara got to light one of the big ones.

The food was excellent with Olive Garden's Spinach dip, and trays of meats, cheeses, fruits, and veggies. I brought Rumaki and Artichoke Spinach dip. Both recipes are below.

Hello. We are back and partially unpacked. Life is great. The vacation was wonderful. We are rested and happy and LOVE Paris. Kirk wants to make it an annual trip. We'll definitely be back many times. People were fabulous, friendly, warm, and generous. No one wanted to come home and this morning all I wanted to do was to go to the patisserie to find a nice warm baguette. German bread is not the same.

But, life goes on. I've checked my email and am diving headfirst into January events and playing catch up.

So... the house is calling me. The vacuum is lonely and needs to take a walk around my house. I'll catch up on blogging and posting photos in the next couple days.

This morning we had to leave Paris and as crazy as it sounds, it was like leaving behind a new friend. No one was happy.

I got up especially early, got myself together, and walked to the Monoprix for my last time to get my breakfast there. I lingered just a little extra trying to imprint my memory with some of the sights there... the cheese, the candies, the people. I walked over to the clothing department and looked around at the hats and scarves. There were berets in every color and a lot of different styles of scarves and stoles made of rabbit and dyed in colors like pink and green. I bought a beret for Tiara and a black rabbit change purse for myself - our little souvenirs from Paris. I bought extra cheese to take home, some hard candies to try, the juice that Kirk liked, and some chocolate. Then I went to the Patisserie for a couple baguettes and some chocolate biscuits. I wanted to get the almond cake that they'd prepared, but it was very expensive and I only had my change with me.

Packing and checking out went fairly quickly. I was worried because we hadn't seen tiger or lion - Luci's favorite stuffed toys in since the room was cleaned the day before, so once everyone was in the car and ready to go, I ran back up to the hotel to ask them if they might be in the laundry. I ended up talking to the manager of the cleaning staff who kindly took down my name and number just in case they turned up. (They ended up turning up when I unpacked the dirty laundry suitcase. Lion was wrapped in an dress and tiger had been hiding inside a hotel pillowcase.)


Getting out of Paris was easier that getting into it, but still scary. The wide laneless roads with traffic going every direction at once made me grip the handle on the door tighter than normal. I tried to distract myself with inviting Patisseries and Chocolatiers and other shops, but the traffic there really is a bit scary.

Soon we were on the highway heading towards a small village that I wanted to see. We got off the A2 and drove through the Foret de Compiegne towards Pierrefonds. The Foret was amazingly well marked with large white signs bearing spokes at the tops pointing in all directions with the names of nearby villages and the distances away on them. We saw very few people out in the cold, but several riders on horses sped by through the forest. The trees were tall and mostly bare, the roads very straight, and every once in a while a beautiful old house would just appear out of nowhere. They had wooden shutters and many had other little buildings near them looking almost like a servants or guest quarters would look. One home even had a little lake in front of it that would be really nice in the summer.

The villages that we passed through were very small and quaint. The stone houses were all varying shades of taupe giving the towns little color with the grey of the sky and the street. Still, they were inviting. I wanted so much to park and walk along the narrow streets and look at the little gardens and tiny little houses. The homes are so tall where I live that the short stone buildings in these towns seemed like doll houses all clumped together.

Pierrefonds is a small town, but it is known for it's Chateau - just one of many sprinkled throughout France. It isn't something that you'd ever run into - you really have to look for this place, but I'm glad we did. The Chateau de Perrefoonds was constructed on the hill in the 14th C, but was a ruin by the 18th C, so what we saw was relatively new. Napoleon I bought the Chateau for less than 3000 francs and Napoleon III commissioned the architect, Viollet-le-Duc (he also did restoration work on the Notre Dame in Paris) to restore it. It was completed in 1884. The exterior is quite medieval, but beautiful and much larger than I'd imagined. It had a moat as well, though no water in it when we went, just a very daunting moss covered drawbridge.

We parked on the narrow street just below the castle and walked up and around it. It was so cold we were all shivering and fairly miserable, so it was frustrating when we reached the top and it was closed for tours that day. Thankfully we found the quick way back down and were on the road again towards Compiegne.

The details on the castle were fun to look for. A gargoyle sticking his head out from the middle of a tall wall acted as a downspout allowing water to drip down leaving a trail of green moss growing on the wall there. Other carvings and statues set into the otherwise smooth walls added beauty without being garish. It almost seemed like an Advent calendar, seeing a new little carving each time you rounded a bend or came upon a new wall.

Thin slits from the bottom to the top of the fortress and even in the gates allowed arrows to go out, but not come in. A "young" castle, it was clean and white in comparison with many others I've seen.