AJ's Field Trip to Kronbuchhutte

This past Friday Jackson's class went on a field trip hike in another village to the Kronbuchhutte. All parents were invited to go and participate. Since Jason just had surgery I was so excited that I could go on the adventure with him. The kronbuchhutte is a little hut of a restaurant in the middle of the forest where we ate lunch and the adults drank glühwein and the kids had kinder punch.
The day started off a little crazy. I had everything packed and our clothes laid out the night before so all we had to do was get up and go for the day. But thanks to the snowy weather the night before it took a little longer than I thought to drop Grace off at the sitter. So we missed the 8:30 hike with the older kids. I met up with another mom and we tried our best to find the other spot where the 9:30 group was leaving from, but all the directions were in german, so we were a little lost to say the least. Thankfully we found someone who was shoveling his sidewalk and he told us where it was. It was a beautiful day with fresh fallen snow all over the place. The temperature read -8.5 degrees Celsius in my car...yikes! It was cold, but we had many layers on to keep us warm. Off we went up to the hut. The hike was about 15-20 minutes through the woods in absolutely gorgeous trails. As soon as we got there St. Nicolas was there to greet the kids and hand them a stocking of goodies. (Side note...On December 6th the children here in Germany put a boot outside their front door and wake up the next morning with goodies filled by St. Nicolas. It’s a fun tradition we have started in our family.) We got inside of the hut and I almost felt like I was in a storybook. Here was this hut stuck in the middle of the forest with yummy food to eat and I swear it was the best glühwein I have ever had to drink! After the kids had their fill of inside we all went outside to enjoy the beautiful day. I am so thankful for the experience that Jackson is having at his German kindergarten. I think it is so good for him in so many ways! I love being able to be a part of his cultural experience and doing the fun things that he does on a daily basis.

What a fun, memorable day for the two of us!!

We finally found it!
The hutte.
The trail we hiked on to get to the hut.
St. Nikolas giving Jackson and Ian a bag of goodies.
Enjoying a warm mug of kinder punch.
Now it's time for the sausages and brotchen.
The three musketeers!
The babies were bundled up on the sleds. I just love that!
The first entrance to the hutte.
Jackson eating snow.
Gorgeous!

I love the blue skies behind the snow covered branches.

Breathtaking!

Beautiful Morning

Every summer we go to Michigan Grace loves to play with GG's (her great grandmother) teddy bear that sings a song. She plays it over and over and now has memorized the song and sings it. So as you can imagine we too have memorized it! ;-)

Thank you GG for sending Grace the teddy bear. I know it was very special to you. She will treasure it for years and years to come.

I have tried to download a video of her singing with the bear, but it was taking too long. I'll keep trying until it works, so it might post another day.

But here is a picture for you to see her with her new pride and joy...

Jackson's Karate Tech Tournament

Jackson has been doing karate for about a month now, so when tournament time came, we were a little apprehensive about entering him. We decided it would be good for him to be part of a competition and see how hard work pays off in the end.

The kids that competed were ranged from ages 3-6. Jackson competed in the 4-year-old category with three other boys his age. It was fun to see him get all geared up and ready to "fight" his opponent.

After a few rounds with each boy, he won first place for his age group. We are so proud of him!!

The dojo where the tournament was.

Jackson getting warmed up.
Grace was so proud of Jackson. She took about 50 pictures of him with her princess camera.
Master Rodriguez getting Jackson all geared up.
Jackson is on the left.
Here are the three boys that he competed against and won.
Jackson holding up his trophy. He was so happy when he was done!

St. Martin's Day~November 11th

We celebrated St. Martin’s Day with another family who we met through Jackson’s kindergarten. They just moved here from Okinawa, so we have a lot in common with them. We reminisce about the good ol’ days in Oki. ;-) Okay…now back to the story…

I’m going to give you some history about the actual day and how it came about. Thanks to Wikipedia, here is it:

The story told is that St. Martin of Tours was a Roman soldier born around 316 AD in Hungary. As a soldier, he rode with the Roman army. He and his soldiers were once at the gates of the city of Amiens during a terrible snowstorm when a freezing beggar appeared. Martin took his sword, cut his military cloak in half and gave it to the man. That night, Martin dreamed that Jesus was wearing the garment. During his dream, he heard Jesus tell the angels “Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptized, he has clad me.” When Martin woke his cloak was once again whole. He then turned to Christianity becoming baptized and eventually a monk, living many years in solitude. He was recognized for his kindness and a humble manner.

He was a modest man and when he was proposed to become Bishop of Tours, he hid in a barn to avoid the honor. A flock of geese gave his hiding place away with their gabbling and he was appointed Bishop. Today, the goose is associated with St. Martin and enjoyed during the feast of St. Martin in December.

The celebration of St. Martin has many seasonal correlations. It marks the end of the agrarian year, the beginning of harvesting, the start of carnival and the end of all souls period that starts November 1st on All Saints’ Day. The holiday began in France and then spread to Germany, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.

In Germany, children prepare for the arrival of St. Martin by making paper lanterns. St. Martin arrives to towns at dusk on a big horse named Shimmel. All the children gather with their lit lanterns and parade through town behind him singing songs in his honor.

Grace modeling her lantern.

The kids getting them all set up.
Tes showing what it looks like in the dark.
Grace, Tes and Zoe ready to take the walk to the Burgerhaus where the service was before our walk.
Inside the Burgerhaus just before the service. They had pretzels and goose cookies out to eat. Plus we enjoyed mugs of gluhwein, hot cider for the kids and wurst and brotchen. Yum!
Jackson with his friend Jon from school.
Sorry for the picture quality. It was a rainy night so I didn't get too many shots outside.

Here is "St. Martin" riding around on a horse through the streets while we followed with our lanterns.

Jackson's German Song

Jackson comes home singing this song just about everyday and I finally got it on camera. I love that he is learning a new language and having fun at such a unique school at the same time. He has always loved to sing...so this is just a perfect way for him to start to learn the language.

Nearing the End of Fall

With fall coming to an end I thought I'd share some pictures I took at the peak of the leaves changing. They are all about gone; especially after the wind and rain we have had these past few days.

Fall is now my favorite time of the year. Maybe it's because I have never lived anywhere the leaves changed to such beautiful colors. There is such an inviting feeling to the season. Everyone gets bundled up in their jackets and scarves, the palette of colors among the trees, and the cool, crisp breeze that blows in. I am continuing to love living in Germany with each changing season.

Grace is unsure of what these are. Check out her face!
They are chestnuts inside of a VERY spiky ball. I did learn from Jackson's teachers at school that you can eat the nuts with the point on the end, but not ones that are smooth all around. The smooth ones called buckeyes are poisonous. Good to know! Who knew that something so yummy to eat could come out of such a spiky little thing.
This is the view of the trees from in front of our house.

View from the road leading from Jackson's school.