Der Weihnachtsmarkt: Glühwein und Waffeln und Lebkuchen

[finknottle]

Hope I typed that right, have lead in my boots this morning. Had a great weekend with lots of Glühwein and Weinschorlen and Nikoläuser.
Didn't get back from a Christmas party till 8 last night and too late to make the Kranz. I usually start decorating on Dec 1st so will do that with d after school and then light a candle tonight.
We're in the UK as well for C'mas but I still do decorations, put the tree baubles in glass vases so even they get an outing.
I love white fairy lights, put some all over the place and in the evenings leave the lamps off and light downstairs with fairy lights alone.

The tree lighting on Saturday was great fun, friends of ours were there and their 13 yr old d took mine to the fire & waited 15 mins in the crowds for Nikolaus while I was plied with Glühwein.
Think my ideal Christmas is Advent here and C'mas day in the UK, then back here for Sylvester. So this year should be good.
Mind you when we're here we have roast beef on the 25th, or goose. Think if I served Truthahn, h would clobber me with it.

Taipo have mailed you.
Have only one school meeting this week but a stack of reports to write. It is very good for my rusty brain but v hard work getting into. Feel rather fragile this morning, housework beckons and all I want is a bucket of tea and an aspirin

[TheGabster]

morning all - glad things are going well ML. New puppy ..... oooooh, excitement city.

Ernest - what did she have as her first taste? Did you BLW her in the end? I would put some decs up if it was me, as you have a little while before you go. Suppose it depends if you can face coming back to an "empty" house after Ccristmas, or one with decorations.

Very impressed with the handywork Admylin - I bought a plain kranz and stuck bits on it and was very pleased with myself but it's not as impressive as making it from scratch!

Right, short and sweet as dead busy this week. Toodlepip.

[finknottle]

I cheat (nothing new there) with the Kranz, just use a shallow bowl I spray-painted gold, bung in 4 candles, greenery from the garden & a few sparkly tinselly bits & baubles.
Yours is v impressive, admylin.

[admylin]

Girls help I'm gobsmacked!

[MmeLindt]

Bookmark so I find you lot after the school run.

[admylin]

How did the first night go with daphne? How many times did you have to take her out?

[MmeLindt]

Life with a dog is actually not as stressful as I thought it might be, so far anyway.

The kids are of course very excited, paricularly DS. I have to watch him as he is a bit rough.

[MmeLindt]

Just remembered that I had to call DH.

Last night was fine. I took her out at 10pm for a last run around the garden then went to bed. She is on a blanket next to my bed and I put the tshirt there that I had on yesterday. She slept really well, no crying or any whining. DH got up to take a lemsip so I let her out for a wee about midnight. She did do a little wee on the floor this morning.

Just took the DC to school and now she is asleep at my feet. :-)

[admylin]

Aww, so sweet! I bet you'll be queing up to play with her when the dc are back from school!

[finknottle]

Dogs are v good for keeping your feet warm.
Hardening my heart and getting a blanket for my feet now...

[admylin]

Same here! Fluffy socks and thankfull that I can borrow the neighbours dog!

People keep telling me about the Hundeklappe which is like the babyklappe at hospitals. If people have unwanted puppies they can put them in the hundeklappe instead of getting rid of them in other ways and we should go and save one of them!

[thequietone]

Hi everyone,

Yet again dipping in and out of the convo (sigh).

DS1 has a chesty cough. He's 3.9yo. I'd never drag him to the Kinderartzin for that, so can anyone advise me on a product(s) I can buy from the Apotheke to help him out? It just sounds dry and chesty, not tickly.

Thanks everyone, just off again to cook up a batch of risotto for DS2. He's back on the lumps after a tooth came through.

[taipo]

Hi thequietone. Sorry to hear that your ds is poorly. The cough medicine that everyone seems to use is called Prospan. We have a bottle in our medicine cabinet. Hope he's feeling better soon. How's he getting on at KG now by the way?

[ZZZen]

now you metnion it taipo, I remember the chemist has given me that for dd before. Hope he feels better soon tqo

[admylin]

I gor prospan from the chemist once and the doctor said you might as well drink tea as it's useless! Most of the over-the-counter bottles are.

[finknottle]

Prospan always gave my lot the runs.
TBH most taste so vile the chidlren would spit them out so we stock-up on Tixylix & Benylin, not that that will help you much now...

Ask for one without Sorbitol, it was that (sweetener) which gave mine the runs apparently.

[ZZZen]

I want a puppy or 3 or 4. I have wanted one for ages. So is Daphne part of the family already ML? And how are you feeling?

[ZZZen]

Just thought I don't like Gluhwein, Waffeln or Lebkuchen... So girls how weird am I?!

I do like Stollen (yum yum) and those gebrannte Mandeln you get at the Weihnachtsmarkt though.

[admylin]

Phew, we just got back from ds's first Konzert with the Bläserklasse. It was OK, very short a sthey only did twinkle twinkle and jingle bells! Then the 6th year Bläserklasse did 3 songs, then 2 school choir groups did songs. Then it was half time and we went home as both dc were tired and the rest of the show was school pop group and band. I was sitting on the 3rd row from front and as I was watching all these little blonde haired dc I was thinking it's so unfair that the 'foreign' dc don't get into Gymnasium very often. I could count the foreign looking ones on one hand during the whole show. I bet in Bayern theer wouldn't have been one even.

[MmeLindt]

tqo
Sorry, can't help either as I stock up on cough mixture in uk too. I have found the German obsession with natural medicine to have made meds next to useless for coughs. Can any one at home send you over some nasty pink yummy stuff that all the German mums can gasp in horror at?

Admylin
Well done to DS for the concert. How sad that there ate so few immigrants in gymnasium.

[hupa]

thequietone - hope your ds is feeling a bit better today. Dh said to try Quimbo, but I have to say that even though he is a doctor I´ve never heard of it before and have certainly never used it , so can´t say how good it is. Mind you our children always seem to develop tickly rather than chesty coughs in which case Capval is really good.

It´s snowing here again today and so we´re going off sledging again today. Mind you I´m taking dh´s car this time - mine nearly got stuck in the snow at the weekend.

I´m not a great fan of Lebkuchen, but can eat my way through vast quantities of Plätzchen. I don´t even have to make too many as dh´s patients are always giving him lots as presents.

[admylin]

Morning, we got our garage today so we can atlast use the car and know we can park in the garage when we come back! And no snow or ice to clear off it! It's so big I can't even reach to the middle of the screen to get snow off let alone scrape ice. I wanted a nice little city car but h had to have a big one.

How is daphne doing? How are all the coughs and colds - quietone have you got it too? I had it but have kept it at bay with lots of tea - have you got a Rossmann store? They do an own brand Husten und Bronchial tee which is very good with a spoonfull of honey added.

[thequietone]

Morning everyone, thanks so much for all the advice. I visited the Apotheke and stocked up on Husten Tee, some Salbe and some Losung. DS1 slept very well last night - no coughing, and the teacher this morning commented that I was a "very good mother". I was quite chuffed really, as I feel like I wing it so much! I made sure I put a huge dollop of Salbe on his chest before he went in, so at least they can smell I'm looking after him!

I'm thankfully lurgy-free right now. My next mission is to explain St Niklaus to DS1, as he's visiting the Kindergarten on Friday. Does he always come with his scary friend? DS1 is terrified of puppets, shadow puppets and some people dressing up, so it's going to be interesting...MY German teacher has warned me that she used to be terrified of St Niklaus's friend as a child.

[TheGabster]

nornin all - I hab de dreaded colt!

DS has it too.

Well done on being supermum in the making TQO. Took DS to baby group thingy on Monday and they did the whole puppet St Niklaus thing - he was scared of the puppet and bawled his eyes out - had to "remove" him (cos also kept trying to grab the nice lady's notes and eat them too - he's pretty fast on his bottom now).

Must admit did think of you as thought "oh great, DS is also going to be one of those that can't sit their nicely at "quiet time". I can picture the grief already.

Admylin - glad you've got the Garage. Enjoy the new found freedom!

Going to go now and hit my secret stash of lemsip shots to get me through the afternoon.

[taipo]

Glad to hear your ds is better tqo and sorry that you've got the lurgy now theGabster.

Dd was coughing last night but she seems OK now.

What do you all think of Langos (I think there's a stand selling them at every Weihnachtsmarkt). They're supposedly from Hungary but I never saw them the whole time I was there. Revoltingly greasy and stodgey or strangely addictive?

[finknottle]

Never heard of Langos - mind you we are in the wilds.
I don't like Lebkuchen either, neither do the children so we usually end up throwing loads out that people give us.
Not that bothered by waffles either come to think of it.
Good thing I like Glühwein, heh?

So far we are lurgy-free, prob kiss of death typing that.

Admylin, the lack of immigrant children in Gym or Realschule was one of the things the UN Human Rights Commission slated the German secondary system for.

Hupa, didn't know your h is a doctor. Careful or we'll be posting, "Hupa, I've got this green slime coming out of my..." and you'll wish you'd never told us!