A thread for anyone living in Germany or Austria, or anyone else who fancies a chat.
Happy first Advent to everyone!
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Cyber Glühwein und Lebkuchen - the German and Austrian advent thread
488 replies
admylin · 02/12/2012 11:24
OP posts:
platanos ·
05/01/2013 07:44
hupa enjoy the skiing! Hope you are managing to have fun ploom
Linzer We have also got the spar album, but I do shop at spar quite a bit as it is close and has lots of vegan stuff.
We went ice skating at Engelmann . But not really a high roof top as I was expecting. Was only 1 euro for children and quite good, except I fell on my tailbone and am in agony 
. I was just standing still when i fell, so I am hoping it is not too badly injured: sitting down and standing up is really painful. Talking of pain - how is your finger?
admylin I am impressed at your decluttering. I was hoping to do some today, but unfortunately my sports injury does not permit me. Shame really 
. I am enjoying doing stuff with the dc, though rather tiring. I think today is a duvet day -the dc got some dvds which we have not watched yet. Pouring with rain too so perfect weather.
TheUKGrinchImGluhweinkeller ·
05/01/2013 19:02
All DC healthy here for the last day or two, thankfully, thanks :o Although DS1 fell asleep on the sofa at 5pm and I carried him up to bed (my goodness he is a great big creature now, not sure how much longer I'll be able to carry him, I never imagined I'd already say that about a 5 year old as I can still carry my 7 year old) - don't think he's ill though, think he and DS2 wore themselves out using the king size mattress on their bedroom floor as a trampoline/ gymnastics mat/ dance floor for a solid hour and a half without break - DS1 in particular was dripping in sweat when he very suddenly realised he was tired and really would like to have a drink and play with playdough instead - half an hour later he decided he needed to listen to music on the sofa, and promptly fell asleep! :o
Plantanos sorry the iglo building was disappointing, glad the ice skating was better, but ouch at your tail bone - I did that when I was 18 and it was agony for a couple of weeks and still sometimes twinged for about a year - but I did fall down the entire spiral staircase of a double decker bus and land on it! (Backpacker bus in Australia at the end of my year off, there may possibly have been alcohol involved 
)
Ploom sorry you've got a snowless ski holiday! Makes it harder work to find activities and keep it fun I imagine, hope you are still enjoying yourself and not having too much stress trying to make sure the DC do...
Admylin well done on the decluttering! I got rid of a load from the basement - all DD's outgrown clothes from when we moved in here til most recently grown out, and most of what is left of DS2's outgrown baby stuff, a couple of weeks ago (most to a charity shop, aside from some Boden stuff given by my mother which we sold on ebay and made ?60 :) ) There were a lot more than two boxes! Still need a toy cull, have some doll stuff from DD in a box on the landing that she's agreed can go for a start, as although she plays with Barbies still she doesn't play with baby dolls. I'd quite like to say just Playmobile and books in her room, as she has a vast amount of Playmobile, but it's her cluttered, usually very messy room so don't want to dictate really... We cleared her desk and sorted out her school bag yesterday so at least she can do her homework, as the toys etc. had encroached onto and taken over the desk over the holiday!
Linzer glad you got back OK, ouch at the mole removal, hope your finger is recovered soon! I got the last sticker album that our most local shop (Edika) did (first time I've done so) but we never filled it - I also never bought more than usual to get stickers though. The cashiers did give out big piles of them towards the end of the promotion with even tiny purchases, but they just ended up with a big box of duplicates despite dedicated swapping with friends - I think the problem was everyone at the school and Kindergarten shops at the same branch of Edika, and I think there must be some batching of stickers meaning certain ones were incredibly rare - probably some other branch had a glut of them, need a wider swap circle! DD wanted Disney stickers that another shop (Rewe)was doing before Christmas, but I don't shop there, there isn't a convenient near by branch, so I said no - then her teacher helpfully gave out the stickers as prizes in class as she lives about 20km away and does shop at Rewe, really didn't need her to re-fuel the interest!
Ooops got to go, DS2 needs attention, sorry over long and not name checked everyone as always, sorry!
itsMYNutella ·
06/01/2013 18:24
Hello everyone! 
we, chez Nutella, are of course pretty busy with our own personal piece of chaos.
Thank you all for your lovely wishes, I've passed them onto DP and baby T. We are amazed (as I'm sure all new parents are) how much time a new baby takes up!
But he is gorgeous & wonderful. We've discovered that I shouldn't eat spicy food (loooong night) that he likes to be wrapped up and will sleep through most things.
I have done a bit of lurking but can't promise that I will or have caught up on everything!
Grinch sorry you have fevers! Hope you are all feeling better soon, of not already better...
Linzer hope you were able to stock up on necessities while in the UK- did you pick up anything interesting?
admylin we were the first baby at the Nordstadt Krankenhaus and we got a big bunch of flowers from the hospital but the first Hannover baby was born at about 00:30. Honestly I'm glad it wasn't me; I was exhausted (after being at the hospital from 8am for induction - which may or may not have worked, waters broke at 9pm and then laboured through the night) and the PIL are overexcited enough!
outnumberedbymen ·
06/01/2013 18:53
Hello! we've been very busy - as everyone seems to have been - and when we werent busy, we were exhausted.
anyway, tomorrow ds1 is finally back at Kiga and I am really hoping things will calm down again once he's back in his routine!!
dont have much time to post now either, so please apoligise for not name tagging everyone!
nutella nice to see you on here and congratulations again!!!
linzer sorry about the painful removal of that mole on your finger. I hope it heals quickly for you!
grinch I hope everyone is well now and stays well for a while!
ploom sorry about the rubbish weather on hols, but I hope it was a nice break nontheless.
platanos yes, we all want a dog too. but from past experience we know how expensive they can be, how time consuming they are and how much they restrict you and what you can do and where you can go. not to mention the hard worrk you have to put in to train them properly. One day I hope we will have one, and I know it will be great for the boys, especially ds1&2. but for now we feel lucky to have the therapy dog coming to our house every now and then. he used to come once a week, but now it's only about once a month. when he does come, it certainly is the highlight of the week!
I have still managed not to touch a drop of alcohol. I am surprised actually how much I miss the off glass of wine every now and then in the evening. It's going to be a long month
LinzerTorte ·
07/01/2013 09:03
Back to normal here today with DH back at work and the DC back at school. I'm not used to this peace and quiet! It's snowing fairly heavily here at the moment but it's not really cold enough for it to stick, so I managed to go out for a run earlier (first time in about two months).
Thanks to everyone who asked about my finger. It's stopped hurting now and I'm back to typing properly, so all is well. I haven't dared to look under the bandage yet, but I suppose I'll have to think about changing it in a day or two (the doctor said she'd do it for me, but it would be quite time-consuming to go there and back as she's in the next town).
Lentil I've been lurking on the minimalist blog and have found it very inspiring, but I can't see us living a minimalist existence somehow. I can be quite ruthless when it comes to decluttering certain things, but not things like clothes, books, etc. and I just don't know where to start with all the DC's stuff (although I do get rid of things surreptitiously on a fairly regular basis).
outnumbered Well done on your first alcohol-free week! I stopped drinking alcohol during the week last year and really missed it to start with (still do sometimes), but now it just makes me appreciate that Friday night glass of wine even more.
Nutella It's amazing how time-consuming new babies are, isn't it? Glad to hear you're enjoying parenthood so far, anyway!
We mainly brought back books, food (esp. chocolate and biscuits!), clothes, Christmas presents... the usual, nothing particularly exciting really - although I sadly found unpacking it all quite exciting. 
Grinch I don't spend more than usual to get the stickers either, unless I'm just under ?10/?20 etc. and then I'll go back and add a bit extra... and there are often friendly people in front of us at the till who'll give us their stickers if they're not collecting. I think it's all the stickers lying around everywhere that I object to most (I've just decluttered another lot from goodness knows when, hoping DD1 won't notice), plus the fact that it appears impossible to finish the album without a lot of time and effort (we've even been to a couple of Tauschbörsen).
I'm a bit 
about teachers giving out sweets as rewards here, but can see that them handing out stickers that you've persuaded your DC not to collect must be equally annoying!
platanos I must admit that we'll probably swap from shopping at Billa to shopping at Spar for all the things we can't get/don't buy at Lidl (they know what they're doing, these supermarkets) - but they're quite close to each other and there's not much difference in price, so I don't really mind.
How's your tailbone now? That sounds very painful... it seems quite unfair that children can fall over every five seconds when they're ice skating without hurting themselves, but it's much more painful and likely to lead to injury when you're an adult.
outnumberedbymen ·
07/01/2013 18:36
Good evening!
linzer I'm glad your finger is not so sore anymore! brave you chanding the bandaging yourself
platanos how is your tailbone? I remember falling on mine when I was ice skating on a friend's pond. I must have been around 13 or 14. And I really liked her big brother. Just as he came to the pond to talk to us, I fell on my bum and was in agony - and felt so embarrassed
Everything is back to normal here too. all boys back at pre-school. dh will start doing the odd morning or afternoon at his new job this week too, so we will all have to get used to him not always being around. as worrying as it was, it really was rather nice to have him around. and the boys will find it VERY hard, especially as he will be working long hours and it will probably be just me taking them all to bed in the evenings.
Tomorrow I have one of our babysitters picking ds2&3 up from pre-school. she'll then stay at our house with the social integration worker until the evening, and me and dh are going to Mannheim for the day. dh needs some clothes for his new job - he doesnt have to wear suits (which he has plenty of), but cant wear his casual clothes as he did at his previous job either. so we need some smart trousers and jumpers. And I have a few things on my own list too luckily the ILs are always quite generous with the 'Christmas money', so hopefully we wont have to dig too deep into our account. I cant wait though, an entire day off, in a different city.
So I have made it through the first week of the Dryathlon. I like you 'no alcohol during the week' rule linzer and I think I will continue with that as well once the Dryathlon is over. It's so easy to get into the habit of having a little glass of wine most evenings. ALthough, when I compare myself to others doing the dryathlon, I feel like a fake. you know, there is a 'chat and support group' on fb for people taking part . and lots of people were complaining of headaches the first few days of not drinking. It seems that my glass of wine most evenings is nothing compared to lots of others. And it's definitely not that I NEED a glass of wine, but I sure would LIKE one. right now!
I hope everyone is doing ok and that going back to school hasnt been too much of a shock. Did you get your dcs out of bed this morning admylin?
LinzerTorte ·
08/01/2013 07:52
Lentil I have the same problem here, i.e. no charity shops where we live (or in any nearby towns), so clutter tends to accumulate in the cellar for months on end. We got rid of a lot at the end of last year when our local church had a flea market, but since then have already managed to fill another two bags.
outnumbered A glass of wine in the evening had become a habit for me too. Physically, I didn't find it at all difficult to give up but the thought of the glass waiting for me once the DC were in bed helped keep me going through many an exhausting afternoon! I really don't miss it most of the time now, though; DH and I shared a glass last night (to finish off a bottle from the weekend) and I found that after a few sips, I didn't want any more.
Enjoy the shopping in Mannheim! When I lived there, quite a few of my friends from Heidelberg would come to Mannheim to shop as the clothes and shoe shopping was so much better (plus, with almost no tourists, there were virtually no overpriced shops aimed at the tourist trade!).
DD1 came back from school yesterday with tales of all the Christmas presents that everyone had got; one boy had apparently been given "only three presents" - an iPod, an iPad and a Samsung Galaxy. 
She said that most got money to buy themselves something like a phone and is still complaining that she's the only child in her class who doesn't have a smartphone (which I'm sure can't be right). Her friend next door got an iPod and she asked if she could save up for one, but she struggles to entertain herself as it is so I think if she had an iPod, we'd never get her off it.
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