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

Btw - h applied to another medical research council job in UK and didn't get shortlisted for interview so he was all on about how great his boss is here to have taken him on etc and he thinks he'll never get a job in UK. He wondered if it had to do with his birth place (leider Karachi) even though he is a German citizen now.

OMG non-STOP busy weekend with all the Christmas stuff and rehearsals for this and that . Getting frantic tired just thinking about it.

I like an easy life.

Admylin, does your h like living in Germany then, feel at home? Or is he just not fussed because life for him is just work anyway pretty much?

H's ideal world consists of a well equiped lab, an office with fast printer to print endless pages of research papers and as many publications as possible. The rest is just a nebensache. He doesn't enjoy anything, doesn't look forward to outings or even with food, he just eats it and never enjoys it. He's given up on speaking to people in German even though he's been here so long. A true mad scientist off his rocker professor type.

LOL at fink's kaffee kuchen und hypochondria updates

Admylin
What kind of pc did you go for then? We are going to look after Xmas when H is on holiday

The DC had a school party today, part of the escalade celebrations. They were in school over lunch which gave me time to go into town. Was great to have a day for myself. First time since we moved here

austrian spy here

whispers I survived an open evening with dd
last night .....

dh very stressed working on his vacine
not here at mo

nor is ds ....
oh nor is dd

feeling tad unwell

back soon

slips out

at TheAustrianSpy. I think that you need another namechange

I love your posting style. You manage to say everything in a few short lines while I am busy writing essays.

Just had to LOL at DD saying to her brother, "ach, Kind. Mach das nicht!"

DaphneTheWonderdog is asleep. She weed on the floor twice this morning. Once was DH's fault though as I sent him out for the first time with her and he did not know if she did anything. I asked him if be was watching and he said that he was but he could not see ifanything came out

LOL - "Daphne the wonderdog". Hope its going OK Lindt. Can't recommend crate enough for house training.

Stranger came up to me today and asked if my dog was Kommisar Rex - again!

Definite name change needed Cinders!

DH in prosecco induced sleep on sopfa - finally signed papers for redundancy yesterday. He finishes end of March so leaving around then.

Look out UK here we come!

Congrats Gabster and MrG

I have posted on the FOOCing thread about the Escalade celebrations today, apologies for not posting here too. DH and I are watching Billy Connelly

That's great news TheGabster. You can now enjoy things here and you have plenty of time to arrange everything forlife back home. Wish it was me.

Last week dd asked if I would take her back to the Chritmas market so I said today we could go. H said he'd go with us. Ds opted out and stayed home alone to learn for his test on Monday and to play nintendo. H said we would go by car as he hates public transport. well it took us over three quarters of an hour to get there in busy traffic (tram would have taken 10 minutes) then we had to park right at the top of the Parkhaus, then it was windy and cold (h hates cold) so he moaned and the market was very very busy, (h hates busy places) so we had to sneak around the back of the market stalls and we ended up in a cellar pup called Jack the ripper's (OK, had a nice British beer but would have rather had something at the market).

Have now promised dd we will go again without dad next week when school is finished for the holidays.

The Gabster - Congratulations on dh´s redundancy. I never thought I´d ever be happy for someone to be made redundant. It must be great to know you can finally start planning things with some certainty.

Thanks for the recommendations for the Weihnachtsmärkte - we managed to get to a couple and had a great time in Berlin.

It was dd´s birthday last week. I must say I´m pleased it´s over for another year. I love the opening of the presents, but the party later is always stress inducing. I´ve still got to think of an idea for her Christmay present, I used the only idea she gave us for her birthday.

MmeLindt - how are things going with Daphne. The only thing I remember about our puppy when I was a child is that every chair and table leg in the house ended up being gnawed. Hope you have better luck.

Phew, the pound/euro rate? Am planning to buy an entire bookshop when home. A whole ferry full of Quavers. A mountain of Imperial Leather bath smellies.

Have finished all school stuff, admin and activities. Spent yesterday morning baking gingerbread men with d's class and 2 of the most boring women in Rheinland-Pfalz. Never want to smell Lebkuchen again, gave me a rotten headache.

From here on in it's "Open The Sekt O'Clock" im Haus Finknottle. Friend's birthday tomorrow, she e-mailed that I absolutely have to come as I'm the only one guaranteed to drink Sekt with her at 10am, well, if you can't make an effort for your friends...
Then friends coming for dinner on Friday, pack on Sat, drive Sunday and home for Christmas.

H has had a "brilliant idea" for my present. God help me. Guesses? I got him a great saxophone in the UK thanks to the festive exchange rate. His surprises are, well-meant is the kindest I can say.

I know, I wish we were going, just thinking of all teh shopping I could do...hmmm bad luck that the dc and I are getting money from UK for Christmas. Think we'll hang on to it and wait 'til things get better on the exchange side.

Spent all morning messing about with our new PC. I've messed it up I think. It worked a dream when I first set it up then h had the clever-charlie idea to bring 'really great ' software from work. Only I was left with 4 cd-rom's and the instructions to install windows-xp-pro over our windows-xp-home 'otherwise the other cd's won't install'. So now I've had to change my modem as the new installation didn't like the old one and all my sound has gone - headphone or speaker and my mouse is playing up making mn look as if it's flicking pages rather than scrolling. Musn't complain, I can atleast get online in under a minute instead of the 20 to 30 it was taking with the old one.

Have a great time back home finks, and enjoy the shopping. I've got a small order coming from foodfromhome online shop, wasn't cheap but it's my treat for staying here and next week I'll be stocking up on plenty of alcohol.

Mad thing is, of course I'm looking forward to it but a part of me just wants to potter about here in my pyjamas till 1pm for a week.

The kitchen stinks of fish and I have completely destroyed a rug it took me 2 years to find (not that it was lost, just took me that long to find the right colour & size...) and am obv the worst slattern in Rheinland-Pfalz.

Warning: should you purchase a rug made of sisal (no, I didn't know what it was either) and jute (not a song by The Beatles) do not under any circumstances try sponging out a stain. For water stains more than bile green ink.
Don't ask.
Wasn't me.
Am fed up.

Merry sisal-free Yule.
Finkhumbug

Happy shopping Fink - sorry about the rug.

Glad you have something to cheer you up Admylin.

Family Gabster is still suffering with this stupid stomach bug thing - poor DS. Between that and teething his nappy rash is so bad its bleeding. . Even the poor dog has it. Good job we live so near to the woods!

Gabster
Poor you and poor DS. I hate nappy rash.

Fink
Oh, bugger to the rug. Go and reread the fabulous Crimbo thread to cheer yourself up. I admit to only understanding about 10% of what is written there, but it is so witty that it does not matter.

Off to bed now after a long day. DC were off today. I went shopping while our new cleaner worked. Sooooo glad that we have a cleaner again. I am more than happy to restrict myself in other areas so that we can have a cleaner.

Just ordered loads of undies from markies for ds. Got to make use of the exchange rate. Shame they don't deliver to CH though.

ooooo - M&S undies. Must admit M&S is one of the things I am looking forward to the most when we go back.

Mind you, would love a cleaner too. DH has announced (apparently on advice by doctor) that bedrom has to be vacuumed thoroughly (under bed the works) everyday without fail, because of this dust mite allergy (which is apparently what his nasty chest infection was all about). Seems our house is so old, damp and dusty that it has aggravated the allergy to critical level. He is on lots of tabs and sprays and things. Suggested he could do it once in a while as it is a bit of a struggle with DS and dog and actually trying to get out of the house once in a while to do shopping and jobs etc., to which of course he replied ... he is not allowed to, as the processing of vacuuming creates too much dust which he will breathe in ....

Sigh. Had a gloomy few days & am offloading glumness. Don't read if you're as weedy as I am.

Was my friend's birthday yesterday & I couldn't face leaving flowers on her grave, bad enough without decaying flowers. Then this morning at breakfast d was chastising me for not having taken her along to the cemetery yesterday & not having left a present.

So after discussions with d and s2, we took a small golden star to hang on the rosemary bush (for remembrance) I planted on her grave and d dictated a message for me to write on a golden ribbon that the star would light up the heavens for her and that we miss her.

And I'm a bundle of soggy nerves again. D just asked me if it were true that my friend would come back if her children wished it "with all their hearts, Mummy, and if she doesn't want to leave, then they can stop her going." Theology was never my strong point.

Made my rug trauma seem very daft.

Fink
I think that you are entitled to be a bit gloomy today. How sad.

Gabster
You need a Roomba.

finknottle - you´ve every reason to be feeling down. The golden star and ribbon are a lovely idea. It´s so hard to know sometimes what to say to children to be truthful, but not too harsh.

Gabster - hope you all start feeling better soon. Mme Lindt is right - a Roomba is exactly what you need, it´s a brilliant idea.

Is anyone else already feeling completely stuffed even though we haven´t even got to Christmas yet? I seem to have been eating Plätzchen, Stollen, chocolate and cakes for weeks - I feel like a need a couple of days of salad and fruit before next week.

We just received a box of lebkuchen from Germany. DH ordered them. Very naughty. And I baked with the kids yesterday so we have plenty of sweet stuff.

I came over all domestic godess yesterday. I made quiche, plaetzchen, decorated the house and even fixed the gate that the dog can't get out. I think having the cleaner just freed up time and energy so that I enjoyed spending the day with the DC

Finknottle, how sad and hard to explain to your dd too. Hope you manage to find some sort of explanation that she can accept. Have you packed yet?

I'm also fed up and ready to pack up and leave again - I just can't get used to the idea of being happy here and h is no help. I think it could actually be more a problem with h than with Germany and I just keep putting the blame on the country. Anyway he's off to Berlin tomorrow afternoon to a Glühwein party with his old boss and group. Funny how he can go to that but rushes us round the back of the Weihnachtsmarkt because it's cold and too busy and rubbish all in all. Don't get me started on school either - I won't even go over to that thread as no one needs that right now. Off to search for wine in my fridge.

men........

bah humbug

I don't know, I keep seeing other women's and thinking oh aren't they sweet they do that or that (bugged me yesterday as the neighbour told me her h had to go to work a little later than usual so he'd been out to get fresh bread rolls and they had had a nice breakfast together, hmm, mine would never do that)

Grass is always greener...

You can't tell though by seeing a couple together what theo marriage is really like. My dh will get rolls so we can have breakfast together but in other areas he is hopeless. He returned from Munich today in a foul mood. The company is feeling the credit crunch badly and there are rumours of redundacies bring in the cards. We shouldbe ok as they have just moved us here so it would not be in their best interest to move us back. Some of his colleagues are very nervous and so he is a bit down. We have 2 weeks off so will have time to cheer him up.

Going to head up to bed now, I am knackered. We were at the school concert tonight. It was great to see the DC singing along in French

I love French, wish we'd got moved to Geneva or anywhere in France really! So glad you still come and see us on the German corner.