December Happenings in Germany

The end of the kids school semester is always a rough time.  Not only did we have to continue to participate in school, we were trying to get things ready for our big move back to America.

First up was the Christmas chorus concert where Grant and Jayden were clearly having conversations that had nothing to do with what song they were going to sing next.  I spy sweet Carrah on the far right in the middle row!

They got it together and Ms. Marsh directed a fine concert.

Look at these little cuties.  The best darn 4th grade class Christmas sing-a-long ever!

Meanwhile, back on the home front, we did not get a Christmas tree this year.  Instead, I bought this beauty at the Vilseck PX.  It even came with the lights!

AND... St. Nicholas paid us a visit in early December!  Grant got a (Natalie) boot full of treats from the patron saint of children.

Plus, we had to hit up some Christmas markets.  First up... the best of them all... the Auerbach Christmas market at the Maffei Iron Ore Mine! You have to take a bus to get there because there is no parking.  Love the lens on my right eye.

Alas, we made it to the Maffei Iron Ore Mine and it's cute Christmas market!



Right this way!  (Except you can't park there because - as I mentioned above - there isn't enough parking - you have to park out by the Heim and Haus off of B85 and take the bus in!)

Grant was always obsessed with the little fire pits they had all over the place.  They're always a nice place to stay warm while having a Glühwein or Kinderpunsch!

Speaking of Glühwein.....



Gotta get your sausage sandwiches, too!

The Christmas market was bustling, but it did start to rain on us a bit.

Every year, we make the same loop around the market, past the trains that used to haul the iron back in the day.  I can't tell if Grant likes the train or the little fire in front of him.

Me and Todd, enjoying one of our last mugs of Glühwein ever.  Sniff sniff.

One more kiddo climb on the green train.

We decided to go inside of the mine to check out the vendors and escape the cold and rain.

A timeline of the Maffei Iron Mine.  Notably absent: the 1930s and 1940s.

I always love coming in here because it's SO pretty inside. They always do a great job of decorating!

"Driving prohibited."  But you know what's NOT prohibited?  Drinking and buying.  Or as we call them, "drunk purchases." This guy made and sold these BEAUTIFUL wooden wine or beer barrels (with a tap!) along with other gorgeous soft wood items.



So of course, after our 3rd mug of Glühwein, we made a purchase.  This beautiful umbrella holder!  It rains a lot in Germany and in Massachusetts, so I know it will be well used.  Todd was thrilled that he got to carry this around the market for the rest of the day!  It was SUPER heavy.



Natalie is laughing pretty hard here because St. Nicholas came up to her at the market, passing out gingerbread cookies and he asked her, "Have you been bad this year?" and Natalie thought he said, "Can I give you something?" and so Natalie answered, "Ja!" and he responded with, "Well thank you for being honest!" And he didn't give her ANYTHING!!!!!!



The month of December also brought us the Vilseck High School (and Vilseck Elementary School!) Christmas party!  We had it at the Wirtshaus and Hotel Goldener Greif in Edelsfeld.  Santa Lockhart made an appearance and told James he had been VERY naughty!



We did a ROUSING group rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas, Vilseck High School style!  Jody, Cassie and Payson are leading the charge for their table! (Notice Shawn and Marc are sitting down for this one!)

Because my last day was December 12, they decided to give me my going away present at the party.  I can NOT tell you how much I'm going to miss working here.  It's been the most surprisingly incredible experience of my life.  I absolutely love my Vilseck High School blanket!  (I'm a blanket snob and I LOVE the feel of this one!)

Tim Connolly and Maureen Peters, along with Mary Van Deventer and Pam Conners all opening funny gifts at the holiday party.

I like this picture because my administrators on the left (Marc and Shawn) seem to be laughing and having a good time.  I know how hard they work for VHS - they really are the best! I promise you that I'm not just saying this.  It was a rough end to 2019, and they handled it head on - intelligently and professionally.

Awww, I love Mrs. Lockhart!  She was Grant's kindergarten teacher!  She always had a soft spot for him and was the one who encouraged him to submit his poem, "Climbing a Tree Within Reach" to the DoDEA Reflections Program a couple of years ago - and his poem came in first place for ALL elementary school kids throughout Europe back in 2018!

On my last day of work, I was greeted with this beautiful sunrise at the intersection of Neuhauser Strasse and B85 in Auerbach.  (Don't worry, I was at a stop light!)

 I think I said, "Oh this is the last ____ we will ever have/see/do in Germany" about a million times in the last couple of months.  This was the last time I walked down the hallways of Vilseck High School.



Natalie also had one last Girl Scout meeting before we left.  I took a picture of their fun photo board displaying all of the fun things they did.  She really had a great Girl Scout troop here in Vilseck!

My last day of work was on Thursday, December 12 - because on Friday the 13th, Todd had his annual work holiday party at Bürgerreuth in Bayreuth.  I've never had a bad time or a bad meal at their holiday parties... the 928th Contracting Battalion really knows how to have a Christmas party!  The white elephant is ALWAYS a good time.

But afterward, since the kids were in school, we decided to hit up the Bayreuth Christmas market for a little bit.  We enjoyed listening to some cute kiddos sing German Christmas songs.

Santa, sitting and waiting on top of a stall at the Bayreuth Christmas market.

If you're ever in Germany around the holidays, you MUST have a Feuerzangenbowle, which is basically Glühwein with a rum-soaked sugar cube on a slotted spoon... which is then lit on fire.  Legit one of the most fun drinks in ALL of Europe!



I liked my mug, so we only got our pfand back for one of these.

Every year in Bayreuth, they have this funny little display of... well, sometimes I don't even know.  They're little gnomes in a cave with Santa Claus and an angel.

But when you see it up close... it gets even funnier.  And seriously, Todd sent a picture of this to my brother with the caption, "Redneck elf gonna eff up your day if you don't give him some change."  Notice the shank in his left hand!  I was dying!!!  Does anyone else hear the banjo from Deliverance?

Nothing says German Christmas like a bunch of delicious bass with little Christmas hats!



Happy Todd under the big tree in Bayreuth.  It's hard not to be happy when you're at a German Christmas market and the kids aren't with you.

You KNOW our favorite Christmas market scene in ANY Christmas market in ALL of Germany is THIS one.  The 1970s drunken store window mannequin Nativity scene!  In the Hollywood version of this, Brad Pitt would definitely play the shepherd.

You could literally stare at it for hours.  Especially awesome is how Mary seems to be saying, "Heeeey maaaan, I just had a baby!  Whoa! Far out!" And of course, Jesus is not wrapped in swaddling clothes as the Bible says he was.  The wise men are all ready to walk the runway in their cool threads.

Other things we did in December?  One night Todd went downtown to get us some Döner and he snapped the prettiest picture of downtown Auerbach.  I honestly can't believe I have to leave.

And of course, because we were going to be in Amsterdam for Christmas, I had to make sure we had a traditional Christmas dinner in our house before the movers came and took all of our stuff.



Of course, we also had to take a "last day of school at Netzaberg Middle School" picture of Natalie.  The kids stayed in school until the last day before the holiday break.

Todd had a really nice "hail and farewell" that all of his top co-workers attended!  Lieutenant Colonel Chuck Halverson who was Chief Counsel of the 409th Contracting Support Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Issac Torres of the 928th CBn, Todd, Rob DeVisser (he's the civilian deputy of the 928th CBn) and his AWESOME boss Dan DiPaola were all there.  LtC Halverson and Dan drove all the way over from Kaiserslautern for this - so you know it was a big deal that Todd was leaving.  Dan even put together a really funny slide show!  I'll give it TOP SLIDE SHOW superlative billing!



I felt bad that Todd had to take all of the pins out of the map he had in his office of all of the places he has been in Europe.  (He also didn't get a chance to add Cologne or Bruges to the map before he took the pins out!)  Hopefully he can use this picture to remember all of the fun places we went when he gets his map back in a few months.

Natalie also got to have ONE last sleepover with her best friend Giyada.  These girls really bonded this year - mostly over their OBSESSION with K-Pop!

Lastly, we finally got to use the gift card my counselors, Leigh Ann and Judy gave me at the end of the last school year.  We had an AWESOME meal at Ganesha in Grafenwöhr.  If there's two things I missed about America, it was the abundance of Thai and Indian restaurants. 

We had a really fun and busy December.  I'm really going to miss this place.