Random Things...

Just some random things as we prepare for the big day!

*It stinks to have kids on 2 different school calendars - poor Mia is still going strong, but will finally be on vacation on Thursday!

*Speaking of Schools...I learned something new last week! I have always been a bit worried (in the back of my mind) as to how much English Grammar Mia might be missing as she goes to a German School. I don't think I have much to worry about though. She is in good hands! She came home with an English test last week that actually taught me something new (yes - I am the one that is sadly qualified to teach Middle Grades Language Arts and I did not know this - embarassingly enough!!!. The sentence went something like this... My _______ (Onkel) Joe is my favorite Uncle. She had to fill in the blank with the word "Uncle" (super easy of course). She got it wrong though because she wrote it with an uppercase "U". I immediatley got on the defensive thinking that the teacher was of course wrong. Uncle Joe is a specific Uncle, so of course it should be capitalized. I looked it up though and sure enough - I was wrong. Because Unlce is preceded by a pronoun, it should be lower case. I have asked many of my English speaking counterparts what they think it should be and almost 100% unanimously, they agreed with my rational (that it should be capitalized). My German friends on the other hand, knew the correct answer. Wow - I think she might be just fine :-)

*We must quickly stock up on bread and milk (and anything else we might need to survive ;-)) - as this year falls in such a way that ALL STORES will close up on Thursday and not open again until Monday . I am used to it now - but thinking back - can you even imagine this happening in America?

*Speaking of having 4 days of everything closed.... Almost all of our friends here take 2 weeks off for Christmas (Christmas ends on Jan. 6 when the 3 Kings come - hence the 12 days of Christmas). Anyway...Can you imagine having so much vacation time, that you can just use 2 weeks of it at Christmas to be home with family! With 6 or 7 weeks of vacation a year, to spend 2 of them at Christmas is such a gift!!!

* Funny smiles - You can't necessarily tell it, but Camden and Bailey have braces on their bottom teeth. 4 more months to go - yeah!!! (I told you this was random)

*Because Bailey and Camden are off, Bailey came with me to watch some of Mia's Tennis practice. Mia was so proud to have her there and Bailey was impressed with her sisters' tennis skills. It filled my heart to see!

*We went to Bamberg last weekend (hence the photo above :-)). We celebrated the 4th Advent with our "Bamberger" Friends. It was a weekend filled with visiting and it was so nice to catch up with everyone! We even got to see our upstairs neighbor (who we adore). He is in a nursing home now, but is doing well. What a gift it was for us to visit with him.

*The Germans celebrate Christmas on Thursday. The tradition is that families go to church in the evening, and when arrive home, the "Christkind" (Christ Child - A.K.A. Jesus) brings the tree and gifts. It was so funny for Mia's friends to come over and see our stockings hung :-)

*Our cookies are made, packages and cards were sent long ago, presents are wrapped - we are ready for Christmas (I can't ever remember being this ahead of the game). I think after 20 years of Christmas', I have things finally nailed down to a science. I am not sure if that is a good thing or if it is ridiculously neurotic!!??? In any case - So looking forward to Friday!!! :-)