December 2005

At our house we leave milk and cookies for Santa (or, as he’s called in Germany, the Christmas Man) on a sled. He comes at dusk on Christmas Eve, while we are attending the children’s church service. We leave the back door open for Santa, since our chimney is sealed off. He leaves his present [...]

Last week I had the opportunity to fly to Cologne for our company Christmas party, a dinner in a dark restaurant. The experience reminded me how glad I am that my job involves no travel. Giving up 12 hours for perhaps 90 useful minutes of face time doesn’t seem to me to be a good [...]

Last summer Christopher was approved for the first six months of speech therapy kindergarten this school year. Last week was a further “exam” for the 2nd six months, as mandated by the state. That’s understandable, since the therapy is expensive and completely subsidized (with no means test… we pay nothing, regardless of income). In practice [...]

Since all the expat blogs seem to be reporting on Nikolaus activities today, here’s a quick recap from our house. For us the Nikolaus is a messenger boy for Santa Claus, so we have Christopher prepare his wish list (this year consisting of the entire Lego Bionicle catalog) for him to deliver to the big [...]

An Advent scene created by Christopher.

Hey, for Nena it looks like the Nikolaus came early! Actually, I’m sure she brought the present herself and left it at the front door. It’s been there all night, since none of us felt like picking it up last night, so it must be frozen solid by now.