Basement Surprises

 The kids and I decided that we would really surprise Marty when he returned from Seattle by cleaning the basement, taking all of our storage stuff from the rec room and putting it where it belongs, setting up the furniture and just making it into what it was designed to be - livable.  I never thought this day would come and even though it was promised to be done the week

previous, it was finished the day Marty flew to Seattle.  The kids and I spent the ENTIRE weekend (minus the time we baked Christmas cookies) working downstairs.  It was a lot of work but we all felt very accomplished once we were finished.  Both kids had such great attitudes throughout the project.

This was the state of the rec room.  Basically a storage place for all of our stuff. 

Everything was covered in about 6 inches of construction dust.  Fun!!

And when Benjamin woke up Monday morning the first thing he said was "I really like our new basement"
These are all photos of the basement in process:

Guest room/half tiled

For a few days the laundry room was connected to the heater room (where I dump the water from the dryer) by a few planks set on top of tool cases.  It was fine to walk across the planks empty handed but once I had a full laundry basket or water collection drawer it was a bit tricky. 

I took a bunch of photos of the basement still in chaos an unfinished the day Marty left and kept sending him these photos throughout his trip complaining that the basement still wasn't finished.  Boy was he surprised to come home and see this:

After their hard work I promised them a trip to their new favorite burger restaurant in town.  Thankfully they have a couple different veggie burger options for Josie.  It was nearly 3PM on Sunday when we had finished our weekend project and we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast around 8AM.  We were starving and the burgers tasted so good.  

Christmas is Coming

My good friend, Eva, and I went for a
nice festive coffee at a beautifully
decorated green house/ cafe/gift shop

This year we decided to get the kids mostly experiences rather than things for Christmas which cut down significantly on the stress for shopping.  I was able to enjoy the baking and all of the lights that decorate Berlin during this time of year without the panic of "what more do I need to buy."  It seems our Christmases here have become much less big and hectic and much more simple and pure.  I think I prefer it here except for the fact that we miss our family and friends this time of year more than ever!!

Our good friends Beth, Jochen, Louis and Maya came over for a Christmas baking party.  It worked well because we have two ovens and because Beth and I decided that we should all make our dough the night before.  That way the dough can sit in the fridge overnight and we would be ready to go with the baking and decorating from the get go. Otherwise it just takes too long.

All of the ingredients

Making the dough the night before

They do have M&Ms here but not in the Christmas colors. 
So we decided to just pick out the other colors as much as possible. 

The boys were engaged for a big chunk of the afternoon but soon found themselves playing video games waiting for the cut out gingerbread cookies to cool so we could decorate it.
Marty, sadly, was in Seattle for the week and missed out on the fun.

Cookies for days.. months!!!

Graduates

Every Wednesday I have been volunteering with a group of women who have been diligently working on pass the German equivalent of the GED.  They must pass get passing grades in 5 subjects to be awarded a German diploma and then they will each begin their "Ausbildung" or internship in their chosen field of work.  The subjects on the test are German, English, Biology, Math, and Citizenship.  Out of the 23 women who took this intense test TWENTY of them passed.

It is such an accomplishment.  For some of these women they have only been in Germany for a few years so they had to past this test in German in addition to an English component.   They threw a big end of the quarter/happy graduation celebration.  I was honored to be invited to celebrate with these amazing women and their teachers.  When I arrived, it was at the end of their normal school day and they were dressed to the nines.  There was also a ton of food out on tables as each of the women brought something special to share.  I made and brought in banana bread... figured that would be easy to transport across town.

The women were giddy with excited and beaming with pride, as they should be.  This was a huge accomplishment for them. 

Subbing in Shop

To start off my subbing duties in December I taught in the shop class.  It is quite humorous of all the classes I could be asked to sub they just keep getting further away from my skill set.   I was relieved when the real teacher but "No Machine Usage" in the sub plans.  I could just see it - a student loses a finger under my watch.  On this day I was also assigned lunch duty which happened to be outside and it was sub zero and at noon the sun barely looks like it has risen at all.
Maybe with all of my "shop teacher" subbing I can learn a few skills to help repair our ceilings in our bedrooms as they continue to drop dust and chunks of the floor

above as they work on putting in a proper

floor with insulation and sand to help with sound proofing.  I will be VERY thankful to not have to vacuum each of our bedrooms before bed each night.  Miraculously the dust seems to miss each of our beds every single time.

Just a normal day in our construction filled life.  

Josie has been a devout vegetarian for 4 years.  We first joked that she was a vegetarian who didn't like vegetables.  Just didn't eat meat.  Well, that has certainly changed.  The amount of vegetables that kid puts away is amazing. Her brother could learn a thing or two.  This is just a normal dinner for her.  I often throw in an egg or two or some beans for protein which is the only part now that I struggle with.  

First Christmas Market of the Season

We hit our first Christmas market of the season right on track on December 2nd.  I had read that the markets are opening earlier in the season and staying open longer into the end of December this year.  Our little neighborhood one opened even before Thanksgiving on Monday, November 25th. 

This one was called the Bohemian Christmas Market and it was a bit unique to all of the others.  More natural, more rustic and just more unique.  It is really hard to find a "bad" Christmas market but most of them are all pretty much the same so it was a nice treat to come across this one that was recommended by my friend, Bridget. 

We saw these guys right out of the train and knew we were on the right track and if we followed them we would surely find the market. 

A woman spinning sheep's wool into thread. 

It's Starting to Look Like Christmas

With Thanksgiving being so late in the month this year it only seemed fitting to follow the general American tradition of putting up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. The problem here is that we don't have a car.  In addition to the fact that a lot of Germans don't put their tree up until much closer to Christmas.  Marty's family put it up on Christmas Eve!  A lot of Germans here still do that.  We didn't want to borrow a car but thought if any of our friends were getting trees they could just throw ours on top too.  But no one was getting their trees any time soon.  Marty and I went on a long chilly walk. We saw a few Christmas tree lots and looked around.  They all offer delivery but at a premium.  There were some online places as well that delivered.  And there was some that you could buy, living in a pot and then replant once the holiday is over but they all come with the disclaimer that there was no guarantee that the tree would live once planted outdoors... so what was the point.

We found a place - about a 15-20 minute bike ride away that had online sales and free delivery but how would we know what we were getting unless we went to the place to check it out first.  We were heading to the place and had only rode a few blocks from our house when we noticed a little, corner flower shop was selling trees.  We stopped, got off our bikes and walked in to check them out.  They had just been delivered from the farm the day before.  None of them were unwrapped so it was hard to tell what they looked like but since it was so close to home we knew we could get it home on our bikes.  Their trees were far cheaper than the lots specifically set up for the season and at 35 Euro for a 2 meter (6 foot 5) it seemed a great deal.  They were so nice they even gave us 5 Euro off for being their first Christmas tree purchase of the season. 

Marty and I walked back with the tree resting lengthwise on his bike.  And BOOM!  Christmas tree is already up. I'm definitely missing all of our special ornaments that we have collected over the years and all of the other holiday decorations but it isn't so bad for just a box of lights and a bucket of red decorative balls.
Mogli cannot quite figure out why in the world we have set up a live tree in our living room.  He drinks the water from the tree stand now more than his own.  I'm just hoping he doesn't decide to pee on it!!

And I started my new book from my friend, Kelli, over the holiday weekend.  What a TREAT to have a brand new book that is actually mine. 

Our friend, Juli, sent me this picture when I told her we wanted to get a Christmas tree.  She said, "do NOT show this to Marty or this will be you this afternoon"  She was nearly right! 😆😄