Our New Grad

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As many of your know, Kyle graduated from pre-school yesterday. The school hosted a very cute ceremony. The class sang a bunch of songs, each led by 2-3 students, along with a few other things. Kyle got to lead the class in counting to 10 in German. He did an excellent job. They also called each child up and handed them each a diploma. Afterward, we had nice dinner at the Westfield Diner where Kyle got to have chocolate chip pancakes.

Patriots’ Day Turkey?

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I know I’m way behind in getting photos up. I’m working on going through a bunch, including those from my Aunt Lucy’s wedding a few weeks back. I hope to do some catching up this week. In the meantime, I had to share our special “Patriots’ Day” turkey. This was in the yard at my apartment in Boston. (Well … it started in the front and then moved around to the neighbor’s back yard.)

Snowed Under

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Cars drifted in snow

If you’ve seen the news in the past 24 hours or so, you have undoubtedly heard about the blizzard on the East Coast. It started snowing late yesterday morning, but really started to pick up by mid-afternoon. It was very windy and snowing at a couple of inches per hour for most of the night. It turns out that we’re in the band that got the highest snowfall, 20-30 inches. This is about right as I used a yardstick (a ruler wasn’t enough) to measure a few spots. Where it wasn’t drifted I was getting 2 feet.

Snow drifted against the front storm door

Some of the drifts, including the one along the street, were up to 30+ inches. We even had a good 8-10 inches drifted against the front door. I ended up having to go out the door on the side porch (which had 1-2 inches of snow despite being under cover) and slogging around to the garage to get out the snow shovels. Luckily, while the snow had drifted to 2 1/2 feet against the garage door, most of it had been blown away from a couple of feet in front of the door. After spending a couple of hours shoveling, we managed to clear the driveway from Suzanne’s car to the street and the front walk. My car is still buried, but it’s supposed to warm up by the end of the week, so hopefully at least some will melt.

Suzanne shoveling

The back deck - 19 inches on the table

Path on the back deck

Germany Day 11 – A last, wet, day in Germany

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When we awoke this morning, the temperature had risen to above freezing. However, along with the warmer temps came a steady rain. We eventually got going around midmorning, having to wait for hot water for a shower as the water heater had gotten turned off last night instead of set on “Night”. After a quick stop to deposit the rent money for the apartment, we hopped the tram to Karlsplatz for a stop at Karstadt and Galeria Kaufhof, the two big department stores, to do some gift shopping. After finishing here, we headed down the main pedestrian street toward Marienplatz. Pushing the stroller was a bit easier as most of the snow was gone, but I think I would have traded the rain and temps in the upper 30s for snow and temps in the 20s as we had been having. We stopped by to visit the inside of the Dom (cathedral), which was nice. We continued our walk, through Marienplatz, and around the Viktualienmarkt (food market). Somehow, we missed this on our trip in 2000. It was pretty nice, and we took advantage of our visit to pick up a donut for Kyle and a couple of pretzels for us as a snack. Back toward Marienplatz, I grabbed a last glühwien while Suzanne and Kyle ran into the bookstore for a gift for one of Kyle’s friends. We next stopped by the other Galeria Kaufhof branch where I finally managed to find a wallet to replace my current one which is falling apart. An S-Bahn, tram ride, and a stop by the supermarket (for lunch and more gifts), and we ended up back at the apartment.

After a rest, we headed out to dinner. Given the weather and the amount of stuff we had to get done tonight before leaving in the morning, we decided to try the Italian place (Natales) a few minutes walk from the apartment. Kyle was able to get plain ziti, which he enjoyed very much, eating the entire plateful. Suzanne and I had pizzas, both of which were pretty good. (Kyle’s meal, a small salad, two pizzas, one beer, and two other drinks was €35.) After one last quick stop at the supermarket for a few items we forgot earlier, it was back to the apartment to start getting things together for tomorrow. While I helped Kyle with his bath, Suzanne packed up our stuff. Unfortunately, we did end up with a third bag to check. We’re just hoping our larger suitcase is not overweight.

It’s hard to believe the trip is over. It’s been great to be back in Germany after three full years. (For that trip, we spent only three days here before heading to Italy.) The Christmas markets were as wonderful as we remember, especially with the snow. It would have been better if it wasn’t quite so cold, but I decided I’d rather have the cold and snow than the rain we had all day today. Traveling with Kyle wasn’t the easiest, especially given his picky eating. It was much easier once we were in the apartment since we could make plain pasta every morning. We’ll definitely return to Germany at some point, but it will likely be at least a few years. (It will also likely be when the weather will be warmer.)