Deutsch Dienstag-St. Martin

St. Martin's Day was this past week.  St. Martin was a good man who helped the poor.  On this day the children act out a part of St. Martin's story.  They sing songs about him and they go on a night walk while carrying paper lanterns that they have made. 

 

Noah was involved in the fest for our village.  It was held at his Kindergarten and the oldest kids acted out the story and sang songs.  He was the best Star 1 ever!

 

Sterne 1

Getting ready for the play.  St. Martin is the little boy in the black hat.

 

 

 

We watched the play, listened to the songs, walked around for an hour with the laterns, and then enjoyed a fire and big pretzels. There was quite a large village turnout.  It was a great experience.  I love seeing Noah interact in German because he doesn't always speak for us at home. 

This is Noah saying his Star 1 part because it was too hard to hear him when he was actually doing the play.

Deutsch Dienstag- Wedding Rings and Luxembourg

The German wear their wedding rings on the ring finger of their right hand.  It seems strange.  Darin said that they do the same thing in Russia. 


Speaking of wedding.  Darin and I celebrated our 17th year together in Luxembourg, Luxembourg.  The boys had a day off of school and so we left Davis in charge and went to explore one of the prettiest places around.  Luxembourg is only about 1.5 hrs. from our home.  We wondered, we shopped, we ate quiche lorraine and creme brulee, and we got lost in the rain.  It was completely wonderful and perfect.

14 years ago we went to Hawaii for our anniversary.  We got a fantastic deal and we were accompanied by Darin's entire family and a friend.  The friend flew over with a buddy pass and didn't have a room, so he stayed in ours.  It wasn't an anniversary.  It was a great trip to beautiful Hawaii, so I really couldn't complain.  However, Darin has "counted" that for our anniversary for the last 14 years!  Here we are surrounded by people who fly off to Tuscany or a weekend in Paris for their anniversary, so Darin decided that it was time to step it up and stop counting Hawaii!  (I'd like to thank my friends!)

On our way home from Luxembourg he reminded me, as I was talking about our fabulous day, that it would always be downhill from here.  Once again, my man is a romantic.  I know we won't always have Luxembourg to run away to, but for this year I am glad we took advantage of it. 

Inside the confessional.  Luxembourg's Notre Dame Cathedral.

It is always about the food.  Yummy and warm.

Burning the sugar on the creme brulee.

Some of the most beautiful desserts around.

Halloween 2012-Time to make my mom proud

My mom is always the best when it comes to Halloween and somewhere along the road I became a Halloween disappointment.  It probably has something to do with the fact that I have had all 5 kids wear the same costumes over and over.  The little lion (which she bought and probably regrets) has been worn for 9 Halloweens.  The years in which my kids didn't have to be the lion, sweet grandma came to the rescue and made them something new.  Which we then put on another kid the following year.  The boys don't wear costumes to school.  It is dark when they go trick (or trunk)-or-treating.  And usually a coat is covering them.  Really?  Why would I make a big deal?  They really only wear them for 2 hours one night. 

 

Now if there were a reason to be out in a costume, such as a party, then it would be necessary to have an awesome costume.  Especially if there were a costume contest...gotta win!  I am my mother's daughter!

Davis was invited to a Halloween party with a costume contest attached.  I needed easy and clever, but I wouldn't have time to beg my mom to help out.  So we went with easy, but awesome.  He won "Most original."

 

Clark Kent

I made the superman symbol out of scraps of foam.

The mean old witch!  This is another grandma made costume.  It was originally made for Bailee.

Pirate.  Grandma made for Jag one year.

Harry.  Grandma made for Davis and perfect now that Jag is Potter obsessed.

Last minute, as we walk out the door, recycled costume.

On the night of our ward Trunk-or-Treat Davis had a soccer game.  Darin saddly attended and I did the festivities with the other kids.
 

The vampire cookies that we made to send to Noah's kindergarten.  Halloween really isn't a German holiday, but we enjoy sharing some of our holidays with them.

On Halloween night we stayed home, invited friends over, and made donuts.  Because really isn't Halloween about homemade donuts!