Winter is Here and All About Katiebeth

After the 2014 winter in Germany, the one with no snow or ice and day after day of 32-35 degrees each day I was prepared for more of the same this winter. This year we arrived home from our Christmas trip to about a foot of snow which melted in the next several days. We got to use our sleds and enjoy the snow. We were back to our regular temperatures hovering around freezing. That was up until about ten days ago. Since then it has been a bit colder but the snow will not stop coming. It is only a few inches at a time but it is snowing every night plus some during the day. We have finally seen temperatures in the low teens and the snow is going nowhere. 

With this change in the weather we have some new observations about winter in Germany. We already know that windshield wiper fluid is a must in the fall and winter. The roads are NEVER completely dry. You either have a frozen fog, snow, or rain each morning and the cars in front of you kick up a wet muddy salty mixture all over the cars each and every day. People have to refill the washer fluid several times over these months because you constantly have to use it. The wetness is not enough to let the wipers do the work, it dries on contact with the cold windshield and smears. The cars are all just a mess, at least 95% of them. I just shake my head when I see a clean car on the road in the morning. Within one kilometer of leaving the house that car is going to look the same as just before they cleaned it.

We also heard about the German's sweeping their driveway and walkway every day along with clearing the snow early each morning. We have not seen anyone sweeping ever, in any season. When we arrived home from London we found that our neighbors had cleared the foot of snow in our driveway for us. That was really awesome and so thoughtful of them. Here is the thing, they are just about the only people that shovel their drive after each snow. Well, besides us. Our garage doors share a common driveway area so it is weird to have one side swept and not the other. The first time we got new snow this month was on a Saturday night. Again, hearing about the German tradition of no work or noise on Sunday I was confused as to when I should shovel the driveway. I waited until around 10:00 that morning when I heard my neighbor shoveling. I went out to greet him and to ask about the Sunday thing. He confirmed you are still supposed to do it, even on Sunday. So that was the first of seven consecutive mornings that we had at least a couple of inches each night of new snow. I did get to pay the neighbors back by taking care of their area too a couple of times. With that much snow it was no big deal. Nothing compared to the foot of snow in December. Here is the point though. About 85% of the other walkways and driveways are not ever shoveled in our neighborhood. I still can't believe that almost nobody does it. I don't really care, I was just surprised to see it. I do find it annoying that the people across the street don't bother to shovel and when they leave they back all the way into mine and my neighbors drive. I was out there trying to clear the drive one morning when they left and they just about ran me over backing into the drive, compressing all of the snow into the ground making it much harder to shovel. There is plenty of room for them to turn the wheel and back into the street, but they choose to back out straight then turn to go forward. Twice they have left before I have been able to shovel or it is still snowing too hard to worry about it yet, and there they go backing over it. 

As you might imagine they do know how to keep the roads ice and snow free. There are fleets of snow plows and salt/sand trucks out before dawn getting the roads cleared. Out little residential street get a quick plow each morning but nothing else. The main roads are pretty much clear and traffic is pretty normal each morning. 

The end of January brought about the first of the last birthday celebrations for the Ferguson Four in Germany. Katherine was the first to have her second birthday celebration here. Once again she decided that she wanted to have a few fiends over for a birthday party and sleepover. To make it even more fun she also had her once per year class assembly presentation for the entire primary school that Friday before her birthday. This worked out pretty well. Cindy and I got to see her assembly at school that Friday afternoon. Here are a couple of videos. The first one is very short and just shows the parts that involve Katherine. It might not make a lot of sense without the context of the rest of the show, but you get to skip to the good parts.

And here is the full presentation.

The class did a great job with their presentation. Katherine was the narrator part again this year, and clearly the most talented, smartest, prettiest, and most well spoken of the bunch. We collected the girls for the party and headed home to celebrate. This time she only had three friends over, which was much more manageable that the five she had last year.  

The cake was per the request of the birthday girl. Brownies with vanilla icing and various sprinkle decorations.

The girls immediately got all of the dress up gowns out and played for a while. Then it was time for Cindy to paint nails. They were watching a video while the nails dried.

Then it was dinner and presents. So I think this is worth pointing out. We keep reminding ourselves how fortunate we are to have this opportunity. The travel is great but the exposure these kids have to the rest of the world via the people from all over is awesome. The girls that Katherine chose to invite to her party are originally from Denmark, Jordan, and Australia. Combine that with the girls from the party last year there was one other American plus girls from Austria and England.

Then we did the cake and sang Happy Birthday.

This was very much as stress free as you could hope for with this many little girls. They all got along great the entire time and all were well behaved. No injuries and no drama, that is all that you could ask for in this situation. Cindy and I tag teamed for the duration and mostly kept up with the mess so there was not so much to do after it was all over. The girls entertained themselves pretty well for a lot of the time.

They did get to bed really late and they all got up really early, but everyone was all smiles. After breakfast and playing for a while we took them to the park to play in the snow. The parents arrived around noon to pick up the kids. Except for our little guest from Denmark. She informed us that her mom is always very late to pick her up from parties or sleepovers. As we were making her some lunch the mom arrived. The lady has five children so we can give her a break. She stayed and had some coffee and talked with us for a while while the girls ate lunch.

The best part about our Friday night sleepover was that by Saturday afternoon we were done and had the rest of the weekend to recover and rest. David did get a little bit of a break. He had a friend that also had a birthday party Friday after school. David came home that evening but he did get to avoid the girls for a few hours. Our little girl is now over four feet tall and seven years old. Hard to believe but true.
Cindy is currently in Dallas on a work trip. I envy her a little being able to see home and enjoy some of the things that we miss about home. Not really enough to want to make that flight there and back in a week, I can wait for a few more months. We are headed out to a ski trip in the next couple of weeks. That will likely be the next post upon our return.