Herbst Ferein ( Fall break)

So Louisa had two weeks off for fall break. The first was dreadfully rainy and even snowed a tiny bit. We did craft projects galore and snuggled inside for most of the week. When living in an apartment house there are certain things to figure out. For one thing as soon as your apartment door is open anyone walking by the outside hallway will have a glimpse into your chaotic lifestyle.......with 3 wild kids running around we're trying to instill in them that we do NOT have an open door policy here. Still working on it.

When the weather starts getting blustery then it's also time to bring in the balcony plants and flowers....where to go with them? INTO the stairwell hallway. Our once bare stairwell now has plants and flowers adorning each level! We even stuck a pumpkin display outside our "front door" stairwell! Bummer, tho, that our balcony/terrace isn't of much use anymore..........sigh.

The second week of "schulferien" was a real treasure! A rented car ( big stuff for non car owners). The OPEN ROAD...... and then a week of fun with a dear german/austrian family who lived in Malawi as missionaries at the same time as us and this topped off with an "american weekend". The WELS Reformation Retreat with area WELS'ers who live in Germany and the surrounding European countries. For me the joy of worshipping auf English and hanging with people of like minded language, culture and faith! Ben was so excited to meet another american boy his age and just as wild he yelled out the first night " MOM, he said NO in ENGLISH.......he's an ENGLISH BOY!" People also crack up as our kids are unfamiliar with things like doritos and root beer and these retreats are always loaded with american snacks brought on us army bases! The kids frequently wanted to know " Is that something we like?".....I assured them. YES YES, we like Doritos. Eat them!

We did NOT do Halloween this year at all. We've quite the interesting track record of Halloween celebrations. In Malawi we usually got together with a handful of other americans and bobbed for apples in the back yard and then paraded from the back yard to the front yard and knocked on the door for trick or treat. One year we HID candy bags.......but I always felt wierd because we did this in the presence of our malawian workers ( gardeners/houseworkers etc..) and witchcraft is widely practiced within their culture and here's me printing witch and ghost pictures for the kids to color.....UGH.......and last year in Canada we did the full blown neighborhood thing which was almost overwhelming and FAR too much candy.....tho' the kids really loved that. Here in Germany it has become popular altho' more the gruesome part of it all and therefore very much avoided by christians. So we just let it go and that is really fine by me. We bought a pumpkin and I let the kids make paper jack o lantern faces. I really don't think it necessary for anyone here to get ito the custom and unless you've grown up with it like we do in the good ol' USA then why get into it at all.

HOWEVER, we DID get to be a part of some very nice german traditions. That being REFORMATION celebrated as a public holiday and bakeries selling "reformation brotchen" top pic - not sure what makes them special altho I guess sometimes they have a cross pressed into them) and also the traditional " laterne umzug" or Lantern parade. This is held in honor of St. Martin's Day. Lousia's school holds theirs in honor of Dr. Martin Luther who was in fact named after St. Martin. Weeks ahead of time patterns for paper lanterns are sold in stores everywhere as well as cheap electric lights attached to a long pole. Some children still traditional use a lighted candle IN their paper lantern ( eeks! never ever allowed in the usa) but our kids got to try both as we attended two parades!

After a short program touching the work and life of Martin Luther and singing of some songs the children line the streets with all shapes and colors and designs of lighted lanterns! Then in the end everyone gathers for..........yes.......Bratwurst ( here they are referred to as "Rosters") and "kinder punch" as well as spiced wine and cookies!