Mia is SEVEN.....?

Party party party - December has been filled with good-bye parties, Christmas parties and birthday parties - it's never ending!

We're currently all recovering from hosting Mia's party at home. 10 delightful little girls bounced around our apartment for 3 hours. Fortunately it was pure pleasure, which was just as well as we had to cancel Legoland at the last minute due to 6 cancellations the night before! Everyone still intending to risk driving there on treacherous roads were very disappointed.

In the morning Mia took a Pferdegeburtstagkuchen into school with SEVEN candles. She is the youngest in her class and all her friends are either seven or about to be - so she decided she would be too. ... ;)

Borussia Dortmund

Who are Borussia Dortmund?

They are none other than the Herbst Meisters (half season champions 2010)! And their fans are fanatics. I could compare them to Glasgow Ranger fans or maybe even Port Power fans! ie wild, intoxicated, inflammable, obsessive and steadfastly loyal. And you guessed it.... Hubertus is Fan Nummer Eins (1)! The stadium holds 82,000 maniacs and when in full swing are so loud you need earplugs. The most obsessive choose to sit in what is called Die gelbe Wand (the yellow wall). This section of the crowd has two 'conductors' one to orchestrate the singing and the other to watch the game, therefore ensuring the correct song is sung at the correct moment.

BUT I got a special invite into their locker room! ;0

Let it snow.....

Aufwiedersehen

6 months is a strange amount of time in one country. It's:

- just enough time to make new friends before saying good bye :(

- just enough time for the girls to learn how to speak, read and write a new language

- just enough time to meet all your old friends once to say 'Hi', then once again to say 'Good-bye'

- just enough time to visit a few neighbouring countries

- just enough time to finish a research project; and

- just enough time before the lady in the local bakery trusts you enough to tell you gossip about the neighbours

Here are some snaps of my favourite 'new' friends at the Volkshochschule. I wonder if I will ever see them again....

NINETY and still going strong!

On Sunday we celebrated the 90th birthday of Hubertus' father Paul. He is an old battle axe; prepared to debate anyone on any topic at any time (the old lawyer in him); can quote a 3 page poem by Goethe at will; still loves to dance; only recently gave up swimming several kilometers every week; can eat a weeks calories in one sitting and looks way younger than the Dalai Lama (who is only 76 yo!).

We celebrated at a local restaurant with all living family members (apart from his younger sister who is confined to a hospital bed). Steph and Mia sang 3 German songs and 1 in English. Sofia and Kathi dance to the tune of "It's a Fairytale" and his favourite comedian (Heinz Ehrhardt) was impersonated beautifully by a "surprise guest". It was a very enjoyable and pleasant day. However, I think the high-point was the wild cellar party that followed - Mia entertaining everyone with her outrageous dancing - something Paul himself was infamous for in his youth!!