Christmas 2003
It’s Saturday evening and both girls are in bed – perhaps not the best time to begin work on our Christmas letter – but perhaps the only time. Hope you like our update, this time less waffle and more photos. Each year events in December threaten to overtake us, but this time perhaps our heads are a little less cluttered than in the previous 2 years since we’ve not had a house move to contend with. Our plans in Germany remain uncertain and we can only really think ahead to the next few months. Summer brings definite changes as Sabrina reaches school age for here and a Kindergarten place becomes available for Eve.
We’ve had a healthy number of visits from friends and relatives during 2003; being grateful and appreciative of the fun and good times these provide: they always give a focal point to look forward to and plan for. The first of these was in February, which offered an opportunity to go sledging and visit Salzburg, home of Mozart and the “Sound of Music”. Katie, Sabrina and Eve were in the UK for Easter, whilst Phil swotted for exams. This coming Easter we’ll be visiting the UK together.
Sabrina grows at an alarming rate, always needing new clothes, to her delight and Katie’s distress. She is fussy and has definite ideas of what she ought to wear. However, thin dresses don’t go down too well at Kindergarten when they go outside for the obligatory fresh air break. She still wants to be a ballerina, but the current resistance to continue with ballet lessons, makes that a fair challenge. The drive into the city after Kindergarten is the major hurdle, but a friend visits a local dance school, which may give an easier option. To be fair, she has stuck it out and even took part in a performance on stage. She loves Kindergarten and has some good friends. They organised a Fete in the summer, which was very enjoyable and parents were encouraged to help out: at one point Katie was behind the bar serving German beer, she hastens to point out, not drinking it. Sabrina has also recently started going to “Kids Club” in the city one Saturday a month. They organise various events, the last being a Harry Potter reading night where the children slept over at a nursery. She has also stayed over a couple of nights at her best friend Cassandra’s, just round the corner from us. We get on well with the parents and this resulted in a rare night out for us all seeing REM playing at an open-air concert in July, the positive boost it gave us lasted for weeks afterwards. Needless to say, Sabrina wants a birthday sleepover for her best pals, so we have plenty of organising still to do; the running order so far is crafts, games, tea, dancing, video and sleep (some hope!).
For our summer holidays we drove overnight through Austria and Slovenia to Croatia. We enjoyed 10 days of gorgeous sun, clean turquoise seas, friendly locals and reasonable prices. The girls loved playing in the sea and sand, as well as going on the swings and slides at the numerous playgrounds: it was very child-friendly and we thought, if they were happy, we would be too, which was not far off the mark. Maybe we’ll visit again next year, putting culture trips on hold for now (we both had a prejudice against beach holidays at first, but the appeal was irresistible and the reality turned out much better than expected). We came back rested although the drive back, again overnight to assist in preventing child boredom, was a bit of an ordeal.
We also had a great 2 ½ weeks in England, meeting up for 3 relaxing days with a German family we know from Munich and visiting Clitheroe Castle / Waddington, Malham Cove and Bolton Abbey. The latter became a regular haunt for us during the stay: we have never seen Yorkshire or indeed England, looking so gorgeous and we caught the end of a wonderful summer there, by all accounts. Other highlights were going to Haigh Hall, Gargrave Show and the Burnsall Fell races. At the end of the holidays we were able to attend Phil’s Mum’s 70th birthday party, which we all enjoyed and particularly Eve the Dancing Queen, still going strong at 1am.
Eve is quite a character – giving and affectionate; stubborn and determined. She loves singing and is quite surprisingly into baby dolls. We thought we might buy her a Baby Bjorn for Christmas but the costs are nearly as high as having another family member, perhaps we can get child allowance. Eve is ready for more company now but playgroups are difficult to find where we live on the outskirts of Munich. Once a week, Katie and the children take the S-bahn into town for “Open House”, a meeting point at for anyone available to drop in and chat; needless to say Katie had an involvement in its inception and it is a focal point of the week. It gives Eve a chance to meet her best friend, Yannick, or “Nugget” as she says. Some of her expressions at this stage are real gems, in some ways mirroring our own language inadequacies as we grapple for a suitable German word, let alone the associated pronunciation:
“Daddy, go away actually” “biscuit Mama?“ “clocklat?” “dickerless”
We’ve been more involved in Peace Church this year, taking Sunday school lessons, preparing coffee, washing up and occasionally Katie playing music for the service: the last item made possible since the arrival of new family member Arnold, the piano. Katie vacillates between huge hopes for our future and deep despair; often corresponding directly to the amount of sleep Eve has allowed her to have, plus how many people she has managed to say a few words to that particular day. Phil arrives home around 6pm which makes it a long day for both of us. He is more settled at work and finds it easier to converse in the language, it helps when you get the gist of the jokes (contrary to stereotype, the Germans do have a sense of humour; the description subtle, dry and extended springs to mind). Even now, it still seems we have a mountain of language and custom to climb, but then we don’t seem to choose the easy options! (hey … why don’t we …).
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