Going on Holiday

This evening we leave for a much needed beach vacation, so I will make this the last (?) post in December. I'm sitting here waiting for the Hundepension to come pick up Bruno, then I will take the orange tree and mail key over to the neighbors. My stomach is in knots because we've already had to re-book one of our flights thanks to Bank of America freezing our credit card account for "international charges". Hopefully that is the only thing that will go wrong with this trip. I am really looking forward to some warm weather and seeing Gianna in her gown for a Christmas Eve gala at the resort.

Without further adieu, here is my Christmas card for my family and friends. I find my own child highly entertaining and hopefully you will to. Merry Christmas! We'll be back in Frankfurt to ring in the new year :-)

Christmas party

Gianna's class held a Christmas party for the parents yesterday. They sang a few songs for us, recited a story about bears, then we ate some snacks provided by the parents. Gianna was not happy that I was at the party. She wanted Dan to be there instead, and sulked during the songs:
But she came around once the food was served:

Yesterday night we wandered around Preungesheim in the dark trying to find Gianna's new pediatrician's office which turned out to be located behind a Getränkhalle in the same building as an auto body shop. At 3 years old, she is 94 cm tall and weighs 13 kilos. That puts her in about the 25th percentile on the German scale. She is quite light and much shorter than most of her classmates. Some tower head and shoulders above Gianna! Still, she says when she grows up, she's going to be "big".

Christmas concert

On Friday a bunch of families crammed into the US Consulate Field House to hear their 2-5 year olds sing Christmas carols. Gianna was very excited the night before, saying that she was going to sing real loud so we could hear her. When the time came to perform, stage fright struck, and she refused to cooperate. A teacher ended up carrying her onto the stage and she hid her face for most of the two songs. Later she explained the situation, "I scared; I not know there going to be so many chairs". I took that to mean she thought it was just going to be her parents coming to see her and not a room full of people. But she looked beautiful and enjoyed a celebratory pizza lunch afterwards with her friend. On Monday I go to her class Christmas party where we'll make Christmas cookies.

Our pyramid

It was a tough decision, so many to choose from, but here's the one that's going to become our "family heirloom". That is, unless it starts on fire the first time I light it up.

Advent and St. Nikolaus Day

The Germans really know how to celebrate Christmas. They kick off advent with Christmas markets, pealing of the bells, and display elaborate advent calendars in their homes. The quality and creativity of your family's advent calendar is something they take quite seriously. Shame on those that use a cardboard store bought version and not something hand made! My German family showed me theirs this week. It is like a shrine, covering an entire wall. The frau of the house made it from decorative fabric, felt, shiny stuff, materials I couldn't even identify. I was impressed. Each pocket had a number and was stuffed with candy for the kinder to open every day after nap. She kindly gave me a store bought version for Gianna, assuming I would not make such an effort in our small rented apartment. She was right. Gianna really loves her SpongeBob advent calendar that gives her a piece of chocolate after dinner every night.

Six days into your German advent calendar is St. Nikolaus Day. This holiday is steeped in tradition, so I'll try to break it down to its simple elements. First, St. Nikolaus is not the same as Santa Claus (Weihnachtsmann); he is the predecessor. Nikolaus looks pretty much like Santa but wears a miter. German children place one boot outside their door before they go to bed on Dec. 5th. Nikolaus puts chocolate in the boot if they have been good or a wooden switch if they have been bad. Dirty boots are offensive to St. Nikolaus and would certainly earn you a switch. Therefore, the kids spend Dec 5th polishing their boots in preparation (the Germans have an odd obsession with clean shoes and often own eccentric shoe polishing kits). My German family kindly schooled me in this tradition, providing a chocolate treat bag for Gianna. I intended to follow their tradition, but forgot the most important step of cleaning her extremely muddy boots. Oops. They also warned me some groups of children go around caroling on St. Nikolaus Tag, expecting chocolate in return :-O German Christian families put special emphasis St. Nikolaus Tag so that the children are not blinded by mass consumerism on Christmas, and can better focus their thoughts on the birth of Christ. Next time I talk with my German family, I'm going to get a more complete description of their Christmas Eve festivities. Also, I am going to ask why they don't have a Christmas tree up yet. Since Martin Luther invented the Christmas tree, I'm really surprised the Germans don't keep one up year-round.

SpongeBob: the party

Gianna's SpongeBob birthday party was a hit, with 25 guests in all. It was controlled chaos, much better than I expected when you have a dozen kids playing in a 2 bedroom apartment. The kids loved the arts and crafts table where they colored pictures of SpongeBob, created playdoh SpongeBobs, and made pipe cleaner candy cane ornaments to take home. People were also impressed with the SpongeBob cupcake tower, direct from the UK. It was easier than making another cake. I tried out a new recipe for a layered sandwich that worked out well and made fruit salad in a pineapple half. One kid said "look mommy, a banana!" It seems many of them had never seen a fresh pineapple before. By the end of the party, some kids were getting tired. One kid crawled into Gianna's bed to proceed with nap time and another threw a giant fit when his mom said it was time to go. I'm glad they all had fun. It's a lot of work, but I love throwing parties. Now we have plenty of leftovers and new toys to last the whole weekend. Right now she is enjoying her new Dora DVD from her friend Jada back in NYC. She told us "It's in English; it's better" (as compared to the German version she watches on Nick de). Thanks everybody! And Happy St. Nikolaus Day to all the little kids in Germany. Hopefully you get chocolate and not a switch in your shoe tonight.

World AIDS Day

For lunch I was down at the Christmas Market again when I came across two young people collecting donations to benefit the AIDS mission in Frankfurt. For my donation, they gave me this bear and a ribbon to wear on my coat. As a scientist and self-proclaimed humanitarian, I would like to see the day when this disease is eradicated, or at the very least, see the day when the social stigma is gone. There has been so much progress in fighting the spread of HIV in recent years, thanks in part to President GW Bush. Yes, thanks to GW! He established and funded the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR. The funding pays for testing, treatment, support for patients' families, prevention programs, and dispelling the AIDS stigma in many African countries and Vietnam. Despite the program's great success, the Obama administration wants to reduce funding, which has earned them a D+ from Global AIDS Groups.

“Our investments in PEPFAR, the Global Fund, and overall global health have made a positive difference and we will continue our support, but we have to do more. We have to make sure that our programs foster conditions that improve people's lives and in turn promote stability, prosperity, and security. In this time of very tight budgets in our own government and our own people suffering from unemployment, from other kinds of cutbacks in services, we have to do more even here at home. We've seen some of the results of the cutbacks that are happening at the state and local level. So while we're talking about our commitment internationally, let's not forget our fellow citizens who are suffering right now.”

This attitude gets failing marks in my book; it's trickle-down humanitarianism. The "suffering" Americans are experiencing due to the economic downturn is mild compared to the daily lives of people benefiting from PEPFAR. Obviously there's less money to spread around due to "tightened budgets", so hopefully any cuts to the PEPFAR funding will be temporary.