Nutcracker

Here we are trying to observe a bit of culture. In the Stolfi family, it was tradition to attend the Nutcracker each year to see some ballet and listen to fantastic holiday music.

We purchased tickets to the Munich performing arts theatre to expose our kids to the fun.

It didn't work out.

The music was recorded - not live. The performance was truncated and contained a narrator to help young children along (children who speak German naturally). And the quality of the dance was - let's be charitable in this holiday season - not what was expected.

There were some periods of excitement; several times I thought someone would get dropped during a lift. I would say I am amazed it didn't happen.

It was also different to see almost of all the male roles performed by females. Maybe German men recognize that ballet is a challenging career depending upon your long term goals.

We also were not aware that so many female ballerinas could have real, female chests - just our NYC bind spot I guess.

Anyway - it was fun to force the kids to dress up, drop the electronics, and tell them that boredom was important to their overall development.

David's Tree

Last year we didn't get a Christmas tree because we were going to go back to the USA for our first big trip back and it wasn't a priority. The kids wanted a tree this year and since this feels more like home, we agreed.
I took Dave and Brian to buy one on a cold Saturday morning. Here in the city, they take the outdoor beer garden for our local German restaurant and convert it into a temporary tree selling area. We waited and strategized on the best tree. Brian wanted something "medium sized" with a traditional shape "for Mom". I wanted something that fit into the stand we bought at the department store. (Our US stand is in storage).
David had bigger plans. Not content to be held back by his small minded co-conspirators, he immediately scoped out the most bulky tree in the lot. All the trees were constrained by the gill nets of plastic used to transport the trees.
I expressed serious doubts and tried to discuss Brian's picks but David quickly went to work on his brother.
Reason 1 - bigger tree, more potential places for gifts
Reason 2 - bigger tree, more places for ornaments
Reason 3 - go back to reason 1.
I was losing ground. After conceding defeat, the "helpers" at the store tried to cut the stump and jam the tree back through the chute to re-apply the gill net.
It wouldn't go through. A clear sign from above to redouble my efforts. I ignored the signs thinking, "...they really want it, you can afford it, and why do you really care..."
I then had to carry it through the city streets - without the gill net. It was also heavy.
At first, I tried to be nice on the sidewalks, but nobody gave any room or tried to move aside so I quickly lost patience.
I know it sounds bad, but the lady with the stroller got what was coming to her for not making room.

Once up - it started to spread - - - in all directions.
I also had to secure it with fishing line because the plastic tree stand would struggle to keep a toothpick vertical.
I really wonder if everyone has a collection of these stories or if I am just cosmically blessed.

St. Leonhard Festival - Part II

We celebrated St. Leonhard's Festival again this year on a warm November day. The festival is for St. Leonhard who was nobility in one of the oldest royalties of Franconia. (Around 550 AD).

St. Leonhard is the patron saint of cattle and horses. Now you may snicker but let's remember back to 500AD. You couldn't be the saint of fine German automobiles or the saint of tasty schnitzels. Beer was probably already taken. Thinking about what was valuable - you're left with cattle an horses.
We went to one of the largest festivals this year (versus last year where we went to a small village) in Bad Tolz. The people of the town/city dress in traditional clothes (not costumes) and parade through the city and up to the church for a blessing. The new catholic cardinal was in the second cart.


While the the procession is quite beautiful and interesting, the boys seemed to get less out it this year than last. They asked when it would be over as we walked to the parade route (not a good sign) and only seemed amused when they were permitted to take some pictures.
After the memory card was full on the camera (650 pictures), real boredom seemed to take hold of the 8 year old.
I don't know what his problem was - there were only 96 horse drawn carts in the procession.
And he won't get this again when he moves to some city like Orlando.

Thanksgiving

I know I haven't posted in a while. No excuses.
The biggest event since our last post has to be Thanksgiving. We agreed last year that our neighborhood place that served "a real American Thanksgiving" was not authentic enough for our tastes. Daphne thought she was acclimated enough to be able to pull a Thanksgiving together.
Through a series of strange events, the size of the event kept growing. We don't have a huge apartment and the kitchen is small by the standards set in Chatham. Here is the size of the oven.

So when the guest list surged past 20, Daphne began to hyperventilate. We invited two Bavarian couples and their two children, my sister Paula's friend who recently moved to Munich, American friends who have 2 young daughters we know from the International school, and Daphne's brother and his girlfriend were able to join us from Ohio.
I was able to put the cherry on top when I had a candidate from Harvard, in Munich for interviews, join us since I asked him to stay over the holiday to interview on Friday morning. (He was great for actually showing up.)
I kept telling Daphne that we could always supplement dinner with a couple of pizzas ordered from the restaurant next store but she insisted that everyone should get a traditional turkey dinner.
Daph made two large turkey breasts (since the whole bird wouldn't fit in the oven) and time shifted all the other elements to make the meal come together.

The picture doesn't capture her relief that the evening came together wonderfully.
The final proof - our last guest left the apartment around 3am.

Extra shots - no comment required....

Incredible Thailand

The accommodations in Phuket where beautiful. My sister-in-law took care of everything and found the most incredible place for our group to spend the four days.

Our kids don't appreciate the beauty, the cost, the food, .... everything. I guess we were the same at the local amusement park (Idora Park).

Our hillside house had an infinity pool with views that spanned 120 degrees of the sea.
We joked with the kids, "what is over the edge?" and they looked at us like we were crazy. Forget life before the internet, they don't know life before the infinity pool.
Sunsets were incredible - even if the kids didn't want to put on a tie and jacket for a photo. Wow.
The dining room opened up on three sides with views to the sea - but I think the kids only focused on the mac-n-cheese and Doritos. The added participant was our host Lily. She ensured our visit was wonderful.
There were beers at this stop - not weissebeir but beer.
Wow. Incredible.

Beach

Our weather was not perfect - we were able to have plenty of "rain swimming".
Upon arrival, the kids jumped right in since rain doesn't influence prime swimming time. Notice the rain cloud in the background.
My personal favorite (carbon dating me) was Dan teaching the kids to, "...take the Nestea Plunge..."
If you remember the commercial, you drink a sip of the iced tea and fall (refreshed) into water. The kids loved it!
It also works in both the ocean/sea and into the safe portion of the pool. Dan is clearly one of the "teaching" uncles.
Thank you Beth and Dan.

Never forget...

By far the most memorable time in the incredible vacation was the elephant ride. We traveled to a stop that gives visitors a chance to ride elephants just as the Thai royalty rode them for the past 200 years.

These elephants seemed to be effected by time however - they tapped the "tip" jar after we took photos. Hmmm.....

We all jumped on board and went for a short walk. The kids were much less impressed than the adults. Dan seemed to laugh quite a bit. Beth tried to capture the event and make sure everyone was enjoying themselves. I was trying to lean in toward the enter of the beast so the chair would not fall over on my side. (I'm guessing the fall would hurt and the company was not overly insured.)
Daphne needed a brown paper bag to control her breathing. After the half way point, they let the kids "drive" the elephants by climbing down on the elephants. Ryan, David, and Keelin jumped at the chance. It was great.

Daph, Brian and I chose to let the professionals guide us home. Dan captured this picture of us competing with the buses and motorbikes on the final stretch of road.

Everyone had fun and will never forget the trip.
This is one of only a few pictures where my son Brian is upstaged by anyone else in the shot showing their excitement.

PS. No beer in the whole event. Shocking but true.

Ocean Park

On Monday, poor Dan had to go to work but the rest of us spent the day at Ocean Park. Ocean Park is part amusement park, part zoo, and part aquarium. The whole park was decorated for halloween. Our kids were excited since we don't have Halloween in Germany.
A big attraction was the panda bears - to everyone but our boys. They rolled their eyes asking if we could go straight to the roller coasters.
We took a gondola/skyride from one side of the island to the other (also boy / girl) and got a great view of the harbor and their house.
Once the Moms finally let the boys ride some rides, we hit the log flume a couple of times, the two big roller coasters and a host of other cool rides. I don't know if you can see it from this picture, but the boys loved the big rides.

I got to ride all the roller coasters with Brian since we had 5 kids and the Moms declined to ride. The highlight for Brian was riding in the front car of "The Dragon" roller coaster. It had three loops upside-down. He was happy to be tall enough to ride, walked up to the front car, then did the ride with no hands, screaming, "...awesome,.... awesome,... awesome..."

I don't know how the Moms could pass this up.
On a different note - there was a shocking lack of beer gardens. I don't know how the people stand it.

Visit to cousins in Hong Kong

This October our holiday break matched up with our cousins' holiday in Hong Kong. We decided to take the plunge and visit them - letting the cousins see each other and experience their life in Hong Kong.
Dan and Beth live in Repulse Bay in HK.

We spent the first two and a half days getting acclimated and seeing their local sights.
The HK McNick's (aka McNicks in HK) showed us the downtown skyline and we took a boat ride across the harbor.
You can see the excitement in their eyes. The boys suggested we quickly return home to play Xbox, Nintendo, and iTouch. The girls just enjoyed being able to spend time with someone other than their brother(s). The kids actually got along great as "boys" and "girls". There was very little mixing.
We were also treated to a wonderful dinner at the top of a Kowloon office building that gave us a great view of the skyline. The life in HK was quite a nice change from the Munich weather of frost and winter coats. The kids swam everyday.

The second half of the week we all went to Phuket, Thailand and rented a house for some more relaxation. More of that trip to come...

Release the hounds....

* a quick disclaimer - I charged the battery for the camera but forgot to put it back in the camera before we left. My fault. Today's photos come from the cell phone. *
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This Saturday we were invited to a great event. Our friends, York and Bettina, invited us to a "hunt".
You can see from the photos, that the boys were excited to wake up early, drive 90 minutes south and west of Munich to the largest lake in Germany, and take a ferry to an island.
There are two islands which were previously cloisters (one for men and one for women) until King Ludwig II decided he wanted the island for himself. He built a small version of Versailles as a summer palace.
We were only told that it would be a show of horses and dogs to celebrate the history of hunting.
Arriving at 9am we noticed some of the people in outfits that seemed out of the 19th century (and lots of dogs including George.)
We loved that after a short ceremony, the people sat for white sausage, pretzels, and beer - 9am. Our host said, "yeah - but they got up at 5am so it's practically noon to them..."
At 11, we gathered to watch the priest come out of a church built before Columbus sailed to the new world, to bless the riders, horses, and dogs. The riders had outfits of red and blue riding jackets with helmets and various body protection. The average age of the riders was about 60 years.
After the blessing, the observers walked to a spot where the riders would have to jump a huge log.
Since almost no one believes it is nice to hunt fox in the traditional fashion, the hunt had two riders lead the dogs/riders with a 'scent' bag. The 40+ dogs then gave chase and the riders followed.
At the first jump, we tried to explain that there was some danger to horses and riders to our kids. First, the scent horses came by - then the sound of the dogs. It was exciting. We were warned that we needed to keep George on a very short lease because the hunting dogs are capable of killing non-hunting dogs.
Here is a shot of the horses coming across the jump.

The ceremony was great. The event is hosted by the head of the Bavarian hunting club, who invites the owner of the dogs and various "friends".
Here we see the dogs.
They control the dogs with whips and calls and whips.
After a couple of jumps and demonstrations of hunting, there is an intermission where we were invited to sit for lunch. We stretched out on our blanket and took out our lunch while the horses were kept warm by walking around the field.
Notice the ambulance in the background. We had one rider (age: 65+) fall off the horse at the first jump. He looked very embarrassed and more hurt. Horse rode off at high speed. Rider got up without help but I sensed broken ribs. Kids asked if he was OK and our host said, "sure - it gets easier if you do it all the time." He probably can't walk today. I will check the obits tomorrow.

After 3 hours of riding and jumping - they rode up the main lawn of the Schloss (castle). The dogs were rewarded after a day of hunting with a huge barrel of cow stomachs- they fought over the pieces. The riders, who started with beer, had some champagne.
Daphne and I were so happy but the kids were not as impressed. After the ferry back to the island, we stopped at a small chapel with the oldest frescoes (12th century) in Bavaria. Kids didn't even want to go into the chapel.
They found a playground outside the chapel and there was a ride which looked like a wagon wheel on a pole with straps that let the kids swing with wild abandon.
I am sure this will be the only memory of the day.
York and I demonstrate that at the end of every adventure in Bavaria is a beer. (He had the small).