Throwing out the old year:

[sister_luck]

Nope, I was way too busy to capture December. Online, I've been in read-only mode.

The holiday season started with a Lichterfest at the kid's kindergarten - which was their idea of a secular Christmas party.

There was a play about storks who left it a little late to travel to Africa and had to ask the wind for directions to warmer places:



Stork and two little guys dressed as wind.



Here the storks have arrived thanks to the help of the wind.

Wasn't it nice that they are wearing masks so that they are already anonymized for posting their pictures to facebook and other places?

My kid is Small Wind - they were supposed to be about five kids, but some bailed at the last minute or had to call in sick.



This is as close as we got to a snowman this year - it hasn't been cold enough to turn rain into snow.



No kindergarten party is complete without a craft project for the whole family - we decorated candles and no, this isn't my handiwork. This was actually done by the little one's best friend's father.

Around St. Nikolaus' Day we went to SmallTown where they have a really big Christmas tree:



The weather was frightful, but not really seasonal.

The kid got to witness local traditions:



St. Nikolaus' helper isn't the scary Knecht Ruprecht; in this region he is called Hans Muff. Back in unenlightened days, his black face was supposed to scare the children; but he is now a friendly character who hands out sweets just as Nikolaus does. It's time to ditch the black face and wig, too, I think.

Back to kindergarten. This is a piece of this year's advent calendar:



It was filled with a tangerine, nuts, sweets and a tiny duck with shower gel.

At some point, we got some decorations:



We unearthed this box from the basement of the empty house of K's parents:



Many years ago, it contained cigarettes, but now it's filled with tiny lightbulbs for fairy lights - and of course they don't work. They kept just about everything...



The Christmas bell is from their collection, too. It's part of tradition to ring a bell when the Christkind has come and delivered the presents. Just like this is a real Nikolaus with a mitre instead of the usual Father Christmas.

From our collection of baubles:



This is our tree:



There is a tiny electric train underneath and you can see my two guys fishing for presents.

Here they are on a playground:



Goodbye 2013 - there has been quite a bit of tough stuff to deal with, so I'm not too sad to see you go.


Hi there, 2014!