Visiting Gütersloh Again

Since we are so relatively close now, we arranged another trip to visit my sister Anke and her sons in Gütersloh for a couple of days again. Unfortunately we seem to be attracting the rain there, so that most of the time was spent with indoor activities. 

 As soon as we arrived on Monday, we headed with Kiron and Anke to his gym class, where they had a Nikolaus party for the kids with lots of cookies and other goodies.

One of Sophie's favorite things to do was going on this giant swing.

 Running off the sugar high.

 Action shot!

 Singing about the Christmas bakery (Kiron, Anke, and Sophie)

 Baking Christmas cookies. Anke had found letter stamps to mark the cookies with. 

 But about twenty minutes into it, the attention span started to be stretched.

A Good Excuse to Get Together

So here is why we are so happy to have found this place (apart from it being in a big city): lots of other new families with kids Sophie's age. Since we are all new here, some clever neighbors thought that a visit from Nikolaus would be the perfect excuse to get together and get to know each other over a cup of Glühwein or two. 

 St. Nick groupies - our daughter is one of them.

Sophie had been a good girl and received a gift bag from St. Nick. 

Sophie and I were both slow to warm up (where is Andrew when you really need him?). But after a while she was playing catch with the other kids and I was chatting away to the other big people. 

Funiculus!

After St. Martin, another new holiday for Sophie to celebrate: St. Nikolaus. Or "Funiculus" as Sophie called him for a short while. Sophie has been somewhat confused about the difference between St. Nikolaus (who comes on 6 December) and Santa Claus. I told her that Santa Claus is St. Nick's fat brother. I'm not sure that she was buying it. 

 We started out baking some cookies for Nikolaus (and for us).

 We set out plate for Nikolaus and his horse (the other difference between the two of them is the mode of transportation they use: horse & carriage as opposed to reindeer & sleigh). We had a slice of bread and carrot soup (as we had run out of plain carrots) for the horse and a cookie and a glass of wine for Nikolaus. ;-)

 Sophie hung up her stocking by the door and stuck a picture for Nikolaus in it, hoping it would produce more presents. Then it was off to bed. Note to self: next year I will not tell her that Nikolaus will check on her in her room when he comes at night. Tonight she wanted to make sure that her door was shut tight!

The next morning, Sophie immediately checked the stocking. Nikolaus had indeed been there and left a snow globe for her. What a cool holiday!

Meeting Nikolaus at Mama's Castle

My hometown Bad (yeah, not so bad) Bentheim hosts a Christmas market with a twist. Some stands offer some gambling: you throw the dice to win some prizes such as sausage, bread etc. I always used to go as a very small kid, but haven't made it to this Christmas market in probably 25 years. It was about time to take Sophie and check it out.

 Sophie was very vocal about letting everyone in Bentheim know that this was her Mama's castle. Yes, we did get the stare. Of course!

 The rain stopped just in time for St. Nikolaus' visit. My uncle Gerrit and his girlfriend Gerdi had joined us for the occasion. We ended up spending a fun weekend at their house.

 Can you catch a glimpse of the man with the red hat? He was also throwing candy, but we did not stand a chance against the people in front of us holding open their umbrellas.

 As perhaps seen on a previous shot during nicer weather, there is a statue of Bismarck in the city center because he had once paid Bentheim a visit. He has a nice pith helmet, which has already been the subject of some Andrew jokes.

 Someone found yet another good use for the pith helmet. 

After some tears and crying, Sophie managed to conquer a spot on the tiny carousel. 

Sophie had a better view of St. Nikolaus from Gerrit's arms.

Sophie devouring her bratwurst drowned in mustard.