Festivities

Although Emily attends a "secular" school, she celebrated St. Nikolaus Day today with her class.  He visited her school, sang with her friends, and gave the kids chocolate orange candy.  St Nikolaus, a bishop who lived in the fourth century, inherited a fortune from his parents which he used to give secret gifts to poor children.  In Germany, the children leave out their shoes on December 5th in hopes of finding treats in the morning.  Owen and Emily found kinder eggs, smurf figures, and wall decals.

We checked out two  Chriskindelmarkts this weekend, one in Frankfurt and one in a nearby town, Mainz.  In Frankfurt, the kids rode the double-decker carousel.  We could see Emily's annoyed face when Owen's horse went up and down and her stayed still.

People packed the square eating kuchen and wurst and drinking gluhwien.

The next day, we went to Mainz to see St. Stephen Kirche - not just another Gothic Church.  The Church itself dates back to 1043, but in 1978, Russian Jewish artist Marc Chagall created nine stained-glass windows of scriptural figures in luminous blue.  He chose scenes from the Old Testament that bridged Judaism and Christianity.  Chagall, who fled France when the Nazis arrived, wanted his work to represent Jewish-German reconciliation.  I fell in love with his work when Jennifer and I want to his museum in Nice, France.  Owen walked around with me admiring the windows, while Emily wanted to light the candles.

After the Church, we searched for a place to park the minivan near the market.  After we circled the same block 5 times, I commented that Mainz does have other streets - probably not the greatest time to annoy my chauffeur.  This market boasted a beautiful Nativity scene.  My grumpy daughter quickly abomished me for explaining the scene to both her and her brother at the same time.  At the moment, she wished to be the only child.  (Of course, going to bed at 10:00 the night before did not help their moods.)  We decided to pick out a treat and call it a day.