I had intended to take the train into Cologne and head across the river today, but I ended up staying at home. It had been really warm and sunny yesterday (warm enough that I was actually wearing a tank top) and then today it got cold again and was dark and cloudy, so it just kind of felt like a stay at home day. I spent the majority of the day hanging out with the family and playing with the kids, and Amelie and I took a nap in my room this afternoon.

After lunch, Esther, Gustav and I made cookies. They were basically shortbread cookies, except they had eggs in them and I don't think shortbread contains any eggs. But they taste like shortbread, so that's what I'm going to call them. Anyway, each of us had our own little mat and rolling pin to roll out the dough, and then we used cookie cutters to cut out snowmen, hearts, stars, angels, Christmas trees, all kinds of things. Then, using powdered sugar, orange juice, and food coloring, we made a glaze to paint over the tops of the cookies and decorated them with sprinkles. They're delicious, and it was a lot of fun. At one point, Esther commended Gustav on what a good job he was doing, and his response was "Ja, ich bin toll," which basically means yeah, I'm pretty amazing. It was so cute. Esther told me that she's really glad I was there, because she thinks it's more fun when I'm there cooking and baking with her and the kids.

Tonight we had what was described to me as a typical German Saturday dinner: "Bockwurst, Bier, und Fussball." Gustav's bockwurst had a little bulge on it where some of the sausage had squeezed through the skin that he refered to as the sausage's penis. It did, actually, kind of look like one. When Gustav was done eating we gave the rest of his sausage (including the "penis" that he cut off before he started eating) to Pauline because she was still hungry. She picked up the little piece and looked at it for a second before saying "Guck, ein Penis," and throwing it across the room and onto the floor. Olaf, Esther and I looked at eachother and immediately started laughing. These kids are so entertaining.