Merry Christmas!!!

It's been a long time since I've updated this, and it's not because I've been lazy. Things have been so busy lately with Christmas and everything that by the time I was done with everything I had to do each day I was just too tired to sit down and do this. Now a lot of what's happened the past 4 days has just sort of run together, so be aware that this is not going to be the a very well organized entry.

I guess first I should start with the kids. They've both been so sweet to me lately. Pauline is in the process of getting her last 2 baby teeth so she's been really cranky lately. She keeps whining and crying for no reason, and a lot of the time you can tell that there's no real emotion behind it. Basically she cries for the sake of crying. And instead of asking for help or whatever it is that she needs she just starts screaming and crying, and she won't pause long enough to listen to you when you ask what she wants or tell her to stop screaming so she can talk to you, so it gets a little frustrating sometimes. Last night Pauline was crying almost the entire night. She woke up Gustav because of it, and then neither of them were able to sleep, so Olaf went to the cellar and Esther had to stay in her bed with the kids. I think she only got a total of about 3 hours of sleep last night. And the other day when Esther and I were decorating the Christmas tree late at night, Pauline refused to sleep and just sat in her bed talking to herself and singing, like she does when she's supposed to be taking a nap. She came downstairs to sit with us for a while, and while she was there she crawled up onto the ladder and ended up falling off the ladder and onto her face. Her nose was bleeding pretty bad, and she was screaming (both from pain and shock). Poor little thing. This was the second time in my life that I actually go lightheaded and felt like I was going to pass out at the sight of blood, and I think I know why. It's not the blood itself, because I can donate blood or have blood drawn for tests without any problem. It's blood coming from the head/face. I think that I've had too many traumatic experiences (both my own and those of people I'm close to) involving the head, and when I see someone's head/face bleeding my brain just doesn't want to deal with it. Anyway, she's not as badly bruised as I expected her to be, and it's a little tender but she's ok. The poor little thing looked so sad, though, after she calmed down enough to stop crying. It was pathetic.

The only problem we've had with Gustav, really, is that he still refuses to go to the bathroom when he needs to. He'll dance around and hold himself, but when you ask him to go to the toilet he insists that he doesn't need to. Then, after about the 5th time you've asked and he told you no, he starts crying because he has to pee and demands that you help him. It takes way longer for him to ask for help and dance around and come looking for someone to open the toilet for him than it would take for him to simply open it himself, and a lot of times he ends up peeing in his pants because of it. It's really frustrating. Yesterday Esther told him that if he waits so long and asks for help again that she's going to make him start wearing diapers again, and he said that he wants to wear diapers. I think he's too lazy to go to the bathroom when he really needs to, and that he thinks a diaper is just easier. We haven't been making him wear diapers, but I wouldn't be surprised if Pauline was completely diaper free before Gustav stops having accidents. On the bright side, Gustav is continuing to use English words that he's learning, and this morning when Esther asked if she should put Christmas songs on he said yes, but not the German ones (meaning he wanted to hear her CD of English Christmas songs). That was kind of exciting.

Today was a long and busy day. I had to get up really early to take a shower because Emma was coming to clean at 8 am and I had to be dressed and ready before then. Then this morning I walked Amelie and helped Esther get come things ready for this evening's dinner before breakfast. Silke and Gunther got here at around 1 or so and Silke took the kids to the playground while Gunther took Amelie for her afternoon walk so that Esther, Olaf and I could finish a few things and take a nap before we had to go to church. We had to be at the church by 4:30 (I keep wanting to call it the Holy Mass, but they're Evangelists, not Catholics) and were done by 5:30. What I didn't realize until this evening is that, unlike at home where Santa Claus comes in the middle of the night to deliver presents, here the Christkind/Weihnachtsman (aka "Santa") comes in the evening while everyone is at church. So Esther, Silke and I moved all of the gifts from the cellar to the living room after Olaf and Gunther left to take the kids to the church. When we got there there were basically no seats left, but Silke was able to find a seat, Esther had a seat next to Olaf, and she asked the woman and child sitting next to her if they could squeeze together a little bit to make room for me. It was wierd because the pastor was a woman, and although I know it happens I've never actually seen it before. When we all got home Gustav and Pauline saw their presents under the tree and got really excited. We all opened our presents before we sat down for dinner (fondue!!) but the kids spent most of the time playing with their new play kitchen (which I put together for them last night). Esther was really happy that I was here because after Pauline opened her new pots and pans for the kitchen she was more interested in Gustav's toys, but I was able to divert her attention to the kitchen stuff while Esther put Gustav's toy helicopter together. As for me, I got a ticket to go see FC Koeln play against Dortmund next month, as well as a team scarf, from Esther and Olaf, and Silke and Gunther got me a cat calendar and the new Robbie Williams CD. I haven't given them my gifts yet because I was planning on doing that tomorrow and they're not wrapped yet.

The snow is basically gone now. It kinda sucks because it snowed for 2-3 days, and then right before Christmas (which is typical for this region) the temperature rose and most of the snow is gone. Right now it's raining outside, so there probably won't be any snow left tomorrow. I was so close to having a White Christmas, but no such luck. It will snow again, though, I'm just not sure when.

Today was Amelie's birthday, too. I was planning on getting her a new, larger bed to put in my room but never got the chance to go to the hardware store where I could buy it. Silke bought her a new pillow/blanket for her bed and as soon as we got home from the church and Amelie saw her new bed under the tree she immediately went and fell asleep on it. She's too precious.

Yesterday I bought another little tree to put in my room. I really wanted to use the ornaments that my mom sent that were way too big for my other tiny tree, so I needed to get one a little bigger. It's only about 2 feet tall, and it's an adorable little Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. When the kids saw it they got really excited, and they both brought me a bunch of random items from their rooms as gifts to put under the tree. They're so sweet.