Man, what a week!!! I feel like all that I have done for the past week is cook, bake, and clean up the mess that results from cooking and baking. It all started last week on Tuesday. Like last year we decided to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner here at the house, only this time we invited guests and were going to have a total of 11 people here, rather than just the family. Since I have class Monday and Wednesday for most of the day, I baked the pumpkin pies on Tuesday. Otherwise there would not have been enough time after class on Wednesday or before dinner on Thursday, especially since taking care of the kids and Amelie needed to be included in my list of responsibilities for the week. Anyway, I baked the pies Tuesday while the kids were at Kindergarten, and I was really happy with the way they turned out. Since it was practically freezing outside, we put the pies out on the terrace so we didn't have to worry about fitting them into the fridge.

The work continued Wednesday evening after we put the kids to bed. That's when I prepared the yams so that we would only have to warm them up Thursday evening. The whole house smelled so delicious, and Esther and I split one of the yams when they were finished. After all, you have to taste it to make sure they turned out ok. These were without a doubt the best yams I have ever made. When making the sauce I used more maple syrup and less brown sugar than usual, so they were slightly less sweet but had a lot more flavor. Delicious. Like Esther said, I didn't even really need to make anything else because we would have been happy just to eat the sweet potatoes. I also made the dinner rolls and cranberry sauce Wednesday evening, neither of which I had ever actually made before. We always bought Brown 'n' Serve (pre-made and partially baked) dinner rolls that only needed to be warmed in the oven for a few minutes, and the Oceanspray cranberry sauce in the can. You know, the one that you serve on a plate in the shape of the can and cut into slices. Typical, "traditional" Thanksgiving fare. These things, however, do not exist in Germany, which means that I needed to make them myself if I wanted to have them. They were both very easy to make, but I wasn't sure how they would turn out since it was my first attempt. And the rolls I only baked half way so that we could finish baking them and have them be fresh Thursday evening. While the dough was rising I also cut up the celery and onions that I was going to need Thursday for the stuffing. It was almost 1 am when I finally went to bed.

Thursday was essentially a full day of Thanksgiving preparations. Olaf went to the market in Königsdorf in the morning to pick up the turkey, which Esther had to order a couple of weeks ago and which she one week before had to request in a larger size so that there would be enough for all of the guests. My parents asked me how big the turkey was, and when I told them it was 5.5 kg (about 12-13 lbs) there was silence on the other end of the phone. Then my dad asks, "Do you have any other meat to serve along with it?" We didn't. It's a good thing that we had so much of everything else, though, because he was right; that really wasn't very much turkey to split between 11 people. Anyway, once the turkey was here it was time to start with the cooking. I had to cook the giblets so that I could use the broth for the stuffing and to baste the turkey, since for some reason I never have any drippings from my turkey that I can use for basting. While that cooked I cut up the old bread into cubes for the stuffing (which I also had to make myself for the first time) and seasoned it a little bit. At around 3 in the afternoon I made the stuffing and dressed the turkey and popped him in the oven. Then I made the green beans with ham and Esther and I set about decorating the table. The kids both went to play with friends in the afternoon so that we didn't have to deal with the little turds running around and being in our way and making a mess of everything. Olaf actually set up the patio table in the dining room because we needed the extra table space, and then he put the other table next to the piano as a drink bar. I brought the fall decorations that my mom had sent down from my room and we put them on the dining table. Then Esther brought her mother's old dishes out of the basement because we only had 9 of the other plates, but we needed 11. The new plates were prettier, though, and the table looked really nice.

Olaf picked up the kids at around 6 and brought them home to feed them dinner and put them in bed. What happened then was unfortunately exactly what I knew was going to happen. The kids saw the big table all pretty and decorated, and began playing with the napkins and moving things around. Then they insisted that they eat their dinner at the big table and started crying when we told them no. Then they threw a huge fit when they were told that at was time to get ready for bed, which turned into an even bigger ordeal when they were informed that the guests weren't coming until 8 and that they were not allowed to stay up until everyone got here. Of course that's what happened. What else do you expect?! Anyway, Esther told both of the kids that they had to go to bed, but that we would call them when the guests arrived and they could come down to say hello. So they gave the kids their milk and put them in bed.

The guests started arriving just before 8 pm, which was exactly the time that it started snowing, and Olaf began playing bartender while Esther socialized and I tried to get all of the food finished. It was actually more stressful than any Thanksgiving I've prepared before because: the kitchen is tiny; there was absolutely no counter/stove space for me to put things down or keep things warm as I was taking them out of the oven; what little counter space I did have was occupied by dirty dishes and various other things that people had neglected to clean up or put away; I was in the kitchen taking care of all the madness by myself while Esther and Olaf entertained; and, to top it off, they had called the kids downstairs from their beds and they were both running around through the kitchen and between everyone's legs, screaming and yelling and laughing, taking up space we didn't have to spare and being completely and utterly in my way. Once again, what the hell else do you expect? I was also the only one who was trying to calm the kids down and keep them out of the kitchen so they didn't knock shit over or get smacked in the head with something hot/heavy. When Pauline started screaming her head off because she managed to hurt herself (which she does, without fail, every time that she's permitted to run around when she's clearly way too tired for such behavior) I simply said that it was time for them to go. Nina took them upstairs and put them in bed and read them a story while we finished getting dinner ready.

When we sat down to dinner, before we distributed the food, they had me stand up and give a quick rundown of what Thanksgiving is and why we celebrate it and, most importantly, what we were going to be eating. Some of them were so cute. A few of them had actually done a little research about Thanksgiving before hand so that they had some sort of an idea as to what should be expected. After I gave my little spiel they asked me if we were all going to go around the table and say what we were thankful for, because that's typical for Thanksgiving, right? It made me smile. I explained that, although a lot of families do that, it's never been a tradition of my family, and therefore it wasn't necessary if they didn't want to. They were ok with that.

Since there was basically no room on the table, Olaf and I carried the dishes around one by one distributing the food. Everyone was so surprised by how many different dishes there were, and by the fact that by the time the green beans came around, there was no room left on the plate for them. That's Thanksgiving. By the end of the evening, the turkey was completely demolished, the stuffing was almost gone, the rolls had long before been wiped out, and of the 2.5 kg worth of candied yams I had made only 6 pieces remained. Everyone had such a great time talking and eating and enjoying the atmosphere. And what got the most raves? The yams (of course), the rolls, and the stuffing. In fact, some of our guests were still talking about them the next day. As far as I'm concerned, even if everything else had sucked, the night would have been a success because the 2 things I was making for the first time ever turned out to be the best. But actually nothing sucked, everything was delicious, and the night was a huge success. Everyone was so grateful that they were able to partake in the festivities with us, and I'm so glad that they were all able to come. And, it was my first Thanksgiving with snow, which made me very happy.

With Thanksgiving out of the way, (and with about 2 inches of snow covering everything outside) preparations began Friday morning for the next event. First of all, I spent basically all day on Friday cleaning up the aftermath of the night before. I had to run 3 or 4 loads of dishes through the dishwasher, plus wash a few things by hand, clean the table, clean the kitchen, vacuum and clean the floor. . .It sucked. Then Saturday Esther and I spent the whole day preparing for Gustav's birthday, which was Sunday. Luckily Silke and Günther were here to help keep the kids entertained and out of our hair. Anyway, he had another pirate themed birthday this year, so Esther and I made paper swords and pirate hats the kids' names on them for the kids to decorate and personalize. This also required us going to Knauber in the early evening to buy little gems for them to glue on their swords. We also picked up some "treasure" because we were going to do a treasure hunt with the kids once their paper costumes were finished. We found little foam rubber pirate coins and some Captain Sharkey knickknacks for the boys, and a couple Lillifee things for the 3 girls. On top of that we had all of the baking to do. Esther baked a double layer chocolate cake with marzipan decorations for Gustav, which was going to be presented to him, along with his presents and the birthday candles, when he got up in the morning. I baked cupcakes with my mom's butter cream icing for the kids at the party. Once again, by the time I was done baking, it was almost 1 in the morning.

Sunday morning Gustav came into my room just before 8 to wake me up, but was mostly unsuccessful. As I said, it had been a long and rough week. He stood at my door and said, "Amanda, auf wecken." I laid there in bed with my face buried in my pillow and simply said, "Happy Birthday, Gustav." "Danke schön." Then he closed my door and went back downstairs, and I heard him explain, with complete understanding, that I was too tired and was going to stay in bed.

I actually didn't stay in bed for too long, partly because I wanted to be with Gustav and partly because I still had more work to do. Esther still needed to bake a cake to take to the Kindergarten for Gustav's birthday celebration on Monday and cook the soup for dinner that night, and I had to bake muffins for the party. Then we had to finish preparing the treasure hunt (which Olaf helped with by distributing the pieces of the treasure map around the neighborhood) and decorations for the party. I also had to get dressed in my pirate costume, because you can't have a pirate party without dressing like a pirate.

The entire crew showed up exactly at 3 pm, and we got the party started. The first thing was to sit all of the kids at the table to eat cake. We had the cake that Esther had made on Saturday, my cupcakes, and the muffins. To my complete and utter surprise, nobody liked the cupcakes! I have never in my life seen a group of children that, when offered cupcakes, either chose not to have them or took one bite, decided they didn't like it, and asked for something else. They were delicious cupcakes, too. I think that it's because American cupcakes are simply too sweet for German taste. I may have mentioned before that, every time someone is having a birthday, I get asked to bake muffins, or somebody asks me for a muffin recipe. Even a woman in my language class had asked me for muffin recipes for her daughter's birthday. I always thought it was strange, and couldn't figure out why in the hell the Germans seem to think that we eat (and especially bake) so many muffins. Now I know why. They don't know what cupcakes are. We eat cupcakes, they think we're eating muffins. I will never forget the look of confusion in everyone's face when I said I was baking cupcakes, because they actually didn't know what a cupcake was. That's the only logical reason for the muffin fixation, and for why kids didn't want to eat the cupcakes.

Anyway, regardless of what cake/muffin variety they chose, the kids weren't very interested in the cake, anyway. After only about 10 or 15 minutes Esther and I started helping them with their swords and hats. We asked each kid where they wanted to put their jewels, spread some glue around where they pointed to, and let them pick out and attach the gems that they wanted. Only Jette and David didn't participate (and Jonathan D. only made a sword) so Silke helped them to decorate their costume items.

Just as we were finishing attaching the bands to the hats so the kids could wear them, Olaf came upstairs with an eye patch on and a bandanna tied around his leg. He told the kids a story about how he was attacked by evil pirates, and in the process of escape he lost his map, and now he can't find his treasure. Then he asked the little pirates if they could help him, and of course they were all excited about it. We got all the kids dressed in their beanies, boots, gloves, scarves and jackets and headed out into the snow to search for the pieces of the map. Olaf had also drawn out arrows on the ground and some skulls in a few places as clues for the kids to help them find the maps. He also had a story that he had made up along with it, like how he had to fight with a giant snake (the balance beam on the next street over is painted to look like a snake) or how he had to crawl through a dark cave (the tunnel going underneath a small bridge over the drainage ditch in the field). He did a really good job. Once we found all the pieces of the map, we put it together like a puzzle and, through multiple hints and essentially stating where the treasure was (the whole map concept is apparently still a little to advanced for these kids), implied that we needed to head to the playground. Esther had hid the "treasure chest" at the top of the tower on the playground. After being coerced by the little pirates, Olaf agreed to share his treasure and each kid was allowed to take one coin and then pick a knickknack from the box.

After the treasure search we came back to the house and made dinner for the kids. They had french fries, chicken wings, fish sticks, and hot dogs. The best thing about this part of the day was watching David eat. That little boy is too funny. Long after all the other kids had left the table, David sat there in his stool quietly finishing his meal. Once his plate was empty, he began eating what was left on everyone else's plate. I sat across the table from David, and every time he emptied his plate I asked him if he wanted more, and he would nod. Or, if I asked him if he wanted more fish he would stick out his hand and say, "Ja, Fisch!" He must've eaten about 4 hotdogs, 6 fish sticks, 4 chicken wings, and a plate full of french fries. And he's 2. When the parents started showing up at 6 he was still eating. Once he had finally finished off everything at the table, David climbed over to his mom, who was eating the soup that Esther had made for the parents, and sat in her lap with his mouth open, waiting for her to feed him soup. We were all laughing so hard. He's freaking hilarious, and I love to watch him eat.

Luckily Emma came yesterday, which means I wasn't stuck having to clean up after the party again. I didn't make it to class either, though, because I was way too exhausted after the past week. To continue with the strenuousness of the previous 5 days, however, I had to wash, dry, fold and iron 3 loads of laundry, plus help Olaf cook dinner. Then today I got to clean up the kitchen and the whole mess that was made with dinner last night, and after we put the kids to bed I had to help Esther make the Advents Calenders for Gustav and Pauline. Now I get to get up early in the morning to go to class tomorrow. Not looking forward to it.

My test is over!!! I have been freaking out for so long about this TestDaF language test that I need to take in order to find out if I can study here at the university. But it's finally done. I took the test on Tuesday, and now I just have to wait about 6 weeks to get the results. It took all day, too. By 8:45 in the morning I had to be at the test sight, which is the same place that I've been taking my test-prep course, so I didn't need to worry about getting lost or not being able to find it. The test "started" at 9, which really means that all of the formalities with explaining the exam, handing out test forms and answering sheets, collecting cell phones and all that junk started at 9. The first section was the reading comprehension part, which is good. It's nice to start with the easiest part first and sort of work your way into the more stressful stuff. Although, I must say, the reading comprehension was much more difficult than any of the practice exams that we did in the course, but I'm sure I still did ok. This is the only part of the test that has as much to do with logic as it does with language, if not more, and as an American I have the advantage of being trained for 12 years on how to take such pointless, standardized tests, and I was always good at them. After a 10 minute break we moved on to the listening portion of the test, which again I think I did fairly well on, but not as well as I have on various practice versions. It kind of sucked because twice during this part of the test there was a loud, obnoxious sound coming from god knows where and we couldn't understand what was being said on the CD. Luckily, they're not jerks and rewound the CD so we could hear it over again. Once the listening was done we had half an hour to relax before we had to begin the writing section. I went to Subway, because it was now about 1 and I hadn't eaten anything. The writing section I'm not terribly happy with, primarily because I didn't finish my essay and the last section of what I did write was a little rushed. I'm sorry, but 1 hour is simply not enough time to write a decent essay in a foreign language. I know people who can't even accomplish that in their native language, let alone someone else's. Not to mention that I was prepared to have to write something about the economy or education system, and instead we got a question about the environment. Great. But, my essay was far more complete than any of the ones I attempted in class, so it could be worse, right? The speaking part we had to do in 2 groups, since there were 12 of us and they only have 6 computers that they can use at one time to record our responses. Luckily I was part of the first group, because having to wait 40 minutes would have been just brutal for me. I was already way too nervous about this part of the test. I think I did fairly well, though. Of course the goal is to strive for TDN 5 result on the exam, which is the highest score you can receive and basically equates to being proficient in the C1 level of the language, but I don't suppose I managed that. Maybe on the first 2 sections, but definitely not on the last 2. I will be surprised and highly disappointed in myself, however, if I don't end up with a TDN 4.

Once I was done with the test, I had to go straight home and pick up Amelie from Esther's office. Since I had to leave so early in the morning and Olaf was in Basel, Esther had to walk Amelie and then took her with her to her office so that she didn't have to drive back home and then back to her office again. Amelie was definitely happy to see me when I got there. So Amelie and I walked home, I relaxed for a little bit (I think I managed to get in a 15 minute nap) and then Esther came home with the kids so we could all get ready to go to the St. Martin parade at the Kindergarten. This year Pauline had her own lantern that she made in the Kindergarten, as opposed to having to use an old one of Gustav's. She was very proud of her lantern. Since it was raining we got the kids all decked out in their rain suits, put plastic bags around their lanterns so they didn't get wet, and headed out. To be completely honest I don't think the St. Martin celebration was nearly as nice this year as it was last year, and I can guarantee that I'm not the only one. For starters, St. Martin didn't have a horse this year because the horse was at another lantern parade. Second, the bon fire was rather small, as opposed to last year when it was ridiculously huge, a fact which highly disappointed Gustav. And, to top it off, because of one woman throwing a fit about the fact that there had been champagne present at a small birthday celebration for the woman who runs the Kindergarten, any and all alcohol has now been completely forbidden from Kindergarten events. That means there was no Glühwein, only tea and hot chocolate. It was quite clear that this was unacceptable, because basically once the parade through Königsdorf was done and the kids had all received their bread men from St. Martin, the place cleared out. Last year everyone hung around for a long time, enjoying the fire and sipping on Glühwein. This year, there was no celebration, nobody wanted to stick around, and it genuinely felt like it was incomplete. So, Esther and I came home and made our own Glühwein and homemade Eggnog. It was our little toast to me completing the exam and a proper end to St. Martin.

Yesterday I spent most of the day babysitting. Esther and Olaf went to the soccer game in Köln so I stayed home with the kids. When Esther and Olaf got back, I went to go take care of Zeynep and Elif because Güner and Seydi had a function to go to. It was a really easy night, just long. They didn't get home until 2 in the morning. But Zeynep mostly listened to me and I didn't have to struggle with her at all, and Elif was quite simple in comparison to last time. She didn't cry very much at all, mostly just when I laid her down to change her diaper. I think she thought I was putting her to bed, and that's what she was fussing about. After I get Zeynep ready and in bed I took Elif into the bedroom, turned out all the lights and closed the door and just held her in my arms with a little stuffed sheep that played a lullaby as I wandered around the room. Within 15 minutes (with very little crying) she was mostly asleep, so I laid down on the bed for a few minutes with her on my chest until she was sound asleep before I put her in her bed. That was at 9, and she was completely silent until about 11. As soon as I heard her fussing I went into the bedroom, picked her up and held her against my chest again, and she went right back to sleep. That was much better and easier than last time, when I had to wander around the apartment for an hour while she cried the whole time. She is so precious, though. Once they got back Seydi drove me home and I went straight to bed.