Home for the holidays

Christmas Market in Mainz

Okay, okay. I'm not ACTUALLY home, but I'm at the home in Germany with the family this week, since I decided to take off from work and take advantage of the slowness there during this time.  (Do I even have a job right now?  I guess I will wait to be concerned about it until Wednesday.)

For my time off, and at their request, I spent some special time with Livvy and Griffin.  Livvy wanted to go out at night time, so at 5:00, we took the bus into Wiesbaden and walked around the Christmas market and got her a Steiff raccoon.  What a cutie. It was the "best day ever" for her since she unexpectedly got something. I have been intending to get all of the children a Steiff while they're here as their quintessential German souvenir. Alex chose a lorikeet and Griffin chose a kitten.  Neither of them care for them much, but maybe they will a bit later.  Livvy chose a raccoon, and it is SO cute. I might have to get myself a Steiff!  Lilly cried because she wanted it. But I will take her to get a Steiff, God willing, when the weather gets nice again, and she is a little bit older. It will be the "best day ever."

Griffin wanted to go spend a gift card he had received for his birthday from one of his classmates, and I wanted to go to the Mainz Christmas market, so we did that. It was the "best day ever" for him, as well.  We had a good time eating noodles at Mosch Mosch. We also went into the Mainz Dom, where there was an orchestra practicing followed closely by a harpist playing for a woman singing Ave Maria. And it was amazing.  I had never heard a harp live before.  It was much prettier than the Mozart music box that I had bought for the twins when they were born.  I was surprised.  And I was also surprised by how well Griffin sat and listened.  When we left, he said, "That wasn't that bad. I thought the church was going to take forever!" 

Today I had intended to take Alex to Rudesheim for the last day of their Christmas market, but it rained all day, so I was just going to go by myself, but it rained all day (still), and I wasn't crazy about walking around the market in the rain all alone for the day.  I probably should have gone, but since I didn't, we watched Christmas cartoons and read Luke chapter 23 together. Actually, Alex read most of our chapter tonight.  I played with the kids a lot today, and it was nice.  I'm rather enjoying antagonizing them about the presents from David and I that I wrapped.  They've already opened their gifts from Grandma and Nana, but the gifts from us are eating away at them (since they know they exist!). I'm pretty sure they will be pleased with their "loot" from Santa Claus.  I'm so excited for it, and it's only two days away!

Merry Christmas, everybody!  I hope you have a great day and get to enjoy some time with your family!

Rothenburg--just to keep the Christmas markets in a single blog post.

Lilly LOVES this choo choo train from Grandma.

Wiesbaden Christmas market.

The hat girl strikes a pose in front of a hat shop.

The Mainz Christmas market nativity.

Inside Mainz Dom. The interesting thing about these cathedrals is how different they look every time you visit based on the light in the sky.

Mainz Christmas market.

Harry Potter Lego set from Nana.  Think he was happy about it?

Schneeballen!!

Remember my last post where I was so at peace and thankful to my husband for the time to visit the Christmas market alone? That peace didn't last very long, and David and I got into a huge fight the following Thursday. I was SOOO mad at him for the way he treated me. And he was SOOO mad at me for the way I treated him.

Life works that way sometimes, doesn't it?

We're on the mend now, and we're all on our way to Rothenburg ob der Tauber to visit the Christmas market and hopefully get a moment with the one and only Santa Claus!

Rothenburg is one of the the prettiest cities in Germany. We visited it once and walked around a bit in the summer. You can walk the wall and visit churches. Today I am excited to see it decorated for Christmas and to visit Kathe Wohlfahrt. I will get myself a quintessentially German Christmas ornament there. I'm hoping to get a mug too, but we'll see.

...Ha! The best-laid plans, right? We saw Santa walking, but he looked fairly haggard, so we didn't follow him. We got candy and schneeballen (tasted kind of like a funnel cake only crunchier and not as sweet), but I didn't get an ornament because the kids were just not in a mood to let me shop. Livvy was too cold. I really had her dressed well. She wore some long johns and I even brought some hand warmers for inside their mittens. However, Livvy wouldn't use the hand warmers, and her hands and feet were freezing.  I didn't want to push it with frostbite, so we were only there for about an hour and a half before going home.

It's okay. We may go back when the weather is nice, and Kathe is open all year. We made it back to Wiesbaden, and we're checking out the new Chinese restaurant on post... For the second night in a row! It is just so convenient and easy to pay with a Visa and order in English! And tomorrow is grocery store day. And perhaps another Christmas market, if I can convince David again for two days in a row?!

Such a sweetie!

Alex read to me at school.

The five in Rothenburg. Such a cute town!

Griffin and Livvy playing Mom and Dad with their baby.

Organ music and the bells

High on my list while I have been living here has been to visit an old church while someone was playing an organ. I finally got to do it today, alone, with no worries of who else is enjoying or hating something I've been wanting to do for a long time.

I wasn't certain I would make it to the church on time, since I took the last bus that could get me there, and it was running a few minutes late. I got in the door at 11:28 for an 11:30 start time, and I'm pretty sure I was one of the last half dozen or so admitted. The Germans are punctual as a culture.  It wasn't standing room only, which I thought was unfortunate because a man was showcasing his talent, but of course was fortunate for me because I didn't have to stand in a crowd for a half hour.

I found out about the performance at the Wiesbaden Marktkirche through the Christmas market program. I wasn't sure if the kids would like it, even though I thought they might because they have seen (and enjoy seeing) a friend of mine from elementary school play the organ on Facebook. But I wanted to really enjoy this for myself. It was a good decision.

Not two minutes after I sat down, soft music began whispering through the congregation. I smiled as one note after another reverberated from the walls in the giant room. The acoustics in the church were great, as I had thought they would be. The music started out sombre and slow, and the acoustics were such that even my deaf ears were able to hear in spite of the soft tones. The audience was quiet and still.  There were no distractions, save the beauty of the church itself. A minute passed. Two minutes. I took a breath and relaxed, recovering from the hurried transit from my house to the church.

The organist is Hans Uwe Hielscher. I know nothing of him, except what the flyer tells me: He has been at the Marktkirche Wiesbaden since 1979 and has performed in more than 3500 organ concerts. His main focus of study was French organ music. Wiki tells me that he is 73 years old.

Although I played the violin all through middle and high school, I am surprisingly musically ignorant.  It's not that someone failed to teach me, but that my brain lost that information to make room for things on Army Acquisition and timing of kids' doctor's appointments.  My ignorance does not detract from my enjoyment. I appreciate the light, smooth flow of notes and the stillness within the room. I'm so glad I didn't bring the kids.

There's a pause after the first section, but no quiet rustling from the audience. They are perfectly still, as am I, waiting for the next piece. As this is my first experience, it is going to be good even if it is bad, but it is not bad in the least. It is lovely.

I know nothing of the program, which reads like this:

Charles Marie Wider (1844-1937)

Symphonie Nr. 2 in D-Dur op. 13/2 (That's D-major.)

* Praeludium circulare

* Pastorale

* Andante

* Scherzo

* Adagio

* Finale

I can tell you honestly that when it was over, I wasn't ready for it to be. I wanted to listen to "Adagio" and the finale for another 20 minutes at least. The music for the last six minutes could be felt by the soles of my feet. It enveloped me, coming to me from all sides. I could feel it in my chest, but at the same time, it wasn't so loud as to be uncomfortable. It was perfect.

I am grateful that I had this opportunity. In a way, sitting at an organ concert in a magnificent church was an act of worship to God. I couldn't help but wonder if Herr Hielscher worshiped God as he played. I hope so.

Now that I have had this experience, I would like to experience it again, only in a different church. I enjoyed it immensely; not just the music and the church, but also taking 30 minutes to slow down and listen. That is a good thing to do around this time of year.

The concert ended at 1200, and at 1205, the bells went off in a more-than-usual musical song. I went outside, ordered some gluhwein, did some shopping, and enjoyed the Christmas market.  Thanks to my husband, it was a pretty much perfect, solitary day, amidst an enormous crowd of people. It was the paragon of life in Germany as I had pictured it.  I haven't had very many moments like that where I have been able to see it for what it is while it was going on, and the fact that I could see it this way as I was experiencing it made it even more special for me.  By the time I was on the bus to come home, I was looking forward to seeing my family, fully satisfied and content with where I am, who I am, and what I have.

God is good.  Life is good.