Happy New Year

A very Happy New Year to our family and friends back home. We hope that 2008 is year of health and happiness for you all.

We had a very simple New Year's Eve that ended with a bang, well, many bangs to tell the truth.

We had a restful day of video games, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows readings and cartoon watching. We promised the kids they could stay up till midnight, but first, we needed to follow the German New Year's Eve tradition of watching the English production of Dinner for One on TV.

This is a short play about a 90-year old woman having dinner with four friends. They have sadly all passed away, so her butler plays the part of all four friends, toasting her over and over, and by the end is quite sloshed. I had never heard of it before, but it made the Guinness Book of Records for most frequently repeated TV program in the world for many, many years, but is only a real hit in Germany.

So we watched it, chuckled a bit and right as it ended, the clock struck midnight. Then the fireworks began. I am not just talking about your everyday fireworks you can buy at Walmart. These were serious fireworks being set off all over our little corner of Liederbach. They were being set off right along our backyard, off the sides of neighboring houses, to the front and to the back of us. And it went on and on, lasting over 30 minutes. Guinness didn't enjoy it much, but we did.

New Year's Day, we were invited to an Open House at the consulate compound. What a strange feeling it was to walk into the family's apartment, see ESPN playing on the TV and American food (chili -- yum) being offered. Just seeing a container of Daisy Sour Cream made me jump.

These people from the consulate lead such interesting lives. For many of them, this stay in Germany is just one of many. They have lived all over the world and one woman said she doesn't ever want to go back to the U.S. permanently. She said, "We love being nomads."