New Year's Eve

How does that phrase go? "When in Rome...." Living abroad and taking on the philosophy "When in Rome" gives you permission to do things you would not have done back home. Case in point: Setting off fireworks in your own backyard.

Germans call New Year's Eve Silvester (December 31 is the feast day of Saint Silvester) and to quote Wikipedia's page on Germany's New Year's Eve traditions, "Germans have a reputation of spending large amounts of money on firecrackers and fireworks."  

Back in the U.S., I forbade setting off any firecrackers or fireworks on July 4th. Watching Good Morning America and seeing reports on how many injuries there are July 4th from people setting off their own fireworks will do that to you. When we were little, we ran around with sparklers, but when I read that sparklers burn at temperature as hot as 1800 to 3000°F and are the source of the vast majority of legal firework-related injuries, I banned those as well. My poor kids have never waved around sparklers (that I know of).

A few days ago, David was going to the mall and I said, "If you want to buy fireworks, this would be a good day to do that." David got these ones at C+A, which is like Kohl's. I don't know who was more excited about our upcoming Silvester fireworks display, the kids or David.

It was a rainy day though.  Constant drizzle.  Would we be able to set them off at all?

But first thing's first. To be good Romans (Germans), we needed to watch Dinner for One. The 18-minute single take black-and-white 1963 British TV recording is a New Year's Eve tradition all over Europe, but is especially popular in Germany.

The story is very simple: Miss Sophie is celebrating her 90th birthday with four old admirers. They are all dead, however, so her butler – appropriately called James - serves up the food as well as playing all their parts and drinking their toasts. He gets tipsier and tipsier and repeatedly trips over the tiger rug on the floor as he dashes around the table.

Several times during the dinner, he asks, “The same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?" She replies, “The same procedure as every year, James!” That punch line, "same procedure as every year", has become a catch phrase in Germany.  Our kids laughed more at the hysterical audience laughter, though, than at James' antics.

And then it was midnight. The rain had stopped a few hours earlier and David first set off the Matador fireworks, a set of 36 fireworks that went off one after the other. They were a lot bigger than I thought they would be. Standing on our patio, I thought for a second, "Oh my God, what have I allowed to have happen?" I was videotaping at the same time and I believe when we rewind and watch the video of those first fireworks, you hear some shrieks from the kids and then me saying a few choice naughty words.

Church bells began ringing and all of Liederbach exploded with flashes of light and loud booms. Our Matador kept shooting out brilliant fireworks. And I got to try out the fireworks setting on my camera for the first time.

David looked like a happy little boy as he set off the different fireworks. There were smaller Roman candles, firecrackers, snaps, and...

...these crazy little fireworks that skitted across the yard, chasing down David as he ran to get out of the way. We called them Gremlins. And one did hit him in the ankle, which made us roar with laughter.

Captured on still, this one looks like a bird taking off.

Doesn't this one look like an Alpine Wanderer (hiker), with a hat, pipe and a knapsack on his back?

Another little Gremlin.  Liederbach finally grew quite again at 12:45pm, or 0:45, according to my clock radio.

Hmmm....I have the feeling we may just be setting off fireworks next July 4th.