Emilie's First Communion

For the past seven month, Emilie has been studying with me to make her First Reconciliation and First Communion at our English-language parish here in Germany.

A group of 13 kids made their First Reconciliation a few months ago in a special little service. The kids sat in the pews of the church with their parents as Father gave them a little talk reminding them of the meaning of the sacrament and pointing out how each child would sit in a chair across from him behind the altar for their confession. We could see them, but not be able to hear them as music would be playing from a boom box and would drown out their voices. When he finished his introduction, he said, "Alright then, who's going to go first?" All the kids looked at each other, with a look of "Not me!" when Emilie piped up, "I'll go," and walked confidently up to the altar. She was not as nervous as Micaela and Emilie had been because she was allowed to bring a script with her in case she got nervous and forgot what she was supposed to say. She finished quickly and on the way home said, "It was fine, but Mom! He forgot the last line of the script, where he was supposed to say 'Go in the peace of Christ.'" "That's not a big deal," I said. "Well," Emilie continued, "I told him he forgot the last line." "Ah, Emilie," I said after I finished coughing as a result of gasping too suddenly, "You need to learn that delicate art of quitting while you're ahead."

For her First Communion, we gave Em's straight hair a bit of a curl.

The bell tower of St. Mary's -- the English-speaking Catholic parish of Liederbach. We can see the bell tower and hear the bells from our house.

We are the sister parish of St. Leonhard's International English-Speaking Catholic Parish in Frankfurt. If you speak English, live in the Frankfurt area and want to attend an English Catholic Mass, you'll go to one of these two churches. We have parishioners from the U.S., Britain, Ireland, Mexico, the Philippines, and many other countries around the world.

The kids had some professional portraits taken outside before Mass.

We had time to take a few pictures in the sanctuary before Mass. Note the hard, bare wood kneelers that we kneel on every Sunday. It took a few Sundays to figure out the right angle to place your knees on the wood.

We met up with the rest of the family before Mass. Becca was having a bad hair day.

There was no photography during the Mass, except by some professional photographers and we haven't gotten their photos yet.  Here are the kids after Mass, which went very well.

The Church gave each child a cross from Jerusalem and....

....a certificate.

Delicious American-style cake from the U.S. Commissary in Wiesbaden.

Chatting with Father Stephen

Oh, yes. We had some drama this morning. As Emilie was getting dressed, I unwrapped her brand new white stockings only to discover that they were stocking-leggings and as a result only came down to the ankle. Panic ensued. You see, stores are closed on Sundays, so we were going to need to figure something out and fast. Frantically looking through Micaela's old clothes did not result in us finding any white stockings. What to do?

The only thing I could come up with was pinning the bottom of the leggings together since I didn't have enough time to sew them. I had bought leggings that were about two sizes too big because that was all they had at the store and so they were long enough to do pin.

Back home with Guinness

On the bridge over the Liederbach

With Mom and Dad. Do you see David's blue cast? It turns out he didn't need surgery after all on his broken wrist, but he does need to wear a regular hard cast for a month.

Opening some presents at home

Littlest Pet Shop is a hit

Money is a hit

Where Emilie chose to have her celebratory dinner

Em wearing a new dress with a matching scrunchie she got from Rebecca

Back home in our magnolia tree

James and Rebecca under our huge linden tree

Our Magnolia Tree

Our magnolia tree is in full bloom right now in our backyard. I was going to take a bunch of pictures of it, but thought having some people in the photos would be more interesting.

Falling off a seesaw

Laughing about falling off the seesaw

Tearfully showing Mommy her boo-boo

Checking out baby birds in a nest in the hedge

Stopping by Cologne

Before we left Brugge, David suggested that we stop in Cologne to see the famous cathedral since we would be passing right by the city. At some point during the drive, I asked, "The cathedral is known for being black. Was it built with black stone or is it just really dirty?" David's answer was, "Well, it's been around a long time, so it could be that it's dirty, but I'm not sure."

We parked in an underground parking garage right at the cathedral and as we made our way up the stairs, we could hear loud noises, lots of cracks and slams. "I think I know what that is," David said.

"Yup. Skateboards."  On the square to the side of the cathedral were about 25 or so skateboarders doing ollies and kickflips.

Better view of the side of the cathedral

The square in front of the church is a major gathering spot for tourists and troubadours.

Construction of Cologne Cathedral began in 1248 and took, with interruptions, until 1880 to complete. It is one of the world's largest churches and the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe.

For four years, 1880-84, it was the tallest structure in the world, until the completion of the Washington Monument. Because of its enormous twin spires, it also presents the largest façade of any church in the world.

I tried to stitch those two photos together to give a good view of the front of the church, but it didn't work well.

Remains of a Roman wall in the square in front of the church. There are what appear to be the ruins of a Roman temple underneath the cathedral itself.

Here is the answer to the question "Why is the cathedral black?" In the middle of the 19th century the majority of the population began heating with coal, which affected the church's stone. In addition, train tracks were laid near the cathedral and for nearly 100 years steam engines drove by the cathedral every day and blew their smoke on the building and there was a nearby coal power plant that has since been moved.

As you can see in the bottom left part of the façade, the cathedral is currently undergoing a cleaning. The air in the city today is much cleaner, so one hopes the church will stay clean for a long time.

Above the main door

Entering the church

Beautiful stained glass window showing the adoration of the Magi. We were in the cathedral for only 3 or 4 minutes when we were politely ushered out as Mass was about to start. Had we had more time, we would have discovered that the cathedral houses the Shrine of the Three Kings, a large gilded sarcophagus dating from the 13th century, traditionally believed to hold the remains of the Three Wise Men, whose bones and 2,000-year-old clothes were discovered at the opening of the shrine in 1864.

In the square is an exact replica of the flourishes that sit atop the two spires.

A bit of the Köln (Cologne) skyline.

The 1½ hour drive home was some of the most cheerful time we have ever spent in the car.  The kids amused themselves surprising well gazing out the car window and identifying objects they spied in the cloud formations.  And what they saw got more and more outlandish, for example, "Hey! That cloud over there looks just like Elvis,...if Elvis had a long beard and wore a big pointed hat."   All the while, we listened to songs from Micaela's ipod and sang along with Green Day, Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson and the Black Eyed Peas.  And then we heard the opening to Lady Gaga's Bad Romance.  We all lost it when 4-year old Rebecca joined in perfectly for the lines:

Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah!
Roma-Roma-ma-ah!
Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance

and then she sang perfectly the "Ohhhh" background accompaniment to the other parts of the song.

Note to self: Be careful of the music you play around Becca now that she can understand and sing along. The radio stations here play uncensored songs and we routinely hear the sh-word and the f-word in songs. Becca could get herself into trouble if she sings such songs in school back in the U.S.