Gendarmenmarkt Weihnachtsmarkt

Lots of stuff happening. Went to my first German funeral on Tuesday night with the graveside service Wednesday morning. Similar in most respects to ours. They do have these cool electric candles where the bulbs wobble back and forth and they look like the real deal, but you invent these things when your country is full of castles and palaces that you don't want to burn down. It was very sad and mercifully short (the service, not the candle-lights). They don't have viewings normally.
Rob sang at the graveside service and did wonderfully, especially because he was able to sing the whole song without a plane flying overhead. The cemetery is rather close to Tegel airport (which is going to be moved in a few years) and so there were deafening roars every two to three minutes (and then Sebi yelling "dewrs anoddoh aiwrplane!"). They do put the casket in the ground then throw flowers and petals down. That was different for us, but gives you a little more sense of closure.

On Thursday Will had to get his five blue stitches out. He whined a lot about this, but I told him it needed to happen or his superhero name would be The Blue Eyebrow. He survived it and his neat pink scar is looking very good.

He brought home a broken eraser for me to glue back together. Evidently Sonia had broken Stefani's eraser and she gave it to Will to fix. I asked him if Stefani is his girlfriend and he said "Uh, I think, um hmmm." I hope so because Will described Stefani as 'the girl who always says thank you when she borrows my pencils' and I'm all in favor of gratitude.
So after school and the stitches, we came here to the Gendarmenmarkt Weihnachtsmarkt. It is the most upscale of the markets we've seen. They had entertainment and whole restaurants set up and the shopping was fun too, though it was very crowded for a stroller. The kids were manic, but we all got food and more kinderpunsch. We've had several kinds now. One is like hot Hawaiian Punch; another is a lot like wassail; there was an elderberryblossom drink that was too much like Theraflu for me, though the elderberry juice version was good; my favorite was the hot cherry juice. Good stuff.