The Prettiest Shepherd and More

So I always feel wistful at this point in the trip because I realize that I'm not going to see everything I wanted to. It makes me want to stay home I get so depressed about it. But there are a few things that are keeping me going.
The first one is Lift apfelschorle. I think I'm addicted to the stuff. It is like dry apple beer and it has just the right amount of bubbles and it is my pick-me-up (or maybe it's just that the name is "Lift"?). I'm really going to miss it.
The second one is this nondescript chocolate in a cellophane bag that Rob brought home from the grocery store. HOLY COW! It is so good! It says that it is quick-melting praline flavor, but I think it is Prozac Praline. MmmmHmmmm.
The third thing that gets me out of the door is Sebastian, who just has to get out and about. Here he is looking out the S-bahn window as he is wont to do. His latest and greatest lines are "I hear crabby" when the other kids are shouting and "OH! Dat'd be PERfect!" about any idea I float.

For those of you who are incredulous that we are over here spending Christmas, I just want you to know that we now have a Christmas tree, complete with star, lights, decorations, Fisher-Price nativity scene and Thomas the Tank Engine running around the bottom. We bought a used tree stand for 8 euros that I'm in love with. It is cast iron and has elves and reindeer on it and would cost $65 at Smith and Hawken. It is unlikely that I'll be able to bring it home, though, since it weighs about 20 pounds! One of our latest shenanigans is to send home Rob's clothes so that he can carry all of the research copies he's made here in our luggage. The things we do for the love of obscure German women!
And here is Maddie Lou as the shepherdess in the middle. Last night was the school Christmas program and she was one of the Three Rhyming Shepherdpersons. She knew all of her lines and she really was the most beautiful one up there. There was also a cello solo, a piano solo, and recorder choirs strutting their stuff. All the kids take recorder in the third grade here, though there is an option for conscientious objectors to learn the glockenspiel instead. It was lots of fun and I especially enjoyed the rough edges that are missing at Westridge: uncombed hair, angels wearing their mother's satin pjs or karate costumes, kids poking their heads out of the curtains, etc.

One thing, though, gives me pause about the whole charming event. It was a Christmas concert and there was a nativity and Christmas trees and carols about Santa and an advent wreath in the entry hall and all the trimmings. This is true of much of my experience here in Berlin: there's a light up Santa outside the hauptbahnhof and Christmas trees in apartment buildings on our street and everything says Frohes Weihnachten and I just wonder what it feels like to be Jewish or Muslim here. Am I out of my gourd or is this less politically (religiously) correct than in the states? It has made me think hard about where I fall on the prayer-in-school issue and the headscarves-in-schools issue.

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