Two Markets and a Ward Christmas Party

On Saturday Rob took off just after 8:00am to deliver all of the stuff we had to bring to the ward Christmas party. He took two huge IKEA bags full of decorations and wrapping paper and zucchini bread and brownies. I have learned to bake a few things here that turn out reasonably well. The secret is to bring American baking soda/powder and look for recipes without brown sugar.
Once again Rob stuck it all in the stroller, and once again he managed to confuse some poor person who thought he had a baby in there with all that stuff. He said the busses were already completely berzerk even at that hour. The bus was full when they pulled away, but at the next stop there were 40 japanese tourists waiting to get on. At the next there were 10 italians who all needed to buy tickets, and so on. I guess we missed high tourist season here in the summer, so it surprises us now.
Next we took Jenny and Ben to a couple of Christmas markets. They are the children of Monika, whom Rob taught when he was here as a missionary ages ago. Now Jenny is the nursery leader and Sebastian loves her.
Here I am with Jenny and Maddie at the Sophienstrasse environmentally-friendly market. It had lots of cool things like felted scarves and earthy pottery and educational books on butterflies and birds. There was even a stall called Senfsalon (Mustard Salon). The kids were nonplussed.

We did find a great playground which not only had slides and swings but even rocks on springs. Yup, you heard it here first, rocking rocks. The kids had a great time jumping and climbing on them.

We left Hackesher Markt and walked across Unter den Linden where there was an anti-hunting demonstration. Complete with an anti-hunting rap. In German.
Then we walked to the Schlossplatz market, which is at the other end of the Weihnachtsmarkt spectrum. Each market has a slightly different emphasis, and this one was definitely the carnival. The kids rode on this sort of rocket/dumbo ride, and then went with Ben and Jenny on the Wilde Maus which was a small roller coaster. They thought that it was The One True Christmas Market.
Then we ran across town to the stake center so we could decorate for the ward Christmas party. Ben entertained the kids by sword fighting with wrapping paper rolls. Ah, nothing better than a place outside to run and scream. Rob and I set up tables and chairs and arranged centerpieces. Thank you to IKEA for decking out the ward party and our family tree in one fell swoop.
Ah, the ward Christmas party. It's an event that can be counted on to bring me much misery and this one was no exception. The last one I actually enjoyed was the one before Maddie could walk, and it has been downhill ever since (though the year that we all had to dress up in bathrobes and sandals in the snow and sit on the cultural hall floor in the dark and eat ham and cheese aram wraps like the Hebrews (?!) was a particular low point). Rob was the emcee at this event and so I wrangled the kids who ducked out and ran around (Sebi), cried (Will), and stuck the centerpiece on her head (Maddie).

Then the Weihnachtsman came and the Primary sat up there and were called to account by name. I guess it's a tradition to tell him a story or a poem when you talk to him, which would be a great thing to be working on during December. My favorite was Ryan, a bespectacled nursery colleague of Sebi's, who recited a poem about a baked apple that exploded.

I decided that ward Christmas parties are not for my demographic. They are for the kids to get all sugared up and scream and cry at Santa Claus. They are for some of the older folks to see hyper kids and remember that time of their lives with fondness. I'll bet they're not remembering the part where their children were wearing the table decorations and crying and running and screaming around the church.