Family Blog

Yesterday we got a nice letter from Wisconsin. I had to smile myself when I read it. The letter ends with
You Know your an AFS Host Family When...
...You get "care packages" from distant lands....
Unfortunately our "care packages" for christmas haven't still arrived yet (after 5 weeks!). We hope that they haven't gone lost.

Manuel and Philip both enjoyed Christmas very well. They didn't seem to miss the German "Weihnachten". Both wrote us enthusiastic mails about their impressions and presents from the Christmas Ev and the day after. Perhaps they meet each other at Eastern which is the best present for them as Philip wrote in his blog.

This year Christmas Evening will be different to other years - without Manuel and Philip who are in America. Normally we would go to the Stiftskirche in Stuttgart to listen our boys and the Hymnus Choir but this year we will go to the Lukaskirche in Gerlingen where I played the tuba in the trombone band in former times. After church my sister from Australia will come with my parents and celebrate christmas with us. Cordula's father is already here. But nevertheless we will miss Manuel and Philip.

Our packages we sent 5 weeks ago haven't received at our host families in America although the man of the post office had told us. I guess Manuel and Philip are sad about that. but we can't change it. For them christmas will be much more different as all the years before. Here in Germany you go to church on the evening of 24th and then you get your present after dinner. In America the Santa Clauss will come through the chimney and you unpack the presents in the morning of the 1st Christmas Day (25th). And then you go to church.

But I think for all of us it will be an unforgettable christmas event.

Merry Christmas

It's getting early dark now in the evening - the night starts here at 5:00 PM. Also Christmas is coming nearer and nearer and it is a strange feeling to know that only 60% of the family will sit around the Christmas tree.

Manuel and Philip get more and more excited because the package we sent a month ago still hasn't arrived. For them it will be a totally different Christmas than the years before. In the US Christmas is celebrated in the morning of the 25th and afterwards you go the church . Here in Germany first you go to church and then you celebrate it in the evening of the 24th.

Yesterday it was Nikolaus Day here in Germany. The children put their shoes in front of the door and the next day they find some sweets and other little things in the shoes. Unfortunately, I was not at home but at work in Wiesbaden. But I got a picture from him ;-)

Since several weeks you can hear Christmas songs in the radio as Manuel wrote us. This weekend he went with the whole family in the forest to fell a Christmas tree. He watched their dog which seems to be not so easy...


Philip and his family has already started last week to decorate their house using eight boxes with Christmas balls, fairy lights and two snow men.

Today is Thanksgiving in America. This isn't celebrated here in Germany but in America it is a holiday. Manuel will spend this day with his family at dad's brother near Chicago. He is pretty excited, because he will see the whole family (and there will be six dogs in the house) and he will experience an American Thanksgiving.


Philip is back from Florida and has no school this week. He and his family began to decorate outside and inside of the house for Christmas...Philip will spend Thanksgiving with his family at dad's parents. Read more on his blog.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness..." This is the first sentence of the American Declaration of Independence which Carmen has to learn for school till tomorrow.

Manuel has started swimming-practice and the beginning is very hard for him. He never had practiced butterfly and I know it from my experience long time ago that it is not so easy. But much harder is that the training also starts at Saturday already at 7 o'clock in the morning.

Philip enjoys one week school holiday before the 2nd trisemester starts next week. He has cooked a pudding and waits now till it is cooled down.

Philip and his family is back from Walt Disney Land and Cap Canaveral. As you can read in his blog he was with his family at the Oktoberfest and on a mission to the Mars.

Manuel has finished cross country and started swimming.It's getting cold in Wisconsin (and also here in Germany).

Today we received a greeting card from Walt Disney World. Last Friday Philip and his family has gone to Florida to visit the biggest amusement park of the world.


Manuel has caught a cold and must lie in his bed. Unfortunately there is a photo shooting tomorrow at school for the year book where he can't participate. Get well soon, Manuel!

It is more and more business as usual. We get the news from America by email or read them in Philip's or Manuel's blog. Two weeks ago Manuel sent us a a mail about You know you are German when.... And as he told us (nearly) everything is true, or? ;-)

At school Manuel presented how he feels as an exchange student. As we heard from his host parents he is a good debater.
Philip´s 1st trimester comes to its end and this week he writes the first final tests and has to finish the program of his roboter. At the end of this week he will visit together with his family Florida and Disney Land. Enjoy it, Philip.

One of the biggest events last month was Halloween. It looks for us like carneval - everybody was dressed up and this took the whole week.

Don't be frightened - it is not Pumuckl, it is only Philip at Halloween! Read his Halloween blog if you want to know how he spent this day.
Or read Manuel's blog entry for halloween.

This weekend the summertime ended here in Germany. But in America there is still summertime and I don't know if the time difference is now one hour less or one hour more. So it switched the timezone on my computer to see it - Chicage is now 6 hours behind us (instead of 7 hours).

This weekend I got the order to buy a bunch of flowers for Cordula's birthday. And to hire Carmen as flower consultant. So I did.

Philip was this week on the grandparent's yacht - a 20m motor yacht. The biggest boat we were (except a ferry boat) was an 11m sailing yacht. It was during my time at the university and we were 10 students on board.

Today a postcard from Manuel was in our mailbox. It is dated from 18th of October.

Yesterday we were invited from friends. He works at a company who builds boiler for beerbrewer companies and he told us something about Wisconsin. Wisconsin is the land of "beer and bratwürste" and it has a German history - many people have German ancestors (ok, not all are called "Muffler" as on the picture from Thursday).

It gets cold here in Germany and the first snow has fallen (not here but in higher regions). But we heard that in Wisconsin it can be much colder than here in Gerlingen. We will see what Manuel will tell us in the next months...