We ended last Monday with an unexpected three inches of snow, and then we started the week off with even more. Luckily, there were some breaks where we saw blue skies for short moments.
While the kids made it to school on time on Tuesday, they delayed school on Wednesday due to a predicted ice storm that never actually materialized. When we woke up, we found that we had only gotten more snow. A third storm moved in Thursday, and the kids were released early from school. This time we got sleet and freezing rain, with another dusting of snow. The “Scandinvian Cloud” is still floating over us so temperatures continued to be in the 20s and below.
This weekend, it was Brooklyn’s turn to go to Italy for her trip with the wrestling team. They were supposed to leave Thursday night but due to the ice storm, they left Friday morning instead. After they arrived Friday afternoon, they got in a practice and dinner, and Saturday was their wrestling match. They left directly afterwards and headed back to Stuttgart, where they got in at about 3am Sunday morning.
Friday night, Matt and I met some friends in Birkach for a Christmas tree bonfire. This reminded us of some we had been to back in Maryland, but on a much larger scale. Here, everyone in the town brought out their trees and the fire department organized the huge fire where they sold gluwein and kinderpunsch. The built an inner pyramid structure out of wooden pallets to support the 100+ tree pyre. It was so cool!
Saturday morning, Ryan left for a camp-out with Boy Scouts so Matt and I were on our own again. It was still so cold, we used the time to catch up on things around the house and to prepare for my parent’s upcoming arrival, next week. That evening, we went to a friends house for dinner and card games.
By Sunday afternoon, Ryan was back at home as well. Both kids were exhausted and slept pretty much the rest of the day. We ended the weekend with dinner at our favorite burger restaurant, Corners. It was a super quick and quiet week!
Gilcrests Abroad 