Frosty der Deutscher Schneeman von Niedergebisbach

Er war von Kari gemacht.

Alles gute zum mein Geburtstag

Photos: The front of the house this mornign, then outside my window the birhtday snowman, then me on friday also outside my window.

Well, here's the update. We have over 2 feet of snow so far, and it hasn'e let up for the last day and a half. I go to school late on Tuesday's, and I get up and look out my window and there is a happy little snow man looking at me wishing me a happy birthday, compliments of Stefanie. So after I finish getting ready, I go upstairs and Stefanie is still here because the bus never came! WOohoo. So she was going to come with me. So we go and guess what, the bus I usually take at 9 never came either. We waited for 20 minutes and then went back home. So I am staying home from school today! On my birthday...only bummer is that I think some friends at school were going to do something for me, and I'm not there. Well thats okay, it can wait until tomorrow. Hopefully I can make it tomorrow. Tonite we are going to the theatre to see Der Nussknacker performed by a Russian ballet. I am looking foward to that, I have never seen a ballet before! Let alone the Nutcracker.

Yesterday I did something sehr super cool after school. I went cross country skiing in the ''back 40'' as American's call it, the land behind the house. I havent been cross country skiing (langlaufen) since I was really little! It was a little hard because all the snow is perfect powder, but then once i got to the top of the hill, i figured I could cruise down. HAH I still had to push with the poles. Well after a few times going over the same trails I made, I could finally go somewhat fast. That was sooo nice. I am sure my trails are covered with half a foot or more of new snow though. Oh well, later I will just make it all over again. woohoo! I am just loving this snow, it is SOOOOOOO BEAUTIFUL!!!! I love it, even if it causes problems. Like late or non showing buses. I dont care about that though, because then I get to stay home! And play in the snow yeahh!!! Ok that's all...oh and I head that there is snow in Redding???

7+ hours in the kitchen

Well I made Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. We had chicken though...but by the time it made it to the table it didn't look like chicken. I dont really know how to cut chicken into pieces...but neither did the rest of the family. They don't eat chicken that often, and when they do, it's chicken breasts, and usually fried (that's one thing that I really really miss...food baked in the oven. The oven is mostly just used for baking...I only remember one time that a main dish was cooked in the oven...too much grease in the frying pan). Anyway, I was trying to cut it and then Manfred proceeded to take one of those bone meet electric cutter things and just cut right downt he center of the chicken and then Carola just kind shredded it into pieces and put it all on the serving plate. It was funny, but sad, because my beautiful chickens were mangled and torn apart. Oh wel it's just food and its all gone now. I made stuffing too, and that was some darn good stuffing, thanks to a mix of Aunt Kathy's recipe, allrecipes.com, and my own ideas. And then mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole (allrecipes.com), Jello (sugar free from the states...they have jello here, but only about 3 flavors..and no sugar free. I think everyone thought that I made it from scratch, lol, because they kept saying that I have to make it again), rolls (grandmas recipe mmmmm), and a pumpkin pie. I have made this pumpkin pie (same recipe) before and it came out beautifully. BUT because of the lack of fresh pumpkin, and canned pumpkin puree, I had to made due with chunks of pumpkin in a jar in water. I figured it would work, I would just blend them up and it would be the same. So I did that, and then see that they dont have sweetened condensed milk here, just condensed milk. SO then I had to check the internet for the content of sugar in sweetened condensed milk. 40%. ok...I'll just add 40% worth of sugar. Ok did that. The mix doesnt look dark enough. Ok a little more sugar and more nutmeg and cinnamon. Ok it looks ok i guess. Now put it into the pie dish. Stupid pie dish! Not the same as AMerican dishes, too deep. Half of my perfect crust has now caved in over the top of the pie. oh well we are just going to eat it. Ok in the oven. 15 minutes later I add the topping. 45 minutes and it should be done. 45 mintes later...well thats definitely not set. ok a little longer...and longer... ok it should be set by now. if i wait any longer the walnuts in the topping will be charcoal. oh good, its cooled and not shaking, althought it looks like its deflated. hmmm ok time to eat it now. cut cut cut, slice. well that definitely doesnt look or feel like pumpkin pie. more like mushy chunky slightly dipping pumpkin baby food. oh well too late now to cook any longer. put it on the plate. not pretty like normal pumpkin pie. the only thing that made it taste partially good, in my opinion, is the topping. everyone else liked it, or said they did. well they ate it, although didnt go for seconds, like normal with everything else i have made. i wasnt happy with it at all. i am on a mission to find real pumkin...and i saw a recipe on the internet that uses melted ice cream rather than sweetened condensed milk. and i at least know that ice cream has sugar in it. so i will try that one. it had a lot of 5 star ratings. so thats my plan.

It snowed another few inches last night. I just love it. Its so pretty but sooo cold! The other night around 9pm it was -12°C....that's 10.4 F- and the daytime temp hovers around 0°C. But thats good because it means the snow isnt melting. Its snowing right now too. Melanie, last night I ate some snow for you. I just finished taking a shower and opened the window to let the fog out and scooped some fresh fallen snow off of the window sill and ate it for you. I love the sound too. When it is dead quiet, but you can just hear it all falling and landing on the ground and in the trees, etc. I even when trotting around in the snow covering the lawn outside my room before I showed. in a tank top and shorts and even rolled in it...it was dark and cold and snowing but fun!!!! muhuhauhauha

Guess who woke up this morning to 8''+ of WHITE FLUFFY SNOW??

ME!!!! Apparently the weather people were predicting a lot of snow today...and they were right. Going to bed last night I hoped for snow, and sure enough, it came. I woke up (late...turned my alarm clock off. how typical of me), and Stefi told me to look outside. And all was white!! Well dark too, but WHITE! It was like Christmas or something. So I went and ate and rushedly got ready and then we walked down to the bus stop. Had to link arms to support each other as adidas samba indoor soccer shoes aren't made for the snow. It was so fun though! I walked outside...everything was dark, but perfectly covered in soft, dry, light, smooth snow. And then a gust of wind comes and lifts up a bunch of powder off the roof and blows right into my face and half open jacket...hadnt fully buttoned it yet and was still wrapping my scarf around my neck. The bus was 20 minutes late and then school was hard staying awake. I sleep more but still always seem to be so tired. Maybe it's becasue the classroom was perfectly quiet. Well even in the other classes that werent quiet....

Anyway. Came home and so after eating I put on my snow pants and jacket and got my camera and went picture taking. Stefi was walking the horses around and Manfred was blowing snow off the street and driveway with their way cool high tech snow-sucker-upper-blower-thing-machine. Anyway it looks expensive. hehehe And Carola was baking Linzer Torte (German cake thing. its good. mmmmm) And then I saw Stefanie with the horses and after we put them back went on an adventure to attempt sledding with the only sort-of-sled thing they had. Well I dont know if you could call it a sled...its just made for a butt to sit on. Well it didnt work as the hill wasnt steep enough we'd already trekked far enough up hill in the snow...so I just proceeded to make fun of the hill and did summer saults all the way down. I love the snow!!!!In some places there is as much as a foot. And there was snow in Säckingen too, but only a few inches. OK well I gotta go. I'm going ice skating tonite! AHHHHH Never done that before....that just means I will have a very bruised butt tomorrow! Tschüss!

this is not Redding weather

Last night I had soccer practice. And the field was frozen...now who can say they have played soccer or any other sport, on frozen used-to-be mud??? It was like we were playing on a hartplatz, a dirt field (which are just as common here as grass fields due to the weather), with little pebble. SOmething like 23° F outside. Yeah that's cold, coming from me, from California. I mean, we get cold weather in Redding, but not really cold. And its just the beginning. Average temp in the day is something like -10°C....Somewhere around 10-20F in the day, I believe. And they are predicting an entirely colder winter than before with lots of snow. That good for me, but also bad...because I am already freezing! So theres the weather report.

In other news....For the last week every night I have had dreams in German!!! Not entirely German, but there is German, and also spoken by me!!! That is so exciting!! Ich habe auf Deutsch geträumt! (i dont know if that last word is spelled right...I wrote it from hearing it,....).

And I saw Harry Potter!!! In Basel, Switzerland...very pretty city. It's about half an hour out of Säckingen with a car. The movie rocked, I loved it...havent said that about the first three. But I really enjoyed it. They can finally act. And another aweseom thing.....STARBUCKS!!! IN BASEL!!! SO of course I had to get myself a chai tea latte...and it was kinda expensive...3 to 4 euro...and then I got all my change back in Swiss Francs. Pretty money. Ok I have to go.