Christmas time!

The past week has really made me feel like Christmas is coming. Starting last week with a visit from my friends Annie and Erin, who are teaching in Brussels. They came to check out the Frankfurt Christmas market. School is also winding down into Christmas. We had our Christmas concert, so the week also involved lots of practicing. And finally this week involved not one staff Christmas dinner, but two. The one last night was the official school one. Tomorrow we are having an unofficial one planned by Cara. 

So to start at the beginning: Annie and Erin's visit. They came Friday night, so Saturday morning we headed into Frankfurt to check out the market. We walked through the fields and had a great view of the city shining in the sun light. This was unusual - we've had so much rain and drizzle lately. We spent the day checking out the Christmas market, shopping, eating and wandering around the centre of downtown. We all bought some presents and crossed some things off our shopping lists. I showed them the Zeil, Alte Oper, Römer, Main and other things in that area. It was such a nice day! Annie and Erin also got to try some German food and drink. They had wurst for dinner, hot chocolate, glühwein, chocolate popcorn, brezels. There is so much food available at the Christmas markets it is always so tempting. 

Didn't take too many photos over the weekend, so stole some from Erin to share:

Erin and Annie with the Lebkuchen hearts

Erin and I in the Römer

Annie and Erin having some hot drinks

On Sunday I took them for a quick tour of my school in the morning. Then we again headed into Frankfurt. After some more Christmas shopping completed at the market I took them back to the airport for their flight back to Brussels. It was great having them here for the weekend. Thanks for coming! I can't wait to have more visitors next weekend - my family!!

This week at school has been quick and Christmas filled. We started off the week by practicing for the concert in our Monday morning assembly. I have been working with my class for the last few weeks getting ready for the concert on Wednesday. We performed "A Game of Letters". It was a poem, with each child speaking about the letter they were holding. In the end the letters spell Merry Christmas and we sung the chorus to We Wish You a Merry Christmas. The concert was yesterday and that took up most of the day. Sports was cancelled and we had a semi-full run through of the concert in the morning. Then after an early lunch the whole school walked down to the church in time for our 2.30 concert for parents. It was a great concert, even though a bit rough at the edges. For instance for some reason we were there at 2, and then had to sit and wait while trying to keep the kids under control. Also some of the parents were not that well behaved.... My favourite part was at the end when the teachers sang Deck the Halls. We hadn't told the kids we were going to and they were so excited. We had quite the applause at the end! 

A little side note about the week: On Tuesday afternoon we had a bit of excitement for a rainy day. Part way through the first period after lunch the fire alarm went off. So everyone evacuated into the parking lot. And then we all stood there. Without our coats, as it started to drizzle. I had my class, same as many others, jumping up and down trying to keep warm. Finally one of our heads came around (giving me the false hope we were going back inside) to tell us we were all walking down to the sports hall. The whole school then sat in the foyer and balcony of the sports hall waiting. In the foyer one of the teachers started singing camp song with the kids. I found out that the reason we couldn't go back inside was they couldn't turn the alarm off! Finally they did and we walked back to school, in some light rain. Bit of excitement to disrupt our afternoon :) On a good note, the school did a great job of following the plans they walked us through earlier in the year. 

Ok, back to Wednesday evening. After the Christmas concert I spent some time in hort with all of three students. Luckily the hort coordinator was there and let me go home early, because Kathrin picked me up just after six to drive into Frankfurt for our staff Christmas dinner. We were in a room at a restaurant right on the Römerberg, over looking the Christmas markets which was lovely. The dinner itself was good. Nothing too exciting, except riding the carousel in between our first and second course and Kathrin trying to catapult a chocolate across the room (without success). Nice to see everyone and have a traditional German goose dinner.