Thanksgiving

I completely missed Thanksgiving (although the real Thanksgiving is not until Dec. 5th this year so there is still time)--I guess I am getting used to being in Germany. Dec 5th is also a German holiday (shoes get put outside the door and filled with candy in the morning) that M is looking forward to.

We are still waiting to hear back from the new school so they can meet with our kids and see about a transfer.

Big news! V is pregnant and due in ~March! The kids are very excited and debating how they will raise the new baby. The obvious question that comes up is citizenship, as far as we understand it at this point, since I do not have a permanent work visa, the baby will not get dual citizenship at birth. However, this seems to be a moot point anyway as Germany does not allow dual citizenship in general, and she will loose German citizenship as an adult if she decided to keep US citizenship (I suspect this is all related to the idea that people should visit Germany to work but not to live).

The weather has turned dark, and cool and rainy now. The sun has come out a few times over the last few weeks but in general it has been very shy. In a way I like this kind of weather, but it would also be nice to get a break for a few days. One of the people at work brought in a crate of fresh smoked herring the other day. He catches them out on the Baltic, soaks them for a day in salt water, then smokes them and we ate them right away. I am used to smoked fish being hard and dried out but when it is fresh it is very good. From the smell of smoked fish, people appeared out of nowhere and started chatting and soon the whole table was surrounded by people eating the fish (I suspect we all also have a vitamin deficiency from the lack of sunlight and this makes the fish more appetizing as well).

PS - There is some snow falling now mixed in with the rain. The first of the season!

PPS - OK, two people from the US said it is on the 25th (today) this year; just goes to show how out of touch I am. And, St. Nicholas Day is actually on the 6th here in Germany.