Thanksgiving #2

28 Nov - We welcomed our Favorite German Son and his Parents - Alfons and Petra - to our home for their First Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful meal and perfect company for the evening. We have many things to be thankful for and our extended family is one of them. We are blessed with 3 wonderful international "kids" and their wonderful families. We had all the Traditional Thanksgiving items. We had little placecards for each food in German. Pretty Kool huh!! Alfons and Petra never tried Sweet Potatos before and LOVED Kim's now WORLD famous Sweet Potato Souffle. Our friends in Australia even cooked it last week at a party for Friends. Corn Bread dressing was also new to them as was sweet Ice tea. Petra brought a wonderful Feldsalat. We also had Green Bean cassarole, Kim's Wonderful Cheese Bread (Ahyoung and Tina would be happy), cooked sweet carrots and gravy. We had a very good Savignon Blanc wine from New Zealand and it complimented the meal quite well. We talked and enjoyed the company. Of course, we had Pumpkin (Kuerbis) Pie, Sweet Potato (Suess Kartoffel) Pie and Pecan Pie. Finally, Alfons and James shared a shot of Slovak Borovicka. Nosdrave!!!

Kennedy's and Stoffel's enjoy Thanksgiving

"Kennedy's" and the food.

Thanksgiving #1

27 Nov - We celebrated Thanksgiving at the Army Dining Facility on Kleber Kaserne when James Works. It is a tradition in the Military for the Officers and Senior Sergeants to serve the meal to the Soldiers and their families. It was the first Thanksgiving Jamie had in a Dining Facility. The meal was simple actually - Roast Beef, Turkey, Ham, Filet Mignon, Cornish Hen, Crab Legs, Fried Shrimp, Cornbread Dressing, Bread Stuffing, Yams, Macaroni and Cheese, Greens, Mashed Potatos, mixed veggies, Rolls, Cornbread, Gravy, Cranberry Sauce, Salad, Macaroni Salad, Potato Salad, Cucumber and Onion Salad, Shrimp Cocktail, Veggie Soup, drinks, cheese cake, pecan pie, lemon pie, sugar cookies and I think that is it. The cost increased from last year and is an extounding $6.35/person. BEST MEAL intown..... It is an honor to carry on the tradition and serve those who serve us.

Serving Lunch

The Dining Facility

One of the MANY decorative items in made by the Army cooks. They have a competition between the Dining Facilities on the decorations and meal preparation. It is really a great experience.

First Snow

21 Nov - We had the first snow of the year this weekend. It snowed at night and was really pretty. Not very deep only about 1 inch in most places. Tot arrived on 20 Nov. Jamie and Tot enjoyed the snow at the playground on a rope slide and with the sled on the hills. Picture of our town from our kitchen window :)

Stuttgart Swim Meet

15 Nov - The Kaiserslautern Kingfish travelled to Stuttgart, Germany for a 4 way meet today. Jamie did very well. Even though she did not improve on time, she was able to place in her 3 individual events and scored 12 points for the team. She placed 3rd in the 100M IM, 6th in the 50M Free and 6th in the 50m Breaststroke. During her 200m freestyle relay, Jamie swam 4th or the anchor position. When she entered the pool, her team was in 3rd place behind about 8 seconds. Jamie swam like crazy and caught the 2nd place team at the 25m turn and continued to crush the team and won by 5 secs. Her split was approx 40 s and would have qualified for Champs. It was a good trip and we had a good time. Jamie's next meet is the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Veteran's Day/Armistice Day/St Martin's Day

11 Nov - Yes. One day, 3 countries - 3 holidays. Yes, for the American's it is Veteran's day. For the French it is Armistice Day commerating the 90th Anniversary of the end of WWI. However, that does not go over well here in Germany so they celebrate St Martin's day. St Martin is the Catholic Patron Saint for the poor, the Patron Saint for Soldiers and also the Patron Saint for Quartermasters in the US Army. For more Information about Saint Martin, look at http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=81 We went to the Lorraine American Cemetary and Memorial in Saint Avold France today to watch the Veteran's Day Ceremony. Lorraine Cemetary is the largest in Europe where over 10,000 US soldiers and airmen are buried from WWII. It is a very pretty cemetary similiar to Arlington. There is a large memorial with 2 wall that have the names of 444 soldiers buried in unmarked graves. The weather did not cooperate so the ceremony was held inside. There were several wreath layings and a bugler played "Taps." From St Avold we drove an hour North to Hackenberg station of the Maginot Line. Unfortunately, it was closed unlike the website that stated it was open on National Holidays. Oh well, that is France!!!! We'll go back one weekend so Jamie can take the tour. Pretty unique to travel back in time and history. Both of these are about 1 hr from where we live. Then we travelled to the "Mall" in Neunkirchen about 45 minutes from home. It is a REAL MALL like back home. This was NOT here our last tour. There are bakeries, shoe stores, and stores with "shiney" things for some people that like those!! It was 2 floors and very nice. From there, we drove to swim practice then back home. It was a full day and we're ready for back to work and school tomorrow.

Update on Jamie's Swimming

8 Nov - Jamie had another swim meet at Ramstein. This was a Pentathalon where the swimmers all swim 5 events. There were 6 total teams from all over. We hosted 2 girls from Berlin for the night. Jamie swam the 100M Individual Medlay, 50M Free, 50M Backstroke, 50M Breaststroke and 50M Butterfly. She did OK. She placed 12th/29 in the 50M Free, 18th/29 in the 50m Back, 7th/24 in the 50m Breast, 7th/17 in the 50M Butterfly that she swam for the first time and looked really good and finally 8th/20 in the 100IM. She improved a little over 2 seconds in her IM and is now just 3 sec from qualifying for champs in Feb. She was 1-2 sec slower in her Back, Breast and Free. Her Butterfly time was just under 54 sec and not bad for her first time. It is 7 secs from qualifying. As of the end of October, Jamie was ranked as indicated within all the European teams. 50m Free - 18th out of 72 50m back - 30th out of 65 50m Breast - 14 out of 49 100m IM - 18 out of 26 She has a meet this Saturday (15 Nov) at Stuttgart and then another Pentathalon on 30 Nov at Ramstein. She will try to qualify this week for the Long Course event scheduled for the Saturday after Thanksgiving. If she qualifies, she will swim the 800m Freestyle - 32 laps of the pool.

Tina's Visit

24 Oct - 2 Nov - WOW what a fun and full week. Tina visited us for a week with her friend Jakub. Tina is interested in attending the University of Heidelberg next year as well as working in Germany in the summer. She had some time off at school and her parents let her come up for a visit.

24 Oct - James picked them up at the airport at 2345 and had a surprise of wine and brownies for them.

25 Oct - Tina woke Jamie up at 0700 by throwing bunnies at her. jamie was surprised and said - "It's Tina. How did Tina get here!!" Jamie did not know anything about the trip we planned for 3 weeks. We cooked American Toast for breakfast. That morning we took Tina and Jakub to the PX on post to shop and the commissary for some American stuff. For lunch, we surprised and took Tina to one of her favorite places to eat - SUBWAY!!! In the afternoon, we joined Jamie's girlscout troop for roller skating on post. For dinner, Jakub and I cooked some BBQ pork ribs while we cooked some fresh Salmon we bought that morning from the markeyt for Tina. We topped it all off with some great Stoffel wine. As you can see, Tina really liked the surprise Pecan Pie for dessert.

Tina Like the Pecan Pie!!!!!!

26 Oct - We packed up and went to church together. Tina and Jakub attended James' teen class and talked about Slovakia and showed a little slide show about Slovakia. We all attended the main service together. After church, we ate at our favorite Italian resturant and had a light lunch of pizza and pasta. Then we travel to Michael's home so Tina could finally meet her Favorite German Brother and his family. We arrived and Petra was the ever gracious host and had three excellent cakes for us - rhubard, apple and a fantastic Peach cake with peach cream - OH SNAP!!!! Of course, we drank some stoffel wine. Michael gave Tina and Jakub a tour of the wineyard and the wine making process. They had some new wine fermenting and Michael explained the whole process and we tried some of the federweiss or new wine still fermenting. Tina wanted to move in right there and forget college - we pulled her out to the wine cellar!!!! In the wine cellar they tried some of the congnac and older wines and saw the aging barrels. They both learned ALOT about wine making at that level. It was really interesting them. Then Tina hit the jackput when they went in the store room......it took all 3 of us men to pull her out. We got her up to the house again for a wine probe. They tried 6 wines to include the wonderful and special eiswein. We departed one happy family very happy that Tina and Michael were able to meet. We finished the night with dinner at Burg Lichtenberg - yes Dinner in a castle resturant. Very nice and a perfect ending to a perfect day.

"Kennedy" Family Tina and Jakub try the Congnac

27 Oct - Jakub went to Stuttgart for 2 days. James went to work and Tina stayed with Kim while Jamie was in school. We all met at 1100 at Jamie's school. James was invited by Jamie's teacher to teach the 5th grade class about the Electoral College. It was 3 seperate classes. Tina sat in with Jamie in her Science class before James taught. It was a great experience and Jamie enjoyed her Dad teaching. Kim and Jamie had Girl scouts that night and James and Tina went out to a very good Thai resturant.

28 Oct - Tina and Kim visited James at his work for a tour and lunch. It was the first time Tina ate a meal at a military dining facility. We cooked coconut shrimp for dinner. James and Tina met Jakub at the train station at 9:30 then we out for Mexican at a local resturant and had Mojito's.

29 Oct - James took Tina and Jakub to Heidelberg to visit the university there. We visited the International Admissions office and spoke to them about how to apply, housing, courses, etc. The university is right in the middle of old-town Heidelberg and is all over Heidelberg. It is not a campus like you are familiar with in the states. Heidelberg is one of the best universities in Germany. The cost per year for tuition is a whopping 1208E or about $1500. yep - I did not stutter or leave out a 0. $1500 for a year. Then room and board tacks on another $3500 plus spending $ for a total of about $7000 a year. On top of that, the program completes in 3 years because they don't do alot of electives like in the states. The High school is 5 years so age is the same coming out like in the US. Some universities are Free and it was a big protest deal a few years ago when they decided to charge a fee. The admission standards are really high and the high taxes here pay for the universities. Taxes are anywhere form 45-50% when added up. Try that in the US and see what happens!!! We finished the night with james and Jakub grilling steaks and drinking beer and Kim cooked her world famous Chicken Parmesan as requested by Tina.

Tina and James in Heidelberg with the Castle in the background on the hill. The university is located around the old town behind us. Very nice visit.

30 Oct - James took Tina and Jakub to three places on the Mosel for Tina to consider working in the summer. One is a conference center in Leiwen where Michael lives. It was nice. The 2nd was a vacation spot that is owned by the Dutch and has mainly Dutch and German guests with alot of families and kids. Tina liked it. The manager spent 30 minutes talking to her. He will let her know in a few weeks if she can have a job. The 3rd place was owned by the same company as #2 but was a little farther north. It was nice also. We finished the night off with Dinner at Chili's Resturant. You will have to ask Jakub how much he enjoyed the huge Chipotle Blue Cheese Burger!!!!!!!!!!

31 Oct - We slept in and then went to Strasbourg France for the day. It is about a 2 hr nice drive from here. We toured the city market and had a wonderful lunch at a resturant in the town square near the cathederal. Jakub had a 3 meat hot-pot that was out of this world excellent, James had the traditional Saurkraut & sausage meat plate that was good. Kim and Jamie shared a baked chicken disk and Tina had a consumme and leek salad. It was all excellent. Then we toured the beautiful cathederal, did some gift shopping and walked a short distance to Petite France - the old city. It was wonderful. One the way back, we stopped off at a pastry shop to ensure they were selling good products - they were!!! Raspberry tort, eclaire, and pecan danish. WONDERFUL!! We bought a bottle of wine from France and it was OK. Stoffel wein ist Nummer Eins!!!! We finished the night off by getting pizza and salad at the local Sportshalle and goofing off with shots and wine.

Trying the local French Pasties. Family in Petite France Strasbourg.

1 Nov - We woke up early and went to Boppard. We treated Tina and Jakub to a 2.5 hr cruise on the Rhine River to the legendary Loreley. It was nice - cloudy and a little windy but nice. Tina talked to one lady on the boat about possible summer work. It is a possibility but #4 on her list. We had a nice lunch there then went down to Rudesheim for a little shopping and sight seeing. We visited the German Memorial to the Franco-German war 1870-1871. Very nice. We rode the cable car to the top and back down. We had a crepe and gluhwein while there and bought a few things for gifts. We finished the day off trying to get into the Chinese resturant here in town but had Thai instead - Tina like the thai!!!!

Family on the Rhine River Jamie and Tina at the German Memorial

Enjoying Gluhwein and Crepes :)))))

2 Nov - After church, we ate lunch at the Ramstein Officer's Club buffet. It was ALOT of food. then we met Alfons and Petra for a tour of the Holiday Bazaar here in Kaiserslautern. Alfons and Petra, Michael's parents, are looking into the possibility of selling the best German wine at the next bazaar. They wanted to see it before they committed. They spoke to the organizer and walked around. We bought a few Christmas gifts - maybe one is yours??? Then we took Tina and Jakub to the airport - said our goodbyes and cried. It was a really great visit and we enjoyed having Tina home again. We hope she got enough information for her and her parents to make some decisions about her future. We are always glad to help.

Till next time in the adventures of the Kennedy's in Europe.