Frohes Fest

My last German Christmas has come and gone. I weep bitterly.

We made several visits to the Striezelmarkt this year. But Jethro and I had to pay it one last visit on its last day of operation. We meandered, bought a little Räuchermann, and I let Jethro go for a spin on a pretty terrifying merry-go-round that looked like it had been welded together in a junkyard using only found objects.



Then came the time came for us to go. (READ: I needed to use the little girls' room and didn't want to PAY FOR IT ... turns out there are some aspects of life in Germany that I won't miss). But despite my full bladder, I found leaving the sounds of German Christmas carols and the smells of Glühwein and crepes and roasting bratwurst behind me to be difficult.

Fortunately we'll be bringing a few small pieces of Christmas in Dresden back to America with us to help us remember the four lovely Christmases we spent here.

I think we had a skiff of snow on one of those Christmases, but otherwise our Christmases here have been pretty mild. This year was certainly our snowiest Dresden Christmas.

And while we're looking at our balcony, I need to mention something that is not related to Christmas.

We have a ton of pigeons in our neighborhood, and they seem to be particularly fond of our building thanks to the old woman on the third floor who insists on feeding them. We haven't had too many problems with them, but a couple of months ago Jake cleaned our windows. And apparently he did a pretty good job because later that day this large smudge appeared on our back door:

If you examine it closely, it's pretty clear that a pigeon slammed headfirst, with full wing extension, into our backdoor.

You can even make out the little beak. He or she apparently wasn't too seriously injured because there was no unconscious bird on our balcony or nearby.

And so I feel OK about finding the whole thing hysterically funny. We never washed the mark off, and every time we open the curtains we have a good laugh at the bird's expense.

And on that note, I hope you all had a great Christmas. I leave you now with a scene from our less-than-Biblically-accurate rendition of the Nativity.

JEM

P.S. Those other FIELDTRIP!s I was talking about earlier are still coming. For reals.

Herr Dr. Jacob James Michaelson

I am pleased to report that Jake's doctoral defense yesterday was fantastic. But you shouldn't take my word for it, since I understood about 1 minute of the 3-hour ordeal. Take the word of his honorable committee, composed of assorted muckety-mucks from the fields of computer science and biology, who awarded Jake summa cum laude honors, the highest possible distinction a Ph.D. can receive.

 

 Needless to say, the mood at our house has pretty good for the last 24 hours.  

 

I just want to thank everyone who was there to support Jake, especially considering most of them probably put their Christmas travel plans on hold in order to attend. His group and colleagues presented him with the most thoughtful gifts afterward, and Jake told them, "If I were physically capable of crying, I would cry right now." You guys are so great.

And a public congratulations to my Jake. I couldn't be prouder of you, and I can't imagine a better 8-year anniversary gift.

Mrs. Dr. JJM

(isn't that how it works?)

FIELDTRIP! to Meissen

Before I say anything about Meissen, I want to say that my account of it won't do the place justice. We just wandered around it for a few hours one Saturday morning in September without a plan or a guidebook, just to get a feel for the place before naptime. Jethro's naptime.

OK, and maybe Jake's and my naptime, too. It's an important part of our weekend ritual, and I refuse to apologize for it.

Now, let us begin. Meissen is an absolutely picturesque little German city on the Elbe 25 kilometers outside Dresden. It's home to about 30,000 people and an inordinate amount of history and fame, given its size. The reason for that is porcelain.

It was in Meissen in 1708 that the first fine white porcelain was concocted outside Asia. The story of its creation is a surprisingly gripping one, involving a charlatan alchemist who claimed to be able to create gold out of ordinary materials and Dresden's favorite egomaniac, Elector of Saxony August the Strong, who put the alchemist to work with a mathematician and scientist to uncover the formula for porcelain — and give August another reason to feel fantastic about himself. 

 

Meissen porcelain is still regarded as the some of the finest in the world.

 

 

There's a big porcelain factory in Meissen, but we didn't go to it. Judging by their advertising campaign, it's probably not a good place for children. Or husbands.

 

In case you were wondering, the item being sold here is the strategically positioned teacup. 

The closest we got to any porcelain was through shop windows. After examining the price tags through the thick glass, I decided I shouldn't let myself or my 2-year-old get any closer than that. The only thing I saw that was within our price range was a porcelain thimble.

Downtown Meissen is great for strolling. There are beautiful shops and buildings and narrow, winding cobblestone streets.

"Wake up, you're having a bad dream!"

If you're up for a good cardio workout, push your 200 pound kinderwagen up the 90 degree switchbacks that lead to the city's impressive gothic cathedral, built in 1450.

All that, a yummy lunch of Sauerbraten and Rotkohl in the town square and home in time for a nap. Thanks, Meissen. You are just the gem everyone said you were.



JEM

Therapy Session

Jasmine E. Michaelson: (barges in) Sorry to barge in like this.
American Dresdner: (jerks awake from nap on couch) No, Mr. Hasselhoff! You're a married man!
JEM: Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up. That sounds like it was a good dream.
AD: (clears throat awkwardly)
JEM: Whoa, AD. Look at this place! Where is your desk?
AD: It's still there. Just look behind the pizza boxes.
JEM: And look at you! I don't mean to be a jerk, but you look like you've gained, like, 20 pounds (9.07 kilograms for our friends on the metric system). And you've got a little something on your chin there.
AD: (wipes potato chip crumbs off face with sleeve) Well, as long as you don't mean to be a jerk.
JEM: When was the last time you were out?
AD: Stop pretending like you're here to check up on my well-being. If you cared about that you would've stuck your head in here once or twice in the last MONTH to make sure I hadn't slipped into a coma.
JEM: I'm sorry. Things have been crazy.
AD: Oh yeah, right. You're half-way out the door, aren't you? Off to sunny San Diego where you'll be American Americaner and where will that leave me, huh?
JEM: That's not true. I mean, we are leaving Germany really soon but I'm not half-way out the door. I still have so many things left that I want to post on this blog that I'm sort of overwhelmed by it. And you're right about me not coming in to check on you. I needed someone to talk to.
AD: (groans, rolls eyes, and pushes pile of dirty laundry off the couch onto the floor) Fine. Sit.
JEM: (sits and bursts into tears) You see, it snowed.
AD: That's been known to happen in Germany in mid-December.
JEM: I know, but I just wasn't ready for it. (Dabs tears with handkerchief.) I kept thinking that I'd be able to do some of my favorite Dresden things just one more time before we left, like go to the zoo or ride my bike with Jethro through Großer Garten, or play with Jethro on the tire swings in our neighborhood, things like that. But then these mountains of snow came and basically said, "OK, time's up." And now we're pretty much stuck at home because all the snow has put public transit on the fritz and getting our beastly kinderwagen through the snow is a real b---- and a half.
AD: Watch the language, children and in-laws read this blog.
JEM: Oh, that's right. Sorry children and in-laws. But we did a lot of great stuff before the snow came and I'm going to tell you about it soon. The next few nights are wide open for me because Jake has his defense on Monday and so he'll be spending every waking moment glaring at his laptop with his headphones on while incessantly stroking his beard. I expect that by Monday the beard will have been rubbed off his face entirely.
AD: Gross.
JEM: Anyway, my point is, I'll be back tomorrow for the first in a series of three FIELDTRIP!s. So change out of your sweatpants, AD! And for crying out loud clip your toenails! We're going back to work!
AD: I'll clip my toenails, but not for you.
JEM: Blog re-activity here we come!