At last its the last day of half term (sorry, Herbst Ferien). From Monday my life can get back to its usual routine without the constant nag from 2 children of;
'what's for breakfast?', 'can I watch TV?', 'what are we doing today?', 'what's for lunch?', 'can I have a biscuit?', 'can I call someone?', 'what's for tea?', 'what are we doing this afternoon?', 'can I watch TV?', 'can I have some sweets?', 'when's tea?'... my life is a never ending question.
Maybe its my own fault and I should have organised for us to do stuff over the two weeks, but to be honest, as I'm still trying to get rid of this damned cold I've had no desire to get out and do much - I haven't run for almost 6 weeks and even over the summer holidays I've usually managed to fit in running, but it's only in the last couple of days that the cough has reduced in intensity, so the idea of running has never been taken seriously - I figure I'll start up again next week when the children go back to school and as I said, life can back to its normal routine.
The end of Herbst Ferien also means that Christmas looms ever closer - just counted and it's 9 weeks away today exactly.
Ben keeps informing me that "Father Christmas" (his paranthesis, not mine) doesn't exist. This is the first year he's come out and said it.
Prior to this declaration he'd always said that he didn't believe in God (so getting him out of all religion classes at school) but there was actual physical evidence that Father Christmas existed because of the presents...whereas God...? Where's the evidence?
We (Simon and I) probably didn't help by the fact that we are complete non-believers, we're both far too scientific to believe in creationism, Darwinism sits much better within our belief system.
Not long ago a friend of mine in bookgroup said she was a believer in creationism, I was speechless! Literally. All I could say to her was that I was so shocked I couldn't argue the point with her. Evolution is a subject that I studied at university (admittedly that's a long time ago) and Primatology too, both of which make far more logical sense than creationism.
Back to Ben - clearly too grown up now to believe in Father Christmas and the tooth fairy (although I think she got the boot before Santa) I wonder if he still believes in the German Niklaus who comes along at the beginning of December and fills the children's shoes with sweets (although we've been asked by Jasmine's teacher to ensure each child also receives a fountain pen...)
I disabused him of the Easter Bunny last Easter - the Germans are big fans of the Easter bunny who leaves lots of chocolate eggs scattered all around the garden for the children to find.
It's not something we'd done as a family in England but it's quite a nice thing to do - hide lots of eggs where the dog can't get them but the children can, and then referee the ensuing fight as they argue over who has the most eggs.
This year Ben made some comment about the Easter bunny and I couldn't help myself - I laid the facts out for him - how does a rabbit have the money to buy the chocolate eggs and how does a rabbit carrying that weight of chocolate, bearing in mind the fact that a rabbit doesn't have opposable thumbs let alone much of a brain? If it was an Easter monkey then maybe, just maybe, but that still leaves the issue of the animal buying the eggs from a shop with money...
9 weeks to Christmas...
62 shopping days in the normal world
53 shopping days here in Germany where they still refuse to open on a Sunday
I better start planning!!
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