Feb 2, 2008: Zach & Düsseldorf’s First Snow

Feb 2 was a Saturday, and I was, as usual, reluctant to get out of bed, despite the fact that Zach had slept until well after 8am. Art graciously went to get Zach out of his bed while I lay there like a slug in our bed, and brought Zach into our room to say hello and roust me out of bed. Art was looking out the window and said “Shayna you have got to see this”. I was slightly irritated, b/c I thought that he was referring to the fact that it was light outside, meaning that we had gotten to sleep late that morning (it is still dark in Düsseldorf in the mornings until nearly 8am). I knew what time it was from the clock and didn’t need to look outside to see that it was “late”. Art insisted, and I grudgingly got out of bed and THERE WAS SNOW ON THE GROUND. It was beautiful! A light white dusting on everything. I immediately bundled Zach into his snow bib outfit, which he had never worn, rain boots and cold weather gear and sent Art, Zach and Dexter out to play while I made our Saturday morning pancakes. Dexter, who had been in snow before in ABQ, was still not a fan of the wet stuff. He did lots of high stepping and bounding to stay out of it while following the boys around. Zach did not seem to have much of an interest in the snow except where it had melted and formed puddles where he could stomp them silly. Not enough snow for snow angels or men, but it was pretty to see. Throughout the morning big fluffy flakes would fall for 3-4 minutes at a time, then stop. It was very pretty.

The day was doubly special because Zach’s Oma & Opa were coming to visit for the day (they were in Holland), escorted by Oom Hans and Tante Jop. Zach refused to go to sleep during the hour+ we left him in his bed, and was quite pleased to be relieved of his incarceration by his Oma walking in and getting him out of bed! After a few minutes of visiting, and us getting the Dutch goodies they brought for us (chocolate, cheese and Hamkaas, and beautiful tulips), we all set out into the sunshine (snow was starting to melt, but had not yet), yes sunshine, to lunch. We took the 712 tram up 3 stops to a restaurant there that Art and I have been wanting to try. It turned out to be very nice. We had the entire back room to ourselves, and Zach was wonderfully behaved. He flirted and charmed the waitress out of about 3 cookies. After a filling German lunch, the group decided to take a walk through the large park (the one that encompasses the 5 trams stops from our street up to our church). We walked and walked and walked. Some of the trails were a little difficult, but it was all worth it to see the beautiful birch trees and the snow all over the ground. Zach finally fell asleep around 4pm as we were heading back to our apartment. We all talked with Oma Sweet, as it was her 101st birthday on Feb. 2nd!! Art and Oom Hans had a few darts competitions, we all had tea and chatted for a bit, then the happy Dutch party headed back home. It was a very nice visit to add to a wonderful way to start the day. The snow was still on the ground the next day when we were heading to church – only in shaded areas. It was all gone by the afternoon.

As a side note, this was the start of a very busy weekend for us. Friday night we at dinner at Curry (a currywurst and fry place) w/ some friends, Saturday was the big adventure above, Sunday, after InsideOut, we had a late lunch at the home of some friends from church. Sunday evening we went downtown to the Altstadt to see the craziness of Carnival starting up. Sure enough, even at 6pm, the party had already started. The bars were packed, the streets were packed, costumed people everywhere, and lots of live music. There was glass all in the streets where people would just drop their bottles. Sadly, all I could think of was “all that pfand” (the money you get back when you return glass or plastic bottles to the stores). Then Monday we went to a coworker of Art’s to watch the Superbowl. Monday was a holiday b/c of Carnival – it was Rosen Montag (red Monday). A very busy few days!