Pre-Holiday Observations in Germany

I've been kicking this cold around for the past two weeks. I used to go for many years on end without having so much as a cold for more than a day or two. Seems like old age - in relative terms - is starting to get the better of me.

Apart from not really feeling up to snuff I'm starting to enjoy the gradually increasing peace and quiet around the castle. We still have a few milestones left to go but the brunt of it is over (the "brunt" still to culminate in the New Year's Eve Ball).

I am hoping to be able to use the quieter season for some "quality time" with my family and for some IT projects I've been postponing to the "quiet season" for a couple of years. We'll see how that works out...

A few days away from the village in a non-work context would be great, too, but I'm not setting my hopes too high for that goal.

For the kids everything is gearing up toward xmas. In Germany the "Nikolaus" Day on December 6th is almost as good as Christmas itself and today on Advent Sunday we lighted the first candle on the "Adventskranz". We aren't religious (though it says "Buddhist" on my Army dog tags - just because I thought "no religious preference just wasn't true) but the kids *are* growing up in the German cultural context which just so happens to be very much dominated by medieval religious practices. So they get to play, if they want, in order not no be left out at kindergarten / school. They'll figure things out when they grow older...