Traveling with your family for the holidays?Hosting a traditional American Thanksgiving Dinner? Whatever your plans for the rest of the week, have fun, be safe, and enjoy our favorite holiday! While the Thanksgiving tradition and turkey dinner may be uniquely American, the concept and practice of gratitude is universal. For happier more resilient kids (and parents!), take a moment to reflect with your children: where are you experiencing gratitude in your life?

Verreist Ihr über die Feiertage mit eurer Familie? Veranstaltet Ihr ein traditionelles amerikanisches ‚Thanksgiving Dinner‘? Was auch immer eure Pläne sind, passt auf euch auf und genießt die aufregende Zeit!

Wir wünschen euch viel Spaß und genießt diesen besonderen amerikanischen Feiertag.

Während die ‚Thanksgiving- Tradition’ und das Truthahnessen einzigartig amerikanisches ist, ist der Gedanke der Dankbarkeit universell. Für glückliche und belastbare Kinder (und Eltern!), nehmt euch einen Moment um die Erlebnisse mit euren Kindern zu reflektieren und fragt euch: Wo erlebst Du Dankbarkeit in deinem Leben?

Lake and I are for sure full of gratitude to be headed to NanaBaba’s for rest, rejuvenation and rejoicing!

Translation credit to Vivien Petersilie. Photo credit to Chamonix Browne (Happy Film Company).

Little did we know it at the time, however we might have been making one last trip to the origins of “the Egg” a few weeks ago when we drove out to the Quimper Peninsula. Our only family car, the Egg, was stolen Wednesday around 3:30 am off our property. Michael and I were both astonished and a bit in shock. Lake asked, “who stealed our car?” We don’t know honey. “Some mans with bad manners,” he answered.

We had a few days to grieve and reflect and make some rapid adjustments. My brother generously flew Michael out to Spokane and loaned us his old family station wagon. Michael drove it back from Spokane and we started thinking about a replacement car seat for Lake. Yes, the thieves ungraciously took a little car with a car seat in it. Then, on Saturday we unexpectedly received a call from the Seattle Police Department: the Egg was recovered in West Seattle! Unbelievable. It had been parked in front of someone’s house for a few days before he reported it to the police. The tire went flat and it wasn’t moving. That was their queue. We were so thankful and rejoiced for our reunion!

We have quite a history with this vehicle and are so glad it wasn’t time to say goodbye.

It was 2002 when I bought my first own car – one of those unicorns of used cars: single owner, bought it new in cash, all records up to date and intact, selling due to moving out of the country. I found the advertisement for the 1998 Honda Civic CX 3 Door in the Peninsula Daily News (was living in Port Angeles at the time) and it was located down Egg and I Road in Chimicum. Now a small dairy farm. Then a chicken farm (see, read and enjoy The Egg and I: life on a wilderness chicken ranch told with wit and height humor by Betty MacDonald c 1945 Lippincott). My brother quickly named our Honda “The Egg”, for its pale color, egg-like shape and specific origins.

In the intervening time, the Egg and I have had 17 years of adventures together. The Egg has been a family affair, kept afloat and on the road by my parents and my brother. In 2008 my brother notably rescued it from a “totaled” claim by the insurance after being rear-ended in traffic on I-5. We bought it back from the insurance company for $500 and he famously resurrected it for an additional few hundred bucks. The Egg saw me through two doctoral degrees, one start-up business, two marriages (one short, one eternal), two trips to the Bay Area, one baby turned toddler, countless trips to Portland, Newman Lake, Bellingham, Vancouver, Port Townsend and Aberdeen. Whenever I would drive out to Port Townsend, the Egg and I would make it a point to drive through Chimicum and past Egg and I Road. This recent trip turned out to be our last.

During our visit on Nora and Ed’s Farm the sheep were wary of Lake. None of the nine ended up letting him pet them this time. Instead he sent them running!

Nonetheless a lovely farm visit with our dear friends. And such beautiful ferry rides to bookend the weekend.

We so appreciate our trusty Egg, (and our friends and family!) for making these getaways possible and enhancing the efficiency of daily commuting for Michael to the east side.

It’s like a trip-date! Exclaims Lake. We headed down to the Seattle Center on foot to catch the opening night celebration of Gundermann and the German Film Festival in town a few weekends ago.

We rode the bus, the Link, and the monorail to get to the event. The film was more than two hours plus the film director was in attendance so we were privileged to hear him speak and he even played one of Gundermann ‘s songs on his traveling “guitar”, (ukulele). It was quite a full experience and at 10 pm Lake elected to attend the opening night party. We ate a few salamis and shook the directors hand. Then we got back on the monorail-light rail towards home.

The next (and last) film we saw from the German Film Festival lineup was the intense Styx. As we set out, Lake remembered and said, “we’re going on a trip date!” It was being screened at the Northwest Film Forum in Capitol Hill, so no monorail, but otherwise similar trip date adventure. Once again Lake was a great audience member for a gritty emotional action film.

The events were introduced by Arabelle Liepold and sponsored by Goethe Institute Seattle Pop-up. Hot tip: complimentary access to free streaming of 48 German films. Lake is now an unofficial embasator for Goethe Institute

PC Arabelle Liepold

Lake is a funny guy. An entertainer. Inquisitive. Clever. A jokester.

Lake still wears the blue star pants Our first au pair Joanna-Denise Baykal brought for him from Germany when he was seven months old! Yesterday when we were putting them on-he chose them-he wanted to know who made them. “Did Jo make them? Did Julia make them?” I looked at the tag. All it says is “handmade “. Hausgemacht I said. They are handmade but I don’t know who made them. It doesn’t say.

Lake paused a beat “Did hand make them?” he joked, then laughed hilariously. Then he kept asking “Did Hand make them?” “Did Hand made them!?” and laughing. We both thought it was so funny!

The funny guy himself pictured here with Piper enjoying the day at Greenlake. A perfect day. A perfect joke. I’m glad I’m sharing these moments with you.

Lake is “back to school” for the second month now. He is doing really well, engaging in the class and happy for Saturday German Language School. And now for the next three months Mama joins too with the adult class!

We both enjoy the classes at GLS. Mama decided her German could be improved too and why not to join him. Such a School Boy! So inspirational!

Then at the zoo Lake really wanted to visit the Family Farm. He said he wanted to be a farmer with sheep, baby sheep in particular. I said he better keep improving his German so he could move to Switzerland to be a sheep farmer. I think his idea of farming is pretty idealized based on reading German children’s books. He quickly answered back: he speaks German now!

Thank you GLS!