A Gold and Green Night in Paris

This will be short and sweet and yes, I know....I'm a day late!  


This has been a very busy two weeks and I have been short on sleep, so I'm only blogging today because I am feeling guilty about NOT blogging.


You see, while it's been busier than normal two weeks, the things that are keeping me so busy are not that interesting to blog about or at the least just don't take up much blog space.


I did manage to squeeze in a German cooking class.  I haven't been to one for several months and it was so fun to see Karin, Raphaela, Catherine and a bunch of other people who were new to the class.  Here's what Karin made and I ate..

 This is a rye bread with sun dried tomatoes, olives and pinenuts mixed in...Yummy!

 This is a Hackfleisch und Käse Auflauf - Ground meat and cheese casserole.  

For dessert...Apple pancakes with vanilla sauce.  This is the same sauce they use on the steamed Dampfnudeln at the christmas markets.  I wanted to lick the bowl, the spoon and the plate!


On Thursday we had the missionaries over to dinner and also invited Susan and her daughter.  It was a fun night.  One of the Elders is from Gilbert, AZ and the other one is from here in Germany.  I asked them if they knew our friends the Nuila's son, Warren and they did!!  Warren is serving in Würtzburg right now.  I am always amazed at how small the world is!


The rest of the week was spent in a highly stressful state of decorating for the stake Gold and Green Ball.   The stake relief society presidency was put in charge of decorations and since two of our presidency are moving back to the states in a few months, we felt like this may be our "Last Hurrah", so we wanted to go out with style!  


We decided to go with a theme of "An evening in Paris"  and we enlisted the help of two talented men in our ward to help bring our vision to life.  They built a 9 foot Eiffel Tower, and a huge "gazebo top"  that hung from the ceiling.

The missionaries helping with the Eiffel Tower

Bro. McCleeve getting things set in the ceiling

Kathryn putting lights on the gazebo roof

  I did a little Bistro area for the food and we had park benches and lighted trees all around.  Susan drew and cut out a huge Paris skyline, too. It was a LOT of work, but it was so worth it.  It looked so romantic!

The food table before the food arrived

The skyline and the tables

This is the cute little folding bench I got at the flea market last week.

The food table WITH food!

It was a fun night with good music, good food and good friends.  Mike was even able to come for part of it.  Lots of the men were not there because of the killer schedules so many of them are on right now.

Becky, me, Susan and Kathryn

And finally a weather report:  Spring has sprung!  Sure we get a few clouds and some rain, but that's spring.  We have had more sunny days in a row than I can remember and the temps have been warming up.  The daffodils and forsythia are in full bloom.  The locals are out in their gardens, turning over the soil and cleaning them out so they'll be ready for the profusion of geraniums that make every garden and balcony burst with color!  I love Spring in Deutschland!!

Have a sunny sort of week and remember to count your blessings...I counted you twice today!
love and miss you all,
-corri