We had a birthday party celebrating our friend Heidi!
In Germany birthday celebrations are usually hosted
by the person who is having the birthday. If you
do not host a party for yourself, people are put out
about it, because they want to come and celebrate
your day with you. The birthday person is
the one to prepare a meal and invite her friends
over and then they leave after the meal and are not
expected to help clean up from the meal.
But at least they bring gifts. ;-)
Heidi and I told our German friends this was
the "wrong way" to celebrate one's birthday!
We explained that in the U.S. when it is your birthday
you are - "Queen" of the day!
You do not have to cook a meal, wash, or clean if you
do not want to. If fact you can do what you like to do
all day long such as sleeping in, going to lunch with friends,
having a dinner made for you or going out to dinner.
Often your friends will plan some of these activities for you.
They thought this sounded like a very nice idea.
So I decided to host a birthday party for Heidi.
Enjoying our soup and salad meal.
PARTY CRASHERS!
~Nicole~
We played the game "Guesstures" (Charades)
because most people can act out a word even if they
can not speak it. But it helps if you can read
the English words on the card...
Thank goodness there were a few translators available.
~Anette~
~Sabine~
~Ingrid~
~Regina~
Regina and I have the same challenge:
Limited foreign language skills...
BUT we are REALLY good at "pantomiming" with each other. :-)
Limited foreign language skills...
BUT we are REALLY good at "pantomiming" with each other. :-)
~Anna-Lena~
~Dona~
~Steffi~
The card disappears to fast!!!
~Coreen~
Heidi could not quite blow out all 41of her candles.
We had to help her! :-)
Everyone knew the tune to sing "Happy Birthday"
to our guest of honor. We sounded pretty good!
What a great party!
Love our German friends!!!
I love that you taught everyone the American way for birthdays. Germans definitely do Christmas the right way - they trump us by a million - but we got that birthday thing down pat.
ReplyDeleteI just got caught up your entire blog - haha! I love the pottery you got - LOVE the square bowl. I also love the new header on the top of the page! I had to stop and look closely to see which one was Chandra's husband because all the boys look so much a like - haha!
I'm glad things are going well with you and the family! :)
*muah*
I disagree with you. I think the birthday person should host their own party. How many Americans do you know who sit around mopping because nobody remembered their birthday? This eliminates that problem, and everyone is happy!
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