Act I
I don't know how they celebrate birthdays in the south of Germany; maybe like in the US, they do things differently south and north. Nevertheless, I've collected not a few experiences with how they do birthdays here in the north. "O" birthdays get a lot of attention - announcements and ads are in the paper every day for "O" birthdays - beginning with 10 years of age.And birthday celebrations here are not the responsibility of friends and relatives to put on - rather it's the birthday kid who has to plan it all, set it up, make it happen. That doesn't change, even when you turn 90, as Mutti did on January 25.
That morning, when Mutti went downstairs as usual to have breakfast with grandson Christoph and his partner Tina, she was greeted with 90 red roses, and that is a bunch of flowers! Mutti was suitably impressed. I would have been, too.
We arrived later to help with coffee, tea, cake, sandwiches and interim clean up for those who came to pay their respects. Mutti only had to sit and entertain folks. The pastor of her church and his wife who've helped her through some difficult times, neighbors, a delegation from Affinghausen led by the mayor, friends and relatives, dropped by at random or at pre-scheduled times. Phone calls came in from everyone else who couldn't be there. I had to leave for a while to teach; Werner was there the whole day and we ended it with evening snacks with Christoph, Tina and Mutti. It was a nice day.
This is me, Werner, and Sigrid, Jan's widow, with Mutti. Mutti's wearing the red vest Werner and I gave her at Christmas. She'd asked for a gray one, but Werner thought a bit of color would suit her well - and she agreed.
Birthday - Act II
But Thursday was only the Prelude. The Main Act was Sunday. Mutti invited family, extended family from Bremen and Affinghausen, and card-playing buddies (she has two different groups she plays with each week) to luncheon followed by coffee and cake at a local restaurant, 34 in all. Werner helped with deciding on the menu (that's not exactly hard work - going out to eat !), writing and mailing the invitations, and artistically doing the place cards, but Mutti basically arranged it all herself. She kept saying during the planning she didn't want to do it, but she said over and over what a nice time it was.
Here're some shots:
Werner and me with Mutti. Before the whole event began,Werner said a few very dear words to toast Mutti and then one of the card-playing buddies began a birthday song that everyone joined in to sing.
Ur-Oma (Great-Grandmother) with the great-grandkids. Amina you all recognize. The two guys are Michel and Lennert, Jan and Sigrid's grandchildren. If the boys weren't four years apart, I'd think they were twins!
The two littlest, Amina and Lennert, don't really remember their previous get-togethers, but it didn't take long for them to discover how to play nice together. I think there's this family thing that helps us recognize each other - it's just in the genes!
And here, Oma with the grandchildren: Susanne (Michel and Lennert's Mama), Christoph (the youngest and the biggest/tallest of the three), and René, Werner's son and Amina's Papa. Rene's wearing his Italian suit; Christoph has on his usual Banker Suit - dark, white shirt!
No birthday candles, no balloons (the little ones were grossly disappointed that there were no balloons!) but - don't forget! - this was a BIRTHDAY party, so that means cake. Germans can do cake - here a raspberry cream cake, a cream cream cream cheese cake, and the ubiquitous and ever wonderful Butterkuchen. I could live on Butterkuchen.So, plenty of food and cake, talk and family. All in all, a birthday celebration worthy of the name.
And now, time to get ready for our trip to the family on the other side of the ocean - I can't wait! See you soon!
