Category Archives: Crazy Family

What Winter?

January 24, 2016 CrazyChineseFamily 35 Comments

Currently it seems winter has arrived everywhere in the world. New York is basically drowning in snow, Scandinavia had for the past weeks more than enough of this devilish snow with temperatures dropping down to -40 degrees Celsius, heck even Chongqing is covered in this white mess. It seems everywhere it is snowing except my dear hometown. I am usually the last person to complain about lack of snow during winter time as I had my share of battles in Finland à la digging out the car each morning/ actually finding the car. However ever since we moved to Germany winter has been very mild in this area.

winter2 — Grumpy Nathan on December the 24th, what a winter

Northern Germany, especially the state of Schleswig-Holstein where we live, is rarely hunted down by icy winters with tons of snow. The last time there had been much snow here was during the so-called “Snow Catastrophe of 1978” when even in my hometown snow drifts could reach a height of up to 3m! The reason for such mild winters is the fact that this state is located between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. We had each winter some snow, nothing special but usually enough to go to the nearby sledging hill and have some fun or to build snowmen and castles. When my wife visited Germany for the first time in 2010 we had snow. In fact each time we went to visit my parents during winter time we had snow here. However now we live here and the most I have seen is a layer of perhaps an inch of snow which melted away the very same day.

winter1 — Winter of 2010, see we had snow before Nathan was born!

No snow is not a bad thing for me except that we would love to show Nathan what all he could do outside during winter time. Thus far all he could do this winter is wearing his rainboots and jump into puddles. The weird thing is that when Nathan was born we also lacked snow in Finland! We had a thick layer up till a week before he was born and then suddenly poof it’s gone! That week before he was born was the last time I needed any winter clothes or to dig out my car. I have the strange feeling that Nathan is creating an invisible dome around us which does not let any snow in. Afterall I think he even hates snow from what I can tell about his encounters with the pathetic one inch layers of snow in the past two years. Each time he sees snow on the ground he retreats, points with his hand to the snow as says “eew”.

Do you have snow where you live?

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Chinese Wife, Crazy Chinese People, Crazy Family, Mom in Law, Our cute son

First Contact

January 17, 2016 CrazyChineseFamily 42 Comments

Last autumn we visited China for the first time together with Nathan. I stayed only for a few days however Nathan and his mother haunted Xi’an for nearly a whole month. During that time Nathan made his first contact with the other members of the Crazy Chinese Family.

For me as a grown up it was already much to get used to when I met them for the first time several years ago. Not that they are as crazy as my mother-in-law but they still are related to her so what can you expect! There is Granny who spawned crazy MIL and seems more often than not to be even more stubborn than her daughter, there is Aunty who always does everything wrong according to MIL, there is Uncle who lives with his family together with Granny, my wife’s little sister (cousin, daughter of aunty) who is still trying to find some rich guy but in Japan (but he shouldn’t be Japanese of course), and the little little sister (youngest cousin of my wife, daughter of uncle) who needs two hours to eat a soup but can finish a burger in seconds. Alright,nothing really crazy about this all but imagine them all bunched up in one room with their whole attention on little Nathan. Yep, all attention on that tiny little Nathan who just wants to run away from them all.

I guess you can imagine how Nathan reacted when seeing them all, crying and trying to get as far away as possible from them/ into mommy’s arms. Of course they all mean no harm but when all of them try to squeeze and feed him snacks at the same time it just can be too much for such a little human being. I mean I could barely survive each encounter when we went eating with the family and every person just piles up more food on my plate. I have the strong believe that they tried to create a new Jabba the Hutt out of me. Nathan is usually the kind of baby who is too trusting and not afraid of strangers at all but with his own Chinese family he turned into a crying mess.

Though all craziness poured into him in one go he managed to survive. He even calmed down and played with the crazy Chinese relatives but this was only achieved with a lot of bribing via fruits and snacks. Guess how many people it takes to get in China a baby to sleep? Nearly the whole family!! I am not joking but it seems that every female of the family has to be present when trying to get Nathan to sleep. As they all are pretty noisy when being together it takes a long time for him to fall asleep, long enough that they get hungry and need to make some food in between…but that is again a story for another time.

The first contact with his Chinese Family went rather well despite him being afraid like hell in the beginning. I wonder how it will turn out next time when going to China. I have no idea yet when there will be a next trip but I hope it will be soon and that I will be there as well. Not because I am so eager to meet the family once again but the food, the food!

Do you have people on the family with the ability to scare children away?

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Crazy Family, Crazy Germans

Surviving New Year

January 3, 2016 CrazyChineseFamily 29 Comments

My first post for this very young year is about how we celebrated New Year. For some little info on how we celebrated Christmas check out this post from last week. Right from the beginning I must add that I have no clue on how to properly celebrate New Year here in Germany nor do I have any clue on how it is done in Finland. In case there are certain traditions please feel free to tell me!

New6 — The Table for the Eating Marathon

During all my childhood each New Year was the same. It started each time by taking a walk through the nearby park in the morning, have the potato salad for dinner (no lunch!! I really wonder why!) at the old ladies place where we already had the very same dish on Christmas and then watch some TV and then fire some rockets to join all the other people who love destroying their money through fireworks. Really interesting, isn’t it? In Finland in comparison it was the first years more like a big party with my friends however the last few years it calmed down a lot for me and I just enjoyed it together with my wife by doing nearly nothing except visiting some friends for a nice dinner. This all changed when we moved back to Germany last year. Sure my parents still have their old routine but all in all we do it a bit different.

The thing is that we started to celebrate not only with my parents but also with my brother and his girlfriend. A mere potato salad wouldn’t do the trick so we “upgraded” and bought a Raclette table grill last year. I know Raclette ain’t a German tradition but hey, I have not a clue what is a real tradition in Germany for New Year so this should be fine as well. The thing is about having this grill is that we not only prepare the standard Raclette but also grill tons of other food…too much food. Since last year the New Year celebration has become an eating marathon and days after you still feel all those extra pounds you gained within few hours. Though we bought already only half the amount of food compared to last year there was still enough left to have a proper lunch the next day with the leftovers, at least we didn’t waste any food. My dear mother is not a big fan of celebrations so she spend most of the evening watching TV, avoiding all the eating. The good thing about it is that she could watch Nathan while we stuffed ourselves full.

One thing I forgot to mention, there is actually a “German” tradition we do/ watch each New Year. This tradition is to watch “Dinner for One” which is a comedy sketch which is originally written by the British author Lauri Wylie and was later on recorded by the German television in 1963. It is shown on nearly every German TV channel on New Year several times and is through that the most frequently repeated TV program ever. After all the eating, drinking and watching the same tv show has been done/ survived it is time for the final preparations for the countdown. As last year we went for this down to my parents apartment due to a special reason which I will mention soon. Anyways at my parents apartment we prepared again some Berliner, sparkling wine and the fireworks. By that time my mother was once again already entirely annoyed by all the people and noise but still she stayed for watching the countdown and the fireworks. So the reason for going to my parents apartment except of annoying my mother are the fireworks. My parents have a huge balcony from which we can fire all those rockets, saving us a trip to the streets or plaza outside and with it the dangers of being it by some misfired rockets.

As you can see nothing too special was done except drowning in food and annoying my mother. Nathan watched the fireworks this year again as he woke up once again shortly before midnight. I really wonder why he wakes up each New Year around the same time whereas all the other night he just sleeps through. Lets see what 2016 will bring, I hope it will be a turning point for my health and perhaps a less unhealthy next year New Year celebration.