Oompah, pah!

Two days after Christmas, as we were all packing for Rome in our pajamas, we heard horns playing outside. Loudly. The kids opened the door, then slammed it and started hollering something about a band walking towards our house, which spurred Matt and I to run and put on some real clothes so we wouldn't look so much like lazy Americans when they got here go see what the ruckus was all about.
We opened the door and were greeted by a very enthusiastic, albeit half frozen, Oompah Band. We stood and smiled back as they finished their song (What is proper etiquette when called outside by a group of local musicians? Are you supposed to tap your toes and share in their enthusiasm or maintain decorum and effect a slightly unaffected look? The neighbors across the drive didn't even come to their door as the band stood on their stoop, so maybe we were breaking protocol altogether by venturing out to face them at all!), then sent the kids in to grab a plate of cookies to pass around. Fortunately our uber-generous neighborhood Oma had made another enormous plate of traditional German cookies for us and we had plenty to share.

As the plate made the rounds I realized we knew the cutie in the white cap below. His Grandmother made all the cookies everyone was munching on! (Probaly another social faux pas!) Matthew (the grandson) lives, as many Germans do, in a house shared by multigenerations. Oma and Opa live on the first floor and Matthew's family lives on the upper two; it's a great set-up! His family is one of the many reasons we want to stay here as long as we can. They are generous, friendly, kind, and exceptionally patient with our noisy, chaotic family! While the kids and I were in the States this summer, Oma and Opa Meier invited Matt over a couple of times for coffee and Oma Meier's fabulous cakes. For as long as I've known him Matt has despised cherries, but he nearly asked Frau Meier to run away with him after eating a slice of her Kirschkuchen! (Never mind the fact that they speak not a word of each other's language - she can throw-down in the kitchen! After we'd been married for a few months Matt confessed that if I hadn't been a good cook/baker he would have stopped dating me!! Good thing I didn't have to rely soley on my sparkling conversational skills!) Frau Meier is a phenominal baker of traditional German cookies and cakes! She sends over platters of piping hot Krapfeln, small yeast donuts almost exactly like what my family called "scones". Yummy! Her rhubarb cake is the first we've tried that we all actually liked! (Who knew rhubarb really was good for something!)
After leaving our house the band wended their way around the corner, stopping to play at each house, and finally ended at Matthew's family's home where Herr & Frau Meier invited them in (for some delectable treat, undoubtedly). I should have grabbed a kazoo and a stocking cap and tried to blend in!! The band can only manage to spread their holiday cheer through half of our village each year, so when they come back in 2010 I'll have my hat and gloves ready!