Referatabend

It's Referatabend, which means parents are invited to hear the class presentations on different EU countries tonight in the fourth grade (last year it was animals). DH took both boys and the camera, and I'm home with the girls. It's going to go late, and I just don't think they smaller kids will sit through one presentation, let alone a whole class full. But in preparation, I spent the afternoon making baklava to go along with my son's theme (Greece). Most of the baklava I've had has been heavy on the honey flavor, and well, not my favorite. But we went to some party at Michigan State where the German department is combined with a lot of other interesting departments, including Arabic, and mmmmm, they had lemon and pistachio baklava, and I got a whole new outlook. So this time I went easy on the honey and grated in some orange peel, and YUM. (I'm sure it helped that some of the honey I used was flavored with Christmas spices, courtesy of some beekeeping friends of ours.) So that was dessert for us, and we had fruit smoothies for drinks, and son #2's requested Swedish meatballs, and corn. (Which doesn't sound exotic, but in Germany, corn is definitely not your standard vegetable. You can buy it canned, but never frozen, and it's only fresh for a few weeks. It's the one thing I find my body craving every time we move here. I must be American or something.)

Anyway, now that they are off and the house is relatively quiet, I am going to work on outlining the rest of my draft so I can finally finish it. Cross your fingers for me that everyone will stay quiet and happy!