'Tis the Season

You may be wondering what brings on the Christmas season for me here in Germany. Well, all the German Christmas chocolate, advent calendars, and sweet treats have been in the grocery stores for a month now. It's a bit ridiculous...I'm supposed to start buying Christmas chocolate and pastries at the beginning of October, really? So, no, that's not what has brought on the Christmas season for me. What has? BANQUET ASKING!!! What is that? Well, the last Saturday in November is the annual Christmas Banquet at BFA. That means that the last week of October is when the boys start getting really creative and extravagant in asking the girls for the honor of sitting next to them for dinner one cold night in late November.

Earlier today, I found out one of my small group girls had been asked to banquet. I was excited for tonights small group time to hear the story. I figured I should go ahead and plan for the majority of tonights time together to revolve around talk of banquet asking. I was right. Before it even began, one of the girls came in to tell me that two boys were planning of asking two of my girls during small group time. So, we started the evening by hearing 'C's story of how she got asked...she was 'kidnapped' and taken to a park where her date had lit a bunch of tealights placed in the shape of a question mark. When she took her blindfold off and saw the candles, he asked her to banquet. Soon after the story was over, 'EJ' was asked to come out into the hallway, were a boy was waiting for her with a plate of cupcakes, with frosting decorations spelling out "Banquet?". Then we all got to eat the cupcakes! They were super yummy and he baked them himself. Finally, a half hour later, after I'd given them my banquet speech, about how it really is just a relaxed time of sitting next to someone at a table with 9 other couples. Just have fun and talk to the boy...another boy burst into our classroom with guitar in hand and sang a song he and his sister had written for 'E' asking her to banquet. It was quite funny and I had to give him props for going all out, even packing a bouquet of flowers into his back pocket. His whole small group stood outside my classroom windows watching the spectacle. Good times!

So, now the school is abuzz with who is asking who, and what they will wear for the Christmas banquet. So, although I'm in no way in the Christmas SPIRIT yet, there is not doubt I'll be hearing the word "Christmas" every day from now on. Just wish I had known the plans before I'd left home. I would've taken my camera and given you a taste of what it was like. These boys can get rather creative!