Fest at Home

I have attended the German fall festival in the small town in which my great grandparents, grandparents and now my aunt & uncle live every year for the past 35+ years.  I've gone when I was so sick, I barely made it back home without thinking I would die first.  I've gone when I was jet lagged from our family trip to WA DC and we literally made it into town for only the last few hours of the three day festival.  Come what may, I've gone to Fest.  But this year, I didn't go.

Even though multiple reasons for not going to Fest kept popping up, Matt and I still planned to take our family this year.  After all, it's tradition.  However, as we got closer and closer to the big weekend, we began to think through the realities of this year's situation.  Matt had a meeting he couldn't get out of on Saturday morning, so we wouldn't be able to leave in time to get into town and see the parade (the kids' favorite part).  Once we got there, there would be no extended family in attendance as they all were in CA for a far more important occasion, my cousin's wedding.  Matt has been working on a play house project in our back yard, which he hated to leave. I'd been feeling a bit under the weather and wasn't my usual perky self.

So we decided to do "Fest at Home" this year.  Elizabeth and I made cabbage rolls with plenty of sauerkraut (we used the authentic Fest recipe). Matt grilled up German sausage straight from the source, the same as what is served at the festival, complete with hot German mustard.  Grace made kartoffel und kloss (potatoes & spaetzle w/ cream & browned butter).  We invited some friends over and had a glorious German feast.  We ate too much, just like at Fest.  Once we had eaten, we headed outside for a surprise Lydia had concocted.

Lydia made a float and produced her own mini-parade for us.  She was concerned that she wouldn't have candy to throw to the spectators, but I had a big bag of gummy bears that I had purchased to support our niece's basketball fundraiser.  I passed out gummy bears to the parade watchers, while Lydia transformed the Radio Flyer wagon into several different floats and drove them past her enthusiastic audience.

 When the parade was over, we went back inside the house to eat our Fest desserts.  Grace had made kuchen (German coffee cake) and berry filled sweet rolls.  The only thing missing was apple strudel, which is pretty hard to replicate at home.  All in all, I'd say our "Fest at Home" event was a success.  Our tummies were full, we had enough leftovers for several days and best of all, our pocketbook wasn't as thin as it usually is after Fest weekend.  Priceless.  (But that doesn't mean I won't be at the real Fest next year.)