Fiona's first movie

First movie. In German. On St. Nikolaus's Day. If you're Fiona, it's known as "The Best Day Ever."

Fiona woke up yesterday to treats in her shoes (she'd cleaned them thoroughly the night before, even soaking the bottoms in an attempt to get them "super clean" for Nikolaus who only brings gifts to children with clean shoes) and enjoyed a (healthy and nutritious and completely unusual) breakfast of a Smartie-filled chocolate Santa. She danced around the house for hours wearing dress up clothes and sticking her new stickers all over our furniture. After a "rest time" (we've graduated to rest time, sadly, because nap time is for babies, apparently) off we went.

As you know, dear readers, Fiona doesn't watch TV. We don't even have one. She does watch movies on the plane (endlessly) and is familiar, thanks to excellent marketing, with every Disney product known to man. So the idea of going to a movie ("How big will it be? As big as the computer? As big as me? I can't believe it!") and seeing the new Disney princess ("Really Mummy, how can a princess be a FROG?") delighted her. We talked up the popcorn, the music in the film, and the fact that this Princess Tiana was a new friend for Fiona's dearest: Ariel, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty.

We chose this movie on this day because it was a rainy day (we had considered the Nurnberg Christmas Market, but crowds and rain and walking around and around in puddles is not a great idea for anyone, let alone a grouchy pregnant woman and a four year old), we've wanted to see it, and we'd heard St. Nikolaus was coming. I assumed that he'd float around the theater, chuckling "Ho Ho Ho" and Fiona would cry, hide from him, and have no part of talking to him. When we entered, the ticket-taker told me something strange about shoes in rapid German and I just nodded. I don't have to do that too much anymore, but in this case, I was so distracted by the popcorn (German popcorn is not salty and buttery, but it's like kettle corn, which is tasty, but a bit unnerving), the drinks (Russ had a beer, much to his delight, and Fiona apple juice, again demonstrating that "This is just like an airplane" and therefore she had choices other than milk and water) and the English-speaking popcorn seller ("Do you want small or um, big?") that I couldn't really process. Not to worry. We arrived upstairs at Theater 5 and lo and behold, all the children had taken off their shoes and left them outside the door of the theater. A ha!

Fiona took her shoes off without question (if you take your shoes off EVERYWHERE, I guess the movies are no exception, and she's never done this before. I hope she doesn't try it in Lawrence) and entered the "scary and dark! Like Snow White" theater. We reassured her that this wasn't going to be scary and promptly watched her cover her ears and eyes through the previews (which, in fairness, are extremely loud. And if they're car commercials, even louder) and then the lights came back on so the ice cream sellers (a la Fenway Park, but in German, and waaay less enthusiastic) could wind their way through the crowd selling ice creams.

Interesting facts, dear readers- the theater is a small, stadium-style seating theater. When you buy tickets, you choose your EXACT seats. The middle seats in every row are double seats with no armrest (I'm sure not for large people, since Weimar doesn't have any, but maybe just for canoodling couples?), and the screen is covered with a proper velvet curtain- like a stage. This curtain opens and closes between "acts"- between commercials/previews and the actual movie.

When the blue curtain opened again, displaying the Disney logo (which of course Fiona can "read") she was enthralled. For the whole movie. At points she asked me questions in German (Germans dub everything, and even some of the pictures were re-drawn to make signs written in German, and titles of books in German. Interestingly, every actor in the world has a German counterpart to do his/her voice, so the person who spoke Princess Tiana is always dubbed by the same German) and I answered in German- once she corrected my grammar. Fiona asks a LOT of questions about the movie and the plot and to be honest, I was able to follow most of it but did need to pay attention and I know that Fiona understood the plot better than I did. Certainly better than Russ who wants to see it again in English to "understand" the movie.

Once it finished, and we had addressed the fact that "The ghosts are bad, but not bad to me, and they're really just pretend, and there is a happy ending" we left the theater to re-shoe. Guess who had been (and gone!) and left an orange, chocolates, and temporary Princess and the Frog tattoos. Fiona was delighted. I felt compelled to explain that he came because this was a SPECIAL day and that she shouldn't expect chocolates in her shoes EVERY time she goes to the movies.

Today at Kindergarten, St. Nikolaus came to Fiona again (three times! Seriously!) and left chocolates in her cubby while she was napping. She is in heaven, and delighted with Nikolaus who is "Santa's friend who makes sure I'm good before he comes to Boston to bring me toys." And she opens the Advent calendar daily for even more Christmas goodness. This country is mad for Christmas, and we're starting to really enjoy it.

At one point during the movie, Fiona grinned up at both of us, handful of popcorn in one hand, dancing her feet around to the music, and said "This is a great day for all of us." Yep.