The weather on Facebook will be decidedly chilly

It's finally here. The snow. I've felt like I've been on tenterhooks since November just waiting for the snow and the massive dip in temperature. There's been snow apparently everywhere. It's sparked monumental amounts of weather-moaning on Facebook. German-English relations have become a little tense with the Brits moaning about how cold it is; how they can't face another cold day at the office; how they are just frozen to the bone, and their German-based friends scoff that it's practically summer in the UK where they are still enjoying temperatures in single figures. Not like us! With our -10's!! There are still tables and chairs set up outside the cafes! Don't you have 3 Euro IKEA fleece blankets in lime or red?

Yup. We have had a little bit of snow. A pitiful icing of the stuff. But we are going to "kick the arse out of it" as Stevie would say. We have the woolly knickers, the snowsuits, the nth pair of gloves next in line to be lost at school, and by god, we are going to get some wear out them if it kills us. Don't talk to me about sledges: if we get any more snow (enough that looks like it could last until March at least) we may consider upgrading to wood. God knows, it's far superior for sliding on this half-snow, half-grass that we're having to make do with.

I blame the big boys with the adapted skateboards for cutting up the 'piste'. They have been taking the wheels off, and screwing on lengths of metal tubing to make some approximation of a snowboard/giant ice skate. I would have thought it would have worked with out the piping, but they must know better. It's nice how the grown-ups who've been snowboarding are trying to pass on tips to help them. "You need to put your weight further back on the board. All on the back foot". Except it's a skateboard, there's nowhere further back for their weight to go. And... whoops! Flat on their backs they go, and all the parents get to snigger at the teenagers for a change (it's almost as if they planned their revenge!)

I've enjoyed the snow. I've had two days of sledging, but yesterday Stevie started talking about us going to the open air ice rink today. Last year was horrendous. There are no supports for the little kids to use which means that after an ice-skating break of at least 15 years, we need to attempt to remember how with the added complication of having to hold a small child upright between our legs. Talk about sweating (not to mention shattered) after 2 minutes. I am thinking of coming down with a mystery virus in about 10 minutes time once Stevie gets up out of bed...

I'll keep you warm in December.

Cuddle in Hamish, it's going to be a cold winter

There are a lot of things to get used to in Germany for the avid consumer. God knows it's been tough for some of us to get our heads round the shops being closed on a Sunday - taking it one day at a time my friends. One day at a time.

Shopping is more my specialist subject than Stevie's, so why I listened to him saying that we should wait a while before buying the kids snow suits I simply cannot fathom. Oh, yeah, that was it: it was September.

So I left it till yesterday, last night to be precise to go and get them. I was a little anxious before we set off as a guy in my German class had said that he'd heard that once they sell out of things here, they don't instantly replenish the stock like they do in other shopping-friendly nations.

First stop was Karstadt Sports. We got Orla's snowflake outfit there as modelled in the photo above. But nothing in Hamish's size. Then we went to C&A (I'm sure one day it'll make a comeback in the UK, and you'll all go 'Yessica'-mad, and shed a little tear for the fact that you're now in the Yessica category. Best face it now. You are no longer welcome in 'Clockhouse'.). There was nothing there either in small gentlemans size.

After that we went to H&M - nothing, and then we started working our way along the length of the Ku'Damm. The thing about the Ku'Damm is you start off with H&M and Zara and then you get into your slightly more expensive Esprit and it's like, and then you end up like us in Timberland and The North Face. Neither of these had anything for children under 5, but if they had we would have bought whatever they had. We were in the dangerous mindset where desperation had set in, and we had realised that it did in fact seem to be true that stock replenishment is not really very popular. Even normally super-practical Stevie would have handed over a stack of money if there had just been something suitable to buy. I know this because I am now the proud owner of the most expensive gloves I have ever owned in my life.

While we were in The North Face I started to realise that our next stop was going to have to be Chanel or Louis Vuitton. The further you go along the Ku'Damm the more designer-y it gets. It was lucky that we ran out of time and the shops were shutting. I don't know if I could take Hamish to Kita if he was decked out like Posh Spice on a skiing holiday.

I ordered Hamish a more reasonably priced ski suit online when we got home. Sometimes I just don't know what I would do without the internet. E-commerce is a beautiful thing.