Dear Clara,
This is a fun monthly letter about my life that I share with my pen pal who is also named Clara and lives all the way in Germany! Each time, my friend Clara also shares a letter with me, so I get to read all about the life of a little girl with the same name in Germany. I think it’s really cool – and hope you guys do too!
Oh and I get a little help from mommy when it comes to writing my letter, and my friend Clara’s mommy helps to translate my letter at the bottom of this post into German so my friend Clara can read it. You can drop in on her letter to me right here (which is translated into English at the bottom of her post).
Hi Clara! I’m excited to write to to you about my Halloween and Thanksgiving this year! Here’s how I described these photos when mom held them up for me so I could tell you about them:
“For Halloween I’m Jessie from Toy Story and Burger is a Slinky Doggy! I have my cowboy boots and my cowboy hat and my cowboy belt and my jeans had cow spots like a cow! I got so much candy in my pumpkin.”
“That is me eating my food for Thanksgiving with my cousin Olivia and Aunt Carrie and Grammy. Tom Tom and Aunt Emily and Uncle Todd and my cousin Emanuel and my cousin Jacob and my mommy and my daddy were there too. We ate a lot of turkey and stuffing but I couldn’t pour the gravy because I’m too little.”
“This is a lot of food before we ate it all and we all had full bellies. I like the sweet potatoes because they taste like candy and the mashed potatoes because they taste like pasta.”
“I jumped on my cousin Jacob and Emanuel jumped on Jacob too. I don’t know why he was sleeping. He was tired after we ate all the turkey.”
“After dinner mommy and Olivia had a silly silly dance. It was Gangnam Style. I like to dance to that song in the car. I can sing and dance like mommy and daddy but Burger can’t sing, he can only dance.”
“Sometimes I hug Emanuel a lot and he tries to walk away but I hold on because I’m very very strong. But sometimes I’m not.”
“Before we went home we had some milk. I love Emanuel. I love my whole family! I want truck pajamas like Emanuel’s.”
“I think you had a good Thanksgiving since you are also named Clara like me! I miss you! Talk to you later aggigator!”
xoxo,
Clara
____________________________________________________________
Here’s our Clara’s letter translated in German for her pen pal:
Hi Clara, ich bin so aufgeregt, dir über mein Halloween und Thanksgiving in diesem Jahr
zu berichten. Ich habe einige Fotos, die meine Mama für mich vorbereitet hat, um sie dir zu
zeigen:
An Halloween war ich Jessie von Toy Story und Burger ist ein verführerischer, kleiner Hundi.
Ich hatte Cowboy-Stiefel und meinen Cowboy-Gürtel an. Meine Jeans hatte Kuhflecken,
genau wie eine echte Kuh! Ich habe so viele Süßigkeiten gesammelt, wie ich in meinen
Kürbistopf legen konnte.
Das bin ich beim Thanksgiving-Menü mit meiner Cousine Olivia und Tante Carrie und
Großmutter. Tom Tom und Tante Emily und Onkel Todd und mein Cousin Emanuel und
mein Cousin Jacob und meine Mama und mein Papa sind auch dabei gewesen. Wir haben
eine Menge Truthahn und Beilagen gefuttert, leider konnte ich die Soße nicht probieren, dafür
bin ich leider noch zu klein.
Ich bin auf meinen Cousin Jacob gesprungen und Emanuel ist auch auf Jacob gesprungen.
Ich weiß gar nicht, warum Jacob geschlafen hat. Er war so müde, nachdem er den Truthahn
gegessen hatte.
Nach dem Abendessen machten Mama und Olivia einen lustigen Tanz. Ganz im Gangnam-
Stil. Ich liebe es sehr, zu diesem Song im Auto zu tanzen. Ich kann tanzen und singen wie
Mama und Papa, aber Burger kann nicht singen, er kann nur tanzen.
Manchmal küsse ich Emanuel so sehr und fest, dass er versucht, mir zu entkommen. Aber
ich halte ihn fest, ganz fest. Ich bin nämlich sehr stark. Aber manchmal bin ich auch ganz
schwach.
Bevor wir nach Hause gefahren sind, haben wir zusammen eine Milch getrunken. Ich liebe
Emanuel. Ich liebe meine ganze Familie. Ich will einen Lastwagen-Pyjama wie Emanuel!
Ich denke du hast ein gutes Thanksgiving Fest gefeiert, weil du den gleichen Namen hast wie
ich, Clara! Ich vermisse dich sehr. Talk to you later, aggigator!
xoxo,
Clara
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Very Cute. I love the part “Sometimes I hug Emanuel a lot and he tries to walk away but I hold on because I’m very very strong. But sometimes I’m not.” LOL!!
Haha, she just says whatever she’s thinking. Total stream of consciousness.
xo
s
I love reading these letters!
It is so mind blowing to me that they don’t celebrate the same holidays as us. I get so wrapped up in our own little world, I like having my mind expanded. They wouldn’t even know where to buy a turkey…that seems crazy. Thanks for posting these :)
This is SO sweet! Clara, I hope you get truck pj’s for Christmas! ;-)
“I can sing and dance like mommy and daddy but Burger can’t sing, he can only dance.” – This cracks me up! She’s so adorable!
These might be some of my favorite posts you guys have! What a wonderful treasure that the two Claras have — able to share their cultures and experiences. And of course, your Clara’s play-by-play is priceless! :-)
Sooo cute! Love how you wrote directly what Clara told you.
(to German-Clara´s mom: I think there´s a tiny little mistake in your translation, “to hug” = umarmen, “to kiss” = küssen. Da ist etwas durcheinandergepurzelt :)
My, that Clara sure is a talker, hahaha. God bless you, Petersiks.
Love from Buenos Aires
I love reading these!
What a wonderful idea!!! I would love to do this with my 2 year old daughter Charlotte. How did you connect with Clara in Germany? Thanks!
Clara’s mom emailed me with the idea! Isn’t it so much fun?!
xo
s
Looks like a great time!
Clara’s costume is just the best!
I’m curious to know if German Clara knows what American Thanksgiving is. If I remember correctly, only us and Canada celebrate it (just not on the same day). I guess her mom might explain it to her?
Now would be the point where my bf would tell me that no one ever thinks of these random questions except me. haha.
I’m also from Germany and German Clara will not know since it is not a holiday here. We have something called thanksgiving in protestant and catholic church, but it is a religious holiday and not celebrated at home.
Of course there were no native Americans who helped our ancestors survive the first hard winter and who gave us corn and pumpkins and everything haha. So why should we celebrate that.
Clara’s mom will just explain that, I guess. Older children here know thanksgiving from American movies and tv series haha.
So funny that they learn it from American movies!
xo
s
I have a good friend who is from Germany and was an aupair in the US. Now that she’s back in Germany she wants to make thanksgiving foods for her family and says she can’t find things like pumpkin and cranberries in the stores!
No way!
xo
s
Love hearing her narration – very cute.
Haha….I have the same china. “Charleston” by Lenox So pink and blue 80′s….but I still love mine.
My 3 yo totally talks that way but with “and then” to connect everything together. For example, “mommy you pick me up from school and then we go to playground and then I slide and then you tell me not to throw sticks and then I want red shoes like Lucas and then I need some water…” You get the point. <<<— this convesation really happened in the car yesterday.
This is too cute!! I had a pen pal across the country when I was little and remember how excited I would get to see that letter in the mail. I think I still have a few stashed away somewhere (i’m almost 30!). Oh, and gangnam dance at thanksgiving = awesome.
Did you happen to explain what Thanksgiving is to the German Clara?
Totally should have done that! Clara’s parents explained it a bit to her, but I wish Clara could have explained it – maybe next year she’ll say more on that subject!
xo
s
This inspired me to reach out to friends to find another little girl in the same age range with the same name… and my sister found me someone she knows within 5 minutes of the request… and the other Elinor/Eleanor was born only 10 days earlier in New Zealand.
Can’t wait to start this journey with my preschooler. inspiring.
PS – Our first purchase with the 5 year anniversary giveaway cards arrived yesterday. It said fragile on the box and we were both giddy and shouting things like, “It’s a major award!” “It could be a bowling alley!” The children were confused :)
That’s amazing! I love it. And you guys are hilarious. It could be a bowling alley = laughing out loud for minutes on end.
xo
s
Your last paragraph cracked me up…i love that movie and quote it often throughout the year. LOL! “Fra-gee-lay. Ah, must be Italian!!”
I love these letters. I had a Spanish pen pal for years. I can’t remember how it got started or why it stopped, but it was a great way to expand my circle, to learn to reflect, and practicar mi espanol. I hope Clara and Clara keep with it (not that they’re old enough to determine that on their own yet)!
Dear Clara,
it´s so fun to see you as a little Cowgirl. You look so pretty.
Isnt that fun, to wear all those great costumes ?
We ( my son Max and I ) live in a big, big city, which is called Berlin. Thats te capital of Germany. We do share some of your best things – espeacially Halloween. Some years ago nobody shared that practice, but now – we all have a lot of fun. Max was a great vampire. He´s 8 now, but still loving to wear costumes.
Telling each other about the different practice to enjoy holidays is a very good idea. Theres so much fun to hear about the different food & rituals. Cant wait to read about the Xmas over there.
This year, first time I heard about the ” Elf on a shelf”. This is soooo cute. Max is a big boy now ( but sometimes still my little Baby … ) , but I decided that one of those little ELfs will come to us, to share the pre-Xmas period.
I´m filled with joy …. ( hoping Max will love that too )
By the way – theres another two things I loved to read in your letter :
1.) Jumping on Jacob looks like a L O T of fun ( for y o u )
2.) Take the cam – I wanna see Burger´s dance !!! pls
Have a nice day,
Maren
so i quickly scrolled down and was reading and thought..hmm…not your style of writing. then i scrolled back up and saw it was clara!
she is adorable..and wow..what a great talker!
That’s hilarious!
xo
s
I speak German fluently seeing as i am austrian and the translation is not right. Instead of writing that burger was slinky dog (who is called slinky in german) she wrote that he is a tempting little doggy and instead of writing that she hugged emanuel she wrote that she kissed emanuel.
but i think the idea of the two little girls is really cute!
Haha, so cute!
xo
s
Hey guys!
Unrelated to the post, but just wanted to let you know that Miss Clara made an appearance on this website:http://www.chiccheapnursery.com/2012/little-ones/pictures-to-take-on-babys-first-birthday/
Crazy to see how much she’s grown since that first year!
Love it! She’s so little there!
xo
s
Hi Clara – I just wanted to say how fantastic it is that you have a German pen-pal. I was an exchange student to Germany (from South Africa) when I was 15. I had the most amazing host family and we are still friends ten years later – in fact, they’re coming to visit us for Christmas!
From that friendship I learnt German and even majored in it at university. I even studied at a German university for a few months.
So keep in touch with German Clara and maybe one day the two of you can learn each other’s languages :)
I like your post a lot Nicky! I’m from Germany aswell :) Love the penpal idea.
I started writing to a german pen pal when I was in 4th grade. Ive been to germany twice and visited her and her family and she’s been here once. We’ve been writing for 20 years! What a fun idea for Clara. Keep it up!
That’s so cool!
xo
s