MONROE - At 5 a.m. on Christmas morn, when even children are still nestled all snug in their beds, Ann Prophett, Monroe, is awake, making her traditional call to a family in Germany.
"I think I have not called on two Christmases, so one year I called on New Year's Day instead," Prophett said.
For 35 years, Prophett has been calling to wish a Merry Christmas to her German "sister" and German "parents" - a family she met during a Monroe High School German Club trip when she was a senior. Brad Holtnann was her German teacher.
The two-week educational trip included one week for sightseeing in southern Germany and a second week for language and culture immersion by staying with a family in Schiltach, West Germany.
The family consists of three daughters and a son. But Prophett said she and one of the daughters nearest her own age, Dagmar, "just clicked" and have stayed in touch ever since.
Prophett said she has always been appreciative of the family's patience with her, a young high schooler with a rudimentary handle on the German language.
Back home, Holtnann's stories about his college program of study in Germany prompted Prophett to spend her junior college year in Freiburg, Germany, taking courses toward fulfilling her degree through the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Just an hour away by train, Prophett was able to spend Christmas in 1981 and many other holiday breaks with her Germany family. Being so far from Wisconsin, Prophett said they were the "next best thing to my own family."
Those visits visit proved to be as educational as her first.
"I remember going to church service on Christmas Eve," she said.
She remembers that church service, because Dagmar was playing a baroque trumpet. But there were more memories to make, back at the family's home.
"There were real, lit candles on the tree, which the kids were not allowed to see until the parents had decorated it," Prophett said.
"When we first saw it, it was like magic. We opened up presents, and each person also had a "bunte Teller' - a colorful plate filled with chocolates, cookies, marzipan and candy," she said. "It lasted for a week. On the first day of Christmas (Dec. 26), I went cross-country skiing for the first time in the Black Forest."
Prophett returned to Wisconsin, graduated from the UW with a double major in sociology and German and eventually became a teacher. Her first job was at the Milwaukee German Immersion School, where she taught fifth-grade math, science, social studies and the German language in German and the English language and reading in English.
About 16 years ago, she returned to Monroe and now teaches fifth grade at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in Monroe.
Prophett has visited her German family several times in the years that followed her education in Germany. She last visited them about 2006, staying at the home of Dagmar.
But she doesn't miss any more Christmas phone calls to them.
"They were disappointed when I didn't call," she said. "So I make sure I call."
"I think I have not called on two Christmases, so one year I called on New Year's Day instead," Prophett said.
For 35 years, Prophett has been calling to wish a Merry Christmas to her German "sister" and German "parents" - a family she met during a Monroe High School German Club trip when she was a senior. Brad Holtnann was her German teacher.
The two-week educational trip included one week for sightseeing in southern Germany and a second week for language and culture immersion by staying with a family in Schiltach, West Germany.
The family consists of three daughters and a son. But Prophett said she and one of the daughters nearest her own age, Dagmar, "just clicked" and have stayed in touch ever since.
Prophett said she has always been appreciative of the family's patience with her, a young high schooler with a rudimentary handle on the German language.
Back home, Holtnann's stories about his college program of study in Germany prompted Prophett to spend her junior college year in Freiburg, Germany, taking courses toward fulfilling her degree through the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Just an hour away by train, Prophett was able to spend Christmas in 1981 and many other holiday breaks with her Germany family. Being so far from Wisconsin, Prophett said they were the "next best thing to my own family."
Those visits visit proved to be as educational as her first.
"I remember going to church service on Christmas Eve," she said.
She remembers that church service, because Dagmar was playing a baroque trumpet. But there were more memories to make, back at the family's home.
"There were real, lit candles on the tree, which the kids were not allowed to see until the parents had decorated it," Prophett said.
"When we first saw it, it was like magic. We opened up presents, and each person also had a "bunte Teller' - a colorful plate filled with chocolates, cookies, marzipan and candy," she said. "It lasted for a week. On the first day of Christmas (Dec. 26), I went cross-country skiing for the first time in the Black Forest."
Prophett returned to Wisconsin, graduated from the UW with a double major in sociology and German and eventually became a teacher. Her first job was at the Milwaukee German Immersion School, where she taught fifth-grade math, science, social studies and the German language in German and the English language and reading in English.
About 16 years ago, she returned to Monroe and now teaches fifth grade at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in Monroe.
Prophett has visited her German family several times in the years that followed her education in Germany. She last visited them about 2006, staying at the home of Dagmar.
But she doesn't miss any more Christmas phone calls to them.
"They were disappointed when I didn't call," she said. "So I make sure I call."