Archives for December 2007

Just in time…

December 31, 2007 filed under: family, fun!, holidays, my so-called life

… to give you a quick recap of the last week, to let you know I made it back home safely and to wish you a great start into the New Year!!

Sorry for not being in touch since Christmas. I was just so busy with enjoying myself and the time with my family that I didn’t manage to write another update while I was abroad. Now I want to make sure that I end this year with the recap of one of the best times ever :)

Christmas with my family was just amazing! In the morning, I decorated the Christmas tree and then helped my Mom set the table for our Christmas Eve dinner. This is how we always used to do it and I almost felt like I traveled back in time.

We placed our presents under the Christmas tree and at 7 p.m. our guests came over… my sister Nina and Dirk, my Granddad, my great-aunt, my cousin Basti and my Mom’s cousin Rita. We had a wonderful dinner and afterwards exchanged our presents.

Christmas Day, my Dad, my sister and I went to see my godmother in the morning and in the afternoon my uncle came over to hang out for a while.

On Wednesday was my cousin’s son’s baptism. We had to leave quite early in the morning. My parents and I picked up Nina and Dirk and then met at my aunt’s place before we went over to the church. Luca was in a great mood and smiling at everybody :)
The baptism was wonderful and Nina and I were proud to become his godmothers. After the church service we all went over to my aunt’s restaurant and had lunch. We had a great time just talking and spending time together… and Luca was just adorable. We ended up getting home at 6:30 p.m.
I watched “The Polar Express” with my parents in the evening – what a cute movie!

On Thursday I went downtown with my Mom and sister to run some errands and get some stuff that I wanted to take back to CA. You can imagine I bought quite a lot of goodies :)
In the afternoon I saw my aunt for a while and in the evening went over to my friend Ira’s. She had invited Nina, Dirk and me for “cheese fondue”. We had a wonderful evening with yummy food and great conversations.

Friday morning my Granddad and great-aunt came over for breakfast. We wanted to spend some more time with them before I was going to leave again. I spend the afternoon at my sister’s place and in the evening we went out for dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant “Alla Scala”.

It was delicious and just a very special time.

Fortunately, my plane didn’t leave before 1:20 p.m. on Saturday, so I had enough time to have a nice breakfast with my parents, Nina and Dirk in the morning and then they took me to the airport at around 11 a.m.
I have to admit that it was quite hard to say goodbye again. I am just not good at that… but I am very thankful for the wonderful time that I had at home.

My flight with Lufthansa went smoothly and immigration in SF was a breeze – yes! Despite a 1,5 hour-delay of my connecting flight to Sacramento, everything went really well. J picked me up at the airport at 1 a.m. and I pretty much went to sleep right after we got home.

Have a great start into the new year… hopefully it will be a little less “eventful” than 2007 ;)

Thanks for all your support and friendship this last year! xoxo.

have a very…

December 24, 2007 filed under: holidays

Enjoy the special time with your loved ones!

A jolly good time

December 23, 2007 filed under: family, friends, holidays

Christmas Market in KÃ¶ln [Cologne]

Friday, my sister and I went to KÃ¶ln to do some last-minute Christmas shopping, but mainly to enjoy the Christmas time by visiting the KÃ¶lner Weihnachtsmarkt [Cologne Christmas Market] and having some GlÃ¼hwein [mulled wine].
It was pretty cold outside and the leftover snow from the day before added to the wonderful Christmas feeling.

I just felt completely wonderfully christmassy :)

Then, the next highlight: Meeting with Sanni and Sebi at the Cathedral at 5:30 p.m. They came aaalll the way from Essen to spend a few hours with me [and my sister]… awww! Christmas Market without some food from all the wonderful food stands is like Christmas without a Christmas tree… and it was almost dinner time anyways. I decided for some delicious and greasy Rievkooche [Cologne dialect for ‘potato pancakes’].

We strolled around and at 6:30 p.m. met with my friend Silke, who I’ve known and been friends with since Kindergarten. She lives in Cologne now and had called me in the morningÂ about 10 minutes before I was going to head to the train station. What a perfect timing! It was wonderful to see her again as well.

We chatted, ate crÃªpes and drank mulled wine until our noses turned red and ourÂ feet were freezing and thenÂ decided to warm up in a little cafÃ© near by. It was great to spend time together and we had a hard time saying goodbye again.

I slept at my sister’s place that night and we drove to my cousine’s the next morning for breakfast and to spend time with Luca. His baptism is on the 26th and I wanted to take the opportunity to spend some more time with my godson-to-be while I am here. He’s the most adorable little guy and his smile just melts my heart.

Last night I spend time with my parents and today visited my Granddad and my great-aunt for a while in the afternoon.Â It’s just so wonderful to be around family and friends!

Wonderful Christmas time

December 20, 2007 filed under: family, holidays, my so-called life

It snowed today!

I can’t believe that I could possiblyÂ get a “white Christmas” this year. It’s not to common to get snow for Christmas in Germany anymore, but this year it looks like it could happen… at least today it did :)

When I woke up, snow flurries were playing outside my window. It was beautiful.

Here’s a quick re-cap of the last two days:
I arrived on TuesdayÂ morning. The flights were smooth and on time. I even managed to sleep a bit [well, maybe for like two hours …ahem].Â My Dad and my cousin NicoleÂ and my godson-to-be, Luca, picked me up at the airport. It was wonderful to see them! Luca, who is 14 months old now, is the most adorable and friendly little guy and even though he hadn’t seen me in 12 months, greeted me with a smile :)

We headed home, had some lunch [ barley stew that I had requested from my Mom… yum!] and in the afternoon my sister, granddad and greataunt came over to say Hello. Even though I had already been up for over 24 hours, I was holding up pretty well. Must have been the excitement! :)

In the evening, I attended a Christmas concert at my old Highschool. My Mom started singing in the teachers-parents’Â choir a couple of months agoÂ and I was happy to be able to see her first performance. It was a great evening!

After 11 hours of deep sleep, I awoke to a wonderful German breakfast. I was all by myself in the house, because my parents had their last day of work before the Christmas holidays. They came home around lunch time and we prepared Reibekuchen [potato pancakes] for lunch! Yummy!
In the afternoon we went downtown to run some errands and I spent the evening with my sister. We snuggled up on the couch, watched TV and talked. It felt so good!!

Today, I went Christmas tree shopping with my parents. In Germany, the Christmas tree is not put up before Christmas Eve and therefore it is waiting in the garage right now. When my sister and I were little, we didn’t get to see the Christmas tree before the evening. My Mom would decorate in the afternoon and when we came home from the Christmas church service, my sister and I had to wait in our rooms until my Mom rang a [hand held] bell and we were allowed to come down and see the tree and the presents. It was always a time of great excitement!
After we had grown up, “chores” were split between my sister and I … Nina put up the nativity scene and I decorated the tree in the morning of Christmas Eve. I am looking forward to being able to do this again this year! We play Christmas music, my Mom prepares stuff for our Christmas dinner and we drink tea and eat Christmas cookies :)

In the afternoon my sister and I went to see my greataunt for coffee and cookies. We used to do that every other week last year when I was still in Germany waiting for my Green Card and we always enjoyed and cherished the time together. Therefore, it was a very special afternoon :)

So far, so good… more to come!
I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas time as much as I do!

I made it.

December 18, 2007 filed under: family, my so-called life, yes!

I am home with my family. It feels so surreal… but good! Very good :)

I just wanted to let you know. I’ve been up for 34 hours. I seriousy need to get some sleep. Hopefully it was worth it to stay up and go to bed at regular bed time. Maybe the jetlag won’t be so bad.

More later, my friends :)

I am leaving…

December 16, 2007 filed under: my so-called life

… in less than 24 hours. This is so surreal.

I think I have pretty much everything packed and hope that I didn’t forget anything.

J and I had a pretty nice weekend… we went shopping once more on Friday [I needed a new suitcase, because the ones that I have are either a) falling apart or b) in storage] and also went out for lunch on Saturday to this awesome Mexican place… definitely a place I have to take my parents and Basti to next time they come to visit :)

He’s picking up his brother at the airport now and we’ll have a nice evening together before they’ll take me to the airport tomorrow morning. I think J is really looking forward to spending time with his brother, even though he’s mentioned quite a few times that I am going to fly away tomorrow [just picture that with the cutest puppy face that you can imagine ;)] *sigh*

Still, I think we’re both ok with the decisions that we made and I am getting excited to spend Christmas the “German way” again this year :)

Reibekuchen, Waffles, GlÃ¼hwein, hot chocolate… Christmas market, I am on my way!!!

It’s always like that before the holidays

December 12, 2007 filed under: excitement, holidays, my so-called life

The last few days have been c-r-a-z-y at work. I am trying to get some stuff done before I leave and I’ve put in quite a bit of OT. But, who cares when you will be off for about 2,5 weeks andÂ get to see your family in 5 (!) days? :) Not me… that’s right!

I still have a few things to finish up, but my supervisor and one of my co-workers are at a conference for the rest of the week, so today was and tomorrow will be pretty quiet in the office – which I like!

So, I have one work day leftÂ and then Friday I’ll run my last errands before the weekend, which I will hopefully spend quietly and privately with J :) It’s been the first time in over a year that we’ll have to be separated again for more than 4 days, but I am pretty sure we can do it. Christmas and family will keep us busy, for sure, and before we know it we’ll be reunited for New Year’s again. I think in the end it’ll all work out :)

Shopping Madness

December 10, 2007 filed under: holidays, my so-called life, shopping

I seriously enjoy Christmas shopping. I don’t know how many people can say that, but I do. I like picking out gifts for people, wrapping them, writing Christmas Cards… the whole shebang.

Since I am leaving for Germany inÂ 7 (!) days, I tried to do most of my Christmas shopping last weekend. I hadn’t been shopping, I mean, REAL shopping, in a long time and therefore it was also a little bit of shopping for myself as well. Call it an early Christmas gift from my sweet husband – because he likes to send me on a shopping spree every once in a while. Apparently, he thinks that I am a very “weird” woman for not spending every spare penny on new clothes ;)

We went to the Outlets on Saturday. You gotta love the Outlets :) and you know what? It wasn’t even half as busy as I had expected it two beÂ twoÂ weeks before Christmas. We found two pretty dresses – one of which I will wear for my godson’s baptism. Hopefully it isn’t too cold for that in Germany.

We also went to le Target (!) where I wanted to buy a flat iron – preferrably a dual voltage one that I can take to Germany. Luckily, they had quite a few to chose from that said “dual voltage” on the back of the package! Great! I just wanted to make sure that this information on the package really meant that I could use it in Germany without a converter, so I asked three (!) employees if they could help me with this product. You can probably guess thatÂ NONE of them had a clue what I was talking about and the most useful answer that I received was that I could return it, if itÂ doesn’t work in Europe. Competent people, eh? The booklet inside did assure me finally that the flat iron would indeed work in Europe with a regular power adapter, so all is good.

We moved on to my favorite store in the world, Michaels, and also stopped at Nordstrom’s Rack.

J’s needs of shopping were definitely satisfied by our shopping tour on Saturday. Thus, I went to the Mall by myself on Sunday. I have to say that I enjoy shopping by myself and I had a fabulous day :) I got quite a few Christmas gifts [that I obviously can’t post here :)] and some nice stuff for myself… I bought a pair of jeans, a sweater, a belt, a purse, two long sleeve-shirts and a very nice top. I also got my make up done at Sephora‘s. It’s the first time I’ve ever done this, but it was fun and consequently I went a little crazy in the store afterwards. I don’t know if I have ever purchased that much make-up in one store visit.
Oh well :)

Besides a few things that I, or rather my sister!,Â will get in Germany, I think I am pretty much done with the Christmas shopping madness. How about you?

Happy St. Nikolaus Day.

December 6, 2007 filed under: holidays, reminiscence

Damn, I forgot to put out my boot last night. Do you think that might be the reason why there was no candy and chocolate this morning?

I really have fond memories of the Nikolaus tradition in Germany. My sister and I would always put our boots in front of the entrance door and the next morning we would run downstairs to see the goodies that we got overnight.
When we were really little, it must have been around kindergarten-age, my Grandma kept a big golden book that she gave to Nikolaus, obviously some family member that dressed up with a white beard and a red coat, who read from the book if we had behaved well over the last year. I always had a great respect for Nikolaus, although I never had any reason to be afraid, because I was a very shy and quiet child.
Although, Nikolaus did reprove me sometimes for being timid and always hiding behind my sister. All my memories are very positive ones though and I very much like to reminisce about my childhood :)

I think I am going to go home soon and make some hot chocolate. Hot chocolate perfectly makes up for an empty boot this morning, don’t you think?!