theinbetweenismine

just a girl living the expat life

Archives for December 2007

Just in time…

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.

Christmas tree

Christmas dinner

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.

Nina, Dirk, Ira and San

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”.

Pizza :)

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.

A jolly good time

filed under: family, friends, holidays

Cologne Christmas Market
Christmas Market in Köln [Cologne]

Friday, my sister and I went to Köln to do some last-minute Christmas shopping, but mainly to enjoy the Christmas time by visiting the Kölner Weihnachtsmarkt [Cologne Christmas Market] and having some Glühwein [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 morning 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 crêpes and drank mulled wine until our noses turned red and our feet were freezing and then decided to warm up in a little café 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.  It’s just so wonderful to be around family and friends!

Wonderful Christmas time

filed under: family, holidays, my so-called life

snow!

It snowed today!

I can’t believe that I could possibly 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 Tuesday morning. The flights were smooth and on time. I even managed to sleep a bit [well, maybe for like two hours …ahem]. My Dad and my cousin Nicole 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’ choir a couple of months ago 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.

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 :)