Archives for November 2009

Can it really be over already?

November 30, 2009 filed under: about me, NaBloPoMo

Today is November, 30 – which marks the end of NaBloPoMo. I really enjoyed NaBloPoMo again and I almost kind of sad that it’s over. There are still some posts sitting in my draft folder, but don’t you worry, those posts will be finished and published some time in the near future.
I guess, it’s kind of a good sign that the end of the month, and therefore the end of NaBloPoMo, kind of snuck up on me this time and almost came as a little bit of a surprise.

Here’s to all the great people who persevered and stuck to blogging every single day for the month of November. Thanks for reading and commenting throughout the month. I really appreciated each and every one of you.

Only 31 more days and the 2009 is over and done with as well. This year went by in a snap of a finger. I can’t believe how fast the months flew by.

J and I won’t be going to Germany for Christmas and it makes me a bit sad not to be able to spend Christmas with my family and especially little Greta. I really had thought (and planned all year in my head) that we would fly to Germany for Christmas. I thought we would go to the Christmas markets and have hot chocolate and Belgian waffles. I thought we would have some snow and take some long walks through the winter landscape. I thought I would help my Dad set up the Christmas tree and decorate it on the morning of Christmas Eve.
It’s was kind of a damper to realize that all this isn’t going to happen this year.
I think we just had to face the facts and acknowledge that various reasons argue for postponing our trip for another few months, the biggest reason being the arrival of our new nephew in March and a tentatively planned baptism some time in late spring.
It would be impossible – financially and in regards to vacation days – to go now and in the spring, especially considering that I had just been to Germany in September (for only 10 days, mind you). It’s still kind of hard to accept for me, because I am such a family person.

What are your plans for Christmas?

Christmas season starts NOW!

November 29, 2009 filed under: about me, Germany, holidays, NaBloPoMo, photography

Well, finally. Finally, I can bare the Christmas music that has been playing at every store… oh, only since the day after Halloween!… and I can finally start thinking about Christmas. Is it just me, or does it feel like the Christmas season is starting earlier every year? At least, here in the US, you would think that the start of the season is pretty clearly defined by the day after Thanksgiving.

Or not.

Anyway, today is the first day of Advent, you know, the fourth Sunday before Christmas, and this is usually the day that the pre-Christmas season starts for me. I didn’t have the time and leisure to put together my own advent wreath this year, but I got out some of our Christmas decoration and I am using this Christmas pyramid for the advent season.

J’s Mom gave this pyramid to us a while back. It has a nativity scene and four candles around, which I will lit, one by one, over the course of the next four weeks.
If you haven’t seen those pyramids before, it’s a German thing (they have their roots in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains), a mountain range in the Eastern part of Germany which forms a natural border between Saxony and the Czech Republic.) Even though they are a little bit kitschy, they definitely have their place during the Christmas time.

Stamps

November 28, 2009 filed under: about me, fun!, NaBloPoMo

Do you think I might have a bit of an obsession?

Most of those are from the $1-bin at Michaels. I LOVE their great bargains on stamps. I spent the whole afternoon crafting with my friend S again and it feels so good to be creative. I think, I finally got my mojo back :)

Our feast

November 27, 2009 filed under: food, holidays, NaBloPoMo

J and I had a lovely Thanksgiving yesterday. We slept in and spent most of the day at home, drinking hot tea and anticipating our dinner. We started cooking together around 5 p.m.

I prepared the a walnut-chestnut stuffing

while J prepared the turkey chicken. It turned out great.

We also made mashed potatoes (from scratch!), green beans and Brussels sprouts.

It was delicious!

We went for a nice long walk after dinner while our dessert – pumpkin pie! – was in the oven.

It was a quiet, but wonderful day. I hope you enjoyed Thanksgiving as much as I did :) And the best part: We still have the whole weekend ahead of us!

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 26, 2009 filed under: food, holidays, NaBloPoMo

Today is a good day to reflect on all the good things in my life.

I am thankful for my loving husband. I am thankful for my supportive, loving family (only an ocean away). I am thankful for a sister that is not only my sister, but my best friend. I am thankful for visits at home and quality time with the people that mean the world to me. I am thankful for a safe and cozy home and good food. I am thankful for good health and long walks in the crisp winter air. I am thankful for a great job that is both fun and meaningful (and that pays my bills).

I am thankful for fantastic friends, both the ones in real life and all the lovely people I’ve met through the Internet. I am thankful for hot coffee, for warm socks, for a comfortable couch and warm blankets. I am thankful for apple pie and hot chocolate. I am thankful for good music and interesting books, that both stimulate my brain. I am thankful for snow, for red cheeks, for winter boots, scarves and mittens.

I am thankful for technology, the way it has made communication with people far, far away so much easier. I am thankful for every single one of you, my dear readers, and the interaction through our blogs. I am thankful for a long weekend, time to myself and hot tea.

I am thankful for all the good things that this year has given me.

I am ashamed of myself, a little bit

November 25, 2009 filed under: f*ck that, family, NaBloPoMo

This morning, my sister called me at the office @ 7 a.m.

She never calls me at the office that early, and I knew something must have happened.

She told me that our Granddad was a the hospital, that he had suffered a mild stroke last night that had impacted his language center in the brain and that he was unable to speak (besides a few simple words). He otherwise seems to be doing fine, he has no physical or mental impairments (my sister says he’s visibly upset that he cannot communicate), but he’ll be staying at the hospital for a few days and they’ll do some more tests.

My sister and I both feel kind of bad that we had been complaining a little bit that my Granddad had been calling us all the time. We understood that he was probably lonely and just wanted to talk for a short while, but with our own busy lives (my sister being pregnant, having a toddler and working full time) and the time difference for me, it just didn’t feel doable to talk to him every day.
Today I feel crushed, because I am 6000 miles away and the only way to communicate with him would be by phone and right now, I can’t even call him. And the doctors didn’t know as of today if his ability to talk can ever be fully restored. Irony much?

I mean, what if he doesn’t recover and won’t be able to communicate much anymore? What if he suffers another stroke? I still have so many questions to ask him; questions that for one reason or another I never asked when I had the opportunity.

My Granddad is 87 years old. He was doing pretty well. Considering his age, he had no mentionable health problems (besides some back pain stemming from lifelong false posture caused by a leg amputation in WWII).
He was still living on his own, in his own house and he was still driving his car (which, admittedly was something that my family was trying to prevent for quite some time now) and he seemed mentally and physically “fit” for his age, generally speaking.
I subconsciously knew that the possibility of something happening to him had to be expected at any given time. Still, when it happens over night like that, it leaves you behind in shock and disbelief.

This is a picture of me and my granddad and great-aunt (my grandma’s sister).

Christmas Card Exchange

November 24, 2009 filed under: good things, holidays, NaBloPoMo

Can you believe it? Christmas is only a month away and since I am planning to do my annual Christmas Card Exchange, I think it’s high time to get started on that.

I am sending out real paper Christmas cards again this year and yes, I am not even kidding. I still think taking the time and actually handwritten a card to someone is one of the nicest things to do.

So, without any further ado, I ask all of you, who would like to participate again this year, to fill out the form below with your current address to make sure you’ll get a Christmas Card from me in the mail.
(I encourage everyone, even those people whose addresses haven’t changed since last year, to fill out the form, because Google will put it in a neat and orderly spread sheet for me and I’ll have my complete list assembled that way. Thanks!)

I’d love a card back, of course, but it’s not a requirement ;)

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It’s official: it’s going to be a boy!

November 23, 2009 filed under: family, FYI, NaBloPoMo

Well, I could have sworn I wrote a blog post about the great news that my sister is having a little boy! Apparently, that must have been only in my dreams or something, according to all the ‘surprised’ comments on my last post! I am sorry I obviously didn’t pass on this absolutely fantastic news.

I couldn’t be happier that my sister is having a boy for a couple of reasons,

my sister and her husband will have the great experience of raising a girl and a boy,
I’ll be the proud aunt of a niece and a nephew,
I don’t have to refrain from the fact that Greta is the cutest baby (girl) ever, because my nephew will be the cutest baby (boy) ever!, and
we finally have another boy in the family. Hooray!

I got to see a couple of those 3D (?) images that they’re able to produce these days. Holy cow. It’s almost like you took an actual photo of the baby in the womb. It’s amazing!

My sister and her husband haven’t decided on a name yet. I find that terribly difficult anyway. Finding a name for a girl is hard, finding a name for a boy is (almost) impossible.
I am open for any suggestions that I can pass on to the expecting parents… maybe you’re the lucky person whose name they might pick!

Keep in mind, the name should go well with Greta and it should also be a “German” name. (Obviously, my sister won’t give her child an English sounding name – she’s an elementary school teacher and had way too many bad experiences with “foreign” and unusual names. They usually get butchered when you try to pronounce them in German ;)).

Art projects

November 22, 2009 filed under: about me, crafts, family, girl time, holidays, NaBloPoMo

Do you remember this post, when I was complaining about having a creative urge, but no time or patience to sit down and actually do something crafty?

Well, turns out my inner “crafting” ego was just waiting for the holiday season to come around. It also helped to find someone (aka my friend S) who was willing to sit down and do crafts with me!

Last Tuesday, we met at her place to make some Christmas cards. I had stocked up on paper, stamps, stickers, and whatnot at Michaels beforehand and we spent a whole evening crafting cards.
I used to make my own Christmas cards all the time when I was younger. I had a “crafting buddy” in Germany and we would meet up for two full weekends sometime before Christmas and get all our Christmas cards done. There were copious amounts of tea and cookies involved as well :) Those were fun times.

When I proposed the idea to my friend S two weeks ago, she was totally up to it and I was thrilled that she would be willing to do this with me. One more thing we have in common!

Of course, we didn’t get all the Christmas cards done on Tuesday (what with my long list of Christmas card recipients – watch out for my “Christmas Card Exchange post this week!), so we’ll have to set up another time to continue our card production.
We went to Michaels together yesterday to get some more card stock, stamps and paper.

And while I was at it, I took on another art project. My sister is due with her second baby in March and I had been thinking about hand-crafting something for the arrival of my nephew. I had made a quilt for a friend’s newborn before, but I quickly dropped that idea, because without a sewing machine, it would take me MONTHS YEARS to be able to finish a quilt by hand.
Then I came across a cross-stitching kit and I thought to myself “That is definitely something I can do – and finish!”. I learned how to cross-stitch way back in elementary school (Yes, that’s the truth!) and I could surely pick it up again!
You probably think this is possibly the most kitschy and old-fashioned idea ever. Who in the world would hang up a cross-stitched project on their wall? But before you judge, just look at how cute the cross-stitch images are these days:

I can totally see that on the wall or even on the door of my nephew’s room.

Can’t you?

Zao

November 21, 2009 filed under: about me, good times, NaBloPoMo

I want a cat.

I’ve always wanted a cat, but after last night I really want one bad.

My sister and I never had a pet when we were little and the first thing my sister did after she had finished College was to get a cat. As for me, I have moved around too much, twice back and forth across the big pond, to justify getting a pet yet. Right now we’re living in an apartment that doesn’t allow pets. But I am looking forward to the day, when J and I settle into a (semi-) permanent place where we can finally get a cat.

Yesterday, we were almost adopted by one of the sweetest cats I have ever encountered.

We got back from picking up Thai food. When we had parked the car and I was about to open the door, I could see a white cat in the outside mirror. She was walking up the side of the car and when I opened the passenger’s door, she was right next to me and without much hesitation jumped into the foot well. She was not shy at all, rather curious and within a minute or two had jumped up on J’s lab and was nudging him with her head and started purring.

I was about to exclaim “OMG! We’re so going to take that cat home. Look at her, she clearly likes us”, when I realized that she had a collar. I was able to take a quick look at the tag, while she was busy nudging her head against my hand and J’s chest. The tag read “Zao”. What an interesting name!
She had a beautiful face and was so trusting and so soft and cuddly.

I tried to take a picture of her, unfortunately the lighting in the car was bad and she was moving around so much that this is the best shot I could get with my cell phone.

So we sat with her for about 15 minutes, petting her and just falling in love with her. Obviously, we had a really hard time kicking her out of the car again, when we finally decided that we had to go inside and have our dinner before it was completely cold. But J and I both agreed that this neat encounter really made our day! :)

(Ok, and the Thai Food. The Red Curry was delicious! :))