O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree...

The Christmas tree hunt is one of our favourite things to do. My men just love it! It is such a “manly” (ha, ha) thing to go in the woods (in our case a farm), to pick the tree and to cut it down with a saw, to carry it to the car… (ha, ha). The picking part took us two days last year (I have to admit it was my fault), it is not easy to find the perfect tree, you know. The least funny part is to get the tree in the stand. This can cause small fights between the married couple (in this case us). Who put the ornaments on the tree there is no arguing about it : me.

My husband watches this process from a distance; our son sleeps at this time. He gets up in the morning, surprised and excited: Christmas is coming!

I am back!

Hallo everybody! I am back! It has been a while since my last posting. Sorry… No, I was not travelling, I was in the hospital for a major surgery and the recovery took longer than I thought. Once again, there have been good friends who helped us to go to through it, took care of Jakob and supported us in any possible way. Thank you to all of you!!! I hope to get in my “old shape” soon, especially because Christmas is coming, my favourite time of the year!

Pasta nights

We established a new tradition in our family life: pasta nights! That means we are not just eating pasta- we are making it by ourselves. Inspired by our son who loves pasta and also enjoys baking/cooking with me we started with this new tradition two weeks ago. Last Sunday was our second run. It works pretty good! But you need time, a lot of time… The Sunday before, we made raviolis (but in shape of “pierogi”, much easier) with a delicious meat filling. I love Jamie Oliver`s recipes, and he has a few good pasta recipes, especially for the dough. Rolling out the dough was physically very exhausting, so this was my husbands part. With a glass I cut round shapes and Jakob put the filling in and finished. Our dog, who kept us company the whole time, deserved the leftover filling. He loves pasta nights now too. It was such a fun!!!

By the way, they tasted excellent, too. Yes, even better than my favourite Barilla pasta. (And we had enough to feed two more families…) My husband discovered his love for cooking and went to buy the “absolutely” necessary supplies for the next pasta night, that was last Sunday. This time we made fettuccine with our new pasta machine. Each of us had a part to do again: Olaf was putting the rolled out dough in the machine, Jakob was moving the curb, I was placing the fettuccine on cut boards. Joey was licking the flour from the floor.

Needless to say, we all were covered in flour. And laughing! The dinner was great! Maybe next time the fettuccine should be a little bit thicker. But this will have to wait two more weeks. Our next pasta night will have home made gnocchi on the menu.

Good friends

Three weeks ago I had to go to the ER , I got pneumonia. Because of my Crohns therapy it can be dangerous, so they kept me in the hospital. By the way, I was not in shape to go home anyway. Of course, when this happened my husband was on a business trip in Europe. I was all by myself, just with my 9 year old son, and no family who could help. But help came: from my friends and neighbours. They did not mind that I called them at 6 am in the morning. Our friends were happy to get Jakob ready for school and even to have him over night. They took just wonderful care of him. My neighbour came right away and drove me to the hospital, he did not leave me until a doctor approached. To be honest, I was scared, lying in the ER, my husband far away, not knowing what will happen, feeling terrible and completely lonely…and then I saw my friends face through the glass door. I don`t think I`ve ever been happier in my life to see somebody as in this moment. Àfter putting the kids on the bus she just rushed to the hospital. She kept me company until I was in my room and made sure I was okay. My neighbour who drove me also took care for our dog. Another neighbour called and asked what I need from home. He had our home key and was offering to stop by, which he did. In the afternoon another neighbour (who is more a friend) came for a visit with flowers and magazines. And for a talk, which was the best for me. On the next day there was a visitor already after breakfast. Another friend. She brought me chocolate croissants. Just on time. We talked and laughed. I found my humor again. Or even better: I found out that I can count on my friends (and neighbours) when I need them.

My husband got an early flight and was back home on the same day. He picked up Jakob and in the evening, me. I responded well to the medication so I could continue the therapy at home. Everybody called and asked if they could do something for me. What more could they do ?!

Back to school!

The Back-to-school-week is like a hurricane. You are expecting it for days or even weeks, preparing as best you can and it still can overwhelm you completely. I am usually very organized but the first week of school is chaos. But obviously not just for me, for the school and especially for the transportation department also… The busses drop off the kids more than one hour later, and in the morning they just miss them some times. So, desperate mothers (like me) are driving the kids to school (behind the bus).Crazy!

Sports, scouts meetings, orchestra rehearsals are starting, all kind of papers have to be filled out, new teachers to meet, new schedules to follow and so on…But even the worst hurricane is over at some point. I hope!

Ps. By the way: Jakob is really happy with the beginning of school: He loves his new teacher (it is a man for the very first time!) and he can spend recess and the bus drive with his best friend.

School can be fun! At least in the first week…

Home again

We are back from our last trip for this summer: we visited our family in Germany. We stayed for one week, as every year, which is a short time. Our family never forgets to mention this. But even if we would stay for a month, there is always a point when we have to say bye and it is always hard, no matter for how long we would stay

. So, we enjoyed the short time we had together and tried to see as many family members and friends, as possible.

The most important thing for me was visiting my grandma, who is 91 and to her I was (and am) always very close. In this age you never know if there will be a next time, a next year… But I was happy to find my grandma in a really good shape. We enjoyed many “Coffee-hours” together in one of her favourite coffee-shops in the town. She loves to drink cappuccino. Me too.

We stayed with my in-laws in their house.

You know, there is always the same question: where do we stay over night? All our family members would like to have us, especially my parents, but in this case (and in so many others…) my husband makes the decision. However, we had a wonderful time.

Jakob played with his cousin and the kids of our friends, went swimming with my parents and got extremely spoiled, as usual. We needed an extra bag for his new toys, but I understand it, because the grandparents try to compensate for one year in one week. (We got spoiled too.) It was good to visit our friends and see how much older the kids got. They change so much, especially when we see them just once a year. But it´s not just the kids who are changing…

A nice treat for us was spending some time in Cologne, which is not just a beautiful city but a place where Olaf and I went to the university and lived afterward for six years.

We even showed Jakob the building where our “old” apartment was. And we discovered new places in Cologne too, for example Starbucks, Ben&Jerry`s…

And we walked a lot. Something I still miss in the USA. And we talked a lot! And we had many nice dinners together. And many glasses of wine. And many kisses and many hugs.

But then it was time to go home again. And here we are. Back home.

Nostalgia

I never thought I would be attached to a car. For me it was always just a functioning vehicle with four wheels. Until now.

We picked up our new car last Saturday and I realized that it made me kind of sad to give up the “old” car. How silly! But the Jeep was our first car in the USA, and I have to admit I really enjoyed the driving.

In Europe we are used to drive small cars, so this big size of the car and higher sitting was new for me. This car is so American, so convenient and comfortable. And I discovered USA (at least some places) in this car, it always reminds me of my beginning here… Of all my small and big adventures.

Silly, it is just a car! Is it not ?!

A Scout life

As all American moms I signed Jakob up for two camps this summer (definitely not enough as I know now…). One was the Scout camp in a state park close by where he spent last week (during the days). What an experience!

He loves to be a Cub Scout, now Webelos, it is one of his favourite activities. But what this camp offered was beyond my expectations.

Every day they had about five different activities: mountain biking, rafting, boating, bb guns, bow and arrow, fishing, swimming, science, archaeology, and so on. And the best: the theme of this year was “Star Wars”! So there was a Jedi Training camp too, of course. Amazing!

The kids were outside in the woods all day and came home tired (but happy). That is the way I like it! Ps. He even learned a few words in sign language!

Window with a view

Have you ever been at Ikea in Brooklyn? We needed a few things for our house so we went there last Saturday ( we still can not give up our European habits…).

My friend asked me later “ So, tell me, what was the buy of the day?”. I answered :” It was more the view(!!) of the day”. While shopping or sitting at the dining area you see the sky line of NYC. Wow!! I was drinking my coffee, to my left was the Statue of Liberty, in the front the Empire State Building! Who wants to take a look at the furniture in the store having this view?! Afterwards we decided to explore the Brooklyn Heights. Another “wow”! We always planned but never made it to Brooklyn ( tucked most of the time in my favourite Soho…)But here I found my second favourite place to go, if even just to sit in one of the street café s and watch people. The old town houses are amazing (the selling prices too!), there is a lot of green and so close to the water… Just a few steps and a full NYC sky line opens up in front of you! And this part of the city has so much flair! Just loved it!

The drive over the Verrazano Bridge (which connects Staten Island with Brooklyn) was absolutely spectacular. On you right side you just look at the open ocean. This reminds me once again about the unique location of NYC. You forget when you are in the middle of Manhattan that there is an ocean in front of you… Ps. And we had an ice cream in the first world wide Haagen-Dazs ice creamery. Yummy!

Last weekend in Virginia

On our way home we choose to stay over night in the western part of Virginia. It is too exhausting to drive 900 miles (from South Carolina) in one day and we wanted to see Charlottesville anyway. Our destination was the Boar`s Head Inn, a country resort close to Charlottesville. We really did not expect to find such an amazing place. It looks like an old castle (was an old mill before), settled between small lakes, very picturesque- like a postcard! The amenities and the restaurant of this hotel were so excellent that we decided to skip our exploring and just relax and enjoy.

Good decision! And we had the chance to drive thru the western part of Virginia (between the Appalachian mountains and the sky view drive) on the next day. What a beautiful country side!

After more than two weeks vacation we finally arrived at home. What did we discovered: this is the best of all places!

A side trip to Beaufort

Not so famous but absolutely worth exploring is the small town Beaufort. The women in the tourism office were excellent, they showed us the most important points of interest. Something that especially captured Jakobs attention was the chocolate factory.

The dark chocolate truffles were excellent! Unfortunat

ely we could not take anything with us, it would melt immediately. Here, I think, I saw my absolute favourite house of this trip. Rhett and Scarlett could still live in this villa…

Still looking for Rhett Butler...

This time in Charleston! Another wonderful city in the South! Even in the heat you never get tired walking through the streets of Charleston. We were so captured by the amazing townhouses, gorgeous churches, the palm trees alleys and the famous oak trees (a special kind that grows here in the South) in the parks that we forgot how hot and humid the air is here in July… We also took the chance to visit one of these houses from inside: very impressive! The air is thick, the people very laid back, everything a little slower than we are used to. We automatically got more lazy, too.

But Charleston offers a contemporary side too: cool restaurants, expensive shops, galleries and many good coffee shops. Of course, we discovered one of them.

What we were drinking? No hot coffee, for sure! Iced (!!) latte, iced chocolate and so on. After drinking one large cup my husband said “I could have 5 of those”. (Still not enough to beat the heat). And imagine, Rhett Butler was wearing a smoking jacket or suit. And he did not drink any iced-latte, that is for sure. Oh, the good old times and the gentlemen of the South!

Tea time in Savannah

We just love Savannah!

To explore the South we choose as first Savannah in Georgia. The houses may be not so impressing as in Charleston but the city layout is amazing! It has 21 scenic squares and every second street is punctuated by greenery. Even our son enjoyed walking between the beautiful houses from one square to another. The famous oak trees here give you enough shade to survive the heat. This city has really flair.

To top it we made a little discovery: a gorgeous, old tearoom “Gryphon”.

It was before a pharmacy. And they serve there delicious tea and pastries, like in the good old times. I was just waiting that Rhett Butler would enter the room…

In the heat of the South

After all this hard work (learning about the history) in Virginia we deserve some vacation now! Where could be a good place to relax? Hilton Head Island in South Carolina!

We have never before driven so far in the South of the USA and we have never before spend this kind of vacation. I mean: beach, pool, ocean, sun (a lot of sun!). We are more the Maine-type, so it is a completely new experience for us.

Our son loves it! Especially to swim in the ocean, he is lying sometimes in the water like in his bath tub at home (my husband, too).

My favourite place here is in the deckchair in the shade, with a breeze (without it you are melting…). I even learned here to like ice-latte, usually I prefer just hot coffee, but at this temperature…

No, that is not coffee in this picture...

The most impressing thing here, besides the gorgeous white beaches(!) and palms, are the pelicans flying above our heads. That is really something!

Ps. By the way: As we arrived here there was a wedding on the beach! Very romantic!

Visiting Europe and the first colonies

Visit Europe in one day? Not possible?! Yes, it is – in Bush Gardens. Here is England just two steps away from Germany, Italy or France. You already know it, we are visiting Williamsburg, Virginia. And like all parents we can not avoid it to spend one day in Bush Gardens…To be honest, we had fun too, especially seeing the American vision of Germany. I think our son ate for the very first time “bratwurst and sauerkraut” and saw Bavarian musicians in “lederhosen”.

Anyway, fortunately there is still Williamsburg, Jamestown, York – a lesson in American history.

Jakob was very impressed by the marching soldiers and the fort, and the courthouse plus jail, of course.

In Williamsburg history comes alive. Surprising, it is not even crowded. Jamestown offers a great, modern museum about the first settlements in the USA.

We watched an introducing movie, walked thru the photo galleries, visited the Indian village and the fort, and finally the ships which brought the Europeans to America. It is still amazing for me to see under which circumstances the first colonists survived (at least a few) and what they were willing to do in the hope for a better life… But still, our son`s favourite place of all time is: the hotel pool! Sometimes I am just wondering why we do not stay home and spend the days at the pool at our lake. Would it be the same? I hope not!

We would definitely miss to explore another interesting state: Virginia!