Turkey time was here!

Forgot to tell about our Thanksgiving! It was wonderful, one of my favorite holidays! And no gifts!

Our turkey was tender and delicious, we took very good care of him.

...

Oh, Christmas tree...

Can you believe this?! It is Christmas time again!

I have the feeling that my mother-in-law is right: the years are flying by as older you get... And the Christmas shopping seems never to end. Each time I think I got everything I find something new. At least the Christmas tree is up and decorated, so is the whole house.

Now, I need (no, I want) to bake cookies with Jakob and practice a few Christmas songs on piano. "Have yourself a merry little Christmas now...". Yeah!

Ps. Let us hope for some snow without losing power for six days like in October (Snowstorm in October!). The generator we actually ordered is sold out until March...

Summer and other catastrophes...

The summer is almost over. Thank God! Enough excitement for a year!

Let me think about August... first we had the earthquake, then came Hurricane Irene. We lost power for four days, our basement was over flooded and fallen trees blocked our road. After Irene the tropical storm arrived and our septic system in the back yard could not handle all the water anymore... Fun, fun, fun.

Oh yeah, and then my in-laws arrive. Just joking, that actually was nice. After three weeks they are back in Germany now.

And school started already. And we try to recover... And I am happy about the beginning of the fall, a quiet and peaceful time...let us hope!

Our favorite place is gone...

Borders is going out of business!!

I am shocked!!

Is nobody reading books anymore??

It was always my favorite thing to have my latte (with a scone!) in the book store cafe (at least twice a week), to read European magazines and check the new books. Never left the store without buying one. And now, it is gone...that what I discovered coming back from vacation! Very, very sad about it...

Ps. My son loved it too!

In the Highlands of Cape Breton

Did you ever see a moose? No??

We did!! Just yesterday. It was eating the leaves next to the road.

And that' s not all. We even saw a whale (at least the tail...) from the window of our lodge.

The wildlife here and the landscape are just breath taking!! "Here" means: in Nova Scotia, in the Highlands of Cape Breton National Park.

Everything very scottish here, including the weather (cozy 56 degree yesterday, but 80 today). The only thing I do not like here are the coyote warnings, but we survived our hikes. And if you are standing on top of the hike trail and have the amazing view of the

Cabot Trail and the ocean a you forget the coyotes...and everything else.

Ps. Did I mention the traffic here? You can almost not handle it...but you can count the cars you see while driving the whole day. Just use your fingers.

With Will and Kate on PEI!

Here I am! Together with Will and Kate on Prince Edward Island!

Just joking...thank God!

But they stayed in in our hotel few days ago before we arrived.

They are in the USA now (or did they already leave??), while we are visiting Canada.

After two days in the beautiful (but very crowded) old town of Quebec City we are enjoying the loneliness of the island.

Love the small villages along the coast!!

And you can bike almost everywhere here!!

And eat tons of lobster!! (and mussels!)

And walk on endless beaches, of course!

Addicted

How far is too far to get a coffee? A real good coffee.

No, we are not on vacation in North Carolina anymore but the coffee problem is still the same. If you are a coffee drinker (like me) and do not live in New York City (but in New Jersey) you find yourself in a coffee desert. The next Starbucks is a 20 minute car drive away. I do not talk about a nice cafe with real coffee mugs. I gave up this kind of illusions long ago. Just Starbucks. Or Seattle coffee. This one you get at Borders, my absolute favorite place,

20 minutes away, of course.

Yeah, books and coffee - worth a long way to go...or drive.

We celebrate a special anniversary today: 5 (happy!) years in the USA! Can not believe this! Was not the plan to stay for just two years? How the time flies by...

It is vacation time (almost)!! We went to the Outer Banks in North Carolina!

What can I say, we just loved it! Who would not?! Endless, white beaches, blue sky, and nobody there (except us)...

Yeah, life is good!

Did we miss something?

Yes, a cafe with an ocean view!! Or maybe just a cafe?? Ha, ha , just joking...thinking still very European...

I should probably switch from coffee to martini! What I actually did...at least for the vacation week.

Ps. And I started to play tennis again-after 20 years-but better than ever! It must have been the fresh sea breeze...

Birthday surprise

It is my birthday! And, what was the surprise waiting for me: snow!! Can you believe this?! 10 inches of snow! Nice gift. But it gave me the opportunity to relax and just enjoy the day with my boys. They had to stay home...because of the snow! Sometimes snow in the spring can have a good side too...

New doc, new hope

The reason why my blog sometimes takes a longer break is my disease. I have Crohn’s, unfortunately pretty aggressive. The last year was very tough for me and I expected some relief after the surgery in November (my eighth abdominal surgery!) but it did not happen. We visited a specialist in NYC this week. He has a good plan for me and gave me new hope.

So, let us cross the fingers that the new medicines work.

And that my blog continues without bigger interruptions!

The "red" day

This is the most important holiday in February in the USA: Valentine’s Day!

Yes, we celebrated too. It was never really important to us before…but why should we not take every chance to make a romantic dinner, to have a glass of good wine…and to get a new perfume, ha,ha. So, I decided for myself: I love Valentine’s Day! And maybe we should celebrate it more often than once a year – maybe even every day… What a challenge!

The big "two"

A two-digit birthday! Our son Jakob entered the two-digit age last Sunday. He is now 10 years old!! A whole decade! On the one side I am so happy he is getting older, more independent, but on the other side it just scares me. Soon, the easy (??) years are over and the teenage problems start. And once this is over (I hope we survive!) he will go to collage… Well, but first we celebrated his big birthday with a party. His words: “Awesome!!”

And Darth Vader was here too…

Vermont, we are coming!

It is already a tradition, our annual ski vacation at Burke Mountain (where the Burki bear lives…). We usually never go to the same place for vacation, but Vermont is an exception. We meet there our friends (and always the same people in the small Inn where we stay, ha, ha). What can I say, we just love it. My boys went for skiing, I did this year snowshoeing.

I almost like it better than skiing: no waiting, no freezing in the ski lift…and peace. If you meet one or two people on your way, you are lucky. You just listen to your own breathing (oh yes, like an engine…it is exhausting!). And you have to be able to read the trail map – obviously always a challenge for me… But we had fun!

And the New Years Eve party in the lodge was a blast! So, we decided to break with our annual tradition. We do not wait until December, we go in February again! Of course, to the same place. And to the same people.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Happy New Year!! Here we go again: a new decade! Just decorated the Christmas tree and it is all over again (until December!).

And Santa found the way to our house too…