Let's see how far we've come...

We spent a week in the Allgau region of Germany, just over the Austrian border. Overall the weather was good, although it snowed almost every day which meant the visibility wasn't so good on a few of the days. Niklas managed to regain his technique pretty quickly (we started him on skis when he was 3) and by the end of the week even went down a couple of red slopes with us. 

The German government's approach to helping out the auto manufacturers here is pretty interesting: Instead of simply giving the auto makers billions of dollars in loans, they are offering a 2500 euro rebate to anyone who has a 9+ year old car junked and then buys a new car.  That's a pretty novel approach IMO since it stimulates new car purchases while getting the old, less fuel efficient, less green automobiles off the road at the same time. We happen to have the good fortune of owning two cars that actually qualify so it looks like we're going to be replacing both this year.

I finally got a chance to sort through some of the photos and are posting a few here.

We spent last night at our friends Uli & Birgit's, along with two other couples with kids. New Year's isn't really a very kid-friendly holiday and so we all gathered together to create an environment where we could celebrate and still have a bunch of children (of which Niklas was the oldest) running around. Overall it was a big success.

We started around 6pm with oysters on the half shell (which my friend Jeff opened & I cleaned up), smoked salmon, and Prosecco. We then prepared and cooked dinner which consisted of 3 courses (pasta, fish, and dessert). The kids ran around while dinner cooked and the adults drank wine.  At midnight we bundled up the kids that were still awake (only a couple including Niklas) and headed outdoors to watch the fireworks, drink some Champagne, and twirl some sparklers. We stayed overnight at their apartment to avoid having to drive.

Overall it was a really nice way to spend New Year's Eve: Relaxed and fun with lots of good friends and food.

Niklas, Joline (my niece), and I trimmed the tree yesterday morning. I really like decorating the Christmas tree although I dread the thought of taking everything off and packing it all away in a couple of weeks.

One of the things I miss most about living in the US is Thanksgiving day. As a kid it was always one of the biggest days of the year because the entire family would gather at our house for a feast. Best yet was the predictability of who was bringing what and what was being served:  My grandma Dot always brought the pies (Pumpkin, Mincemeat, and Coconut Cream), the sweet potatoes, and the biscuits, while my grandma Jessie always brought celery with cream cheese and the relish plate (black olives, green olives, & pickles).  My grandfather (i.e., Michael though everyone called him Carl) always did the carving.  My aunt Sally always made the carrots, while my Aunt Wanda always brought macaroni salad.   My mom baked the turkey (always stuffed!), and made the mashed potatoes.

Years later, after I moved to Oklahoma, I made dinner for all the orphaned students with much of the same menu:  Although it was a bit of a potluck, with everyone bringing something, I never let anyone bring any of the "core" meal since it had to meet my nostalgic criteria.

Nowadays, living in Germany, it's hard to pull off the Thanksgiving dinner: Turkeys aren't all that common, there's no day off from work, and most of the other critical ingredients (e.g., pumpkin pie filling) are very difficult to get a hold of.... sigh..... The one benefit from all this is that I really appreciate what I experienced as a child.

Summer vacation is now over (7 glorious weeks!), so here's a quick recap of what we did this summer:

A couple of days after school finished up we headed to the island of Texel which is along the coast of the Netherlands. We were there for 2 weeks last year and really enjoyed it, despite absolutely lousy weather. This year I'm happy to report that the weather was much better and hence our vacation was a lot more enjoyable. We spent 2 weeks on the island this year too; the first week one of my colleagues from work & her family were also staying on the island and then we had some other friends visit on a long weekend which was also really nice.

The island is really nice because it's small, it's covered in bike paths (which means you can get almost anywhere via bike if you're willing to pedal), and it's relatively uncrowded. They have a nice local market once a week where you can get fresh fish, local vegetables, and other goodies.

Some of the highlights of the vacation:

• Niklas and I went on a bike trek - by the end of the day he rode nearly 20 km on his little bike, most of it after a crash in which he took most of the skin off one knee.
• Watching Timothy trying to eat a handful of sand on the beach, promptly spit it out, and then just as quickly grab another handful and try it again.
• Seeing a movie in English - I watched Indiana Jones 4 which was okay but a disappointment compared to the "originals."  George Lucas should stay far away from anything he originally helped create because nowadays everything he touches turns to crap.
• Niklas loves waterslides and is absolutely fearless in the water now that he can swim - I only wish I could be as calm & collected when he jumps in...
• I got to read the first two Dresden Files books, catch up on some podcasts, and even got to work on the Kidz RPG I've been writing.
• Just relaxing.

The only real low point was the fact that I started waking up at night with both hands feeling like they were on fire - I have a feeling my carpal tunnel syndrome is reaching a new stage....

Once we returned from Texel, I spent a couple of days laying some more tiles in the basement (nearly half the floor was finished at that point) and then we headed off for 2 weeks in the USA. I'll talk about that in my next post.

Another 4th of July is here, although around here nobody celebrates Independence Day, strangely enough.

I recently have had two old friends email me with a "here's what's been going on for the past x years..." summaries. It seems like I exchange these types of emails a couple of times a year with various friends which makes me kind of sad because in what is supposed to be "the information age" I'm less connected with friends than I was when I was 12. While I have regular contact with a huge number of "cyber friends" via the internet, just keeping up with people is a full time job. Hence my foray into the wonderful world of blogging / social networking...

So, I'm going to give this a whirl. I'll try to post an update on something I'm doing every day or two. If you're reading this, you likely know who I am (otherwise, why in the world are you reading this???) and so this is my attempt to keep you up to date. I will make pretty heavy use of tags so that you can filter out all the stuff you don't want to read, if you're so inclined. Feel free to leave me comments, or, even better, follow my lead and start a live journal too so that I can keep up with what is going on in your life!

One important point: Most of the contents of the LJ will only be open to Friends who register with LJ - I don't really want to share every little nitty gritty detail of my life with the rest of the world. If you want to see pictures or find out what's going on with the family, please sign up for a LJ account and add me to your friends list.

P.S. - Niklas, who is now 6, is sitting next to me while I type this and he says "Hi."