My Heart Can't Take Much More of This

Two big goodbyes in one month!! I guess this is what happens when you stay in one place for two tours... eventually all the friends you met during tour #1 head off to the next adventure while you stay put.

But Pedro & Julia's departure is the last for awhile. I hope. 

Which is good cause I think I might crawl under a rock and refuse to make any more new friends if my heart doesn't have a chance to recover from saying goodbye to such amazing ones.

The thing that redeems having to say goodbye to Pedro & Julia is that they are kind of tied to Germany (since J's family lives in Ktown) so there's a super good chance that we'll be seeing them again at least a few times before we leave the area in 2017. Whew.

So it's more like "see you later" instead of goodbye. But still. Not an easy week.

We love you guys! Best wishes, and come back to visit us soon! 

Parting is Just Plain Sorrow

It's been a weird day today. 

I've been busy. Running errands. Groceries, post office, Christmas shopping, ballet class. 

All in the constant drizzle that seems so appropriate for how I'm feeling. 

Because Kirsten is on her way to the next leg of their adventure. An airplane is taking her far far away from me.

It seems so strange that I'm debating on which type of pork roast to buy and helping little girls into tutus... just doing normal life things... when all the while a huge part of my life is packing her bags and leaving on a plane to Texas. 

If ever we take things for granted, it's those rare friendships that come our way only once in awhile. We are fools because we think things will always stay the same. 

But we forget how quickly the PCS clock ticks down to DEROS time. Or at least I did.

You would think my time as a military spouse, living in this environment of constant change, would have me calloused by now. 

I should be a pro at saying goodbye.

But I don't think we ever get good at it. In order to do so, we would have to stop being human or something! And I don't want to live like that!

I want to feel the closeness of true friendship... even if it means I have to feel the pain of inevitable goodbyes. 

On Tuesday Kirsten came over to my house, like she's done hundreds of times in the past three years. 

We drank caffeinated beverages and enjoyed a fire. We ate smoked salmon and messed around with our new favorite paper snowflakes. 

We talked and talked and talked, like we always do. 

We walked to the kindergarten to pick up the girls, and we laughed at their antics on the walk home. We had more caffeine in the afternoon and warmed up by the fire again.

And we talked and talked and talked.

And in my heart I didn't feel like it was our "last day" together. Even though I knew it was.

We took goodbye photos. We gave goodbye hugs. 

I know we can skype. And talk on the phone. Hell I know we can even use Space-A to have bestie vacays if we want. 

But it's not the same. We'll never live in Germany at the same time again. It feels so strange to think that my life here is just going to keep chugging along for the next two years... And I KNOW I will have more friendships to cherish... 

...but that doesn't mean that this day just plain sucked. 

Lest you think I'm a total Debbie-Downer, I have also been marveling at the complicated feelings that my heart can feel all in the same season. 

I can be raw with the pain of goodbye, and at the same time smiling with excitement for all the awesome things that this next move has in store for my friend. I can feel grumpy and stress-clean my entire kitchen, and at the same time be filled with joy at the memories that well up when I turn on the new-to-me espresso machine Kirsten gave me and taught me to use. 

A friendship like that will make you feel like that.

And you can't help but smile and wave and cry and laugh all at once as the precious time together ends. 

You know you've been changed for the better by that kind of friendship. She has rubbed off on you in so many good ways that you probably won't even understand them all for years. She has helped you grow, she has held your hand and been your shoulder, she has laughed and cried and been angry for you and told you to stop being stupid and everything in between. She taught you Photoshop and she helped form you into a fearless mompreneur. She pushed you when you didn't want to be pushed. And she waited patiently when you needed to breathe. She loved pretty food... possibly more than you did.

And you thank God for sending such a kindred spirit your way.

Post-Turkey Day Reflections | The Ever-Changing Face of My Military Family

First of all, can we agree that everyone's veggie trays would be totally lost without Pinterest?

I mean seriously! How did we ever used to get creative before? Who knew a humble bowl of ranch could transform into an adorable turkey??

Anyways.

Second of all, let's all say "good job Jessica" for keeping it simple... because cleaning the toilets and throwing that turkey-veg-tray together were the extent of my hostess-fanciness. 

Unless you want to count this adorable fruit punch I made, but I don't think you can call this hard or fancy or stressful in the least. It only involved pouring a bunch of sparkling cider, sprite, and cranberry juice into Kirsten's beautiful punch bowl.

The most creative part was that I froze (!!) the slices of orange and the cranberries and those were the ice cubes. 

It looked super pretty. 

But was arguably kind of annoying when trying to ladle out your punch. Whatever, sometimes you have to make small sacrifices for pretty food/drink ;-)

If you want the punch recipe, check it out here. And check out her blog even if you don't want the punch recipe because her branding is adorable... "I should be mopping the floor" haha yes.

Speaking of floors, I am blogging right now instead of mopping my floors.

Literally. #procrastination

Julia snapped the following candids and I am eternally grateful. 

Because at this moment I was cooking the gravy and getting the food on the counter, which was seriously the only moment I felt a tad busy. And it's so special that she captured a bit of that fun chaos!

I was literally dancing for joy over how good my bacon-shallot gravy smelled.

 

 

All in all it was one of our most successful Thanksgivings, yet! We had so so so much food, but isn't that kind of the point?

We also got to introduce Julia's friend Vita to her first ever American Thanksgiving, which made the experience all the more special!

I'm sure no one is surprised that the fried turkeys turned out fabulous. Because that's pretty much the definition of anything fried, right? I used to think that real women own turkey basters and know how to use them. But then I was introduced to a tiny German oven and the concept that if I get my man a fryer, I don't even have to think about the turkey till I eat it. WIN!

As is the case with most things military life, this holiday was a tad bittersweet.

There are precious faces in this crowd that won't be around for our next Thanksgiving in Germany. 

But even though it hurts to be getting ready to say goodbye to Kirsten & Dana and Pedro & Julia, this holiday reminded me of the other side of the coin of PCSing...

When you live overseas and are painfully far from your extended family, it's a comfort to know there will always be new faces, new friends, to celebrate with and be thankful with.

I am thankful for you all... I was so happy to share our turkey with you! 

Back from One Adventure, Ready for the Next | Colmar, France - Momcation

This is my iPod Touch "photo booth collage" from our trip to Colmar, France this past weekend.

With the countdown to their PCS, Kirsten and I thought a girls-only trip to France was definitely in order before she leaves for Texas. We had such a blast and made so many great memories! Not to mention took some fabulous photos... I only have about 200 to edit!

It's such a blessing to be able to get away from "it all" and truly unplug for the weekend. I can't thank Jesse enough for sending me on such a fabulous trip! 

And I can't thank Kirsten enough for letting me be a total lazy-butt and sleep in until 9am both days! AHHHHH I really needed that!

Great photos, great weather, great food, great city, great conversations, great laughs, great friend. It was pretty great.


.....



And now it's time to welcome my Mom back to Germany! 

The girls don't know she's coming and it's going to be such a fun surprise! Gigi is just going to magically appear... for two weeks of FUN!

This week can't get much better!

Three cheers for fun and friends and family memories! Happy Monday!

When in Rome: Party with Friends over Raclette

So when we were over at Pedro & Julia's robbing half of their cherry harvest, we were primarily there to enjoy their amazing hospitality.

Julia probably gets tired of my over-zealous questions about German culture but I can't help it! I find Germans so fascinating and I love learning new things! 

This winter, Julia introduced us to a tradition in Europe called Raclette. Everyone gathers around this cool cooking device on the table and stuffs their faces with meat, cheese, and veggies. I had so much fun (I've never seen anything like this before!) that I asked her if she'd host it again for me to take pictures and blog about it!

You know you found a true friend when she not only indulges your love of photography and blogging but takes special care to cut all the cheese and veggies extra pretty for your pictures! Thanks girl! 

So I did some digging (thank you google) and found out that raclette cheese hails from Switzerland. And this website had some cool info about this stinky cheese:

"The word "raclette" comes from the French word "to scrape." Raclette makes up a simple meal that was enjoyed by shepherds in the fields. They would boil up some potatoes, and heat a stone and melt a bit of the raclette cheese on the hot stone. Once melted, the cheese was scraped off and served on top of the potatoes. Raclette has a long history and has been mentioned in medieval writings."

So now you make it a bit more fancy, but the concept is still the same. Everyone gets their own little baby pan and scrapper to put some veggies and meats and raclette into... they you melt it under the pain pan. (Where there's usually some delicious meat sizzling) Julia usually serves a variety of cheeses, not just the raclette.

It's a super fun meal for a crowd because everyone gets to pick and choose what they want to try. We always end up getting super full and that's part of the fun! Julia serves it with potatoes and bread. Her family traditionally does this meal for New Year's when everyone gets to sit for hours and enjoy each other's company.

And the good food!

I love this meal so much because it's so endlessly versatile and interesting! I plan on getting one later so we can introduce others to it and brag about our cool German friend Julia who taught us how fun it is! 

By the way, did I ever introduce Julia properly? I need to get a picture of us together. And you pronounce her name "You-lee-a." Or, if you're under the age of five you pronounce it "You-ee-a" :o) 

And speaking of kids under the age of five, Pedro & Julia love to spoil ours with special treats. They found these gems at a German grocery store... that's coconut ice cream in a coconut shell AND orange ice cream in an empty orange peel! How fun is that? 

Three cheers for Germany! And thanks again P&J... a pleasure, as always. I'm going to die of miss when you guys move! 

For the Love of Cherries

Cherry season!!! We have been eagerly watching our tiny cherry tree in the yard, hoping there'd be enough cherries for a pie. 

And then we went over to Pedro and Julia's for dinner and had our faces melted off by how big their cherry tree is.

Exhibit A: Pedro and Julia's obnoxiously large tree. Please note that even with the ladder Lily and Sam could hardly reach the bottom branches.

Jesse and Pedro spent half an hour up in the tree and I don't think they really put a dent in the amount of fruit there was! Julia gave us a HUGE bowl full to take home :o) Cherry pie here we come!

Exhibit B: our cute little TINY cherry tree. Which the girls can almost harvest on their own.

And we only got this TINY bowl of cherries, not even enough for our pie! Good thing we robbed Pedro and Julia.

Jesse's Father's Day Pie = A SUCCESS! (after the pie rescue that involved re-baking an under-cooked bottom crust! oops!)

If you're curious about the cherry-picking outfits it's because I've been doing a lot of "photo shoots" with them and embracing the magic of letting them pick out their own outfits. Which makes them super cooperative and "empowered" I guess. With humorous and adorable results!

Man I love these girls.

Thanks Pedro and Julia! For spoiling us with an awesome dinner and for sharing your cherries!

Guess Who Gets to Brag that They've Played on a Medieval Wall? My Kids.

Our first day trip of the season was to Rothenburg (ob der Tauber)... a charming little medieval town about two hours from us in Bavaria. This gem has a the coolest little altstadt (old town) that I've seen in Germany, complete with a medieval wall around it!

The architecture was stunning...

It was a momentous occasion for us because it was our first day trip with the girls that did not include a stroller or Ergo . I'm not as sappy as some, but it was still strange for me... being as it's been four years of strollers and/or baby carriers. So yay for preschoolers that can walk considerable distances! 

(That's not to say they didn't spend copious amounts of time being held throughout the day... all four adults got suckered into it!)

(PS we went with Pedro and Julia)

Please note that Lily is holding a map and "leading the way" in that top pic haha. And that carousel was only 50 cents AND it was conveniently located in the courtyard of the hotel we had dinner at! Guess who rode that sucker? a. lot.

So here's the wall... you can see that you walk along the inside of it.

I liked the views of all the houses and the buildings in the altstadt. If we hadn't been pansies we might have walked the whole thing and seen other views (like of the river valley) from the windows. But for some reason we were tuckered out after the walk. 

I won't name any names, but the smallest and most adorable members of our group almost gave us old farts 25,000 heart attacks as they ran around like the crazy little people they are.

An ice cream stop was definitely in order after that. And some caffeine for Momma. 

We did a lot of walking around and meandering... the city isn't very large so it's pretty easy to find the major landmarks. Rothenburg is known for some pretty cool museums like a toy museum, a Christmas museum, a medieval museum, and even a torture museum! Unfortunately, we stopped trying to find them after the first two we found were closed. 

But we did make sure to check out something else Rothenburg is famous for... 

The pastry is called Schneeball, or snowball. It's basically a semi-sweet cookie dusted with sugar. Or coated with chocolate. Or filled with stuff... but we didn't try any of those ones. Lily and Sam thought they were fantastic, obviously, but I wasn't too impressed. I kind of feel like France ruined me for desserts, but whatever. Gold star to Rothenburg for making these little pastries for a couple hundred years! 

And gold star to us for (accidentally) finding a playground just outside the city wall that we had all to ourselves for part of the afternoon!

It was a lovely day spent wandering, talking, laughing, and eating. I adored our picnic lunch... even more than our delicious dinner out! Thanks so much Pedro and Julia (and Jesse and Lily and Sam) for the fun memories!

TheJesses vs. Rothenburg = CHECK. Here's the facebook album if you want to see all the pics.

St. Martin's Parade of Lanterns

On November 11th, when Americans are celebrating Veteran's Day, Germans are celebrating St. Martin.  Julia filled me in on all the details and helped me sort out some of Lily's kindergarten celebration.  It was super fun to have her and Pedro and Chase join us.  

St. Martin is a famous Christian saint.  He was a bishop known for his charity and good heart.   Every November, the children in the German villages have a parade of lanterns on the day St. Martin was buried.  

The legend is that when St. Martin was a soldier, he was out on a cold winter's night and saw a poor man with no cloak. Martin took his sword and cut his own cloak in two so he could give the freezing man something to wear.  This scene is re-enacted each year (the bigger kids in the kindergarten did a short play) and it is the act that St. Martin is famous for.

So in honor of St. Martin's charity during winter, the children walk around the village singing songs and holding lanterns to light up the darkness and remind everyone of St. Martin.  In the legend, the children of the village saw Martin cut his robe for the poor man, so they ran back with their lanterns to tell the tale.  The lantern-walk celebration is meant to remind us to bring light to the dark, charity to the poor, and warmth to the cold.  It's a super heart-warming night.

Lily made a lantern at school, and my friend Rebecca told me I could buy the little lights and a lantern for Sam at Globus. Fun fact: Julia said when she was a kid they used real candles inside their paper lanterns!  I can't even imagine the peril we would have all been in had Lily and Sam been entrusted with fire!

As we walked through the part of the village near the kindergarten, everyone in the group was cheerful and some were singing the St. Martin songs.  One old man who lives along our path had set up his own lanterns in the walkway and was out front greeting everyone!  

When we got to the kindergarten, they had a huge bonfire set up right in the middle of the playground!  The firefighters were keeping everything really safe, but we joked that this was probably not the best example to the kids ;o) Lily was pretty impressed that there was a fire in her playground!  

We also all joked that it was kind of a funny/dangerous tradition... the whole "hey let's get a bunch of small uncoordinated children together in the dark and freezing cold and give them pointy lights and breakable lanterns... surely nothing can go wrong there!"  All in all, though, Sam only tripped and crunched her lantern a few times.  All's well that ends well?

"Yook!  My school!"   Lily was super pumped when she realized our walk ended at the school.  We had recently taken Jesse to give him a tour, but she still excitedly grabbed him, as well as Pedro, Julia, and Chase, to show them her classroom!

The woman in the bottom left corner is one of Lily's main teachers, Sarita.  I'll get a better picture of her sometime... I didn't actually realize it was her when I was taking this shot!  We also ran into Lily's other teacher, Katya... Lily ran right up to her for a hug!

This tent is where they were selling gluhwein and other hot drinks and snacks.  The "glowing wine" or spiced wine, is always super cozy on a cold night.  They also had some non-alcoholic gluhwein for the kids... Lily and Sam were pretty excited about their "yummy juice!"

The other tradition of St. Martin's evening is to have special St. Martin pretzels.  They are made from a slightly sweet dough, and taste super awesome with the wine.

This is such a super cool German tradition.  I was so thankful that we were able to participate.  

I think Julia said it best:  "It makes you thankful for what you have, to share with others that don't have as much, like St. Martin did."

She's right.  And it also made me ponder the things that bring warmth to this cold time of year... Light.  Fire.  Hot cups of warm drink.  Memories made with family and friends.  As we come into the winter months, take some time to think of the light and warmth of this time of year, not just the ice you have to scrape from your windshield or the snow you have to shovel from your driveway.

What's your lantern?  This parade made me think of winter as a welcoming time, rather than a dreary time.  High-five Germany!