My extended Christmas break

2009 marked my first Christmas spent entirely in Germany. We flew back home on Monday. I have to say, Christmas was a little sad here. Since we didn't know we would be spending the entire holiday here, we had no tree, no decorations, nothing. We spent Christmas Eve with Joern's parents. Very quiet. We had würstchen and "special salad" which is a potato salad recipe from Schlesien, the area of Germany where Joern's dad was born. It is pretty tasty. After dinner, we watched Christmas Vacation in German, with Joern's parents. It was a rather enjoyable evening, even though I kept thinking of the ham sandwiches I was missing at Cheryl's.
On Christmas Day, Joern and I were pretty quiet. We went to Joern's parents' for Christmas Dinner, we had duck, dumplings, and sweet-and-sour red cabbage. Quite yummy. It was nice, and very quiet. Unlike home, where we rush between relatives on Christmas Day. But, I did miss home, and miss my dad, and the rest of the family.
We left for home on Monday morning, after running to the Rathaus (town hall) to get an alien registration form since I didn't have time to get my residency permit placed in my new passport.
The flight home was uneventful, and we arrived at 1:30 in the afternoon to find my cousin Bill and my cousin Katie's boyfriend waiting for us. I have to admit, it is always nice to see a friendly face when you get off the airplane. Makes you feel loved.
We were home for about 11 days. We spent a good portion of time with my dad, and my sister Ginia. We also spent some time with my aunt and cousins, but they were all sick, which was sad. It was ridiculously cold at home, so we decided to cancel our annual New York trip. Much too cold. We did manage to spend a great deal of time on Long Island though, at the outlets in Riverhead. We had dinner with my godparents, which was an enjoyable night, and we were able to talk about our upcoming trip to New Hampshire in February.
Of course, we made our obligatory restaurant stops too: Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Duchess, Bagel King, and the Cracker Barrel.
The time home flew by, and before we knew it, we were back in the airplane to fly home.
Of course, I haven't mentioned my back yet. A few years ago, I had the most horriffic experience with my back, all from sleeping in a bed that was far too soft. When were home this year, we were sleeping on an air mattress. I don't think we had the mattress properly inflated, and after a week, I could feel my back starting to rebel. I was getting nervous that the flight back would be miserable, but surprisingly, it was okay. It was the 2 hour car ride back from Frankfurt that was the beginning of the end. My back has now been miserable for a week. I went to the doctor on Monday, and he gave me a shot, perscribed some pain meds and muscle relaxers, and wrote me out of work for a week. Now, its Friday, and I can't say things have improved at all. Its been a miserable week. I feel good and would love to get back to the kids and my friends at work. I have an appoinment again with the doctor in about an hour. I hope he can help!

Finally, Home Part I

I will split my trip back home in July into four parts: Connecticut; Boston; Salem and Cape Ann, Massachusetts; and Vermont. This is easiest, as that kind of describes the trip. Part I, this post, is about home, Connecticut.
I had a wonderful time in Connectcut, visiting friends and family. I was home from June 29th to July 28th, minus one week traveling to Masachusetts (Part II and III) and Vermont (Part Iv.)
I got to spend a lot of time with my parents and my Aunt and cousins during my first week home. Of course, I did a lot of shopping too, there were incredible sales!! My aunt had a gigantic cook-out, and I was able to try out my recipe for Silent Shade Blueberry Cobbler from Martha Hall Foose. The cook-out was a lot of fun, and I got to see a lot of family members. Plus, because I worked for a semester at the OB-GYN office where my aunt works, I was able to see many old colleagues as well. It was really fun!
I also went to the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk with my aunt and cousin, Elizabeth. We enjoyed watching the seals, white alligator and the river otters. Elizabeth even touched a few sting-rays in a touch tank. After the day at the aquarium, we stopped by my aunt's office for a lunch. The lunch was a pizza lunch made fresh by The Big Green Truck Pizza. We enjoyed delicious fresh-baked pizzas and enjoyed lots of good company.
My mom and I went to see Mamma Mia, the movie event of the summer. All in all, it was an enjoyable, light-hearted film. Remembering that it was really a musical made the light story eaiser to deal with. The setting, in Greece, was glorious, and the music and dancing were pure fun!
I was also fortunate to be able to get to some Connecticut sporting events. Joern and I went to see the Bridgeport Bluefish play the Newark Bears. Bluefish stadium is one of those wonderful, family oriented, relaxed places that you can enjoy the game of baseball without major-league prices and nose-bleed seats.

We also went to two nights of car racing with my dad, the big racing fan. Joern and I went with my dad one Friday night to Stafford Springs raceway. It was a great night of racing and the weather was superb! I also went with my dad to the Waterford Speedbowl's Saturday night racing series. We got to see two main events of SK modifieds, as well as the Legends series, which are miniature sized pre- World War II cars. Lots of fun!
My father, sister, and I also went to a car show. It was great to see all the old-timer cars.
All in all, a great celebration of Americana and of course, a wonderful month with my family!

*I can't find the camera card right now with most of my pictures from home. Hopefully, I will find it, and post more pictures soon!