Christmas Vacation Day 15:
After all of the festivities couch time was in order, and there wasn’t a single complaint in the room. On top of the well needed rest there was also Christmas presents to be played with. You know what that means for dad, right? Toy assembly, toy set up, and of course toy testing, the latter of which is of course no fun at all. Combine all of that with coffee and a crossword puzzle, and that makes for a very nice day.
Our evening was just as nice and just as relaxing as our day was. My sister- and brother-in-law came over as usual, fully prepared to do absolutely nothing except visit and watch football. The little guy also had the pleasure of spreading the Milkana cheese on his bread himself with the expert help of his uncle. With the risk of being repetitive, the regular evenings doing normal stuff are still the best part.
Christmas Vacation Day 16:
Well rested and full of excitement, it was time to start a new week. After the usual awesome breakfast to start the day, the first stop of the day was for some good old-fashioned Grandma’s home cooking. On the menu today, Königsberger Klopse and Salzkartoffeln! The Klopse are a style of meatball (probably from Königsberg, originally) and Salzkartoffeln are potatoes boiled in salted water. And like grandmas are known for, it was absolutely delicious.
While we were enjoying our after lunch coffee though, came the biggest surprise of the entire trip to Germany as my wife’s cousin from Oldenburg was suddenly at the door. Unbeknownst to everyone, her boyfriend had surprised her with a trip to Trier to see us. Apparently he had planned it all in advance but had been telling her for weeks that he couldn’t get off work. It is a 4 1/2 hour drive after all, not exactly the ideal distance for a weekend trip. What a great idea though since we only step onto the continent about once a year these days. And perfect timing since we were already going out for a beer with friends later. So what started out as a regular lunch turned into a “cousin reunion”.
After returning home for dinner we prepared ourselves to “comfortably” have that beer with a bunch of our friends plus my wife’s cousin and her boyfriend. Comfortable, or gemütlich, is one way Germans would describe going to have a quiet drink. This evening my wife and I were on our own though, the little guy was to spend his own gemütlich evening with his Grandpa. Our destination for the evening? Why the Brauhaus of course! Are you sensing a pattern here? But why not when you have a nice place within walking distance with good atmosphere and excellent food? There would be no schnitzel for me this evening though, just beer and conversation. As an added bonus to our usual crowd my wife’s best friend brought her dad and brother since they were in town from Poland.
As our quiet evening wrapped around one o’clock in the morning, everybody was quite content to call it an evening except for me, my wife, and our friend in town from Hamburg. It could be that we were the only three that didn’t have to go to work in the morning, but we were primed and ready to stay out a little longer. As we hit up a couple of small pubs on the way home only to find them closed, we were quickly reminded that most establishments do not stay open particularly late on a Monday night. In the end we surrendered and went back to the house for another beer before calling it a night. Another great couple of days day on our great vacation. Bis zum nächsten mal!
Germerican Denglish 