Magical

On Sunday evening we had a lovely dinner and evening with M and D, and their two children. Aralyn's German had improved and this time around got on really well with their oldest daughter who is exactly the same age. Caeden also had a lot of fun and, as usual, they didn't want to leave. Brienna and I also had a great evening, with interesting discussion, champagne and wine aplenty.

Being without a car, we had to walk the two kilometer return trip home, and being in a somewhat whimsical and tipsy mood, we decided to take a detour through a very snowy Linden Park to see if we could catch a glimpse of a fairy or two.

And being in the beautiful, snow covered woods at night, crunching through fresh white snow under soft, orange-glowing clouds, was just magical. There were a few other couples out enjoying the evening, so we could pretend to see fairies in the distance, flitting between the trees. One or two couples were also taking photographs, and the camera flashes in the dark woods looked just like magical spells being cast.

Aralyn was enchanted, eagerly looking around, and straining to hear fairies as we stopped to listen every so often. Caeden didn't quite appreciate all the magic, and told me later that he was a little scared, although at the time he just sat there quietly peering through the trees. I don't think either child had been out at night in a park or forest before, and given that Caeden is only two and a half, it must have been a bit confronting for the little chap, even if he was snug in his chariot, bundled up in fleece.

Snow

We got a lovely helping of snow over the weekend. Given that we were all in travel recovery mode, it was just perfect for us. We could be snug inside looking at the beautiful winter world outside as well as spending time outside building snow critters. The shot below is of us and our attempt at building a snow man. And yes, we need practice.

Here's another photo of Caeden seeing as he looks a little goofy above.

Texas

We had Christmas in Texas this year, with all the obvious benefits of blue sky, warmer weather and grand parent assistance for holiday child care. But I must admit that I didn’t plan on mild culture shock after living in Germany for a year and a half. Although I hadn’t quite realized it, I guess I now think that living in apartments and riding a bicycle everywhere as more or less normal. It is after all what I’ve done every day since we moved.

However, my German definition of normal is definitely not normal in Texas. Brienna’s parents have a lovely, large house in a suburb just north of San Antonio. To get anywhere at all from there you have to drive. The distances are simply too great to be done on foot and it would be frankly dangerous, as well as unpleasant, to ride a bicycle.

Fortunately there is a simply gargantuan supermarket that appears to sell just about everything, including groceries, televisions, BBQ equipment, mattresses, wedding dresses and massages about a ten minute drive away. Going virtually anyplace else seems to require getting onto the 281 freeway, which during the holiday period at least, has turned into a clogged stretch of automotive hell.

Coming at this situation with fresh eyes, I have to say my initial response is not a favorable one. The number of over-sized trucks and SUVs is ridiculous, it is impossible to walk anyplace, the freeways and housing development are generally ugly and I am just plain puzzled as to why anyone would want to live this way. I mean its one thing to be able to drive a nice car, but if you can’t even get around in it, even that one last attenuated redeeming feature evaporates.

Of course, the irony for me is that in many ways the social infrastructure of Texas is relatively close to that of Australia. After all, no one in Australia wants to live in an apartment and pretty much every Australian family has one to two cars. It is just what you do.

2010

Happy New Year!

Well, sort of. Our new year celebrations were not exactly dynamic. Having just flown back into Germany from Texas with both cherubs in tow, we weren't the most alive of folks. We actually went to bed at around 8 o'clock and slept for something like 12-14 hours. Fortunately, Aralyn's and Caeden's body clocks must have been just as out of sync as ours were, and they also both slept in to 10:30 or so.

We made up for it on the next night when we went out to the fireworks at Warnemunde. Rostock city very kindly has two celebrations: one for the night itself at midnight and a second at 6pm the next night for families. The photo below is one of the many that we took that night with our new camera.

This is now our second New Year's celebration in Rostock and I still cannot quite wrap my head around the fact that I live in Germany. It is also hard to wrap my brain around all that has happened in the last year and yet it all went by so very fast. And I am pretty sure that 2010 will be just as much fun, and will unfortunately disappear just as fast.

Aralyn and Caeden

It is really quite amazing how time slips by so quietly and so quickly. Caeden will be turning three in only a few months and Aralyn is nearly five and a half. The photo below shows them on our couch in the living room playing together for the camera.

Caeden is really starting to talk a lot, after a late start, and I am periodically stunned at Aralyn's memory and language skills. Yesterday were talking about an upcoming visit to M's place for dinner on Sunday evening and Aralyn asked about their cat. Our last visit was about a year ago and I don't believe that we discussed their cat at all since.

It is also really wonderful to watch Aralyn and Caeden bonding and playing together. They often talk in German to each other, most of which completely goes over my poor monolingual head. And of course, as with most siblings, they are usually either having a ball together, or one of them is busy tormenting the other.