Happy New Year!! I hope everyone had wonderful holidays. We certainly did. We left Baden Baden on Christmas Eve morning and got home in the early afternoon. We went to a friends house to have a wonderful evening full of food and games. In the morning we opened up our presents. Thank you to all the people who took the time to send us packages - it definitely adds to what is under the tree, and it is so fun to have more to open. We felt your love. After opening our presents we sat around being lazy for the morning. In the afternoon went went to Melissa's house. Melissa hosted an early Christmas dinner for her husband's shop earlier in the week. We had agreed to just do something low key and laid back for Christmas. Our dinner included leftovers from the early Christmas dinner and skewers Josh BBQed. We sat around and watched movies. It was another wonderful, lazy evening full of food.
Josh was blessed this year - he had about 10 days off in a row (he only had to go "check in" at work twice), which he says has never happened in his whole career. I also had that time off. At first we were trying to think of something we could do between Christmas and New Years travel wise. As always, I wasn't lacking in ideas. However, right before Christmas we finally found a new house to rent. The house is in the same village as one of Josh's co-workers and friends. The house itself is much newer and bigger than our house now. We went the day after Christmas to meet with the landlords who live next door to the rental. They were wonderful! Everyone had told us how German landlords are wonderful and will take you in to be a part of their family. We haven't experienced that. Maybe it is because our land lady is elderly and her health is failing. Or, maybe Josh and I haven't been as open and friendly as we needed to be. Either way, we generally have been annoyed with our land lady, and she seems to spend most of her time spying on us. The new landlords invited us inside, and then proceeded to be wonderful hosts. Five hours and three bottles of champagne later, we had signed our lease. I'm going to take this as a sign of good things.
Since we officially had found a place to move, and we get to start moving some things into the storage areas in two weeks, we decided to stay home and focus on packing. And by focus on packing, I mean be as lazy as humanly possible. We enjoyed our time off by watching movies (especially the new ones we got for Christmas), reading (well, I read. Josh didn't), and just generally hanging out. It was glorious. We continued in this lazy trend for New Years Eve and were in bed asleep before midnight. We lead an exciting life. However, Josh is back to work today, and this morning was the definition of a rude awakening. Back to reality.
I have been reading a lot about people's goals and resolutions for the new year. I've never been a resolution person - mainly because I lose interest quickly and usually forget what my resolution even was. However, I do have some extremely generalized goals for the coming year. Josh and I really try to take advantage of our current location by getting out and doing things (as you have read). I want us to keep on with our trend of traveling, from large trips to little day trips. However, this year I also want us to really get into the day-to-day German life. The new village we are moving into is a tight knit community (who welcomes Americans) which does a lot of celebrations. I want us to be a part of this and experience it. I have (with the help of Kristy) finally discovered and overcome my initial hesitation and irrational fear of shopping in Europe. Shopping over here is glorious. I do, however, have a hard time finding certain things (such as pants). European women tend to be shorter and slender. Two things I am not. I guess there aren't very many people over here with long legs and a booty. I suppose I will have to save my jeans shopping for the states. But, I want to continue to be brave and to seek things off base at German stores. Since we are moving soon... a goal I have is to get our new house unpacked/organized/situated as soon as possible.
A final note - it isn't a goal, but more a hope. Josh and I have enjoyed Germany (for the most part) from the first moment we got here. From the beginning we have talked about the idea of trying to stay over here longer. We enjoy it, I have a job which pays well, and there is so much we still want to see and do. Now our talking is turning into actuality. Josh got his paperwork during his "break" to put in to extend his time in Germany. To do this he has to re-enlist (something he has to do/was going to do anyways). So he completed and turned in his paperwork. Now we just need to wait... I am nervous about this. When it comes to the military and where we go, we have no control. However, I really want this to work out. But... there is plenty of possibility that it won't. So a final goal for myself is to try my best to just take things as they come to us. A lofty goal indeed.
Here is to a great 2013.
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