Home for the Holidays

Yes, that's right. For a whole two weeks, I left the joyous country of spiced wine and Christmas markets to do what one really does for the holidays: spend time with family and take part in yearly traditions. We even had a white Christmas!

Beautiful! We had our traditional Christmas Eve program of cheese fondue followed by board games, and then dutifully went to bed early so that Santa could come put our presents under the tree and then have time to catch some shut-eye as well. Christmas morning began the latest it has ever begun in the McAllister household -- 7:35 am. My 13-year-old brother may not believe in ol' St. Nick any more, but that didn't diminish his excitement at the prospect of a paintball gun or some new Xbox games. So it all proceeded as usual--stockings, presents, breakfast, clean-up, cooking, family dinner, and more board games--every bit of it as wonderful as I always imagine it to be. I even had some time for cuddling in there:

After Christmas, I tried to contain my excitement for three days while I waited for Jeremy to come visit. We had an awesome time hanging out in St. Louis together and then going down to Nashville for my friend Abby's wedding on New Year's Eve. We may have rung in the new year in our hotel room with some small fireworks (sorry, housekeeping) and the Spanish channel blaring in the background, but somehow it worked. 

So now I'm back in Germany, throwing myself into my research with renewed efforts. Being home was amazing, but now I have mid-term reports to complete, transcriptions to work on, interviews to prepare, and, of course, places to see! 

My parents just booked their flight to come visit me . . . Have you? :)