2014: A Crazy Good Year In Review

Another year has gone by…flown by I should say. I guess when you have big life events, time just seems to coast right on through. I’m ok with that and more importantly I’m really looking forward to 2015 being a pretty low key year. More time for acclimating! 🙂

Before I give myself fully to 2015 I wanted to give a proper salute to 2014 by reviewing my favorite memories of the year! I’ve shared many great times between two different countries and strangely enough…Toblerone and I are feeling a bit homesick for Germany. It’s been fun going back through my blog and looking at all the pictures and reliving the moments! Can’t wait to go back there for Easter!!

Here’s a look back into my favorite memories of 2014!!!

1. Father-in-law’s 60th Bday Party – nothing like having a party for the half the town to celebrate your bday! 🙂

2. Fasnet in our town – nothing like crazy costumes, drinking, music, and parades to get you in the spirit!!! We are so sad to be missing it this year!

3. Being in two places at once (First trip to Italy) – The absolute most memorable trip (besides my engagement in Ireland!) thus far. What a fantastic country Italy is… and being on the country line between Austria and Italy, I was able to knock off an item on my bucket list!

4. Hiking in the Alps – I say it every year that I won’t go but I’m glad I went this last time. It was a view worth the exhaustion!

5. Wedding in August – Cape Cod, pink wedding dress, lobster bake…whats not to love?!

6. Going Away party in Germany – Bittersweet, but a great excuse to wear my drindl and party with the family! It was a warm send-off!

7. Buying our first American home – We were lucky to find it so quickly and seal the deal a week and a half later! BAM!

8. Thanksgiving with the family – We loved having Toblerone’s mom and my parents with us on our first hosted Thanksgiving in the US. I just hope we can host many many more!

9. Christmas Market in Chicago – Hands down my FAVORITE city! The Christmas market gave us that little bit of that special German Christmas magic we were missing!

10. New Years bowling with the parents – Great end to the year! We decided last minute to do a little NYE bowling while my baby sis lay sick in bed with some kind of crud. We were home by 10:30 and relaxed while watching the ball drop. Was really low key and I didn’t have a hangover the next day! WIN!

2015 has a lot to live up to and I’m hoping it brings a lot of great changes for us! I’ll be taking my Placement test this coming week for school! Can’t believe I’m really going back!!! Of course we still have hopes for a baby just like every year for the past 6 year. Lets see what miracles will happen!

Wishing you all a wonderful start to the new year! Take a moment to reflect on all the wonderful memories that you made and make a plan to make more this year! Travel, meet up with old friends, make goals, make bucket lists, take a cooking class, join a choir! Do something outside of your box. I think you’ll find a great memory just waiting to be made!

Until next time, Readers!!!! xoxoxoxoxoxo

The Night Of The Chicken: Fasnet In Southern Germany

Its that time of year again folks!! That time when everyone searches in their attics or basements for those super creepy (yet expensive) costumes that show the story of their town. As we dust off these costumes the sense of town pride starts to shine through the gray winter skies. I try to compare it to how I feel when I talk about Syracuse. I get the same kind of city pride and it can NOT be broken. Ever.

This year happened to be pretty special for us. Each year a different town hosts the entire weekend festivities for the surrounding towns. Toblerone’s hometown is associated with a completely different circle of towns so we were really excited to find out that not only was our current town hosting it (saving us from having to drive somewhere) but his hometown also got a special invitation to join in this particular festival in our town. Karneval (Fasnet) was going to be AWESOME this year. And that, my friends, it most certainly was. It was great to have everyone come to our house to “pre-game” before the parade.

And just a side note…The costumes for Toblerone’s town are technically Roosters but I call them big Chickens. All the same right?

This year there are a few different costumes than the years before since we were in a different area than previous years. Oh and the witches got me and my friend. They took us…brought us into their “Witches House” which was their float basically and they gave us shots of something strange. But it was definitely fun this year! Better than the years before since the weather is unusually warm and we haven’t had snow since early December so this year was perfect!!

Our kidnappers…

This girl got stolen 3 or 4 times. I think at this point she just gave up the good fight.

Me and my other darling American friend 🙂

I got your wig!!

The whole family gets in the spirit

These were the absolutely the worst costumes for me. I took this picture and then hid.

Where we were held captive!

Ghostbusters Band!!

Toblerone and my Father-in-law

Which costume is your favorite? Would any of these win costume contests on Halloween? How much do you think one of these costumes cost?

Until next time, Readers!!! xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

It’s Be-A-Crazy-German Day During Fasnet!

Well…I’m alive…and that is all that matters right?

It all started last weekend with a 3 day festival celebrating the culture and the traditions of each town.  There is a great website that I found that explains what each town’s costume means and the story behind the founding of this however it is in German and a bit spotty once translated to English.  The website is here and if you feel up to it, translate and see what it’s all about but more so, check out the costumes for each town. There are only a few towns on this page but these are all within the same area/region that we live in.

I was part of Toblerone’s hometown which is called Renquishausen. For them, the traditional garb is the suit of a Rooster and there are also women costumes which are of old maids that carry baskets full of eggs (or shots of liquor!). I was a Rooster this year but opted out of the terrifying mask – see below! I’m not quite sure why all of the masks from each town is so frightening! Some are really scary!!!

The story behind the Rooster costume goes back to the 1800’s where the men of this town would breed their roosters and be able to supply easily to Nobels and others.  Somewhere along the line there was a famine and their stock was wiped out clean. This becoming the crescent for their town and the story behind the costumes!

The 3 day party was crazy fun but mostly, I LOVED the parade. There were more than 40 towns (over 4,000 people) that joined in this parade and then went to party hardy in a giant tent afterwards. Check out some of the pictures in my slideshow below and let me know what you think!! They have some crazy imaginations! For each town there is the band, the dancers (which are dressed like cowgirls), the town crescent costume, and the old maid/witch costume.

This weekend is continuing with mamy celebrations but in everyone’s individual town. This is the time when people will come around dressed up in costumes (any costumes of their choice) and never show their faces and talk in weird voices. They will push you out of the way and go inside your house and drink your alcohol! This happened to us last year when a swarm of bees and beekeepers came into the house and forced us to drink honey liquor! (ok ok…the real truth…I wasn’t forced!)  Actually, see a picture for yourself from last year. I had been in the house for maybe 5 days so the place was a wreck and boxes were everywhere as I had just arrived!

Also this weekend each town has a giant fire and this symbolizes the old tradition of burning a witch and leaving behind winter. The welcoming of Spring!

Enjoy the Freak Show!!! :-))) (Note: I was drunk-ish and standing facing directly into the sun because it was -20 below so the pics are a little light, sorry!)

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