We played many games of Mah Jonng, which I'd dearly missed. I won my first game too! I saw Sienna and she warmed back up to me quite speedily! Whenever she'd come over, she'd yell out my name. She's rather darling. For my birthday, Anna took me out and we bought scotch. I drove her car which terrified me but I managed. Other than that, it was quite relaxed, and mom made me a delicious salmon dinner. The Heinens had given me a special birthday candle to light at my birthday dinner so they'd "be there" with me, and guess what I did? Well, I picked it up to light it, and it slipped and shattered all over the table. Yep, I guess I didn't want them at my party. Boogie managed to fix it as best as possible, but it's forever scarred!!! Boogie's birthday was wonderful. She wore a darling dress and we drank smoothies, listened to good music, bought some alcohol and enjoyed being together like the good old days. And I say days, because literally that's all we've had. Never enough time with her! Christmas was glorious. We had so much fun sitting lazily in our pajamas most of the day and being together. Mom made a yummy breakfast and it was just completely perfect. Later in the afternoon we all got dressed up for the Christmas party that evening. The whole day I was just so happy to be spending time with my family. We had a fun night where I made them all Feuerzangenbowle with the set that the Heinens gave me for my Christmas gift. It was exciting and they all screamed while the fire danced upon the wine! Most of us were smart, and only drank one glass of it, since it's extremely strong, but a few brave ones ventured into a 2nd and perhaps even a 3rd glass... it made the night verrrrry interesting!!! Katie and I spent a weekend at a hotel and we had our special time together that we'd been craving. It was so magical. We were super excited about our room and we ran through the hotel halls, we went swimming, which was really mostly hot tubbing, and we went out to eat at Olive Garden, where we spoiled ourselves, but didn't eat to the point of sickness. The whole time was just perfect. Our conversations were perfect, the atmosphere was perfect, the everything was just perfect. It's not explainable, it only makes sense inside my head as I remember the weekend. We did manage to get into a car accident on the way to church, but were blessed to not be seriously hurt. And we have a special memory from it, despite the scary parts. At the end of my trip, I wasn't quite ready to leave my family, though I was happy to go back home. And now I'm home and I'm happy. But the ache is stronger because now I recognize more how much I miss them and I got used to being with them again. Somehow though, I have hope, and this summer seems to be smiling upon us...
Sunday evening the 13th when I got home:
As I walked into the house, Gereon was the first one to come out from the kitchen yelling my name and gave me a big hug! Then Britta was there and hugged me, at which point a few tears began to come out, and then as I turned around, Christoph was standing there saying hello with a big grin and hugging me while Jojo ran down the stairs and jumped into my arms. At that point, I could barely talk because I was crying. Britta made chicken curry for dinner while I showed the kids their gifts from Alaska. They loved that, of course. Then they showed me their rooms and the new things they'd gotten from Christmas. Jojo gave me a Christmas present that she'd made for me in school, and then we played the jelly bean uno game that I'd bought for her until dinner time. I sat with them and had a glass of wine while I went over my trip home. At one point, Gereon was complaining about not wanting to pack his school bag for the next morning. As he reached for his water, he suddenly sang out "relax, don't do it"and I about died laughing. I love that even in a different language, he can twist words in songs in such a funny manner. That's talented, truly.
The next morning, Gereon came down the stairs and said, "Karly, smell my sweatshirt" as he tugged it towards my face. He was wearing the new cologne I'd given him! It was sweet. They're all sweet. I smiled when I went to bed and knew that I was beyond blessed.
Tuesday Jan 15th
I walked into the house to get dinner ready and while I set the table, Gereon turned on an ACDC song "Back in Black" with the volume all the way up and played along with his drums. I heard the song about 12 or 13 times and then Jojo started headbanging and air guitaring next to him and it was so hilarious! We had a wrestling match earlier in the living room and she kept biting me! At one point we were both laying on the floor looking at each other and laughing. It was so great. Her and Gereon were impossible to put to bed! Jojo was so wound up and Gereon test sprayed all of his new colognes on his finger so I could smell and approve of them, then Jojo had to do the same with her perfumes and then it escalated as everything with children does and colgone and perfume was sprayed all over the bathroom, hallway and all over me! I still smell it! Finally I got them both to finish brushing their teeth and then I tried to settle Jojo down. The only way I could get her quietly in bed was when she asked if she could do my make up so we made a deal. I look like a ghost. She took the darkest color and smeared it over and under my eyes. It's ridiculous. And when Christoph got home he played the electric guitar with Gereon's drums to the ACDC song. It was so sweet! And Jojo played her piano song so she wouldn't be left out. I love this family!
Wednesday Jan 16th
I showed Jojo her photo album today and she sat in my lap as we looked through it together. She laughed at some, smiled at others and quoted all the lines I wrote in for her. I read her aloud the big text that I'd written at the front and she gave me a big hug at the end. She really liked it. Later, when Gereon and her played uno with me, he looked through the album and said while he flipped the pages, "Karly, you're cool" and kept looking through. I beamed. :) Later in the afternoon, we all went outside to have a snowball fight and at first we threw back and forth but then it turned into one person standing as a target and the other two taking turns hitting the torso. We had fun with that for a long time and Gereon got me really good a few times in the face! He would walk up to me and shove me and I'd shove back. He got really goofy too and was laughing harder than I've seen from him for a while! Then Jojo and I suddenly became snow police and spoke entirely in Genglisch to Gereon while we chased him. I showed them how to stand under trees while I shook it so the snow fell on them and they loved that. Then we began running around the front and back yard and all over throwing snowball after snowball. We were all panting and eventually we went to get some apfelshorle which we slurped down in a few seconds of silence. Finally, we went inside and Jojo stuck her hands inside my back and it was COLD! While we were playing, Gereon asked Jojo "is there much snow on my hood?" to which she replied, "No, it could be mucher." :) And then when Gereon was trying to put his glove on, we got our snowballs ready and he said, "nein, wait!" I can tell I've been gone for too long!
And then there's today. One word is in my head today. Trust.
