Happy Holidays!

Hello Everyone!

    I hope everyone has had a lovely holiday season! It's one of the best, most magical times of the year. Every year I've been so lucky to be surrounded by people I love and by people who love me, this year was no different.

     We managed to work our way through so many movies during the break and I think I cried at the end of nearly all of them for some reason or another! My host brother just laughed and laughed and laughed and later said I was almost as bad his mom! For example, I got Shawshank Redemption in German and my siblings watched it with me and I cried at the end and then brought me tissues and hugged me! How sweet! So that was a hardcore bonding moment between her and me. Speaking of bonding moments, my host grandmother and I were talking about Christmas songs and which were important. She said The Little Drummer Boy is important because when she played it, my host siblings would march around the coffee table in the living room and I told the story about how my mom always cries during the song and therefore it's also important to me. So I felt like we had a connection between the two families through that too.

    Here, not only did we have all of the Christmas holidays and New Year's, but we also had a couple birthdays to celebrate. The first was my host mom's birthday on the 22nd. We made this really tasty soup to eat with slices of baguette. It's kind of a traditional soup dish and we had the largest pot full of this soup! I'm pretty sure it was at least the size of my torso! (Needless to say, the soup lasted many days after!) We had her parents, her brother and his wife over to eat. Somehow we got onto the topic of how to get a driver's license in America and my host brother said something along the lines of "That's it. Katy, I'm coming to you and getting my international driver's license there. It's actually STILL cheaper!" And we all were just laughing at his enthusiasm.

    My Christmas was just awesome awesome. It is definitely a time will never forget and will always be thankful for! Normally back home we put up the Christmas tree shortly after Thanksgiving, but this year it came up on Christmas Eve! We did last minute wrapping, decorated the tree and got ready for the Heiligabend Mass in Levern. Something really cool and new for me was going to the living room, reading the Christmas story from the bible and receiving a whole plate full of cookies and chocolate, all handmade from my host grandma. Really impressive! But man, I knew I was going to gain weight somehow! Afterwards, we went upstairs to open then gifts. I wish I could just play the whole evening as a movie. It was just awesome. We made jokes, we all loved our gifts, I got Christmas cuddles from my host brother, just perfect. I even got to open a packet from my mom with everyone. I felt so at home and so loved. Then we went to the Christmas Mass in Levern around 10 pm. We got home and just hung out in the living room for a good while. My host brother and I wrestled on the couch. He was pretending I was his "Teddy" and pretended to choke me (no worries, I'm fine).

    Christmas Day consisted of a family get-together for lunch. We opened a couple other presents and we skyed my host sister who is in America doing Au-Pair. We also got to Skype my family all together. My host dad was really excited and brought in a cat and a baby chick to show them over skype! It was so precious. My little sister back home even sang Silent Night in German for them; she got much applause! But what really made my heart nice and warm was that evening when I was in my host brother's room with him and I was showing him a little sign language. He wanted to know "I love you", which is something I always do back home. So I showed him and he said it was for me! I wanted to cry because he has been nothing but loving and accepting me as an actual sister and saying I can't leave him. So since then he has always given me the sign and a really tight hug before bed.

    Then on the 30th, my host grandma had her 90th birthday! That's a really big deal in out local community so we had a really large party from about 11 until 8. It included a 4 course meal and a Happy Birthday presentation for her, basically a PowerPoint of pictures and videos from people who couldn't be there. About 70 people came from all over. It was so awesome and she was just so happy and it made me really happy to see her shine like that.

    New Year's was really chill, but really fun! We made Racklett after I got back from playing in church. The man who drives me there and back came in for some cake and told us his life story. He was born here, moved to what is now Poland, wanted to escape Eastern Europe so started to come back with his family, got caught without papers but escaped, eventually got back in short. Along the way he had to sleep in snow, family members died and he saw some of the Death Marches without knowing what was going on until later. Man, he is so interesting and he tells the stories so well. He has been through and lot and he is just awesome. It’s crazy, I’ve never been able to talk to someone who has lived through those kinds of things personally. Very new take on everything. When the clock changed we all ran out to the open parts of the farm land and we could see fireworks from all the surrounding villages. You could look in any direction and see it all because it’s all flat farm land. So then my anxious brother started Chinese firecrackers and ground fountains. He just loved blowing things up, typical 15 year olds! But is awesome so much fun.

    Then on the 2^nd, my dad back home had a birthday so I did some skyping with him to say Happy Birthday and see my doggie. It was really nice just to get to talk to him for a little bit before the family all went out for dinner at Scalini’s. All of the birthdays here are right in the holidays, man!

    I wish I could just write everything and spill every ounce of my feelings, but so many things are just little stories throughout the day, good conversations, or times I really felt loved and felt like a true part of the family. These are the things that words could never really do justice. I can say over and over that my host brother has been so loving and so attached to me and that he has become my go-to buddy for most everything, but no one really knows how that little light in me feels. He really brought me out of my shell when I was shy, he always included me in what he did and he soon started calling me his sister and saying I wasn’t allowed to leave him or that I had to stay through the Stemweder Open Air Festival at least. I could go n about the funny ways i met my friends; one stred at me in physics the first day and other stared at me from across my english class! I could tell all the funny jokes that my host dad told me, but no one was there in the moment to see how hard we’d laugh and how we were all gasping for air. But hey, I will give the big events, post some pictures, and do the best I can. So know I’m doing well, I’m loving my life and not wasting a single day. There’s no time to lose. Life is meant to be lived and enjoyed. And I am taking every opportunity I have to live every day to the fullest. No regrets, be happy, do what you love and most of all be kind! One day at yoga I got a card saying something like “I go freely and lovingly with the flow of life. I know nothing but joy and love awaits me around every corner.” And that couldn’t be truer. Life takes  leads you where you need to go, you just have to have to courage to follow full heartedly and do what makes you happy; it makes you happy for a reason! Stay positive and enjoy your day, your week, you month, your year! I send all of you good vibes from Stemwede, Germany! Namaste!

 My music made the tree!

 Moose!

 I took on my sister's tradition of all the bows in my hair on Christmas!

 

 My moose shoes!!

 The colors of the farm!

Even the church choir sang to Oma!

This is how we firework it!

Peep peep skype!

Happy New Year's!

 yep, That's how we are.

 Christmas cookies!

We made sooooo many cookies..

 On the other side of the church ceiling! 

Our church bell! Yeah, I climbed the tower!

 The view of Levern from the tower!

 We got warm socks!!

(sorry I can't get the photos to rotate right now :/)

With love,

Katy