The holiday season is at an end

The boy went back to school this morning. It has been fun having him at home, but we were all happy to get him on the bus!

We spent most of the majority of the vacation at home. Our friend Ann joined us for a few days, and we spent time with Daniel and his parents. Wendall received some board games as gifts, and we all of us enjoyed playing them after dinner. I think that it is a tradition which we can build.

Prague was fun, but rushed. It is a three hour drive, so we made it there by lunch and then ran around like crazy people. We stayed as long as we could and left before we wanted to, and the trip reminded us that Prague is one of our favorite places to be. We look forward to returning as the days get longer. It was Ann's first time in Prague, and she immediately began planning a return trip. It has that effect on people.

New Year's Eve was spent at our house with Ann, Daniel, Heike, and Todd (Daniel's parents). We ate, drank, lit fireworks, and had a wonderful night. The funniest part of the night was when Ann and I were able to relive the (chemical) gas attack which drove us from our dorm rooms 15 years ago.* We were grilling at the table and I added some hot peppers to the mix. Moments later we all started coughing, and the room had to be cleared. Wendall and I opened all of the windows and ran the fans, and Heike and Todd joined Ann on the front stoop. The boys were upstairs, so missed my attempt to add spice to the evening!


On New Year's day, we dropped Ann off at the Munich airport. My navigator tells me that I live 146 miles from the airport, and that it is a two hour drive. The navigator forgets that I live in Germany. I drove 140 of those miles in just over an hour. It helped that it was early in the morning and that the weather was clear. The trip home from the airport took the standard two and a half hours.

Other than the day trip to Prague and the trips to the airport we stayed home. The boy and I did go to Playmobil Land with a friend over the weekend, and we had fun, but it was more about seeing an old friend than about being at "Little Plastic People Land"

*When Ann and I were seniors in college our dorm was evacuated after someone dropped a canister of a military grade gas. He had kept it as a souvenier of his summer interning at a military proving ground. Needless to say he did not graduate and is probably still working off the debt for the emergency services. No one suffered lasting damage, but a few hundred students were all without housing for a few days.