tastes like christmas

as i have lived in germany these 3 + years (i can't believe its been that long!), i have integrated things that i love from home and life in the states with new things that i have fallen in love with here. of course growing up in the nock family (where: "if you're bashful, you starve!") i have a great affection for all things food! for me, the holiday season begins when i smell pumpkin bread baking in the oven. my mama's pumpkin bread is the taste of thanksgiving and christmas and all the good stuff in between and when the holiday season approaches, i can't resist making a few batches.

here

this year is no exception. as germans have failed to develop an adequate appreciation for all things squash-realated (spaghetti squash, acorn squash, pumpkin pie...) it is difficult (and expensive!) to find canned pumpkin anywhere. my solution this year was to buy a jar of pumpkin chunks, heat them up on the stove and puree them. i think i have done this before, but for some reason, my pumpkin bread turned out much differently this time around. even though it doesn't taste like home, it still tastes good - good enough for me to share with my work collegues and a few students.

here

with nothing to compare the bread to, the bread recieved rave reviews. my very favorite was from a work collegue who took one bite, grinned and said "wow, it tastes like christmas!" that was all the confirmation i needed - the holiday season has begun! ~love~

snow bet

its no secret that i much prefer spring and summer to the cold, dark days of winter. as a result, i am forced to create reasons to be excited about the onset of the winter season. this year, burdened by the looming deadline of my thesis and feeling like i had missed most of summer whilst typing away in the library, i needed a particularly good reason to get excited about the looming dark, cold season. most of all, i needed some teammates. so, i devised the snow bet.

in early october, with the first deep chill, i asked 5 students to predict the first day that we would see snow on the ground in Heidelberg. the snow bet was born.

here

you may be interested to know that i have already lost. by a lot. my guess of november 8 came and went, without so much as a flake. also the 15th has faded into memory - with sunshine and blue skies. that means 4 students are hoping for the fame and glory of winning the snow bet, although almost all of them have tried to change their guess in the past few weeks - they don't apprecite, apparently, that the point was to guess when we had no concievable notion of snow or feeling for winter. ah youth.

thanks to the snow bet, i look out my window with anticipation every morning. last night, as i was closing the blinds, i noticed thick fog and a light rain. normally, this kind of weather (affectionaly known to some as a form of "wintry mix") makes me cringe, but the anticipation of the first snow has me a bit giddy with excitement! ~love~

Back in blog - land

well, after my (not so brief) hiatus, i have returned to the land of the blog. i have a few post ideas brewing, as well as some old drafts (written during the fog of my thesis) which will hopefully be ready for this small forum soon.

so, what have i been doing, you ask?

thanks for your interest. this is the answer: lots.

1. i flew home with that boy of mine and rang the doorbell (of my childhood home...that was a first) and surprised the heck out of my dad for his 50th birthday. this was remarkable because a) i'm horrible at surprises...i always want to spill the beans b) my mom is horrible at suprises...she also wants to spill the beans (wonder where i got that from?) it was perfect though, like a movie, but better, because it was my real life.

2. i finished my thesis. amen and praise the lord! i had to take 2 days of my precious time in the states to accomplish this task. blasted procrastination, my lifelong enemy! it is not perfect. i had to come to peace with the fact that i would not be able to write everything that i knew or even everything that i probably wanted to write. it is what it is, and i still felt a little tingle of pride as i held the 63 bound pages in my hands. i accomplished what at times seemed like an insurmmountable task. take that, german grammar!

3. nothing. i think that is the reward of finishing a thesis. all of the books that i have not read, all of the movies that i have not seen, all of the coffee dates with friends that have been pushed to the side for the last few months - they are my reward for finishing. currently i am 100% sucked into the stieg larsson books (very late on that one, i am well aware) - i cannot stop reading! also, i have never wanted so badly in my life to visit sweden.

4. teaching. i have jumped back into teaching all of my old courses plus a couple new ones. i have a lot of new students (due to turnover from kids leaving to go to elementary school) and i still have to get a rhythm down, but i love it. i wish i could remember all of the things that make me laugh every day, but currently i'm drawing a blank. sorry about that.

so there you have it. i am alive and well. i had my first mug of glühwein at the christmas market yesterday and can hardly believe that this is my 4th christmas season in germnay - how time flies. in the mean time, i am feeling especially thankful and blessed by an incredible network of family and friends. ~love~