post-christmas update!

Hey guys, sorry for not updating in literally forever…
I just got back from Christmas break at home in MD, got to visit the family, and a bunch of friends. I took a couple days off from school, and left early, so I got to fly home the 17th of Dec, in order to have a full three weeks at home. Thankfully I got there as early as I did, because as we were driving home on the 18th, a blizzard started that lasted all weekend, blanketing MD with abt 20 inches of snow. It was amazing, and completely unexpected. And by unexpected, I mean that I hadn’t read the weather forecast online, and has therefore only brought clothes appropriate for a SOMD winter: casual shoes, a nice jacket, gloves, a hat, that’s abt it… Not optimal for climbing through, shoveling off, or otherwise adventuring in snow. Oh well! It was gorgeous! I took a ton of pictures down at the beach, including a pretty amazing snow-angel that I made :D I spent a lot of the first couple days hanging out with the fam, getting some kitchen therapy, and making more cookies, candy, and cake than my family could possibly go through, or give away. (strangely enough, not much of any of it is left though… hmmm..) We ended up doing two different turkeys for Christmas, papa made one with marsala, and I made one with lemons and oranges and herbed butter. Both turned out really well, and we stuffed ourselves. I also made a chocolate buttercream meringue cake that turned out AMAZING even though it didn’t look as good as it could’ve… I need to work on my cake-decorating skills. Pics of that will also be posted soon. We had surprise guests right after Christmas. Our parents refused to tell us who was coming (I referred to them as “stranger-danger” until they actually showed up) It turned out to be our fairy god-parents, Dave and Ivanka, with their adopted German daughter in tow! It was a really nice surprise, and Ivanka convinced the kids to come up to the cape for new years. After Christmas, the sisters and I went up to NYC to meet a bunch of our friends, and then up to cape cod, as promised. We dragged along one of my old high school friends, and had a really good time relaxing and sleeping and eating a ton. We drove home on the 2nd of Jan, which was a looong trip, and then celebrated Amish Christmas that evening with the fam. I got some really fun cooking tools, some of which I unfortunately could not to bring to Germany, as they would get ruined by Julian’s “cooking” :D
I spent the last week in MD meeting as many people as I could, before I had to head back here to Germany, but still ended up not seeing a bunch of people I wanted to. Sorry you guys! I’ll be home in july though, and we’ll have plenty of time then to catch up, and for me to cook for you…
All in all, I had a great time, seeing old friends, meeting new people (I have some GREAT stories abt aidan’s friends :D ) and hanging out with the family again.
I’ll try to update this more and more as my Germany tour winds to a close (frowny face) so if you haven’t lost faith yet, hold on to it for just a little while longer, and hopefully I won’t disappoint. Many more misadventures planned for the spring and summer!!