Summer, sun, sunshine for 2 1/2 weeks

Dear ones,

I hope you all started the new year well and could enjoy your Christmas time. First of all, we wish you a Happy New Year and are very glad that you are accompanying us again this year and eagerly following along as our life in the United States of America progresses. Just to note: 7 months have already passed! Wow! Time goes by so quickly and we can hardly believe that we are slowly starting to think about our return home. Because flights, etc. do not book themselves...

But now first to something more exciting: How did we spend Christmas and New Year's Eve? Until November, we weren't sure where we wanted to spend these two important days of the year. Between returning home, Hawaii, skiing, and the Bahamas, a lot was under discussion. But in the end, we decided to spend a few days relaxing without much travel. Because as nice as traveling from place to place is, it is also quite exhausting.

Thus, we boarded the plane on 19.12.24 and flew via Charlotte to the Dominican Republic. More specifically, our destination was Punta Cana. We spent 10 days there at a resort, simply enjoying a bit of peace, summer, sun, and relaxation. We can't tell much about those days because we spent most of our time resting on the beach in the sun. However, there was one highlight. While the Christmas atmosphere in the resort was very nicely captured (Christmas music, Christmas decorations, etc.), the Christmas dinner was also very nice. A lot of effort was made to ensure that we could have a lovely Christmas away from home. But our actual highlight arrived on 25.12. Because Christmas is officially celebrated here only on 25.12. From the resort, it was announced that Santa would come to the beach at 11 a.m. that morning. Of course, we wanted to see that. But what we saw was incredible: Santa Clause arrived at the beach by HELICOPTER and then got out to distribute gifts to the children. We had never seen anything like that in our 26 years or 31 years of life :D So definitely a funny highlight of the vacation.

On 29.12 after 10 days of relaxation, we continued to Orlando. There, we joyfully met Julian's parents, who had relatively last minute decided to visit us. With them, we spent three days at Treasure Island and then two more days at Cocoa Beach. We took a few outings, including a sunset kayak tour on New Year's Eve, ate raclette, enjoyed a fantastic fireworks display on the beach, visited a few National Recreation Areas, saw the famous Daytona Beach, visited the Kennedy Space Center, and attempted to witness a rocket launch (which unfortunately got postponed). As you can see, we had a great time just the four of us!

On Friday, 03.01.25 it was already time to say goodbye again because Tina and Wolfgang continued on by bus to Miami to enjoy the second part of their vacation. For us, it went straight to the airport, because the next long-awaited visit was waiting for us. Upon arrival at the airport in Orlando, we welcomed Ale and Ruwen. The two had spent the last two weeks with Ale's family in Mexico and had now made a stop on their way back to Germany in Orlando. Together with them, we spent Saturday at Walt Disney World and Sunday at Universal Studios Orlando. These were also two wonderful days with them, filled with fun, adventure, roller coasters, film music, and movie sets, fireworks, immersing in our own childhood, and shared time for which we are very grateful. Even though it is now quite an expensive enjoyment, we can highly recommend both parks. Such a trip to Walt Disney World or Universal Studios is not something one does often in life.

Since Sunday evening, we are back in Pittsburgh and will stay here for a while. However, there are a few things planned in Pittsburgh before we go traveling again. This Monday marked the return to work for Julian AND me. Julian back to his normal job at Bosch, and I have now started a new job (no more volunteer work). But more on that in our next blog post...

Lastly, we would like to thank our four visitors. Tina, Wolfgang, Ale & Ruwen, we were thrilled that you came to visit us and that we could spend such a wonderful time together. This is absolutely not a given for us (just like with our other visitors last year), as we don't exactly live around the corner. And it is always a special time to have visitors from home because that is something we miss here. Friends & family. So it's also nice to say that we will already be returning home THIS year :)

See you soon!