Looking back at 2016

Happy New Year!

2016 was a year full of visitors and travels of all sorts for us.

Last year’s Christmas was spent in Charlotte, with Pablo’s family (and my mom), we also welcomed 2016 there only to take a road trip to Orlando on January 1^st.  We visited WDW, Epcot, Universal Studios, and Island of Adventure. Once we got back to Germany we spent some time getting back to a routine.

We took a mini trip over Valentine’s day weekend with our first visitor of the year. Pablo’s oldest brother came to Sweden for work and then took a couple of extra days to visit us. We took our second trip of the year and visited Berlin and Schwerin.

March was spent in Hamburg, we spent Easter with other English-speaking moms at a park. We had a laid-back time here not worrying about waking up early to go to school.

In April, we bought our first DSLR, it’s a canon 30d and I’m enjoying capturing moments with it. A friend of mine (and friends of his) celebrated their birthdays with a party at the dorms in the University. It was fun, the highlight being that they made a delicious dish called discada, definitely check it out if you’ve never tried it

We visited Salzburg, Vienna, and Prague with Pablo’s other brother in May. This is one of my favorite trips, I loved visiting these three cities and meeting new people in them. We also went to “the beach” here, which is really freighters coming to port at the Elbe River.

In June, we went to the Summer fest at the University, and prepared for our upcoming trip to the  states.

Avi and me accompanied Pablo on a work trip and visited Boston for the first time, we spent a lot of time with Pablo’s cousin and his family-it was nice to meet them! After the conference, we visited New York City for a week, along with some of Pablo’s coworkers.

When we got back to Hamburg a cousin of mine came to visit and we took a day trip to Berlin. Avi ended up missing the last day of school because I had misread.

A friend of ours got married in August so we took advantage and visited Monterrey for two weeks in August. I got to celebrate my dad and sisters’ birthday with them for the first time in four years.

Avi started first grade on September 6^th, we were busy this month getting used to a new schedule. Then Pablo's parents came to Germany for the first time, they spent a couple of days here and we took a(our third) day trip to Berlin & Schwerin.

October marked our four-year anniversary in Hamburg, but we celebrated it low-key. Avi and I took an extended weekend trip to Braunschweig while Pablo went to visit a friend in Würzburg

November: Avi turned seven. We celebrated with a surprise birthday party at home and then a couple of her classmates accompanied us to a nearby barn to ride ponies on Sunday morning.

December: This year I decided to DIY Avi's Adventskalendar, she was really excited everyday opening her presents, it was nicely balanced though, because some days had something she considered boring. We spent Christmas in Hamburg surrounded by friends we've made over the past years. I spent my birthday in Ghent on our last trip of the year. We scored super cheap flights to Belgium (55€ round trip for three people).

What was a 2016 highlight for you?