The night before he had casually mentioned over drinks that he had a little surprise for my birthday planned. I didn't think much of it that night, but the next morning I was very curious, knowing that we planned to go to NYC for what was going to be an epic trip, and I didn't want those plans to change. So instead of talking about the election, I began prodding him to tell me a bit more about this surprise...
He was reluctant, as he loves surprising others, but doesn't like surprises himself (after 15 years together you would think that he would know I feel the exact same way that he does about surprises!), but eventually told me that after NYC, we would fly directly to Germany for a week. SAY WHAT?!?!?!
Oh man NO. No way. Nope. My mom is dying. The kids have to stop skipping school to travel with us. We have to still buy 4 tickets to go to California to be with my mom for Christmas. No no no.
I was due to fly to California the following morning to be with my mom for a week. NYC will be enough. I couldn't even imagine being gone any longer. International travel with the kids is a big deal! How can I justify a week in Europe when my sister is taking care of my mom? If I have a week to spare, shouldn't I go to California and relieve her so she can go on a much needed vacation? And why now? It's cold and dark and damp in Germany in December, let's wait until spring, when we have some extra time, and money, to plan this big trip, and go then?
All of these thoughts quickly ran though my head, and some of them slipped through my lips too. And here he sat crushed that I wasn't excited about his idea of an amazing family vacation together...
And then it hit me- we can't go because the kids and I have expired passports. Yes! I win. No more excuses, this is just a cold, hard fact. Done. Oh well. It was a sweet idea and would have been fun, but that's settled.
I married a very resourceful man. While I flew to California the next day, he finagled his way into the passport scheduling system and somehow got us appointments for the day after I returned from California (11/17) to get expedited passports. We were going to NYC on 12/1, so we needed the passports by 11/30... with only 9 business days, I was doubtful that this would happen. Phew. Still dodging that bullet.
Guess what? Brian picked up our shiny new passports on Friday 11/25! I guess this was happening... no more excuses. Thankfully I also married a man who loves playing travel agent, so he had our whole trip planned out and had already been in touch with my friends in Germany and they were ready for us! I didn't have to do a thing. What the heck was I complaining about? He had also been analyzing the flight patterns for military planes leaving NJ and going to Rammstein Germany, as he hoped that we would be able to fly on a military flight- for free!
Side note- since sometime in mid-October, Brian had been hearing rumors about possibly deploying for a year, come this summer. He shared this with me, so it was in the back of my mind too. With the wildness of our last 6 months, this trip would be important family time for us whether or not he deployed...
Fri 12/ 2 was my birthday and Sat 12/3 we hoped to leave NYC and drive to a base in NJ and fly to Germany from there. Flight schedules are released 72 hours in advance, so we knew when we arrived in NYC on 12/1 we would know the flight schedule and when exactly we would be heading to Germany.... Well, there was no flight info release on Thursday. All day on Friday (my bday) Brian was checking to see about flights- still nothing. I took this as a really big sign that we weren't supposed to go. I was still on the fence about going. While it sounded like an amazing family trip, and I couldn't have been happier about seeing my friends, what if my mom died while we were there??
So Friday he called people. And everyone agreed that it was very, very odd that there were no planes headed to Germany from any base on the east coast. He checked everywhere from Maine to South Carolina, thinking we could just drive to where ever there was a plane. It seemed as though the last plane headed there was leaving NJ on Friday night... We had tickets to the Rockette's on Saturday morning, so there was NO way I was cutting my NYC trip short to get to Germany. Clearly this just wasn't meant to be. I was okay with that, Brian was disappointed.
I had the most amazing birthday. Friday night was so magical, and it was followed by an exhausting day. We crawled into bed at about 11:50, absolutely spent. As I laid there in our plush bed at the Ritz, thanking God for a fantastic day, two healthy children and a loving husband next to me, that loving husband i just mentioned elbowed me and said "LOOK AT THIS!"
Well, wouldn't you know, minutes before my 40th birthday was due to end, the Air Force gave me a fabulous birthday gift- they released flight info for a flight to Rammstein on Saturday night! That was exactly perfect timing for us, and precisely when we had hoped to go. This was too good to be true. Now I was excited!
Saturday afternoon we left NYC, drove to McGuire AFB in New Jersey, telling the kids we were going to stop off on base to do a little shopping. Macy had indeed lost a glove in NYC, and we knew she couldn't go to Germany without gloves, so we did have to do some shopping. We had not mentioned a peep about Germany to them, in case it didn't work out. Their teachers knew, and fully supported the idea of pulling them out of school (for 7 days!) and thankfully they too find value in travel experiences and family time.
When we pulled up to the flight terminal, we asked them if they wanted to go home or keep traveling? Of course they said traveling. We told them then that we were headed to Germany for a week, and they couldn't have been any happier! Macy because she thinks she is German, and Tate because in his mind, he still remembers living there, a bit.
When you fly military, you have to show up not 1, not 2, but about 6 hours before you take off. Hey, it's free so no complaints here! After the hustle and bustle of roaming around NYC for 3 days, the kids were happy to be plugged in-
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And after the hustle and bustle of roaming around NYC for 3 days, I was happy to get a little snooze in- 
And then it was time! As it turned out, that last flight to Germany on Friday night that we were so disappointing that we couldn't make, turned out to be our flight to Germany on Saturday night! A door hinge had broken on Friday night, so it couldn't fly. Seems as though it was was just waiting for us!
The plane was a giant C-5. It was old and slow, but it would get us there. When flying military, you never know if you will be in a seat, or just along the wall. While old and slow, the best thing about a C-5 is that it is so giant that it is two story- the cargo goes down below on the first level, and then there is seating for people on the second level. So, we had big comfy seats to sleep in all the way to Germany that night, if you could make it up these treacherous stairs-
I was shocked that we had to climb up/down them, and felt badly for the retiree's that we were traveling with, and also the moms traveling alone with several small children. (Brian grabbed a stroller and car seat a couple times!)
It was dark- not a window in the whole plane, hot and stuffy, and the seats face backwards- so taking off and landing was weird, and even weirder for Brian who flies a plane that does not have rear facing seats- but we all slept well!
And suddenly it was Sunday morning and they announced we were in Germany!
Here is the plane we just got off- 
Thanks for the free ride Air Force! And just to put into perspective how big this plane is, check this out-
The rental car place was right across the street from the flight terminal where we landed at Rammstein Air Force base in Kaiserslautern Germany. This is not where we were stationed, as we were a few hours south in Stuttgart Germany.
We grabbed our bags and walked over to get the rental car. Brian went to do this alone and the kids and I just chilled. Our plan was to get the car and the drive to The Finnan's. Adrien and Sean were our friends in Little Rock. We all became such fast friends that they had us over for dinner one night and we noticed a house across the street from them being framed. We decided to buy that house. We fell in love with the house, and the Finnans. Adrien was the very first person, after Brian, to hold Tate. She was my person while stationed in Little Rock. Then I moved.... and we've both been moving ever since. And always moving away from each other. When we were in Germany, Brian had to come home to DC a few times, and this is where they were stationed. So he would stay with them. Then last year he went to Germany for work, and again he got to stay with them. It had been over 9 years since I last saw Adrien. She has 3 kids that I haven't even met yet. She's never even met Macy! It was about to happen....
But first, where is Brian? Why is it taking so long to get a rental car? Oh yeah, we aren't stationed here in Germany any more. We have no privileges here anymore. We aren't allowed to rent a car on base anymore. Oops.
We would need to go off base (walking, with all our luggage and two kids?) and rent a car from the rental company off base. Oh wait- it is Sunday! Nothing is open in Germany on a Sunday. Oh no.
So, Brian called Sean and Adrien. Within minutes they were there and rented the car for us. Hopefully this was the only bump in the road we would have through Germany....
And we were back together, finally!
Brian was insistent about traveling to Germany in December because of our love for Christmas Markets. Adrien and Sean love them too, so after just about 30 minutes dropping our stuff off at their new place on base, they whisked us away to their old village for the1 day only Christmas market. It was so perfect that we arrived on this day, otherwise we would have missed it.
Kids, what kids?
It was a great little market, the air was cold and the gluhwein was warm! St Niklaus was there to hand out giant bags of candy to all the kids-
Monday morning I got up with Adrien and was so excited to just see what her life looked like, what her normal routine was like. When they moved on base, their kids stayed in their village elementary school and kindergarten, so she spent a lot of the day driving them back and forth. After we did drop off, we stopped off at a shop to grab some things for St Niklaus night tonight! I blew my mind being back in a German store.
Adrien took us to a great Christmas market that day, and snow flakes fell as we were walking through the market!
Someone's excited to be here!
While I was trying to get a picture of this beautiful church, a man spoke to me in German. FREEZE. My German sucks. He quickly realized that, and spoke to me in German. He was offering to take a picture of me. Okay I guess. But he cut off the top of the beautiful church! Ugh.
Ellie 9, and Marin 6, had to go to school- the Germans are so strict about everything- but Nash 5, got to skip and spend the day with us-
This was a very unique market for several reasons.... first- the creepy elf puppet village-
Lots of circus-like performers-
Got camels?
But there was St Niklaus and his beautiful reindeer-
and there was warm Kinder Punsch- think hot fruit punch...
And of course, Ghulwein for us adults too! I loved collecting a mug from each market we went to on this trip. They are the perfect size for the kiddos at home, and so unique to Germany.
Gotta love the simplicity-
Warm toasted bread- yum!
And before we left, Tate couldn't resist getting in a little target practice-
That night we had happy hour with an old friend, Regan Keener. Before there was a Farrah, Brian flew with Regan and her husband Mark. They lived in Pinehurst too, a few streets away from Brian, turned into great friends, and were at our wedding even. Regan was the first one in our group to get pregnant, and she had a baby boy named Calvin.
When Calvin was 4 months old, and Mark was deployed, I got a phone call one morning from a nurse at our local hospital explaining that Regan had given her my number and she'd asked that she call me to come be with Regan. I had no idea what was going on, but of course I went... Turns out Regan was not the patient that day, but it was baby Calvin.
Daycare had called Regan just hours after she dropped him off that morning saying he wasn't feeling well, so she brought him to the ER. Once the medical staff realized what was going on with him, they suggested she call a friend to be with her. Hours after I arrived, he was diagnosed with Leukemia and life flighted to a hospital several hours away. I wouldn't leave Regan's side for the next 48 hours.
We drove the long drive to that hospital together, sat by Calvin's crib for hours together, went in search of a margarita- doctors orders- together, managed to find things to laugh about because we were so overtired together, slept in an on-call room overnight together, and when the Red Cross finally found Mark and he was able to call Regan, and she couldn't get the words out without crying hysterically, I was the one to explain to him exactly what had transpired.
It was a gut wrenching experience, and I only lived it for 2 days, and I was just the friend.
Calvin would eventually beat the leukemia, but die of graph vs host disease when he was less than 2 years old. I saw Regan a month after he passed (when she was 8 months pregnant with her next child) and then again when we lived in Germany, after she successfully kicked breast cancers ass!
She has since retired from the Air Force, however her husband is still active duty and they are now living in Germany. And who's squadron did they end up in? The Finnan's! Such a small, small world.
Crazy that we have known each other for 15 years, yet have never met each others kids! First there was Calvin, and now there are these guys-
Alex, 11, Tate 10, Ellie, 9, Macy 7
That night was St Nicklas night, when St Nicklas will come and fill up your boot with goodies if you leave it outside your front door for him. If you have been naughty, he will leave you a stick...
Tuesday we headed south, down to Stuttgart to see our friends in our old village, Neckartenzlingen. As we were packing up the car, snow flakes were falling! And as we drove south, we went through some spooky scenes of forests covered in thick ice and fog-
Tate was reading Chronicles of Narnia, and said that this scenery looked like what he thought Narnia would look like!
And then suddenly we were in Heidleburg, and the weather was good again. First stop, the Heidleburg castle-
We'd taken the kids when we lived there, but of course they don't remember.
The view of the town below-
I swear it looks so fake, like something Disney would create!
The kids would try Kase Spetzle (macaroni and cheese) and curry wurst (hot dog with curried ketchup) for lunch, and fall in love with both!
Before going to Neckartenzlingen, we stopped off at the hospital where Macy was born-
Macy was enthralled by the differences of the German license plates compared to ours in the US-
Germany gave us some amazing sunsets while we were there. This was the first-
We were driving to our little town from the hospital, through the fields of what are to become wild flowers, cabbage, pumpkins, many walkers and horseback-riders when I looked over and saw the sunsetting. A very warm welcome home....
When we lived in Germany, Tate went to a little Kindergarten on the other side of our village. Surprisingly, there were several kindergartens in our village- one was close enough to walk to, but it did not have the best reputation. My neighbor told me that Kindergarten Finkenweg was the best, but also the furthest, as it was up on the "mountain." Certain things get lost in translation. There was no mountain in our town, just a big hill.
The first year that Tate was in school, I became chatty with another mom, Claudia. Her daughter, Johanna, was a year older than Tate and as it turned out, they lived only a street away from us. As a young adult, Claudia left Germany and lived in California. Having had that experience of living in a foreign land, away for your family and everything familiar, she knew exactly what I was experiencing and feeling living there in Neckartenzlingen.
Claudia and I became good friends, and we Brian enjoyed (drinking beer with) her husband Klaus very much too. We have kept in touch over the years, and when she heard that Brian was planning this trip for us, she insisted that we all stay with them. I was thrilled with the idea, as I knew that staying with them would give my kids the full German experience, and Claudia is also a fantastic cook!
Tuesday night Claudia had made reservations at our favorite Italian restaurant, so we walked into the village and stopped at their new favorite place along the way- a wine shop!
What?!?! We left town and someone opened a wine shop? Claudia and Klaus have become good friends with the owners, so when we arrived they opened up a bottle of Prosecco and we all drank together. It is the cutest shop, and we made a plan to come back the following night for a wine tasting.
We headed over to dinner and had a fantastic time with Joe, Josephina and Alex. Their other son, Sebastian, was not there that evening. They have a gorgeous restaurant and make amazing food. It was our favorite restaurant when we lived there, and loved being "The Americano's" to them!
We had no idea that it was supposed to snow overnight and were absolutely delighted!
We left Claudia early that morning and headed to Macy's "Tages-muter" or "day-mother" or babysitter! When I needed a break from her a couple days a week (she was a nightmare from 6mos-24mos old), she would go visit Ester. During these hours, I would usually do "home school" with Tate and work with him on everything that he would normally have been doing in an American preschool.
I loved seeing the river and trees all covered in snow and morning sunshine on our way to Esters-
I had been in touch with Ester's daughter, Tanya, to coordinate our visit. She decided to keep it a secret from her mom. Her brother's family, just weeks before, had been through a house fire and were now homeless, and living with them. So with all the recent stress, Tanya thought that a surprise visit from us would be wonderful for her mother. So at 9am, we arrived and walked towards the house... She noticed us coming, opened the door and exclaimed "Macy!"
Macy was only with Ester for less than a year, but her whole family (she has 4 children who were all teenagers- young adults) loved our family. They would invite us hiking and to dinner with them. They were just a fun family to be around, and they loved having Macy, and would often keep Tate for an afternoon here and there too.
Tanya and Robin came to California to visit us, but it had been 5 1/2 years since Ester had seen us! Since we had last seen Tanya and Robin in California, they have gotten married and have 2 sons. I couldn't wait together my hands on the baby-
It was wonderful stopping by for a quick visit with them all!
Next up was a visit to Tate's old kindergarten. Claudia was so wonderful to call when she found out we were coming to visit. Turns out one of Tate's teachers, Frau Neumann, was still there teaching, but wouldn't you know the week we were in town, she would be out of the country on vacation? This is the cutest little school ever-
The playroom and climbing wall-
When Tate saw it he said "I remember it being bigger." We explained that that was because he was smaller then!
The kitchen- where the kids actually cooked. Tate remembers cutting his finger on a knife while chopping up carrots, and thinking the blood was ketchup.
The loft area was always a favorite-
After we left the school, we went to our favorite Christmas Market in Esslingen. This is a medieval style market, and the town is picture perfect. Again, looks like something Disney would try to create-
A childrens performer performing on the stage in front of the amazing giant coo-coo clock. We had no idea what the performer was saying in German, but we are pretty sure he was still drink from the night before.
Check out the giant branches of mistletoe to Brian's right-
And how can I resist kissing him even without the mistletoe?
When we last took Macy to a Christmas market, she was 18 months old. She couldn't participate in any of the fun for kids, and just sat in the stroller. (Oh yes, let me just mention how lovely is is to go through a crowded Christmas market without a stroller! Oh the joys of having older kids...) Anyway. This tiny wooden ferris wheel was always a favorite for Tate and his friends. Finally, Macy can ride it now!
After leaving the market, I wanted to do some more exploring in our own town. We had a favorite playground we would go to, that was next to a lake with a walking path and restaurant that we would frequent. So I decided we should go there. Again, Macy was delighted to do everything she couldn't do when we lived here!
Macy, finally at the top!
I have pictures of Tate much younger on this zip line, as well as my sister AND my 80 year old grandmother!
While at the playground, Brian's phone rang. He answered it... remember how I mentioned he'd been hearing rumors about deploying? This was the call. No longer a rumor, this was the official offer. A dream job that he never thought would be possible, a chance to go do amazing things, and be an awesome leader; but still it will be a year away from us. Bitter sweet for sure....
After the playground, we took a walk around the lake and I knew we needed a selfie right here, right now, to preserve this moment. The sunglasses are on to hide the tears.
I remember Tate and Macy playing on this beach with little friends like it was just last summer...
Love love love this one-
After our family day of exploring our old haunts, we met back up with Claudia and Klaus. We walked into the village for our wine tasting, and the sun set was enough to take your breath away-
Again, thank you Germany!
We just had to stop off at the toy store in town. This was the best store- half toy store and half home goods on the other side. We ALL used to love going there when ever we could-
Next up- wine tasting-
We had such a lovely time and came home with almost a case of delicious wines from Europe that we wouldn't have been able to taste otherwise.
This little sign hung in the wine shop window and I found it to be so perfect, so German.
The shop owner's wife bought an extra, gave it to Claudia and one day I was checking the mail, and found it! A cherished souvenir for sure.
After wine tasting we came home to a delicious feast that Claudia had been preparing all day while we were out. She knows how much we think her eggplant parmigiana is to die for, so much to our delight that was one of our courses! It was a wonderful evening full of food, wine, friendship and laughter. What more could we have asked for? Nothing. Nothing at all.
Tate, Macy, Rebecca, Johanna.
Thursday morning we hated to say good-bye. As I packed up, Claudia was so happy to jump in and help with blow drying Macy's hair-
Funny thing is, Claudia knew me when I was pregnant with Macy. And for the entire 2 years that we lived in Germany after she was born, Macy hated Claudia. For absolutely no reason. If Claudia was around, Macy would cling to me and cry hysterically. It was bizarre. It was so sweet to see Macy with her now...
Claudia teaches cooking lessons to others- Germans at a trade school, and American military wives in her home. She also has a little side business selling delicious jams to small boutiques and at farmers markets. I knew I wanted to take some jams home, so she pulled them all out for me to taste.
I was in heaven...
We hated to say good-bye to Claudia, Klaus, Johanna and Rebecca that day. Who knows when we will be able to see them again? They made this trip so enjoyable for us. Staying with them was so sweet and so comfortable. They went out of their way to make sure our visit was excellent and easy. I just hope that someday Claudia will (be brave enough to) get on a plane, and come stay with me so we can repay them!
Before we left town, we had one more friend to see, Sandra. Sandra's parents were our neighbors and I don't know what I would have done without her help while I lived there. She was so willing to help me navigate my way through all things German, out and about in our town, making phone calls, driving me places, translating paperwork, etc.
Me met up at our favorite bakery in our village-
We didn't ring the doorbell, but it was so great to be able to show the kids where we used to live, the house we brought Macy home to!
Next up- a quick visit with Kimberly, and the Nurtigen Christmas market...
Here she is, our favorite German babysitter, Kimberly!
Kimberly and her friend, Madeline, came to visit us in California, 4 years ago. Now that we knew Brian was deploying, we offered up coming to DC for a year... but she's all grown up now, living with boyfriend, about to graduate college and become a teacher. Sigh.
We always loved this Christmas Market because of the live nativity-
This however was not-
Just weeks after our election back in the US, and we see Trump as the Grinch in Germany? Mind blown.
Everyone kept telling us how unusually cold it had been while we were there. But because of the excitement of being on vacation, we didn't really notice all that much. This fountain shows it though for sure-
We drove back to Rammstein late Thursday afternoon, trying to meet with with Regan and her kids (Mark was deployed) and The Finnan's for dinner. Traffic is so unpredictable in Germany. It seems like you can get stuck in a "Stau" for no reason, for hours. All throughout our trip, easy breezy traveling. Even finding parking wasn't a problem. We ended up with rockstar parking each and every time we went someplace. It was too good to be true. And then a stau... We would eventually make it to dinner on time with everyone, but not before Germany reminded us of how unpredictable the traffic can be when you are traveling. Oh well, with the snowfall, sunsets and everything else being so easy, we couldn't complain...
But then suddenly it was Friday morning and we wanted to complain about having to leave. Ideally, we wanted to catch a flight home on Friday, and Brian had been watching the flights closely. Guess what? There was a flight Friday afternoon. Thank you Germany! (Not that we wanted to leave at all, but, it was time...)
Adrien snapped this shot of the girls together before they left for school-
And this one of the boys as we grabbed one quick last lunch of delicious German food together before we said our good-byes and flew home-
Lucky, lucky us.
When we first said hello to each other, Adrien was crying. When we said good-bye, we were both crying. I joked that I didn't cry upon seeing her initially, because I didn't even know if after all these years apart I would still like her. Man did saying good-bye again hurt...
I still like her, and can't wait to see her again! We picked up where we left off 9 years ago, our husbands are still buddies, our kids all like each other- if only we could be neighbors again...
All went perfect leaving Germany and getting home. We waited in the flight terminal, which was amazing-
And I couldn't help but notice this beautiful picture, just waiting to be taken-
We flew in a C-17 on our way home, in the jump seats. No big deal as we had done this once before too.
As we boarded the plane, this was our sunset on the runway-
Seriously Germany? What an amazing send off. Thank you. Thank you to the country we once called home, thank you to the friends we will always cherish, who hosted us and took time to visit with us, thank you to my kids who are amazing travelers, and thank you to my fabulous, charming, loving husband who always comes up with the best ideas and always pushes me just to the other side of my comfort zone. This was our most marvelous and extraordinary family trip yet, and I know it took tremendous planning and preparation by my husband, and our friends, to make it happen... I will treasure each memory for always.
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