Holidays with Family (and some cute babies!)

We just got back from the States in which we were able to celebrate a whole seasons worth of holidays in just two weeks!  We didn't get to see everybody we wanted to, and we'll still wish we were there on Christmas, but it is good to be back in our place.

Our first stop this trip was Connecticut where we celebrated a wedding (again), a first birthday and Thanksgiving.  As if this didn't keep us busy enough we also squeezed in some delicious Mexican food made with lots of love by our friend Jenny, a stop at the local watering hole the night before Thanksgiving to see the variety of locals, and a nice long walk in the woods.  We had so much fun playing with our nephew Atlas...or more so...following him around as he crawled and walked and explored the whole house.

I think after our many trips crossing time zones we've almost figured out how to beat the jet lag:  NyQuil and Red Bull.  I know - not the healthiest, but I don't think the body was made for time travel and when you only have a few days, you can't waste the best hours sleeping.  Oh..and baking at 630am.  If you can't sleep, might as well do something fun! I had a great time making him these really cute Sesame Street cupcakes...I won't tell you how long they took.  But if you'd like some - forget it.  This was probably a one time shot and only one other person in the world (right now) will ever get anything close to this.

The theme of the trip seemed to be babies!  In addition to Atlas, Paul's friend had a baby just days before we landed.  He was so small and looked just like his dad!  I admired him upstairs for a bit while his dad had band practice in the basement.  Live show!  It was pretty cool.

The next..and prettiest..baby was Allison Marie.  She has got to be the cutest little girl I've ever seen! (and she happens to look like me! :) )  Alli turned 5 weeks old while we were there and greeted me with a dirty diaper.  We met our niece during the second half of our trip in California where we spent a few days with my brother and sister-in-law.

When colleagues asked how my trip was I couldn't say fast enough: "Great! I met my niece! She is so cute!  She smiled at me!!!"  This is monumental because she is just starting to smile and I had played with her the night before.  In the morning as soon as she saw me she smiled. :)  Did I mention how adorable she is?

Besides the baby, I also got to see my entire immediate family in California!  My mom, dad, Paul and I cooked up a storm in the kitchen! They cooked, I poured flour all over the counter every hour and used up all of the butter.  Shawn and I read so many books to Alli and he was awesome just holding her and playing with her during tummy time.  Amy and I went to yoga.  That was the coolest yoga studio I've been to and blows anything I've seen in Israel so far out of the water.  It was really fun and I can't wait to go again next time I'm in Cali!  Dusty made some amazing waffles and gave us all a tour of the USS Midway.  We also snuck in a walk around the block, a trip to the zoo, and a few trips to the grocery store (the Salvation Army woman outside of the store made quite a pretty pen during my many mini-trips).

It was a super fun trip!  I wish we'd have had more time to hit up more locations and see more people.  On the bright side, we'll be back in March!

Amuuurica

Twice now I've wanted to write a post entitled "America." But not "America"..I want you to hear "A-muuuur-ica" in your head when you say it. As in: "This is a-MUR-i-ca!," said the man defending his right to tailgate. It is a way of saying the name that in itself is American and that drips of pride. This is what we find ourselves saying several times a week.

It is funny how once you leave a place you start to feel an even greater tie to it. For example, I don't ever remember craving raspberries as much as I do now that I don't have a raspberry bush in my backyard. This phenomena is happening to us on a large scale, so while the 4th of July may be months away - Jen has started planning. She's not alone - others here are also planning. "Did you know Maybelline isn't American?" said one co-worker to another in disbelief as she tried to make a list of American companies in Israel. "French...Hmm."

The paradox of this situation is that while you want connect more with American culture while abroad, you are more disconnected from it than ever. I have no clue what songs are on the radio back home, what TV shows are popular, what movies are about to come out...and I haven't heard a word about Brad & Angelina in months (not that I want to, I never followed them). My American pop culture is now informed by YouTube and my little cousins' facebook profiles which is to say uninformed. So I'll stick to the old stuff that I know when planning for the 4th.

As I've said before, few things remind me of America more than summer, grilling and Neil Diamond! (Did you know that he is Jewish? Yeah..I thought the same thing! "Maybe he is doing a concert in Israel sometime while I'm here!" But he's not...so my Neil Diamond album with have to suffice.) So as the 4th of July approaches I will be trying to gather up all of the ingredients for an authentic American party - burgers, corn on the cob, the Birthday dessert my mom makes for me, an American flag, cornhole (a game) and fireworks....that last one might be tricky.