I wanted to write about this last week but since I sucked in the keeping up with writing during Christmas, it’ll have to be today.

A few weekends ago, T, Abner, and I went to the Nordrhein – Westfalen area of Germany to visit my aunt – Carmen.

Ok – to be fair, she is not my real aunt.  I once saw a complicated diagram on Facebook that explained the differences between cousins, 3rd cousins, and 2nd cousins twice removed.

As a Latina – we make it real simple:

Anyone in your parent’s generation – Aunts and Uncles

Anyone in your generation – cousins

Anyone in the subsequent generation – nieces and nephews

Anyway, my tia Meni is a really good friend of my mom who is also Peruvian.  She met and married a delightful German (my tio Peter) and he (literally) whisked her away to Germany.

Her sister, Lola, shortly followed and met her own German, Uwe.  Together they have two gorgeous girls – Mareike and Saskia – my ‘cousins.’

I haven’t seen them in over a year so everyone was really excited for the reunion.  T and I woke up before the crack of dawn to drive the five hours to see my aunt.  As soon as we got there, my tia and tio took us to Remscheid’s Christmas Market:

It was quite nice and simple but empty.  It was really windy and ridiculously cold which probably explained why everyone was inside the nearby mall drinking their hot drinks.

We didn’t stay long (obviously).  We came back because Tia was hosting a dinner party and wanted to get things ready.  She also decided to spoil us with some homemade Glühwein.

T + M + Glühwein + being wake since 4:30am = fell asleep on the couch.

It was ok, cause we were well rested for the dinner that lasted well into the night.

Originally it was an adult-only affair but Mareike and Saskia made an appearance because they wanted to meet and play with Abner:

Abner obviously liked them, too.

The next morning, we went to Lola’s for brunch:

mmmmmmmm and then we all sat around and chatted while Mareike and Saskia decided to have their little photo shoot with Abner (and I caught all the action)

The girls really want a pug and kept trying to show Abner’s awesomeness to their dad and prove that a pug is worth getting (of course I am in total agreement).

Apparently, Abner also agreed because he climbed into Uwe’s lap:

He may not have been able to convince Uwe about getting a pug, but he definitely made himself a welcome visitor.

All in all, it means a lot to have some family here in Germany.  They have a great support group and I can’t wait to see more of them 🙂

Anyway, tune in Wednesday where I reveal the results of my ski trip with our besties Marcel and Nicola 🙂

Bis Mittwoch!