Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year - Day 1: Of Epic Fails and Resolutions Part 1

Those of you who were so faithfully reading my posts know that the first line of my last post promised a guaranteed weekly update. That was over a month ago. I messed up that guarantee like Tommy Boy messed up the T-Bone and the Butcher.

So Happy New Year everyone! My resolution for 2012 is to follow through. Simple yet not so simple. This applies to healthy living, parenting, social engagements...oh, and blogging. I have a very bad habit of getting off to a great start and then slowly coming to a stop, all the while hoping people don't notice. I've come to realize people do notice, at least the ones closest to me do, they just aren't surprised anymore. My resolution is to change that.

So now, bear with me as I take you through the last month of last year. It was certainly a busy and exciting month, so welcome to my longest post yet...

Garmisch: Of Castles and Christmas Parties

I believe we left off with preparations to attend Jeff's command's Christmas party in Garmisch. We were packed up and ready to go Thursday, when the dog sitter called and said she wouldn't watch our dogs! Well that put us in quite the mood (I'm sure you saw my impolite rant on Facebook) and left us desperate to find another dog sitter. In the end, however, this ended up working in our favor. Through the vet on base, we found a great, inexpensive, small kennel in the middle of several horse farms. The puppies loved it there, and I'm fairly certain they didn't want to go home. We now have a go-to place for dog sitting when we want to travel. Speaking of traveling, back to our trip...

It turned out the kennel couldn't take the boys til the next day, but Friday morning we were happily on the road. The region of Germany we live in is mostly large rolling hills and country, (VERY similar to PA) so when we hit the Austrian boarder I was awed at the site of the beautiful mountains before me. The only way in and out of Garmisch is a road that passes through one tiny corner of Austria before popping back out On the border of Germany. I couldn't stop taking pictures of the amazing mountains.


We arrived in the early afternoon and got settled in our room before going in search of lunch.
We discovered that all our friends, who had gotten there the day before, were either in the pool area or out skiing. We only had a short while before we needed to get ready for the party so we opted for the pool. Later on, looking fabulous, we dropped Ginny with the sitter in our freinds' room and went downstairs for the party.

Best command party ever! The company was wonderful, the food was great, and the dancing was a blast. At some point someone brought out Santa's throne, and a bigger than life sized Santa. He's a great dancer! Many future blackmail photos were taken that night.

The next morning, we fought off the effects from the previous night's fun and packed up to go find the Neuschwanstein Castle. I had heard about this castle all my life from my Grandma G., and knew I had to see it while I was in the area. The walk from the parking lot to the castle was supposed to take 20 minutes or longer, so we opted for the horse-drawn carriage ride. Ginny LOVED the horses! So much so that after getting off, we had to drag her the last 100 yards up the hill because she wanted to ride the horsey again.



The castle slowly came into view through the barren trees, and I was slightly disappointed to see that most of the castles exterior in the back was covered in scaffolding. We did get some nice pictures from the front of the castle, however, as well as of the surrounding area. The tour was short but interesting, especially the fact that only 1/3 of the rooms were ever finished. Ginny was more than tired at that point, so we didn't get to see Mary's bridge, but we do have plans to return.

To be continued (with pictures)...

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