Karin's Adventures

OK, some people have more decoration, and some have less. This neighbor definitely has more. I counted nineteen blow-up objects scattered loosely around their front yard. All of them thoroughly attached to the ground with four to eight strings each. Some light up at night.
It's quite a sight!

I am not a member of any church, nor do I think it matters whether the story about this single mother giving birth to her son some two thousand years ago around this date is true or not, but I really enjoy the traditions around the Christmas Holidays. It's fun to set up a tree and decorate it while you're listening to romantic music and drinking Glühwein.

I love to come home to the smells of pine needles and freshly baked cinnamon star cookies. This year I tried a new recipe that I found on the internet. It calls for only five ingredients (almonds, powdered sugar, egg whites, cinnamon, lemon juice) and the results are simply awesome.

Long cold nights and short frosty days call for some indoor activities and outdoor decorations again this year. Today it warmed up a little bit and it was nice and sunny outside. Perfect weather to get the lights out of the basement and hang them up along the front porch.

For this year's advent wreath I used dried natural materials that I had collected on one of our walks with the dog. This looks better than the plastic stuff I had on it in past years.

I'm looking forward to a cup of Glühwein by candle-light now.

Northern Indiana was hit by severe weather, heavy rainfall, and nine tornados today around 11:00 a.m. The storm system brought high winds that toppled trees and power lines and damaged many buildings. We didn't see much damage in Fort Wayne, but towards the West people's houses were torn apart.

The storm lasted for only about half an hour, so I could still go for my lunch-time walk around the cemetery. A huge limb had broken off one of the big trees there and lay sprawling across a dozen graves and part of my path.

Today after work I went to pick up our van from the body shop. I was surprised that they had actually kept their promise to get it done within the week. From my experience with two different accidents I can now seriously recommend having full coverage car insurance. Dealing with just your own insurer for the entire process is a lot less stress and well worth paying a bit more for.

Now that I mounted my slightly damaged custom German license plate with the 'real' fake seals on the shiny new front bumper again you wouldn't believe this car is over ten years old.