Merry Christmas

Frohe Weihnachten von den Großhennigs

Socks

Seit Ende September haben wir ein neues Familienmitglied: Socks, unseren schwarz - weißen Kater. Wir haben ihn aus einem Tierheim in Kassel geholt und er passt total gut in unsere Familie.

Since end of september we have a new family member: Socks, our black and white tomcat. We got him from the shelter in Kassel and he fits perfectly in our family.

Fuldatal: here we come

Monday, 17th at 8:30 our container was in front of our new house and 4 men started to unload our 460 boxes!!!!!!! Don't ask me how it looked inside our new home for that day.
The next morning they came back to built the beds and shelves. This was a disaster, as they did not build the beds and shelves proberly. My inlaws slept in Hanna's bunkbed, but they discovered, that something was wrong and so we need to rebuild Hanna's bed in the night again and even David's bed :-(. On Wednesday we need to rebuild all the shelves as they did a really bad job on those, too.

I am still fighting against the boxes, as we have a lot of handymen in the house. For example I finished our dining room, but today two men are here to fix our wooden floor. For that reason I needed to empty the whole dining room again :-(

As soon as everything is ready I will post some pictures from the house and our big garden.

David and Hanna are in school already the second week. Hanna has a hard time adjusting. At the beginning she was crying every morning and she still has tummy aches and need to go to the toilet all the time. In Germany the kids go to school all by themselves, but Hanna is still afraid to go by herself. Hopefully this will change soon. Hanna has a nice teacher and she also likes her classmates.
David was in the wrong class the first day of school. He got very nervous about that as he thought that he could not make new friends now as the first day of school already passed. That's why he cried the whole evening. He also needs to get used to the German homework and study habits after school :-)
Noah started Kindergarten (preschool in the US) and LOVES it. He is the one who has the least problems to adjust. But of course he realised that he gets attentions when he is crying.
Jörg likes his new job and he has great collegues. He still needs to learn a lot, but he is getting there ...
And I, hmm as soon as the house is fixed I need to find something for me.

our trip from the westcoast to the eastcoast

It was an awsome experience for all of us to be on the road for one month and to see so many incredible things. We drove 4600 miles, saw many staates (still need to count how many; did anyone pay attention?????), ate different food from the regions, slept in different hotels, swam in all the hotel pools, lived out of our suitcases (3 of them and some bags) .....
At the end, I need to say, that I was tired of the restaurant food and living out of the suitcases. I was ready for a permanent place to stay and homecooked food, but on the other hand I was not ready to leave the US ...

Es war eine tolle Erfahrung für alle von uns, einen Monat mit dem Auto unterwegs zu sein und so viele Eindrücke zu sammeln. Wir sind 4600 Meilen gefahren, haben viele Staaten durquert (muss mal nachzählen wie viele, oder hat jemand mitgezählt????), haben Spezialitäten der verschiedenen Regionen probiert, haben in vielen verschiedenen Hotels übernachtet und in vielen Hotelpools geschwommen, haben aus unseren Koffern gelebt (3 Koffer und einige Taschen) ...
Am Ende muss ich jedoch sagen, dass ich genug vom Restaurantessen und dem Leben aus dem Koffer hatte. Ich sehnte mich nach einer permanenten Bleibe und Hausmannskost, aber auf der anderen Seite war ich noch nicht bereit die USA zu verlasen ...

Washington DC: Georgetown

Noah riding on one of the mule's.

David blowing the horn.

Walking distance away from our hotel is Georgetown, a nice area where you can find cute houses, restaurants and shops. It is really worth spending a couple of hours there.

We took an amazing boat ride on the canal. Our boat was by two mules and we learnd a lot of intersting facts from the older days.

Nicht weit von unserem Hotel befindet sich Georgetown, ein nettes Viertel mit tollen Häusern, Restaurants und Einkaufsmöglichkeiten. Es lohnt sich wirklich einige Stunden dort zu verbringen.

Unbedingt sollte man einen Bootsfahrt durch den Kanal buchen. Wie in früheren Zeiten wurde das Boot von Eseln gezogen. Wir haben viele interessante Neugigkeiten über das Leben auf solchen Booten erfahren.

White House

We wanted to see the Obama family soooooooo badly and of course the dog. Two autocades passed us and by the first one David and Hanna heard some people saying, that Obama was in the car, but who knows .... At least it was a very hugh one. The second we saw I thought that I saw the girls in it, but probably I wished so badly seeing one of them :-)
But what we saw for sure was the White House and the famous Christmas Tree of the White House.

Wir wollten die Obamas und natürlich auch den Hund unbedingt sehen. Wir haben zwei Wagenkolonnen gesehen und bei der ersten haben David und Hanna einige Leute sagen hören, dass Obama in einem Auto saß, aber wer weiß .... Aber es war zumindest eine ganz schön lange Fahrzeugkolonne. In der zweiten Kolonne dachte ich, dass ich die zwei Mädchen gesehen habe, aber vielleicht habe ich mich auch getäuscht, da ich unbedingt ein Familienmitglied sehen wollte.
Aber was wir ganz sicher gesehen haben ist das Weiße Haus mit dem berühmten Weihnachtsbaum.

Washington DC: National Mall

We arrived at our finall destination: Washington DC.

You will find most of the tourists at the National Mall. This gigantic park is approximatly 2,5 miles long and 0,05 miles wide and it is between the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol. You can find a lot of famous sightseeing attractions here and also 9 of the 14 Smithsonian Museums are here. Our favourit is the Air and Space Museum.

Nun sind wir an unserem letzten Stop angekommen: Washington DC.
Die meisten Touristen findet man in dieser Stadt wohl in der "National Mall".

Bei einer Länge von ca. 4 km und einer Breite von ca. 91 Metern, ist diese Straße eher ein Park, der am Lincoln Memorial beginnt und am Kapitol endet. Das von vielen Bildern bekannte Washington Monument ist einer der markantesten Punkte der National Mall. An diesem Ort stehen viele Attraktionen und Symbole der USA und 9 der insgesamt 14 Smithsonian Museen sind hier. Unser Favorit ist das Luft- und Raumfahrtmuseum.