Highlights

Highlights of my year 2023 – part 2

16 min read

I had nearly finished the second part of this recap of 2023 and then my wordpress app crashed and it was all gone. My motivation to start over was a bit low right after that but now I am ready to tackle part 2! You can read my review of January to June here.

July

Early in July our dear friend Sarah came to visit us. All three of us are big fans of her and it’s always a joy to hang out with her. I love talking to her, she is very wise, intelligent, creative and fun. Sadly we didn’t take any pictures together.
In July I had a proper scan and then felt confident to share about our pregnancy. I felt very relieved to have made it through the first trimester of pregnancy without any complications and it was so lovely to finally share the happy news.
SJ was invited to a second birthday party and it was the cutest thing ever to see her play with her little friends. Edd and I really enjoyed getting to know the parents more. It was such a nice afternoon.
Edd was in the UK the last two weeks of the month. SJ and I met up with lots of friends and were hanging out with my parents a lot. We also visited the local pool a lot and spend many afternoons at various playgrounds.
My parents, SJ and I were invited to a big garden party by some local friends. One of my dad’s bands provided the life music and it was such a nice summery evening.
SJs nursery hosted a summer party that included a little hike in the woods, a BBQ and treasure hunt. We are so grateful for her nursery and all the amazing stuff they organise for the children and their families. Such precious memories.

August

Edd came home after three weeks away! It was one of the longst times that he had been gone and it honestly was too long for all of us. The summer was a very busy time for him as he had his finaly PhD deadline in August. We all sighed a big breath of relief when he finally handed in his thesis!
SJ turned two years old in August. On her actual birthday we celebrated with family and then had a little kids party on the weekend after. It was so so nice and we loved celebrating her. She is such a delight and brings so much joy to all of us.
Her nursery closed for three weeks in the summer. During one of those weeks, my mum, SJ and I travelled to Northern Germany to see my grandma and some other relatives. Traveling on the train for 7 hours with a toddler has its challenges but we had a great time overall.
I really enjoyed having her home for this extended period of time. We created a lot of fun memories together. You can read about some of our adventures here.
We also had some friends over from the UK for one night. We became good friends during Covid and had spend a lot of time speaking to each other online and had never actually met in person. It didn’t feel like that at all and we had such a good time hanigng out together.

September

Edd spent most of the month in the UK. We broke up his time away by taking a trip out there over my birthday. We had a bit of time in Sheffield togehter, meeting some of Edd’s collegues and getting to know the place where he spends so much time. Then, we stayed with a good friend in Yorkshire. I celebrated my 33rd birthday and went to Yarndale and it was a really wonderful time.
Early in the month I took my first solo trip since SJ was born! I spent two nights in Berlin to attend an event from work. It was so great to be back there and have a chance to say farewell to my collegues.
My oldest nephew started school! It was weirdly emotional for me. I blame some of that on pregnancy but I was also just really struck by the privilege of getting to witness all these big milestone moments. He might remember his first school day for the rest of his life. And I was invited to be there as well! How amazing.
My best friend Holly came out for a week and it was so good to be with her as always. SJ completely adores her. It’s so nice seeing her become friends with my friends.
Edd and I went on a date that included minigolf, so naturally, it was the best. Also, here are a few more happy moments from September.

October

SJs nursery hosted an autumn celebration and it was actually such a nice way to appreciate the beginning of a new season. We sang songs about hedgehogs and wind, ate soup and carved pumpkins.
The beginning of October felt a bit hectic. After returning from our trip to England, we only had a few days at home before we boarded another plane and flew to Portugal!
However, we then had the actual best week. It was such a great holiday. The weather was perfect, we stayed in a super lovley house (with a pool!) and I really enjoyed having some quality time with Edd’s family and getting to know them more. SJ absolutely adores Edd’s sisters and it was so nice seeing her so well looked after and enjoying her time.
From Portugal we flew to England and spend a few days seeing some more family and friends in the South.
I then enjoyed it very much to return to our regular life of work, going to playgrounds and everyday life at home. We also got into a new routine with Edd’s time away, rather than two weeks away and two weeks here we moved to a weekly rhythm, which worked much better for all of us. It felt really good to finally be a in a good groove with Edd’s work patterns.

November

Nothing too exciting happened in November. I sadly started to experience a lot more discomfort and pain from the pregnancy and the doctor decided to sign me off from work. It definitely was the right decision but not so easy for me at the time.
To cheer myself up, I started a little creative challenge: 50 days of WIPs (Works In Progress) – basically I wanted to daily do something creative with a focus on finishing projects that I had previously begun but not completed.
As a family wen went to a couple of different churches. It was nice to finally make some steps of intentionally connecting with other Christians in the area.

December

December was actually quite magical. The fact that we were about to add another family member somehow suddenly really sunk in and I got rather excited. Also – all the Christmas things! I shared a few things that made our time extra special in this post.
Sitting in our living room next to our beautiful Christmas tree became one of my favourite things. Christmas lights make the dark season so much more bearable.
We had a bit of snow early on in the month and everything looked beautiful! My parents and I took SJ sledging. She wasn’t sure about it at all but by the end she was happy to be pulled on the sledge.
I gave our family an early Christmas present: a Waffle maker! I love waffles and felt like a proper German mum making sourdough waffles with organic spelt flour. Haha.
We had the best time celebrating Christmas. On Christmas eve we were with my family and the enjoyed a lot of time just the three of us, which was so precious.
I always love the time between Christmas and New Year’s. I decided to blog during the 12 days of Christmas which made the time even more special for me.