Come One, Come All to the Circus of Carnaval!

Vibrant colors, extravagant costumes, marching bands and endless parades and pagentry are common not only in a circus, but also during Carnaval. For this reason, we decided to make this year's Carnaval circus-themed, when thinking about our costumes. It's hard to believe that this is our 6th season of Carnaval/Fasching, and yet we still do not fully understand all the inside jokes, traditions and nuances surrounding this wacky festival. For many Limburgers, it is the most important and special time of year as months of work go into the costumes, parades and party-planning revolving around this holiday leading up to Ash Wednesday. 

Marching Band in the Sittard Markt

We began Carnaval weekend by attending a village parade in Germany with friends Friday night. We had a spectacular time watching the mostly teenage-run floats, pulled by tractors, roll through the village, each with a different theme. Some of our friends took part in the circus-themed extravaganza and came dressed as various animals (lions, elephants, tigers), which allowed my costume to be more authentic as I was a lion tamer/ring mistress. 

A Whip-less Lion Tamer

Jon had aspirations to be a circus stuntman and saw this as an excuse to finally buy an Evel Knievel costume. He enjoyed performing "stunts" throughout the weekend. 

Jon, I mean Evel, and his co-worker, Arnie

On Sunday, we gathered a large group of friends together to take part in Sittard's Grote Optocht (large parade). We had so much fun with our group last year, and we wanted to re-create this day with even more people. 

Jeff as the Ring Master - quite a job with this circus crew!

Group of Circus Ladies 

In addition to friends, we also had Neil, Emily, Sybil, Shannon and Cassie come up from Ramstein for the weekend to experience Carnaval. They managed to pull costumes together in a day and looked fantastic as an organ-grinder, dancing monkey, fortune-teller, lion and tiger. We feel so blessed to have them close by and to be able to share these special and unique experiences with over the next year.

The Clough Family Circus

The Lion Tamer with Shannon and Cassie

This was an especially unique Carnaval for Jon as he was asked by our neighbors to be in the parade with their group. They urgently needed an additional person at the last minute, as someone in their group got sick. He was so honored to be asked to be a part of this highly selective event and jumped at the opportunity. Although we weren't able to hang out with him during the parade-viewing, his missed presence was worth it when we finally saw him in the parade line-up, leading his group with the enthusiasm only Jon can muster. 

Jon and the 'Marotte Sirk' group, with three monkeys

Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks Jon's smile is fantastically contagious, because he was one of 12 photos featured on the online newspaper the next day. 

Photo featured in the online Limburgs Dagblad

 During the three hours of parade-viewing, we saw sunny weather turn cloudy, start snowing, turn to rain and eventually stop and get cloudy again. It was the most bizarre afternoon, but it separated the hard core Carnaval-goers from the fair-weather Carnaval-goers.

  

 Not long after Jon's group passed by, we moved our party posse from our street-viewing location to the market square where the parade ended. Eventually, we met up with Jon and visited our favorite (and packed) local bar before calling it a day and heading back to the house. Here, the party continued on with burgers, snacks and dancing before the circus finally disbanded.

On Monday, we woke to gorgeous sunny skies and spent most of the day outside with the girls. That afternoon we threw on silly hats to view our neighborhood parade that goes right in front of our house. It's not much of a parade, consisting of only about 10 cars/floats, but there was a band and candy, so the girls seemed happy. 

It was yet another, fantastic Carnaval season and it's hard to believe that next year will be our last. I'm not sure how we'll top the Carnaval Circus, but I have no doubt we'll try!

Svenskt Bröllop Part II: Richard Getting Married

Within five months, Jon and I have been fortunate enough to attend not one, but two weddings in Sweden of dear friends I met while working at Baylor. Since 2005, we have had several reunions throughout Europe and we were so honored to be invited to Maria's wedding in September and Richard's wedding in January. What are the chances that these two friends from the same semester at Baylor would be getting married within one year?! The weekend after I returned from my month-long visit to Texas, we trekked to the winter wonderland of Sweden in January. Though I had visited several times before in summer and fall, this was my first winter visit. A beautiful snow-white ground cover, frozen lakes with ice skaters, and beautiful traditional wooden houses in the white haze of snowfall presented an idyllic picture of Sweden in winter. 

Outside the church where the wedding took place

Our first night was spent in Stockholm with the newly married Maria and Jaokob. We had a fantastic evening out on the town complete with a delicious dinner, karaoke and bar-hopping. Stockholm is truly a remarkable city and I'm so fortunate we are able to experience it with a local perspective. The following day, we trekked to the suburbs of the city to stay at Maria's dad's house, near the wedding location. After dropping our bags, we made our way to a beautiful country church built in the 1200s. Richard and Sofie's wedding only had 40 guests, and we were so very honored to be included in their guest list.

The wedding church

The newly-wedded couple, Richard and Sofie

It was such a beautiful setting for a wedding and after the short ceremony, we made our way to the reception where we enjoyed a champagne reception, fantastic dinner, coffee and dessert and later dancing. The Swedes sure know how to do it up right! One aspect of the Swedish wedding tradition I absolutely adore is the dinner program at each person's seat, which provides commentary about each guest. As you can imagine, it takes a great deal of time to write a short paragraph about each guest, but the effort is worth it when the guests can learn a little bit more about each other and it is a great conversation starter. Another wonderful tradition is that couples do not sit next to one another, in order to encourage conversation with other dinner guests. We had so much fun meeting all the other Swedes there and once again, being the only Americans (or foreigners for that matter). These are experiences we will definitely never forget!

Jon, Richard and Jakob

The Texas Crew: Jakob, Maria, Richard and the Cloughs

Just like Maria and Jakob's wedding, Richard also included a Texas element as an homage to his time there. He had arranged to import Lone Star Beer and had several Texas references in his dinner program. Our wedding gifts to Richard were Texas-themed and even included a Texas passport so he could re-enter the Lone Star State more easily. 

A Texas Cheers

The next morning, Maria's dad and stepmom took us out to a lovely Sunday brunch at a neighborhood restaurant along the archipelago. Pictures cannot capture the beauty of the muddled sun in its last effort to produce rays before the snowfall started. The brunch was absolutely superb, but the company was the highlight of the day. Maria's family is so incredibly kind and I was so glad for the opportunity to spend more time with them and get to know them better. Maria and I have always had a special bond and just as it was so meaningful for her to spend time with my family in Texas, I was so happy to be able to spend time with hers. 

A Sunday brunch view

The Lilliestierna Crew

Post-brunch walk home in the snow

On our way to the airport that afternoon, we managed to do some sight-seeing at royal grounds where we saw the palace for foreign visitors and a beautiful church. It was a perfect Sunday afternoon with children sledding down hillsides, people walking and skiing through the countryside, and me spending time with my Swedish "family." I feel so blessed to have these incredible friendships with both Maria and Richard. What I thought would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, has somehow happened twice and I am elated to have witnessed the union of not only one Swedish couple, but two. Until my next visit.......

The Alamo Bowl and New Year's

After a relaxing Christmas at the ranch, we headed to San Antonio where the Baylor Bears would be playing in the Alamo Bowl. My parents surprised the entire family with tickets to the game and two nights on the River Walk. Though I am not a huge football fanatic, the excitement surrounding Baylor's incredible 2011 football season after many so-so years, would make any Baylor fan incredibly enthusiastic about the opportunity to see them in a bowl game. The 2011 Baylor football season was a monumental year, finishing second best in the Big 12 and 13th in the final AP standings, which is the program's highest finish since 1986, and produced its first Heisman Trophy winner, RG3, or Robert Griffin, III.

Posing in front of the LCD image in our hotel lobby

We arrived in San Antonio the day before the game and enjoyed staying in the historic Gunther Hotel, which was decked out in Baylor colors. It seemed the entire Baylor Nation was on the River Walk, because it was flooded in green and gold. We enjoyed shopping, eating and enjoying the beautiful and festive Christmas lights along the river.

Enjoying the most amazing margaritas (with an upside down bottle of beer) at a River Walk bar

We also managed to fit in a bit of tourism and saw the Alamo film, "The Price of Freedom," at the IMAX, that my great uncle and cousin star in. It's not the best film version of the Alamo, but it was interesting to see my family in the film and as a Texan, it's a way to fulfill our duty to "Remember the Alamo."

In front of the huge Christmas tree in Alamo Square

The Alamo

The Alamo Bowl stadium was packed with over 65,000 people and it was fun to run into Baylor friends, including Drew and Spring, who were sitting a mere 3 rows in front of us. 

Sic'em Bears, with college buds, Drew and Spring

The Catlin Gang at the game (4 out of 6 are Baylor alums)

The game was incredibly exciting, and especially the outcome where Baylor won the game with a 67-56 final score against Washington. It was an amazing two days in San Antonio with my family and I will always cherish these memories and will forever Remember the Alamo Bowl!

From San Antonio, Jon and I headed to Austin with Laurel and Jason for two nights before New Year's. Jon had a list a mile long of things he wanted to do and places he wanted to go in Austin (Juan-in-a-Million, Waterloo Records, Run-Tex, 6th Street). Somehow we managed to fit it all in and made our way all over the city in record time. In order to avoid the chaos of downtown on New Year's Eve, we had our night out on the 30th. After discovering a couple new bars on far West 6th Street, we spent most of our time on East 6th Street, re-familiarizing ourselves with our old haunts. We had a great time bar-hopping, listening to live music, and enjoying all that downtown Austin has to offer. 

On New Year's Eve, we enjoyed a lovely couples dinner at a restaurant near their house and spent the rest of the night shooting off fireworks in their street with the neighbors. It was the perfect low key yet always fun New Year's Eve. There's no two people we'd rather ring in the new year with!

Early on New Year's Day, Jon and I caught a flight from Austin to Norfolk, Virginia, where we spent the next few days visiting his family in North Carolina. Though it was a short trip, we managed to visit with a lot of his family, to include his grandparents, parents, brother, sister-in-law and nephew, and many aunts and uncles. Jon is so blessed to come from a large family who mostly live around Northeastern North Carolina, which makes visiting many family members much easier. 

A beautiful North Carolina sunset over the sound in Columbia

With Jon's grandparents, Grandaddy and Grandmamma Hobbs

After many delicious meals on the farm, quality time catching up with family, a post-Christmas celebration, and shopping in the Outer Banks, Jon and I were headed back to the airport, each flying our separate ways. Jon returned to Germany and I went back to Texas for another 10 days. It was hard to believe that the Christmas and New Year's holidays were over, but we managed to make the most of our 17 days together in the States. We are so grateful we were able to see both our amazing families during this unforgettable trip home. We love and thank you for making our time with you all so meaningful!

Home for the Holidays

Yes, there's no place like home for the holidays. Jon and I were long overdue for a holiday season in the States and we managed to spend Christmas in Texas and New Year's in North Carolina. It was heavenly. After spending a few days in Dallas, Waco and Bryan, we headed south to Bandera for a country Christmas at the ranch. This is where I spent most all my Christmases growing up, and Christmas anywhere else doesn't feel quite the same. 

Ranch House

Ranch House, under the 'Texas Historic sign' stating the house was built in 1855.

We've always had strong traditions surrounding Christmas, and this year was no different. On Christmas Eve, we shared a dinner of tamales and chili before searching for Santa's sleigh in the sky (only to just miss him in our house delivering presents) and afterward we sing carols and read the story of Jesus' birth. Lastly, we open presents. 

Enjoying a glass of Riesling with Aunt Nean, Mom, Laurel and Mandy

This year, we had a guest appearance from Santa Jason, thinking Braxton would enjoy it. But alas, not so much. Poor Braxton was terrified of the man in the big red suit (aka, his dad) and couldn't even look at him. It did, however, definitely provide entertainment for the rest of the adults. 

Santa Jason, Laurel and a terrified Braxton

Santa Jason and an oh-so-happy Jon

Fireplace mantle

On Christmas morning, we woke to our stockings filled with goodies. After a lazy morning, we had a wonderful Christmas lunch in the dining room with turkey and all the fixin's. It was an absolutely perfect Christmas celebration surrounded by family in a beautiful setting. 

Opening stockings on Christmas morning

Christmas lunch

Braxton on Christmas Day

The Catlin-Hicks Family (with Aunt Nean and Uncle Dickie)

We stayed at the ranch the following two days after Christmas enjoying quality time with one another and all the animals and beautiful weather at the ranch. There was lots of sunshine and the highs were in the upper 60s. I loved not having to wear a huge coat every time I left the house. One of the "chores" we had to look forward to each day, usually twice a day, was to feed the donkeys bread. They go crazy over bread and my dad came up with an interesting way of feeding them to see how close they would get. So, we all decided to give the donkeys and Amigo, the horse, who also loves bread, bread kisses. 

Dad giving the donkeys "bread kisses"

Jon giving Amigo a "bread kiss" with Rambo looking on

Me and Rambo, the favorite miniature donkey

In order to utilize the huge barbecue pit behind the ranch house, Jon and Jason decided to have a barbecue cook-off with a pig Jason's boss provided him. Jason cooked it in the Texas-style, and Jon in the North Carolina-style, with a vinegar rub. Both finished products were absolutely delicious! 

Barbecue cook-off on the Barbecue pit

Dad and Braxton walking down to the pit with the guys

 On our last few days at the ranch, the weather was so perfect we wanted to spend as much time outside as possible. Laurel, Mandy and I had decided to take a walk along the creek and were met up by my dad on a four-wheeler. We decided to all pile on (along with Laurel's dog) and enjoyed the rest of the tour on four wheels.

Four adults and one dog on a Four-Wheeler

Ranch Vista

The beauty of the ranch, even in December, is so captivating and although I try to capture it in pictures, it simply doesn't do justice. I love this place like none other and have so many special memories spending time here with my grandparents as a child, summer family reunions, Christmases and other holidays and most recently, the place where both my sister and I were married.

On our last night at the ranch, we enjoyed a bonfire in the fire pit making smores and looking at the stars in the clear Texas sky. It was the perfect ending to another perfect Christmas at the ranch.