One year anniversary

We did it! We managed to survive one year in the US! Yeah! Or should I say 'awesome'? I still remember landing on San Francisco Airport to embark on a new adventure. A mix of excitement, nerves and to be honest, a tiny bit of fear, invaded me but as we saw the skyline of San Francisco, it was replaced by a strange, familiar feeling. 

This year has been without a doubt the most intense year of my life between installing ourselves in a new city far away from home, all the paper work, very intense work situation, more paper work, Sexy Mom finding a great job at eBay and Miss Cupcake starting daycare. 

In the end I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished as a family. When summarizing this year, I realized it really is about summarizing this blog, who had its first entry on the 16th of November, when I was up at 3 a.m. with jetlag and decided to make a blog. These are the main themes of our first year in the US. 

MUSIC

We did have the opportunity to attend two music festivals, Outside Lands and Treasure Island Music Festival, with one big difference between the two; to one we went with Miss Cupcake, and the other one we went by ourselves. Miss Cupcake is clearly a rock and roll baby star, no doubt, however we will try to get a baby sitter in the future...

SPORTS

Sports in the US is about entertainment! Get a hot dog, grab a beer, watch the half time show, try to get on the kiss cam, and yeah, if you feel like it, watch the game as well. Not mandatory though. Very happy to have covered the NBA, the NFL and the NBL. There is one abbreviation left though...

TRAVEL

Sexy Mom and I always say the same thing; it will get less intense. It never does. This year was supposed to be quiet on the travelling front, but in the end ended up being more or less as always; Los Angeles, Boston, Las Vegas, Munich, Madrid and Sweden. Part due to work, part due to visiting family and friends. I don't think it will get less intense in 2012, I have two trips left to do this year...

LIVING IN AMERICA

We did try during the year to deep dive into American culture, beyond the burgers and the Budweiser. We did our best to celebrate holidays that we have never celebrated, including Thanksgiving, 4th of July and Halloween, and it boils down to more or less the same as everywhere else; food, food and more food. 

LEAH

When a lot of stuff is going on, time flies. The perfect parameter to put things in perspective is to look at the photos of Miss Cupcake when we arrived, versus pictures from lately. Amazing, right!?! This year has marked a lot of milestones, like the fact that she took her first steps here, got her first tooth, started singing (and rapping...), started daycare and, unfortunately, got her first kiss...

Thanks to everyone for you support during this year; family, friends, neighbors, babysitters and co-workers!

We could not have done it without you!