Home

Above is a picture circa 1980 of my older sister Trisha, my Grandmom and me at Christmas(take note of all the green-the doors,couch and pj's!).

"Home is where the heart is" If that is true then I have many homes. As I get ready to head "home" to the states this week it brings up odd feelings because it is also "home" here in Brussels and to be honest I am "home" in Atlanta as well. It is an odd sensation to say you are going home to a place you have not actually lived in over 10 years and yet it completely feels like home. There is something so great about my time in PA-Family! I have a lot of family all over the world-not biological but people that I would do anything for and who would do anything for me. And yet there is something to be said about people who have literally known you your whole life-all 34+years of it!:)

People that remember this cheesy grin,

Or this great late 70's look!(At least the 70's were almost over by the time I came around-and I didn't get to enjoy the full feathered hair of my sisters-I just got the crooked bangs!)

They know I am not perfect so I can just be me! They know the Marissa who used to walk out of the house with ketchup all over her and not even realize it, who did not shower regularly until probably the 8th grade, who would follow them around like a lost puppy-just wanting to be a part of whatever they were a part of, who played sports all day every day, who always wanted to go places, who acted like she didn't want to be like her big sisters but who really wanted to do everything they did, who yelled at their boyfriends for not treating them right, who was a typical youngest sister! The girl with the crooked bangs, crooked teeth and mismatched clothes.

And so this week as I look forward to going HOME I am looking forward to a lot of things but the biggest one is just BEING with my family and enjoying each other. I am looking forward to the traditions of Christmas-cooking baking while listening to Johnny Mathis, all the kids sleeping on the floor at Grammy and Poppy's on Christmas eve, having breakfast casseroles, opening amazing stockings, going into Philly and so much more!

HOME- it's nice to have a lot of places to call home but for me there's nothing like the original!

PS-the picture above is the show you that the wings have been replaced and we have grown up past the 70's!

Thanksgiving and snow

Last saturday I celebrated Thanksgiving with my friends here in Brussels. It was a lovely day of cooking in Fiona and rasmus' amazing kitchen(pretty much any kitchen with an oven qualifies as amazing for me these days! but theirs even has a dishwasher!!), listening to Christmas music on their high-tech internet radio gadget, eating way to much food, laughing til our sides hurt(as if the food hadn't made them hurt enough), and then consuming dessert!

Fiona always decorates things so great-last year was a purple, black and white theme but this year it was a much more traditional fall colored them-yeah for the orange!!!

I totally forgot to take any pictures of the main meal but here we are digging into some dessert! I can't tell you how;) but I even managed to get Zielger's apple cider(anyone from PA will know what that is!)

This is some of us trying not to go into a turkey coma whilst sitting on their amazingly large and comfy sofa! We also got some american football on the computers for a little while-I have to say the europeans were not as into that as us americans.

This week has been a week of snow- There was even a snow day on thursday-not for the Belgian schools but the international schools went for it:) My street is scary steep even on the best of days so on snowy days most people are wise enough not to attempt driving up it. That meant that there were not many cars parked on the street and the neighborhood kids have been using it as their sledding hill. It's pretty fun to watch:) and last night they were out there at 12:30 enjoying themselves-I think I may have scared them with my stalking out the window:)

Here was my terrace yesterday-so pretty with all the snow-but at some point last night it got a little warmer and must have rained away the snow. But no worries it is snowing again as I write this!