Once again a new year has begun and I am really looking forward to it. This is not only because we are expecting in May a little sibling for Nathan but because the past two years were kind of – meh. For one there was the incredible terrible year of 2015 in which I got ill and then 2016 when recovery started.
Though things got better last year it was a really strange year as well. Not that anything bad happened during that year to us, in fact things were going rather smooth in total especially with our business. I’d say all the negative news during that year were putting everything and everyone a bit down. At points my wife was just too scared to fly as she expected terrorist attacks at the airport and we did not visit the local Christmas Market due to the attack in Berlin in early December. Perhaps also having MIL for three months with us put a dark stain on the year but then again it would have not worked without her here at all with us being busy with our busy business and Nathan not having any spot at the Kindergarten (on the waiting list now for nearly three years…).
Not all was bad about 2016 especially as we were able to do some travelling. I think it was actually the year we travelled the most ever. First we had a lovely trip to Cologne in the end of March together with my parents and shortly thereafter we went together with my father to China for nearly three weeks. There we had also the memorable crazy city tour, an experience I shall never forget and of course the weird countryside experience for the rich. During the summer months we drove to Dresden together with MIL to visit some of my old friends and experience that lovely city with its surroundings. Just one week later we flew to Finland to visit my parent’s cottage and then stayed with some of my wife’s Chinese friends in Helsinki for a few days. I’d say that is pretty impressive when it comes to travelling for such lazy people as us and especially as there was still one more trip in autumn to Prague!
In retrospect it appears that 2016 was actually rather good! It always depends on the perspective in the end. Though 2016 was after all pretty good I do hope for a better 2017 with less madness in this world. With this first post in the new year I also want to start blogging more regularly again, somehow I had always some excuses in the past half-year to skip one or two posts a month. My plan for now is to stick with the basic Sunday posts and hopefully being able to throw here and there some mid-week posts again about food, hobbies or actually some videos I am supposed to have uploaded already a year ago on my channel.
How was your year 2016 and what do you have planned for this year?
Be sure to follow me also on Facebook and on Twitter as I will post there occasionally pictures which do not find their way into my blog posts. Furthermore I also have a YouTube Channel in which some videos might pop up from time to time
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Crazy Chinese Family 
Yeah, the year was filled with some horrific news, but it sounds as though you guys had a great year personally. Congrats, and I hope Nathan gets into kindergarten soon!
Just wish the world would get less crazy…
Anyhow the year was personally pretty good and for now we just concentrate on all the family stuff and of course how we will manage the business once their is some little baby to take care of
Oh I can understand your wife’s sentiments about the world feeling like such an unsafe place.. Yup it looks like you had a good year! I am actually heading over to reread your Prague post, because I just got back from there, ha ha. Hope you and your family have an even better 2017! 🙂
I hope you enjoyed the Prague trip again. I do hope to visit it in the next years again as it was a really wonderful experience.
I’d say your year was also pretty good at least from the traveling perspective 🙂
Great 2016 reflection! I am sure better days are coming on your way with the coming of your second Little One. Little sleep days but I am sure your world will be filled with more joy!
Sounds like your year went rather smooth and all those glitches fall into places to make it a memorable year for your family.Congratulations on your business & more power!
2016 was a year of changes for me as well & the year I started Blogging.Looking forward to do better posts this year.My priorities this year is to learn German fluently , and my daughter get a place in Kita as well! (Cross-fingers!I didn’t expect that it’s hard like this here!) and of course, to travel more!
I do hope to have some better blog content again this year as in 2016 it really declined!
It is sooo hard to find a Kita spot here for some reason for us. All other people got immediately a spot and we are waiting for three years….
Good to hear things are on the better track for you. Traveling must have been a great treat and distraction from the illness and recovery.
2016 was not the most delightful for me. Could have been better on so many levels like work and health but it is these hard times we learn the most. Had to put writing my book on the back burner too, but managed to do another writing project that was fun 😊
I thought things were getting better health wise towards the end of the year?
Too bad about your book but then again at least you had some other project which you enjoyed 🙂
Health and work-wise things went very good at the end of the year. Other parts of the life still need work in progress. But definitely much better than the middle of the year when every day felt like a train wreck.
At the rate I am writing my book, your little novel tuck away there will probably be published first 🙂
Nah I doubt that my book might ever see the world as I really have done nothing at all in years and have too many other projects to work on non-stop. Interesting though is that mentally everything is much better now for me with much more stress with our business than when I got sick and was still employed in a company….guess it is also because I can see results immediately when I work now and that my decisions actually do make a difference.
Anyhow I wish you all the best that things will work out for you in every aspect 🙂 (does that sentence actually make sense? Kind of brain dead after doing taxation stuff nearly the whole night)
Lol. Every time I try to write something for my book, I think, nah, not good enough and I don’t like it, and then distract myself with photography. Maybe my book won’t even see daylight, lol 🙂
Health really is the most important thing and so glad that you are well. Much more important than tax stuff 😛 Given my luck, I don’t think all things will work out for me but that is just life lol.
For me it is the same with the book. All my ideas seem to be not good enough and now I don’t even think about it anymore 😛
You just got to try. Sure not everything will work out 100% but things might turn out completely different than imagined which are just as good or even better. And now I need to get some rest before tackling taxation again…
I was glad to see the end of 2016 for personal reasons and am hoping for much happiness in 2017 not only for me but for us all. Much happiness and good health to you and your family in 2017.
Thank you so much. We also had some terrible things happening in our family last year but well I am happy that things were going well health wise for us and our close family 🙂
You’ve been on the wait list for 3 years?!?! Is that normal now?! 😱😱😱
That has been normal for over a decade already 😀
I know some people who got a spot immediately and then others who didn’t get a spot within four years/ only a year before the kid went to elementary school 😛
Omg that’s horrible. But if you’re 3 don’t you have a right to visit a KG?! When will he be able to?!
Well you have to right to visit but that still doesn’t fix the problem that there are not enough kindergartens around
;( what is your plan in this case?
In worst case we would need to get a nanny which would be for free now (if the system still works like that). That might sound great however from friends here in this town I did not hear good things about the available nannies 😦
That sucks 😦 they really don’t make it easy for families
Best of luck to you all in 2017 😀
Thank you so much, also all the best for you 🙂
Happy New Year 2017.
Thank you and I hope you will also have a great 2017
CONGRATULATIONS, your blog has been nominated for NEPALIAUSTRALIAN’s Blog Award 2016. Please click the link for more details.
https://nepaliaustralian.com/2017/01/10/nepaliaustralians-blog-award-2016-nominations-announced/
Oh wow thank you 🙂
It was already a wonderful surprise last year and this year I will make sure to post this also on my blog (probably tomorrow in case everything goes smooth + cast my votes )
I should have done a 2016 recap too as in my mind it was just a not too exciting year. But if I start thinking about it then some exciting things did happen, like we got our marriage certificate and we went to Japan and Amsterdam!
Hope 2017 will be great for you!
I kind of postponed this article already for nearly two weeks till I wrote it. I just got too lazy and only realized how good the year was until I reflected on it 🙂
Wow! You have a very impressive list of trips for 2016.
Every year I write a Christmas letter with photos which I tuck into my Christmas cards. I’m always a little reluctant to write the letter because I don’t know if I have anything to write. But once I get started, I find the year was more eventful than I thought, and my letters usually turn out better than I expected. I think it’s a good practice to look back on the year.
Best wishes to you and your family for 2017.
It was a really good year for us. Now this year we will only focus on the new child and somehow managing the business.
I also should start writing letters for Christmas. In my family only my mother is still doing it and she also receives countless of Christmas Postcards and letters from her old friends
Fewer and fewer people on my Christmas card list are continuing with the practice. It takes a lot of time, and it’s a big expense. But I still enjoy receiving a card in the mail with all the bills and ads.
Indeed sending mails is getting expensive when having many people to write to. Here in Germany the price for postcard stamps is increasing every few years by 5 to 10 cents since 2004!
It’s impressive you have energy, time to blog. All that 2016 travel is worthwhile..having children makes it much more complicated. So hooray for you all.
Thank you, in the end my blogging time was very limited. According to the statistics I had over 1/3 less articles in 2016 compared to 2015!
Anyways this year we won’t do any travelling so I should have more time again for this blog. Let’s see how it will develope