We spent some more days in Kirchberg, so Daniel could enjoy the big family a bit longer and vice versa. He seemed to like the family breakfasts with everyone at the big table (and interrupting them with louder and louder protests when everyone was getting food but him), was so eager to chat with everybody that he wouldn't even stop "talking" while eating. And he got his first lessons in playing the xylophone, tambourine, rattle, etc. ;-)
Eventually, it was time to leave. For New Year's Eve, Manuela and Mario had invited us to celebrate with them at Bergheim (near Cologne). Even though this was less than two hours from Kirchberg and actually exactly on our way back to Aachen, getting there turned into a hellish drive. Daniel had just fallen asleep on my mother's lap right before we were going to leave, and woke up too rested to fall asleep again just on time for the drive. He stayed patient for a few minutes, but then apparently got bored, despite all the keychain lights, rattling keys, singing, playing cell phone ring tones and whatever else we could think of for distraction... Since he wasn't interested in his milk either, nothing helped, but we had to stop pretty much at every rest area along the way, take him from his seat and calm him down again, since otherwise he would go on crying more and more desperately by the minute. Eventually we did make it to Bergheim after all, stressed and exhausted, but luckily at least still in the old year... Once there, everything was very nice, Daniel was happy to see all the new faces, we even had time for a quick dinner (they had saved us some tasty raclette). Daniel fell asleep right before midnight and didn't care much when the fireworks started, and so we could continue enjoying the evening just among grown-ups. After a very short night (as usual), we had a nice breakfast with everyone there and went on to play video games for a while, until we had to run to get on the road right on time while Daniel was taking a nap...
This time we were luckier, making it back to Aachen without any further trouble while he was peacefully asleep. Finally back at home, we could use the last few vacation days to rest and recover from all the traveling and meeting people. And to try out our new toys...
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