NYE 2011 - A Year To Remember!

New Years Eve, what some people might consider the most overrated holiday of the year, was anything but @ Gasthaus Hertzler!

Following a very.....very quiet Christmas, we were stoked to be celebrating the end of an AMAZING year and the beginning of another with our close friends Danny, Irina, Stephan, Tatjana, and their little girl (aka Stew's Girlfriend) Helena. It took about a week to shop for all the evenings flavors which included the 6 course eating extravaganza that threatened to consume us all - homemade tomato butter w/ baguette (Thanks Tatjana), grilled shrimp skewers in a home made buffalo sauce, chicken salad mix served in a baked wonton, Jackie's Grandma Mary's famous meatballs, grilled marinated and thinly sliced top sirloin served on a garlic crustini w/ a horseradish sauce, a HUGE rachlette feast with all the traditional fixings, and just in case we weren't already borderline comatose there was an array of amazing sweets to cap it off (Thanks Irina).

We all played some Left, Right, Center - a great dice game which requires only a 2nd grade education and is a ton of fun. But the absolute highlight of the night was the fireworks display that took place in our little valley. Unbenounced to us fireworks are an absolute staple of a good German New Year's Celebration. As the host we picked up a package or two to add to the evening. Danny and Stephan rolled in with what can only be described as an arsenal of rockets that would have made Norman Schwartzkauf proud. Every house in our valley had the same firepower which lead to the most amazing 40 minute firework display we have ever seen. The smoke cloud lingered long into the morning, along with the collateral damage of firework remnants.

It seemed only fitting to spend this New Years with the people who have helped make our first year abroad such a tremendous success.

Here is to a great 2011 and an even better 2012 @ Gasthaus Hertzler!

Check out some pics below!

https://picasaweb.google.com/100058394167996772160/NewYearsEve20112012?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ-M_u7cj57NqgE#