Blueberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake + Family Reunion.

When i was posting this post, the smell of fresh blueberry cream cheese cake engulfed the air that i breathed. It was so distracting.

So anyway, i've been itching to bake the cake from Joy of Baking that my sister had made when we went to go visit her in Wiesbaden. Get the recipe here. I reduced the sugar by 20 grams for the cream cheese as well as the base. And used a "lower" fat content cream cheese - basically the cheapest i could find.

I've never baked a cheese cake before, even though i LOVE eating cheese cakes.

TOTALLY YUMMEH!

This is officially one of my favorites that i've baked so far. The combination was to die for. That said, J has restricted me to have only one slice per day.

If, i had it my own way i'd eat it the whole thing in one go.

Oh and in case you're wondering, the cake is not Vegan but i'm sure one could use substitutes like margarine, egg replacer and soy milk - i'd be interested to find out how it tastes though should anyone feel up to the challenge.

I apologise if the rest of this post is long but trying to cram an overview of my holiday into a short paragraph is hard hence the reason it took me so long to get around to writing this post.

It simply takes time.

***

So here we go, my parents flew in from the other side of the world to meet their very first grand daughter. As well as to catch up with both my sister and i, whom they hadn't seen in years. A Get-together that was planned over a year ago and then later postponed in December.


J and i stayed at a very cosy service apartment and my parents stayed in another service apartment a little closer to where my sister and her boyfriend stays. Our place didn't really look like the typical service apartment, it looked like we were just staying in somebody's home. Well technically we were, except the Owners' had their own floor and the ground floor was another service apartment. Tucked away behind a busy main street, the location was fantastic with even a massive supermarket only metres away.


Our time there pretty much involved eating really yummy food. First it was Turkish food, then dining at an Italian restaurant that boasts that they had the best pizza in Germany. I've had my fair share of pizzas during my years, i would say it was really good but i'm not sure if i'd go so far as saying it was the "Best".

Wiesbaden is one of the richest cities in Germany. Many of the buildings date back to the late 1800s since the city was not bombed during the war. Some of the façades are gorgeous but of course, i didn't manage to take any photos of them - sorry.


But we did see this building covered with graffiti which holds a few bars. And just across the road was an indoor skateboard park, a place where teens could hang out and do what kids do.

Here's one of the trio; Mama Boo, Papa CG and Mimi.

I last saw my niece when she was just 10 days old, so seeing her at 7 months babbling away and on the verge of crawling was amazing. So cute and such a happy baby! She makes this "ooooOoooooo" sound that is absolutely adorable. She also loves looking at pictures of herself... ehehe.

A very well behaved baby that doesn't mind too much if others' carry her. The only time there was much of a commotion was when she threw up... on me, when we were out for lunch at that Italian restaurant.

Mmm... baby spew. o.O

Here's Mimi pulling on Auntie Chrissies' hair... again.


My mom brought some of my sisters' old toys and books with her when she was a baby. Apparently, all my baby books are torn up because i had some serious anger issues *cough*.

But when it's my turn to have a kid, my mom said, she'll bring me some of my toys that i haven't destroyed.

Anyway, when we weren't ogling over the baby and mimicking her oo's and aa's, we decided to occupy some of our evenings with Yatzy and good quality Chinese tea. One way of telling if the leaves are superior, is if the leaves stand up right in ones' glass.

Cool, eh?

Yahtzee: A 5-dice game that somehow my mother always seems to win.

YAHTZZZEEEEE!

My parents took the train to Paris - a short getaway within a holiday and this was us before the train was about to depart.

I'm not sure when the next time the WHOLE family will be at the same place at the same time. But despite the minor hiccups along the way, overall it was so good to see everyone again.

I was also relieved to see my parents, especially my mother accept J. There was a time when things weren't so rosy between them but as always, Time has helped change perceptions.

Can you believe out of the 1000+ pictures i took, i didn't even get one group photo!?

I'm such a Dumbo! Oh well.

So when J wasn't the chauffeur and i wasn't entertaining the folks/baby, we had evenings that we went back early. But instead of spending time together, J spent the whole evening and early morning playing his computer games.

BoooOOoo!

He later made it up to me by spending the afternoon with me at the Thermal Baths which so happened to be surrounded by wrinkly old people. Then later taking me to a Japanese all-you-can-eat buffet for dinner where i ate a ridiculous amount of sushi.

I mean it's not like i have any issues with him playing his computer games but when he's playing Warcraft every day, after work AND on the weekends, i get a bit annoyed. And now that's he's been invited to join some clan, he's even more into it when he's got his headphones and mic.

It's like the world around him at home ceases to exist.

So after i grumbled one too many times, he came up with a solution and that was to have one day of the week, where he can play his game all night/morning with no interruption a.k.a me.

So we'll see.

Tomorrow is Friday and according to J, it's his game night.