Due to some amount of confusion over which German ‘the German’ is, and in recognition of the lengths to which my new husband has gone to change his name (researched opening a new Facebook account, Googled Rosenbaum+family+crest before remembering we’re not Scottish, notified both his company’s HR department and his parents,) ‘the German’ will henceforth be known as Herr Rosenbaum, or Herr R for short. Please feel free to try to say Herr R out loud.

The wee one’s name has not yet been established, but its hearing is apparently working already, so it will continue to be known as Smidgen (rather than ‘the leech’ or ‘little pukemaker’) while Herr R and I continue to decide between Hans and Franz or Anna and… Anna.

I’ll be making a cake this weekend in celebration of the new Herr R, a sour cream cake with lemon filling and cream cheese icing. It is the same cake that we had at my first wedding. This is a nod to the way our past informs our future, a measure of the fondness that I have for those present at that wedding, and a damned good excuse to eat a really delicious cake.
I haven’t been lonesome here in Hamburg, and it was our choice that the only guest present at Friday’s wedding was our interpreter, so don’t feel too sorry for me when I say that I wish my sister was here to make the cake with me. I love you, Nanner.
Funny that I’m OK with getting married by myself, but when it comes to the cooking part of the celebration I want my people around.