Happy first Advent everyone! November is now over and the last month of 2024 has begun. So it’s time to take another brief look back at the past month.

But first, a brief remembrance of my father, who would have turned 59 today. 🕯️

So what happened last month?

After we came back from vacation, we went straight to Braunschweig the next day. There, we celebrated my fiancée’s birthday with her family once again, as well as her passing her state examination. 🥳

And while we were there, we also took another opportunity: to sell some of the furniture and other stuff from my family’s apartment, which I moved out of almost 3 years ago and into which we want to move back next year. For one thing, we don’t need all the furniture that was still there, and for another, we need to make space so that the floor in the apartment can be renewed.

Whenever we were in Kassel, we went on weekend excursions: once to the city museum, where the history of Kassel (from its origins through the world wars to the present day) is presented very impressively. And once a short hike, or rather a walk, at the Bismarck Tower, from where you have a completely different perspective than from the Hercules monument.

This weekend we were with my family in southern Germany to celebrate my mother’s birthday and to visit her again, as I hadn’t been there for a while.

So much for my private life.

November was also very eventful in political terms: Donald Trump was re-elected in the USA and the “traffic light” government in Germany collapsed. And as a result – assuming the next government doesn’t break up prematurely again – there will now be an election campaign at Christmas every four years.

I alternate between despair and optimism: the FDP’s democracy-destroying blockade behavior is finally at an end, but will things get better with a CDU government? And what about the USA: will Trump completely drive democracy against the wall there or will it perhaps not be so bad after all?

Regardless of what lies ahead for us politically and personally, I hope for a December full of beautiful moments and a year-end that gives us strength for new things. ✨