This is my mother-in-law, not my valentine. My valentine is sitting next to her mom out of the photo. This will be the last photo this year of Jutta, because, after 67 days of vacation with us, she is heading back to Frankfurt this Friday. During her stay with us, my mother-in-law walked in the Pacific surf on a blue sky, warm Christmas day in Santa Barbara, on New Years’ morning she watched 35,000 geese simultaneously launch into the sky to go feed. January 12th, she celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary in San Francisco and then a week later we hiked the snowy rim of the Grand Canyon. Then it was off to Los Angeles and Santa Barbara again before taking in a weekend in Death Valley. In between, Jutta helped me make homemade mozzarella, pickles, granola, and quite a few home-cooked meals. She missed most of the dreadful gray Frankfurt winter but had her fair share of cold weather in New Mexico and even here in Phoenix which came as a surprise to her. After so many days with the old lady, it is time for her to go, but we will still miss her when she finally does return home.