Advent, Advent

It is here, again -- Advent and all the events leading to Christmas.

And it is all about traditions.  The Advent wreath.  The candles.  And of course, the annual first Advent family dinner at René and Rima's.  It begins with breakfast at home with the Advent wreath and of course seasonal egg warmers!

Sadly, Mutti had to opt out this year.  She's been feeling poorly of late, so the gathering was smaller than in some years.

But it's tradition, so we do it!  We started with soup: a wonderful base with duck, noodles, vegetables and custard royale as reported last year.

Naturally, Amina takes lessons from her mom and dad and wants to help with the cooking.  Of course.

The main event was roasted goose, actually two of them!! A goose, though it looks big, doesn't really have all that much meat on it.  For all of us adults anticipating this meal, two was the minimum!  Mashed potatoes, the apple filling, brussels sprouts, and red cabbage were wonderful sides.  I especially like the Brussels sprouts with browned butter.  I have to remember that - and browned butter for my favorite - green beans - as well.

  
Oh my.  It was good!  The "filet" is the crispy skin of the roasted goose and there were a few minor confrontations about who got the crispy bits!!

 
The food is always wonderful, but it is basically about family and spending time together.  Since Mutti wasn't able to be with us this year, we took some special leftovers to her and sat with her while she enjoyed what we had enjoyed earlier.  A connection.  It's what holidays are about.

Cleaning Up

Between the foot and the sewing, but mostly the sewing, the upstairs has been in perpetual disarray for the last two months.  Actually, it's a wonder there wasn't another broken something with all the stuff to step over and around.  But now it is finally time to clean up and re-organize the space. 

And with cleaning up, I get distracted.  This time in was my old pincushion.  I have no idea how old it is but I think it might be the second one since 1966.

I know I replaced it once because I took it apart and found a trove a needles.  Naturally, I had to look again.  And there it was again - a trove of needles!  All sizes and sorts, including three sewing machine needles and two tapestry needles.  Total:  51.  Amazing.  I think in earlier times the woman of the house kept better track of her needles.

Next time, I think I'll use one of my own pin cushions.  I seem to have some left over!

The Show

Ursel and I got to show our stuff last weekend at the "Quality of Life" show at the SwissHotel in downtown Bremen.

Friday night, we set up the stand that my neighbor lent us - how great is that!  He sets up huge sets for congresses, so this was small potatoes for him but a huge help for Ursel and me.

Herr Zoellner's son was a helper, too, so obviously, set up is child's play!

Saturday morning at 9 we got busy filling the shelves and the table with all our wares.  Looking good!  Ursel and I..

and with her nieces Ilke and Christina who made all the felted bags.

Pretty necklaces,

  and lovely linens.

Yeah, well, it obviously looked a lot better to us than it did to the folks who came to the show because we didn't sell much at all - at all !!  It was the wrong venue for us; everyone else there was a professional with shops of their own and commercial goods for sale.

But it was an experience and we'll consider a different venue in the future.  Meanwhile, I have a pile of pillow covers and assorted stockings.  Thursday I'm off to a shop in the little artists' village of Fischerhude to see if the Christmas things at least could be sold there on commission.

Getting started in selling is not so easy, we've found.

Giving Thanks

Saturday was supposed to be our annual Thanksgiving dinner with friends, but - you know - it became a victim of the foot fall.  But we all thought that we should at least keep the date and so we decided on a get-together at a local restaurant.  Can I help?  No, they said, we'll take care of it.  You just come.

Fine with me.  I had/still have enough to do.

Werner had had a few whispered conversations on the phone during the past couple of weeks, so I was a bit suspicious but perfectly willing to go along.  I'm the one - you know - who has NO interest in discovering what the Christmas presents are before hand.  Let me be surprised!

Klaus and Johanna picked us up and off we went.  I had no idea where, but it took a while, all the way to Verden, 35 miles south of here. Then I knew where we would eat - Pades.  OOOOHHHH.  Pades used to have a Michelin star, but the chef decided to give it up a couple of years ago and concentrate on serving his clientele instead of making himself crazy.  But as you can imagine, he still has a great kitchen.

So here we were - the usual crew of Ursel, Klaus and Johanna, Ulli and Ilsemarie plus Ilsemarie's sister Meckie.  Can you tell they're sisters?

After a glass of Prosecco, the server asked "Are you ready?" and then she came in with - unbelievable !! - a whole roasted turkey on a platter!

I am overwhelmed!

Here's the menu that our friends sent to the chef to prepare.  You can imagine, several of these items were new to the chef - chief among them black-eyed peas!

Pumpkin-carrot soup with fresh chili and cream cheese
Roast Turkey
Cranberry Sauce
Green Beans
Mashed Potatoes
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Black-eyed Peas!!

How incredible. And how delicious.  I was not quite speechless, but I hardly knew how to say how wonderful this all was. Still don't.

But it wasn't over yet.   Since we always have dessert at our house, we had dessert at Pades, too: a little lemon meringue tart quite reminiscent of Key lime pie.  Wow.

And it was STILL not over - one more item on the menu, just for me.  Turkey to take home for a cold turkey sandwich on toast.  They thought of EVERYTHING!

Thanksgiving is always a memorable event, but this one will be right up there with the best and most memorable of them.  Thank you.

Daily Rituals

My broken and healing foot, what it can and cannot do, defines my life for now.  Get up.  Strap on the boot.  Where are the crutches?  Ok.  Slow.  Slooowly maneuver down the stairs.

It takes multiple umpty many steps to do what was once automatic and easy and most of all, a lot faster (all the time reminding myself :  It could have been worse. And many others do have it it worse.).

And honestly, now that I can hump around at home without a crutch in my Storm Rangers Boot, I have so many more options!  Carry a cup of coffee to the table!  Clean up a bit!  Sort of make the bed!

But what has not changed is -- ta da -- thrombosis prevention.  Huh?  That began as soon as they put on the first cast and continues every day.  A shot!  Not really fun.

And I need alcohol of the "rubbing" variety to swab the skin.  It is not on the shelves at the store.  You have to go to the pharmacy to get  it and tell them what you want it for and then they mix it up for you - by the tablespoonful it seems!

So every night after dinner, I go and open the little bottle of alcohol, rub my tummy and stab myself so I won't get clots.

Then I climb the stairs and unstrap the boot. And it starts all over again.

Another Birthday, come and gone

I started this blog right after my birthday in 2006 recounting our bike trip along the Weser from Porta Wesfalica to Verden.  And here it is another birthday, one we intended to spend biking as well.  Oh well.

But birthdays come regardless of broken bones or altered plans.  And it was just fine.

The day was filled with phone calls from family and friends, visits from a few folks close by and one not so close by - Amina!  That was a treat.  Her gift was a paint-by-number work of a horse.  I do think Michelle did the very same one a long time ago.  Where is it now??

And though we couldn't go out, Werner made a dinner that of course rivaled any we could get at a fine restaurant:  oxen filet (tenderly mouth watering), baked potato with home-made green sauce (wonderfully savory), salad (crisp and moist).  And wine.  A special one.

Werner splurged.  An Italian red from Tuscany.  Lovely bottle.  Pretty label.  Served with style.

Totally forgettable wine!!  How is it that our vintner can bring his own wine to our door for one quarter the price and beat this one under the table? 

Who knows? But it didn't mess up my day.