The Night Before Christmas is really "Christmas" here. Folks gather around the tree and the presents are opened. If there are little kids, there's often a hired "Santa" or a family member who plays Santa and literally brings the gifts to the kid in a big bag and grills the kid on his/her good/bad during the year. Santa can be a bit frightful!
It's less frightful for us.
We love our little fairy lights over our terrace and looking at the lights of our neighbors.
And we had a tree this year, though we opted for fewer ornaments. Still full enough! I always need a shell or two and the little puzzle cat climbing the tree.
Christmas eve this year was at our friends' across the street for their traditional fondue. That was fun and tasty though I have to admit I still prefer fondue with oil instead of broth. But it's not the food....
Christmas day we slept in and had a yummy breakfast of French toast, bacon, melon, and assorted toppings. Werner's choice. Ah.
We opened our two presents, one of which will have to be returned. Geeze. We needed a new teapot since our old one was cracked in a couple of places, but the new one pours like a leaky fountain or some such. Not possible to keep.
Then it was time for a walk. A quick search found us a place we didn't know - the Ozeanbrücke (or Ocean Bridge) just south of Bremen. Well, that was intriguing so we decided we had to go, and we did! And we took a few wrong turns getting there. (You are allowed an eye roll.) But we made it to the starting point and headed out. Frankly I was concerned - the paths were not marked, and our sense of direction is not always spot on, but we wandered through the woods.
First, there were carved tree stumps.
Finally, the bridge:
And why is it The Ocean Bridge? Because it's long? No, because after you cross the "ocean," you reach "Amerika." Yes, that's the name of the village on the other side of the bridge. Don't tell me Germans don't have a sense of humor.
Wander, wander, wander. We crossed the small river and encountered lots of others taking the air on Christmas day. It was all so friendly with lots of greetings between strangers. And yes, that river looks like flowing mud. Blue it is never.
At home again, we talked with most of the US family. Missed Hannah! Missed Crissy! But we will see you all soon.
Dinner: a filet of beef and yummy sides. Naturally, we could not finish it all. Since then we've had beef with mushrooms over Spätzle and cold beef sandwiches. Not a bad deal.
The 26th is a federal holiday here and since visiting family is paramount, it helps to be able to split the visits on two days. That's not a problem for us, but for lots of folks, it's quite handy to have two days to take care of all that family. So, to Ohlendorf and René, Rima and Amina. And SURPRISE! Monika showed up from Curaçao. It was a spontaneous
decision on her part, though she "blamed" me. After seeing the blog from our visit to the Baums on
First Advent, it made her feel so homesick she just had to come. OK, I'll
accept the blame. Everyone was happy to have her there!
The "second Christmas day" menu at the Baums is pretty fixed - goose, red cabbage, Brussels sprouts, potatoes, apple compote. It seemed particularly delicious to me this year.
There are presents, of course, and conversation.
So, three days of Christmas. It'll be pretty low key from now to New Year's Eve, thanks to the calendar. We'll do visits with some friends who can't get out easily, catch up with friends in the US, and enjoy sleeping in.
Wishing you all the same - and a gentle slide into 2019.
P.S. We took the tea pot back and the shop keeper was totally distressed that the pot didn't pour well and we could see the spout was all cattywumpus. We exchanged it for another and the new one works just great!
No comments:
Post a Comment