Fave five – ’tis the season (to be jolly, falalalala)

Since today is the first advent, I will be lighting my first candle of the wreath shortly and celebrating this oh so joyous season. I know many people don’t like the holidays, because they associate it with shopping stress, capitalism and what not, but I like it! I order my presents conveniently on-line, I go to the Christmas market on work days and I don’t hassle to bake stuff myself (unless I feel like it). I do very much enjoy the many goodies there are to eat and drink, the cold and the merry lights. I go nuts decorating the house while singing along to the classic carols.

But, before I go on and on about what’s so great about the St. Nicholas – advent calender – Christmas time, I’ll just go ahead and list my top 5 x-massy things:

1. Movie: It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra) / The Nightmare Before Christmas (Tim Burton, second because it’s mixed up with Halloween)
2. Book: How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (Dr. Seuss) / A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens, second because it’s been filmed too often)
3. Song: White Christmas (sung classically by someone like Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin)
4. Food: chocolate Elisen-Lebkuchen
5. Beverage: egg-nog (self-made!)

I’d like to leave you on this sunny Sunday with the words of an unknown author:

May the spirit of Christmas bring you peace,

The gladness of Christmas give you hope,

The warmth of Christmas grant you love.

Happy turkey day!

No, not the country, the bird. Because that’s what we call Thanksgiving. Now I must add to this tale the explanation of the fact that I loaded up on very hot alcohol at the very cold Christmas market yesterday, so I’m writing this with half a brain. Thus, I’ll quote wikipedia:

Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, at the end of the harvest season, is an annual American Federal holiday to express thanks for one’s material and spiritual possessions.

Most people celebrate by gathering at home with family or friends for a holiday feast. Though the holiday’s origins can be traced to harvest festivals which have been celebrated in many cultures since ancient times, the American holiday has religious undertones related to the deliverance of the English settlers by Native Americans after the brutal winter at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The period from Thanksgiving Day to New Year’s Day often is called the holiday season.

Ah yes, the American way of starting off the holiday season is stuffin’ your belleh. Mmhh. The German way is getting wasted. To each his own, I say, but this does mess up my holiday feelings. There is a certain mood that goes with each holiday and I can’t find the Thanksgiving one. Which is a crying shame, really, because turkey day dinner is my favorite meal in the whole wide world. It should include:

• A big ol’ roasted turkey, of course
• Gravy
• Stuffing – from the box, not with giblets and not inside the turkey
• Mashed potatoes
• Sweet potatoes (with tiny marshmallows)
• Cranberry sauce
• Corn on the cob
• Corn bread
• Pumpkin pie

And again, as Wiki says: “Because of the amount of food, the Thanksgiving meal is sometimes served midday or early afternoon to make time for all the eating, and preparation may begin at dawn or on days prior”. Now since my tummy isn’t stable, and I don’t have the time or the ingredients to cook, and no-one is there to eat this with me, I’ll be postponing my festive meal celebration until I get home, where my mom will hopefully (in our tradition) cook this as a Christmas dinner.

Here are some other traditions that go along with turkey day:

• It is eaten as a family dinner, which means at your parents house until you start your own family. This is an easy way to divide attention between your family and that of your partner: one gets thanksgiving, the other Christmas. Except here, everyone is too full to argue.
• While the women are usually busting their behinds in the kitchen, the men watch football. There are traditional “thanksgiving classic” games that are played on this day ever since there was the NFL.
• Everyone – women, men, children, old people – watch the (Macy’s) Thanksgiving day parade on TV live from NY. The parade features floats with scenes from Broadway plays, large balloons of cartoon characters and TV personalities, and high school marching bands.
• Thanksgiving is, like duh, a day for giving thanks. Everyone takes their turn to say what they are thankful for. It can be anything big or small and usually either puts everyone in a positive mood or gets people fighting. I would do that here, but I’m running out of brain and writing space, so I’ll just have to put that off as well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Winter Wonderland

Well folks, it’s official – winter is here. I was warning people all Thursday and Friday long… but would they listen instead of making fun of me and my wool bonnet? Nooo. Would they believe me when I said that it would drop to the minus degrees and actually snow? Nooo. But they did have a point. It hardly ever snows here, because we’re in between two rivers – ergo not high up, ergo warmer than the surrounding areas. Plus, we have a chemical factory providing us with a protective bubble of unnatural air and unusual meteorological conditions.

But it did. It snowed! It got really freaggin’ freezing and snowed! Yay! I love me some snow. Maybe because I was born in a blizzard (not a little wind and cold, not a snow storm, an real blizzard). Yes, that would be a good reason. While others love the summer and have trouble once it gets nippy, I get all the merrier. It’s a time to hustle and bustle instead of being lazy, a time to get cozy and warm and snuggle instead of keeping distances and trying not to sweat profusely. The world always seems more quiet and peaceful when there’s snow. The day is brighter when the sun reflects on it’s twinkly glitzy surface.

It’s a wintery Sunday today, which means I’m sitting inside with a nice hot cup of tea (I’d make hot chocolate with marshmallows if I had any) and some very comfy new sweat pants (which I normally only use for the gym. seriously.). It is actually so cold, that I had to turn on the thermostat, which I very rarely have to do. When I look outside I can see the Christmas market being built up, the carousel, the little wooden houses with white roofs and all the bright lights. Sure, this means there’s now room or time or mood for Thanksgiving, which is too bad, but there’s Glühwein and heiße Maroni and Lebkuchen and Stollen here instead.

Welcome, winter!