Merry Christmas!

Fröhliche Weihnachten!!

Here are a few more random differences between Germany and the US which could have turned up a few posts ago, but they have more to do with Christmas:

1. St. Nicholas (and therefore Santa Claus) does not come on Christmas in Germany as he does in the US. On Christmas comes the Weihnachts Mann. St. Nick only appears on the 6th of December, on St. Nikolaus Tag. The confusion between the two began with a Coca-cola comercial.

2. Christmas is not actually celebrated on Christmas, but on Christmas Eve. That means that, compared to California, I get to open my presents not only 9 hours earlier, but 20, because I get to open them a whole evening earlier!

3. Cookies are only made at Christmastime. You make cookies at any other time of year and people think you're crazy (speaking from personal experience here).

The cookies (Plätchen auf Deutsch) Jutta and I made this year were macaroons and a sort of almondy sugar-coated crescent cookie. I think we made up to 400 total. Basically, a lot. And then there are the cookies we sometimes get as gifts from people, Lebkuchen and Spritzen and whatnot. We'll probably have enough to live on until Easter.

Christmas Eve found us sitting around the table eating "Heisser Stein." A heated stone was put in the center and we cooked small pieces of beef, potatoes, mushrooms, and onions on it. Then we had about 6 different types of sauces we could put on them. Who would have thought that mushrooms taste good with peanut sauce or that onions and black olive creme make the perfect combination? There was also banana-curry sauce, humus, and my personal favorite was the mustard sauce.

Dinner was almost an hour. Stefan said that one would think that with such small pieces of food one would never be full. However, after dinner we didn't even have anymore room for cookies!

Then came present time. This years theme appeared to be books. Jutta and Stefan got books by famous German comedians and popular grammar books, I got books by Jane Austen (German and English!).

Jutta and Stefan loved the quilt mom made for them. They were really impressed with how she could put together such a complex piece of work (as was I). It looks great and totally matches the room.

I was really thrilled to get gifts from home, too. After this post is finished, I'll be cuddling up with Sherman and watching the pajama video. And Jutta, Stefan and I even managed to find room to pack in a couple of salt water taffys!

The best this year, though, has to be the cool watch. If you look at the picture, you can see what time it was when we finished presents:

So ready for the WM, baby!

At midnight I went to a church service in a cow stall with some neighbors. It was really interesting. They had even managed to erect a cross out of stacks of hay up in front.

That was my awesome German Christmas. What was yours?
Peace. -Rachael