Friday 28 December 2018

What Christmas Was Like

In my next-to-last post, I mentioned a few of the things I was going to do over the Christmas period. So far, everything has gone as planned.

Our traditional Christmas Eve at my parents', with the tree lit (this year, a mix of real candles and electric ones) and the dinner of Wiener sausages and spuds salad we always insist on. In former years, my Dad used to make the spuds salad. This year, it was a joint effort; my Dad was able to help with the peeling of the potatoes, but the actual salad-making was my Mum's.

I know I say this every year, but it truly is so: It never ceases to amaze me how many presents I receive, not only from my immediate family, but also from the others who are there on Christmas Eve, from my Yorkshire family and (for the past three Christmases since I've known O.K.) from him and his family as well.


After our sumptuous and very delicious Christmas lunch at O.K.'s sister's, we went for a short walk. It was a misty day, cold enough to call for padded coats and the like, but not freezing. Near where they live is a small lake where people go swimming in the summer. The atmosphere on Christmas Day was very different!


The morning of the 26th saw me in the village church, attending family mass. O.K.'s family are no church-goers as such, but he and his Dad play in the village band, and the band traditionally plays in church on holidays such as Christmas and Easter, and of course "us womenfolk" go and listen.

We had a spontaneous visitor early afternoon, bringing a present for O.K. and myself and having coffee with us. Afterwards, there was a bit more than an hour of daylight left, and we used that for a walk around the village. I always like looking at how other people make their homes; some overdo the decorating (or it is not in my taste), some are maybe not very houseproud or don't bother with outdoors deco, but generally, the village is neat and tidy.

I travelled home that evening and arrived at my place at 10:30 pm. The moon shone brightly, and I found that from my kitchen window it looked almost as if the moon was a big shiny ornament on a Christmas tree:


Yesterday, on the 27th, I enjoyed not having to get up at a set time. I slept soundly until 9:00, and took my time over breakfast and in the bathroom. Then my elderly neighbour (the one whose garden you have seen so often from my kitchen window) rang, and we chatted for a good while. I had promised to go over to my parents' to help with a few household things, and the phone call was not planned - therefore, I dashed quickly to the supermarket to stock up on some basics before I finally made it to my parents.

After my sister and I finished our jobs, we had coffee and buttered pretzels (by the way, the proper German spelling is Brezel - there is no p and no t!) with my parents. It was a sunny day and still only early afternoon, so my sister and I went for a little walk.


Back home, I spent some time relaxing, and in the evening rang Mary, my mother-in-law in Yorkshire. It had been many weeks since my last call, and we had quite a bit of catching up to do. She is always very interested in how my parents are doing, and was rather worried about my Dad's health, too, when she heard of his illness in October.

At 9:00 pm, a friend of mine arrived, and we walked the maybe 500 m to a disco where we've been a few times. We had a great time on the dance floor; it was not too crowded, but there were enough people to create a good party mood and still leaving you enough room to dance. I was home at around 2:00 am.

Now I shall do a few household jobs here. In the early afternoon, I will pack my bag and get on the train back to O.K.'s. So far, all my trains this Christmas season were on time - as far as I'm concerned, it could always be that way!

PS: I have noticed that I chose the exact same headline for my post-Christmas post in 2015.

23 comments:

  1. I haven't had the pleasure of seeing a tree with actual candles on it in some years. Your Christmas sounds lovely. How fun that you went to a disco & danced!

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    1. It wouldn't be Christmas proper without real candles on the tree for us.
      I LOVE dancing, and I'm lucky that my friends like it, too, and that there is a disco within easy walking distance from my house :-)

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    2. Having a tree with candles is inextricably linked to my time spent in SW DE. Friends in Wurmlingen would have one every year and I was fortunate enough to be included in their celebrations from time to time. -special memories for me.

      Ein gutes neues Jahr! GrĂ¼sse aus SF. x

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  2. I'm glad you had such a good time, Meike. That sausage and potato salad made me so envious. I love, love, love German sausage!

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    1. Lots of people love German sausage! I also really like Merguez, a spicy French sausage we usually buy for barbeques and that can be had at markets and festivals in our area.

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  3. I notice Michelle Obama's book among your presents... I've just started listening to it as audio book, read by herself (my choice for my monthly credit at Audible, this month). It's not always that the author is the best person to also read his/her own book aloud - but in this case, I do think it is! :)

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    1. I think I'd like to listen to her reading the book, too. It was a gift from OK, I had wished for it - even though I still have not finished reading all the books I got for my birthday in March...!

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  4. That sounds like a lovely Christmas (although I'd pass on the dance because, much as I love dancing, I am completely inept at it). I love your 'unplanned phone call' observation. My life revolves around unplanned occurrences. This is not helped by the dark winter mornings and the fact that I sometimes don't wake early. In the summer it's no problem and I'm rarely up later than 7am and usually a lot earlier.

    One of the things I always recall about your Christmas is your parents' tree having some proper candles on it: the only tree I know of like that. The photo od the backlit tree is lovely.

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    1. It was a good Christmas, Graham. With work and plenty of travelling going on, I have to plan when to do what - even though most of the planning is in my head and not on paper. Usually, unplanned things are not a problem, but when my schedule is tight, it can mean I have to shift or even completely leave out some tasks.

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    2. PS: Seriously? Nobody else you know has real candles on their tree? But surely you did have them when you were younger - and I bet your house did not burn down every Christmas ;-)
      Thank you! I was quite happy with the photo of the backlit tree, too.

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  5. Your Christmas sounds wonderful! This year my dd Emiy whose trees always had real candles did not! They bought a sort of Scotch Pine with long needles and thought it would not be safe! It was beautiful but not the same.

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    1. We've never had a pine of any type for a Christmas tree, but even with the short needles we are always careful about how the candles are placed and we watch them closely while they are lit, always having a bucket of water close by. Our cats used to drink from that bucket :-)

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  6. That tree from your window with the moon like an ornament, that is just beautiful!
    I want to eat your Spuds salad with the wieners! Also, the sound of your pretzels sound so good.
    Looks like you got the Michelle Obama book. Richard said that they sold out of it at Barnes & Noble! (That is most unusual, shows how many they sold!)
    Thinking of your Dad and wishing the best for him. As I do for you all! x

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    1. I loved the view of that tree, too, Kay, and I'm glad my phone's camera took a good picture of it.
      Yes, the Obama book was sold out in the shops here, too. OK wanted to buy it locally but then had to order it from Amazon.
      Thank you, dear Kay - the same to you! x

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  7. Visiting from Pat's blog. The tree with the moon in it is beautiful--and a tree with real candles! I met a lady who still does that every year. She's much braver than me. Happy New Year from one (retired) librarian to another!

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    1. Hello Granny Sue! Welcome to my blog, and thank you for popping in!
      We've always had real candles, even when my sister and I were little and we had up to three cats in the house. Nothing ever burnt down!
      Happy New Year to you, too :-)

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  8. And from Australia, I can report that we’ve had real tree candles on our little live trees - ever since we spent months in Switzerland twenty years ago. Like you, I watch them very carefully and I have candle snuffer and fire blanket handy. This year the tree had died after too many years in its pot, and in trying for a simpler Christmas I just used a twisty branch fallen from a tea tree in our garden. It could still support four candles though, and I think watching the candles is one of my favourite parts of Christmas.

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    1. Hello Jayview, I am not sure we have "met" before - in any case, thank you for popping over and commenting! Yes, candles are an essential part of Advent and Christmas for me. It just wouldn't be the same without them, would it.

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  9. No, I should have introduced myself as I found your blog via the Weaver’s and Eagleton Notes, and have enjoyed reading about the opposite season to the one we’re experiencing. I agree about the candles being part of the essence of Christmas for me.

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    1. That's nice! I hope to see you more often, and am going to have a look at your blog in a minute.

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    2. PS: Just saw that you do not have a blog here. Do you write anywhere else?

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  10. I am glad you managed to fit in some dancing - it's some time since i have danced about, although sometimes we do so with the twins now. At four years old they are big into dancing!

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    1. Every few weeks, my girl friends and I go dancing. There are few venues and dates when they play the kind of music we like to dance to, and where we do not feel completely out of place because of our age.

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