Saturday 15 December 2012

All Things December

Where I live, December means winter, snow, Christmas cookies, cards, presents, woolly hats, scarves and gloves, family gatherings and a lot more.

Cookies, cookies, cookies!!! These were made by my Mum and by a family friend of ours. The ones in the bag from my Mum were all gone within two or three evenings, and the contents of the tin have been greatly reduced already :-)
My Mum made this woolly hat for me! I wanted it to be grey and yellow, to go with my grey winter coat, and yellow being my favourite colour. She made a matching scarf, too. If you want one, you can have a look at her Etsy shop (the link is to the left of my blog).
The contents of the parcel I was getting ready to send to my relatives in Yorkshire. It should be there by now.

I've already received some presents from England, but of course they will sit there unopened until Christmas Day.

While winter will always remain my least favourite season (for the very simple reason that I detest the cold and find it quite hard to keep warm most of the time), all the Christmassy things help to reconcile me with it - at least for the first part of it.
When Christmas and New Year are gone and winter shows no sign of retreating but instead drags out well into March, sometimes even April, that is when I suffer most, and I dare say I am not alone in that.

So far, I can not complain - we've had several days of temperatures as low as -10C (14F) during the night and -7C during the day, but on Thursday evening, in the space of only a few hours, there was a quick rise of almost 10 degrees, which resulted in a dangerous sheet of quick ice (in German, we call this phenomenon Blitzeis) on the roads and pavements.

RJ and I had been meeting up with his parents for a pre-Christmas dinner in town, and on our way back to the car, we - as everybody else - could walk only very slowly and carefully.

Last night, I worked at the Christmas market again with my friend; drizzling rain meant less visitors to the market than what would have been good for business, but the hours until official closing time at 9.00 pm went by quickly nonetheless - we see each other maybe twice a year, in spite of living less than a mile apart, and had lots to talk about. Last year, I wrote about this annual event here, and you can see a picture of our stall there.
December 7th, early afternoon

December 7th, about two hours later

December 8th, around 8.00 in the morning

December 8th, two hours later

December 8th, lunch time

The drizzle also meant that by now, all the snow is gone. It looked beautiful while it lasted, and there is still enough time for it to come back - but for the next few days, I am glad to get a break from the below-zero-cold and enjoy the comparatively mild weather.

A happy 3rd Advent Sunday to all of you!

PS: Several of you have mentioned the Sandy Hook shooting on your blogs. Had it not been for you, I wouldn't have known about it, as I have not been watching the news for a few nights in a row. It is very sad, a real tragedy, and all I can say is that I can not even begin to imagine how hard it must be for those families who have lost their little ones in it. Their Christmas will be anything but merry.

29 comments:

  1. I feel much the same as you about winter and Christmas. I'd gladly go into hibernation (if I could) from after New Year until late March... December I endure because of Christmas lights and cookies and stuff ;) From yesterday morning to today the temperature rose by 16 degrees C here to just above zero... Today there's a slushy snowstorm going on. The fun of the first "dry" snow is now a thing of the past. Months of ice and slush ahead...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 7C here today, which felt almost sub-tropical ;-)
      But I'm afraid it won't do me the favour and stay in that range of temperature... well, we shall see, and I will try to keep warm as good as I can!

      Delete
  2. We don't get snow very often in Georgia so I thank you for your photos of the snow! It looks so beautiful.
    I am very excited at the thought of my in-laws receiving the socks made by your MUM! I truly love the ones that I won in the giveaway, so if anyone out there wonders what those knitted goods are like in your Mum's Etsy shop, the answer is...they are so beautifully made you would not believe it!
    Meike, when I woke this morning, for just a second, I thought I had dreamed that someone had gone into an elementary school and shot and killed a kindergarten class. And then I remembered that it was true.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My socks were so pretty I didn't know whether to wear them or frame them!

      Delete
    2. I know exactly what you mean!

      Delete
    3. Hello Frances,
      thank you, I nearly blush, you make me embarrassed. But I am so glad, you all like my handknitted socks.

      Delete
    4. You are welcome, Kay! And thank YOU for ordering gifts for your relatives from my Mum's shop.

      Delete
  3. Hello Kay,
    you are so sweet, thank you for your very kind compliment for my socks! I hope, the packet will arrive in time!! Best wishes!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Even if it does not make it for Christmas, that is perfectly fine with me, just something for them to look forward to in the days after Christmas! Anticipation is lovely!

      Delete
    2. It should be there in good time. It rarely takes more than 5-7 days from here to the UK, and it was sent right after you had ordered.

      Delete
  4. Cold is very painful to me; like you, i am almost never warm in winter. So a colorful and fun Christmas makes the time pass, i agree.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The cookies look so good! Does this mean no baking for you?
    Yes, the tragedy has settled a pall here, its unfathomable to think of such senseless loss of life. You are thoughtful to mention it.
    xx
    julie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Julie, it's been AGES since I've last made any Christmas cookies myself - what with my Mum and our friend always so generously providing me with them!

      Delete
  6. The cookies look fabulous! I think you did extremely well to get them to last a couple of nights. A couple of hours would be more like it! :o)

    Have a Merry Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Carol, and the same to you!
      There is, I think, just a bit over half of them left, from the ones in the tin. I am trying to stretch them out so that they last until Christmas, but I can not guarantee it'll really happen :-)

      Delete
  7. I love it when you show photos of the snow on a cold, crisp, sunny day (don't we all) and I don't mind the cold when I'm all kitted out in warm clothes. Unfortunately most of the time winters are just plain cold and dreary on Lewis. I never used to mind it I'd just hunker down and do winter things. Now, not having had a winter for 7 years, I'm not sure how I'll react when I have to return to them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If I had a choice, I'd go into hibernation from the 2nd of January to the 21st of March (the 22nd being my birthday - I'd certainly want to be awake for that!).
      Yes, I do winter things as well, but I have to leave my comfort zone (= a 5 m radius from the heating) every now and then... daily, in fact, now that I work away from home again.

      Delete
  8. It looks cold! The clear sky's always bring cold air. I would not be a happy person right now going out in the cold. I am still able to tolerate our weather this winter with temps of 40's and 50 degrees! NO snow on our grounds but 30 minutes away there is plenty of it in the mountains. It can stay in the mountains too! My house is so decorated for the Christmas holiday it looks like the elves went crazy! I will post some pics! Hope you have a Merry Christmas! hugs to you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Merry Christmas to your and your family, too, Linda! It's almost springlike out there now; when RJ and I went for a walk on Sunday afternoon, the gardens and fields were green-brown-grey instead of white, and the birds were making spring sounds. As far as I'm concerned, it does not need to get colder again... but I doubt anyone will ask my permission :-)

      Delete
  9. Lots of happy things going on now in your world! The cookies look delicious, the hat is lovely. I wouldn't hibernate in January because my birthday is the 26th, and then I spend March in Florida being visited by children and grandchildren....Wouldn't want to miss that either. But April I do begin to be happier!

    Sandy Hook will make many people sad for years to come, and I am sorry that Christmas time will be mixed up with these terrible memories....OTH, I have heard some good stories of this time, of people helping one another. At least some small good can come out of such a tragedy. But I wish such things would never happen, ever. As everyone must wish.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kristi, if I had the chance to spend March in Florida, I would not go into hibernation, either!

      I saw something on the news last night of the memorial service for the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. As you say, such things should never happen. But they do all the time. And the news of 10 little girls dying because of a landmine in Afghanistan, while they were gathering firewood, didn't cause the same uproar. Are those little girls worth less than the children who died in the US?

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  10. Sorry I haven't visited you for a while Meike. Those buscuits look delicious. You have a very clever mum and I love her Itsy shop. I wish we had more of those cold, crisp, frosty days in England. Unlike today, which is very wet and grey. My sister who lived in Berlin has now moved to Malta and yearns for the cold crisp winters of Berlin.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Maggie, I'd swap with your sister anytime!
      I think I'll have some more cookies tonight :-)

      Delete
  11. Fascinating to see the same scene with so many different lighting values. Nice hat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The lighting is so crucial to the atmosphere of each picture, isn't it!

      Delete
  12. Oh die Kekse sehen toll aus!
    Und die Mütze erst, ich glaube ich sollte mir
    mal stricken beibringen lassen. :)
    Bei uns hat's 2 Tage lang geschneit und jetzt sind
    schon wieder über 10°C, naja.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ein paar Plätzchen sind sogar noch übrig, aber ich "fürchte", die werden den heutigen Abend nicht überleben ;-)
      Hier hat es heute auch um die 10 Grad, morgen soll es bis 13 haben...
      Ich kann übrigens auch nicht stricken - das überlasse ich meiner Mama, die kann's richtig gut :-D

      Delete