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.