Merry Making

 

"Peace on earth and good will toward men." Truffles and Fleckchen demonstrate what it takes to coexist regardless of differences--even if it is for a treat!

The view on our walk towards our sledding destination close to the Lau's home.

Jumping right in.

Mario gets his groove back.

Queen of the hill, for the day anyway.

A dude dressed as a bear gets a snowball in his face from a fellow kiosk operator at the Hannover Christmas market.

The furry attack aftermath.

A department store window display using real candy and cookies. Yummy!

The gift wrapped department store comes complete with a Christmas music tooting brass band outside.

Loving the light outside right now.

The massive icicles hanging in the backyard of the Lau home on Christmas eve. "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!"

The American girls get to decorate the tree!

Although she obviously hates it, even Truffles gets all spruced up for the big day.

Add caption

The tree in all its candle-lit glory.

Singing traditional German carols

Mario's sister hand-knit us these awesome wool socks. Trust me, you want these as gifts here!

Frickadellan, potatoes and red cabbage, the quintessential German meal.

A peaceful scene on Christmas Eve

Our walk through the Seelhorst cemetery on Christmas day to visit Rolf is a gallery of natural beauty.

Christina caught the Asian tourist in action.

Our new frosty friend in Bremen.

Inside St. Peter's Cathedral in Bremen.

The organ inside St. Peter's to the upper left started playing at the beginning of a service, very special!

A well deserved round of beers and warm food in Schnoor, Bremen.

Inside the Schnoor Handelskontor, aka the amazing must-see tea shop in Bremen.

Cozy and petite, this little gem is made for sipping.

View out of the window next to our table at the tea shop.

Our table-mates, friendly as ever! They help take our next group photo.

Artsy shot I took of Christina and Mario at the Rathaus, or city hall, in Hannover.

When the weather gets cold, the Germans make up for the chills with holiday thrills. This is the first year where I got to experience the snowballing buildup to a uniquely German Christmas. Although they do start the holiday music in mid-November here, I had to remember that Europeans do not have the Thanksgiving speed bump to drive over before rolling into Christmas overdrive and so this is actually appropriate since they wait all year to prepare for the festivities. Gift shopping starts early, advent calendars are given before the awaited month, and on December 6th Nicolaus visits all the good girls and boys to leave them their first gifts of the season in their shoes; Lindt chocolates and cookies are always welcome guests in our house! Afterward the families start planning their get togethers and the windows of every home are lit with the lights from Christmas pyramids, candles, and menorahs.

Six days before Christmas, Mario and I went sledding after a particularly snowy morning at a local hill frequented by all the Waldheim kids. (Waldheim is the region of Hannover where Mario's family lives.) The powder was as thick and decadently fluffy as anyone could ask for and we had a blast! Kids and adults alike took turns sliding down slippery slopes and there was even one brave older gent who was apparently learning how to snowboard and went down a few times nice and slow but still couldn't avoid falling on his behind. I silently rooted for him as I would like very much but have yet to try the sport. The walk home was accentuated by gleeful passersby with greetings as rosy as our cheeks.

On the 21st of December we had the extreme pleasure of welcoming our good friend, Christina, to the Lau family home. She is an ex-pat since September of 2010 teaching English in--how horribly taxing!--Nice, France until the summer of 2011. That is a joke of course since Nice is every bit as nice as its name implies with temperatures and locales rivaling that of the golden coast. It was a pleasure to have her over and have her take part in all our favorite traditions here in Germany, not to mention it was extremely generous of the Lau family for letting her share in the special day with them. We got a good week of snow topped activities into her itinerary of to-do's. Among the highlights of our holiday merry making together are a trip to the *Christmas market here in Hannover for a much anticipated refill on mulled wine. It's my third trip to the market by now but we still discovered an unexplored wing to the event that featured real pine trees arranged in an immense forest in which you can hang out with a warm drink among the branches. Unfortunately the weather did not permit the family's driving to Wolfsburg to celebrate Christmas Eve with Mario's cousin there as originally planned so we had to buy a tree last minute on the 23rd and decorate it on the 24th to make the best of things. We felt a little bit like Charlie Brown with his imperfectly perfect Christmas as we became even closer with the onset of an unplanned evening in Hannover of carol singing auf Deutsch,  Frickadellan feasting, and present opening around our freshly decorated tree. Christina and I contributed with a hearty rendition of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and I have to say my favorite part of that song is the "so bring us some figgy pudding" part, of course! Monopoly and chocolate chip cookie making ensued quickly thereafter and the evening ended with Christina winning her first ever Monopoly game--the Hannover edition using Deutschmarks no less! Congrats, Christina!

Come Monday the 27th there was also a trip to **Bremen thrown in there to help with the infrequent occurrence I've dubbed the "Island of Hannover" cabin fever. We walked the streets and shopped, visited St. Peter's Cathedral, as well as made an impromptu snowman in front of the iconic windmill. The jewel of that journey, though, had to be the cute tea shop and cafe we stumbled across in our exploration of the Schnoor area which is a little bit like the Old Town in San Diego with little shops, boutiques and cobblestone streets. We ended up spending a good two hours in a quaint warmly lit and busy low ceilinged house with three levels; the upper two levels were the tea cafe with a boutique on the bottom floor selling all sorts of teas and niceties.  The tea shop had a knack for making you feel as if you'd found something precious and exclusively yours with their tea being served in extra fine china ware and considerately tended tables you sometimes had to share with strangers. We hope you got a good little taste of Germany, Christina, and we can't wait to embark on our Berlin chapter this coming May!

As for the food related ventures during the holidays, on top of the chocolate chip cookies I also tried to make my mom's cheesecake recipe twice here with mixed results each time since the German cream cheese contains a little more liquid. The cake ended up more fluffy and eggy than usual but the overall result was pretty successful as I did find a graham cracker equivalent here in the Leibniz whole grain biscuits. The next attempt will feature one half mascarpone to try to make a denser cheesy texture like the Philly cheesecakes I've made in the past. Everybody here who tasted it for the first time liked it regardless though so I'm pretty happy. A holiday and year of firsts for one and all for sure!

*The Christmas Market came and went here in Hannover without my attaining a much coveted wooden Christmas pyramid of my own. I realized I should wait until we move out of the Lau's household before I buy more things to add to my clutter.
**Brendy, I tried very hard everywhere but could not find that pin you bought in 2006. They informed me that it was all sold out. So I've gotten a little replacement that you'll be getting in the mail around your birthday. :)