It was no secret that missing Christmas at home was going to be hard on me. I may talk a big game about how much I hate Christmas (and the way it's done in America is largely offensive to my sensibilities) however in reality it's one of my favorite holidays.
After finding out that I wasn't going home for Christmas Astrid invited me to celebrate Christmas with her family. Klaus, her husband, also invited me the next day not really being aware that Astrid had done it as well. With two invitations I decided that it was better than staying alone in my apartment so I accepted graciously.
Germany has been under a lot of stress lately from a fairly unrelenting blizzard, quite unusual for this part of the world and at this time of the year. I joked with Astrid that I bring bad winters with me wherever I go. I'm getting used to them now I guess. I relish the cold these days, oftentimes sleeping with little or no heat in my room. I can't really breath warm air. But I digress, my main point is that travel between cities in Germany is rather difficult at the moment. There was some concern that I wouldn't make it in.
These concerns proved baseless (quite a jump there) and soon I was sitting on a comfy couch playing banjo and trying desperately to keep a very enthusiastic five year old from leaving the living room and discovering her mother wrapping presents. I managed to use my banjo as a gate and attempted to convince her that it wasn't me keeping her from leaving, but that the banjo itself. She didn't quite buy it, but whatever no five year old can get past me you know?
Church was pretty interesting, it was all in German and truth be told it was a lot better than what I'm used to.
After Church we waited (im)patiently for the Christkind to come and give us our presents. That sentence seems kind of cutesy, but really how else am I supposed to describe a five year old waiting to open her presents? You try and take the joy out of that tiny little body squirming and pleading to be let into the living room to see what she's gotten from Christkind (who brings the presents in Germany).
Anyway the Christkind seemed to satisfy everyone. I got a 6 pack of Belgian beer (3 of which are alreday gone, though I accidentally broke one of the bottles) plus a case of generic beer from all over Europe. I'm actually pretty excited for this. As many of you know I detest the material aspects of Christmas BUT I always appreciate a thoughtful gift. Beer is pretty much always a good bet, especially when it's stuff I don't get all the time. It reminded me of home in a good way.
Dinner followed at around 10 or so, it was duck. There's been an awful lot of duck in my life as of late (I got kicked out of an all you can eat buffet that served a lot of duck) and I don't see this as a bad thing.
Speaking of home Nathan is here, he brought me a bottle of Devine Reserve 10. He is a wonderful and amazing human being. We plan to share it at the end of our journey here in Germany. We head out to Köln tomorrow, then to Berlin and Dresden. At the end of everything I want to try a team entry of our collective experience, in part to alleviate my annoyance at blogging, but also to give all 3 of us (his girlfriend is also here) an equal voice. It promises to be an epic adventure. I'll try and keep you guys posted.
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