Christmas Memories

Christmas Eve, my brother and me, 1960s

Over the past few days I was looking at some old photos that my dad took when we were children. All of them were slides that my father-in-law scanned for me several years ago. The quality of the images is very poor, but they did bring back memories of Christmasses (is that a word?) long time ago.

Both my parents had lost their homes in World War II. My mother had to flee from the border to Poland at the end of January 1945; my dad was never able to return to his hometown Marienburg (Malbork in today's Poland) after a year as a POW in a British camp in Belgium (his parents and younger sister had been able to catch the last refugee ship out of Danzig/Gdansk). My parents met in a small village in Lower Saxony where they eventually started a family. 

They didn't have much money - my dad had just earned his PhD and was one of two veterinarians in a country veterinary practice (nothing like "All Creatures Great and Small"), but with the little means they had they still made it possible to give us children a magical Christmas.

There was a tree in front of our rented house, and they put real candles on it. It was so beautiful. My mom also put some Wunderkerzen (sparkler) in it - nowadays they are mostly used on New Year's Eve. 

My mom with my brother, late 1950s

Here she is lighting the Wunderkerzen; my sister to the right

Later she would light the tree in the living room. There are not many ornaments on the tree because they didn't have many (there were more important things to spend money on) and the family ornaments were left behind in the war. But there was a lot of lametta (tinsel) because it was affordable.

A Christmas tradition in Germany is to have a Weihnachtsteller (Christmas plate) filled with chocolates, marzipan, homebaked cookies and nuts. We loved our Weihnachtsteller and I sure was delighted about the chocolate Santa.

My brother and I loved to bake Christmas cookies - well, I mainly loved to eat the dough!

1961

Later we moved to the Sauerland, Northrhine-Westphalia, where we lived in a nice flat. My dad had found a position as a vet with the county which is way more sustainable for family life - no more calls in the middle of the night, but still calls on the weekends. My parents lived in that flat for 42 years.

My brother with very short hair, because that was the only way to "tame" his abundance of locks

Sometime - I can't remember exactly when - we started a new tradition for the time "zwischen den Jahren" (between the years - the week from Christmas to New Year). My mom received a huge jigsaw puzzle of the Alexanderschlacht (the Battle of Alexander at Issus), a 1529 oil painting by the German artist Albrecht Altdorfer (you can see the painting here). I think it had arund 1500 pieces and if you look at the painting you can see how detailed it is, and assembling the sky was a real pain. It always took us several days to put it together, but every year we did. It was a family "venture", even my dad, who didn't enjoy puzzles very much, joined in every now and then. I once saw the original painting in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich - it's a truly impressive painting.

Here is my mother doing a puzzle - she always loved doing one in the colder season (this, of course, is not Alexanderschlacht and this picture was taken some other time during the winter).

This year I kept up the tradition, not with Alexander, though, but with a fun image of Yosemite, and on a much smaller scale (around 300 pieces only) and it was done within a couple hours on a chilly afternoon right before Christmas Eve.

My Christmas tree in my tiny flat while the Geek and I were dating.

Later, we established our own Christmas traditions when we had our own family. First Christmas with Kaefer.

Our German traditions mingled with American Christmas customs when we moved to California. Kaefer's letter to Santa:

Nowadays, the Geek and I don't really "do" Christmas. But this year, some neighbors and us started a new tradition - caroling in the neighborhood. We did that last Friday, and we had so much fun together. We caroled for more than an hour, going along the streets, singing in front of homes - it was joyful and so rewarding spreading some cheer. I can't share the pictures and videos because I don't know whether everyone would be okay to be out in the blogosphere.

Therefore just an image of our Christmas Eve drink - a delicious rosé champagne. Cheers to Bleubeard and Elizabeth at T Tuesday and to everyone who reads this.

 

The Silence of Christmas

Today I share a blogpost again that I already posted a couple times. Last year, Elephant's Child commented that I can repost this each and every year. I am following her advice.

Since Mary and Joseph have faces, I'm sharing this to Nicole's Friday Face Off

In Germany, our “big day” is not Christmas Day (and we even have two of them!) but Christmas Eve – Heilig Abend (Holy Eve) as it is called. It usually starts out hectic, often with the last big shopping because all of the stores and supermarkets will be closed for the following two days. But around 2:00 pm the shops (including the grocery stores) close and by 3:00 pm at the latest a magical silence covers the entire country like a beautiful veil. The ideal December 24th brings snow in the afternoon and turns the world into a winter wonderland by the time the first church bells start to ring.

Oh, the sound of church bells – how much do I miss this! They ring every day (at 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning, at noon and again at 6:00 pm), but on Christmas Eve all the bells are ringing, from the smallest, highest pitch to the biggest one with the deepest, loudest sound. It’s a concert of bells that resounds through the silence, calling for mass. Christmas services start in the later afternoon, the first ones mainly for smaller children, showing nativity plays and involving the kids. Later in the evening follow the more “grown-up” services with meaningful sermons and the old German Christmas carols sung by the congregation. Everybody knows these songs and since the churches are always packed on Christmas Eve it is a strong and joyful singing.

 

After church it’s back home – and waiting for Christkind (Christ Child). Yes – it often is not Santa coming through the chimney (there are not that many houses with a fireplace anyway) but Christkind. When I was a child I always envisioned Christkind with golden curly hair and a flowing white dress, an angelic smile on its face. It would place the presents in “die gute Stube” (“the good room” = living room) and magically disappear, unseen by anyone. The children are called in and they stand in awe looking at the Christmas tree – that was brought in and decorated only the day before (or even in the morning) and very often carries real candles on its branches. I have always loved the real candles, it smells differently and the whole atmosphere is – yes, magical. After singing a few Christmas carols everybody opens their presents accompanied by Christmas music on the radio.

 

And if you’re still awake or missed the afternoon/evening service you can go to midnight mass – always my favorite Christmas service. A huge tree is lit (some with real candles – we live dangerously in Germany!), the atmosphere is festive and peaceful – it is our “Silent Night, Holy Night”.

May the magic of Christmas touch your heart, wherever you are.

Winterfest with German Christmas Cookies

 

Ten days ago we had our last German class before Christmas and that's when we usually have our "Winterfest". At our big campus in Novato this is usually an elaborate event, but at our tiny campus (only two classes) in Santa Rosa we usually have a "gemütliches Beisammensein" (a "cozy get-together"). Since we are a German language school, the main characters at this gathering are the Christmas cookies - German ones of course. 

These are very special cookies because they are all baked by our admin (her mother was German) who is a first class baker. One afternoon before our last day she stood in her kitchen and baked all these wonderful cookies for us and her husband made the gebrannte Mandeln (roasted almonds) which are a staple at German Christmas markets.

There were Raspelberge (coconut macaroons)...

Spekulatius (spiced cookies similar to speculoo) and Nusstaler (hazelnut cookies, some of my favorites)...

Zimtsterne (cinnamon stars) ...

and of course Vanillekipferl (vanilla almond crescents).

Some of these cookies you're probably familiar with. Now you know where they come from.

My personal absolute favorite aren't the cookies, but the roasted almonds. They are loaded with memories. Our admin put them in cute little paper cups.

These cookies fit perfectly Rain's theme this week over at Thursday Art and Dinner Date.

Our get-together was really nice. I liked how students of the two classes mingled and talked with each other. I got to know some of the students from the other class much better - they are beginners while my class is for advanced students. A good mix actually.

There were enough cookies to take some home. Our admin had provided some cute containers for exactly that purpose (she does think of everything). The Geek was very happy when I came home with a container full with cookies and a cup of roasted almonds.

By now everything is already gone, of course. Roasted almonds and home baked German Christmas cookies do not survive for long in our home.

Autumn Meets Winter

 

Charles M. Schulz, the creator of the comic strip "Peanuts", lived in Santa Rosa for more than 30 years and died here in February 2000. Therefore it's no wonder that many Christmas decorations in my neighborhood depict one or more of his characters, the most popular among them Snoopy and Woodstock. 

Winter has arrived here with heavy rain which, of course, is very welcome. In the higher elevations of the county there are warnings we might see snow on top of the mountains, however, I do think it is not cold enough for that. I'm thankful for the rain, and am enjoying the spots where autumn meets winter.

This is the time when the Geek and I often have a cup of hot chocolate in the evening, which is my ticket to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday this week.

This is only a short post and I hope to be back by Thursday with some German Christmas cookies.

Christmas Lights

 

Both the Geek and I are not big into Christmas. Of course, as long as Kaefer was with us, we celebrated it and I also used to decorate the house. We had a Christmas tree that Kaefer and I decorated, a Christmas village (that Kaefer later sold for more funds during college) and the traditional wooden figurines from the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains in East Germany) that I unfortunately cannot find anymore. I suspect it's in a box up in the attic and I certainly won't go there anytime soon. We had an entire angel orchestra - it looks like this:

. 

Thankfully I still have the Kurrendesänger (carolers) because they are in our grab-and-go box. These are the ones that we had when I was a child. They were sent to us by a family in East Germany whom we always sent packets during the years when Germany was divided into two countries. This is my favorite Christmas decoration.

I was glad that I found the Schwippbogen, also handcrafted in the Erzgebirge. The candles are made of beeswax and almost doll sized, thus very hard to find around here. One of my students gives me a package of them every year, so that I don't run out.

The only "big" thing in terms of Christmas decorations are the lights on our home. The Geek and Kaefer used to put them up together, but now the Geek has to do it alone. And he does a great job.

We don't call them Christmas lights but winter lights since they stay up at least until Valentine's Day. They make our rather dark corner cheerful and people who walk along here really like that it is not that dark in those early winter evenings. At 10 o'clock at night the lights are switched off and turned on again in the morning at six for 90 minutes.

The Geek really goes to town with these lights - they are all around the fence as well and even grow into the lower parts of some trees. The best part? These are all LED lights and consume about 100 watt of energy (as much as just one of those old 100 watt lightbulbs) and they're all connected to only one outlet.

This is for Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date with this week's prompt "Christmas lights". Foodwise I don't have much to show today. Our wonderful bread baker has been sick for several weeks and we're running out of bread (we always buy several loaves from them at the farmers market and freeze them), so I decided to bake our own bread again. I didn't take a photo of the first one, but remembered to take one of the second, a whole wheat bread with sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

I didn't cook any elaborate meals for dinner, just linguine with fresh spinach, cream and cheese. It's quick and delicious.

My last photo today is my morning view from the window at the top of the stairs. I love when the fog still hangs around and is slow to lift. It has such a lovely, dreamy atmosphere - my favorite morning mood.

Christmas Market in Tübingen

 

Advent, those four weeks before Christmas, are a very special time in Germany. In many cities and towns, Christmas markets open their booths, many of them being a part of the place for several weeks. 

I remember the third Advent-weekend in December back in Tübingen, Germany, where I spent more than twenty years of my life. It's a medieval university town with its typical old buildings that look like they're straight out of a fairy tale by the Grimm Brothers. Narrow lanes wind among medieval timber-framed houses and cars are not allowed within the city center. It's a huge pedestrian zone that makes wandering the old alleys so peaceful.

This is the setting for one of the most beautiful traditions of the town: the Christmas Market. It's nothing like its big siblings in Nürnberg, Stuttgart or München and so many other cities. First, it only takes place from Friday to Sunday and not weeks and weeks and weeks. Second, it's not commercial. There are tons of local artists who sell their work, school classes who raise funds for their annual end-of-the-year trip, small local environmental groups who fight for preservation, neighborhoods who try to raise awareness and money for people with disabilities - the list could go on and on.

So that's the eye-candy. The next is the food - just one word: delicious. The food is mainly local specialities, the best time to eat "Bubaspitzle mit Sauerkraut" (a thin rolled kind of potato pasta with sauerkraut and sometimes bacon), one of my fondest memories in the food department. There was a guy with a complicated portable special oven who made Swiss Raclette that was to die for. Of course there was Glühwein (mulled wine), very welcome in the cold. None of the food or the drink was allowed in any kind of plastic or paper container, everything had to be re-usable! Most of the plates were eatable - envision big sturdy waffles for apple strudel! No trash! You bought a beautiful mug with the words "Tübinger Weihnachtsmarkt" written on it and this could be refilled at any booth that offered Glühwein or juice punch. I still have a few of these mugs, pictured below, and they are this week’s ticket to Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s T Tuesday.

Throughout the market you could listen to music. Children were singing, little choirs stood at the fountain in the market square, someone played the violin, another one the bagpipe, and again another one the flute. There was a cantata concert in the main church. There were jugglers and clowns. It was a very festive atmosphere. 

And of course there was “Paupersingen”. The Paupersingen (paupers singing) is a tradition that originated in the Middle Ages. "pauper" is a Latin word and means poor, and in this case it refers to poor students of Latin who paid part of their school fee by singing during church services and at funerals. During Advent they wandered through the narrow lanes of the town, wearing their black scholar cloaks and singing in front of every house, hoping for some donations.

Today it's the children choirs who start out at different parts of Tübingen and slowly, with several stops in between, walk to the market square, all the way singing the old Christmas carols. They all meet at the huge Christmas tree where all of them together sing for another half hour or so. The donations today go to some charity of their choice. (I apologize for the very unfocused photo.)

We felt like community, we were community. People spending three days in the cold in order to help someone else. To serve others. To share stories. To entertain children and their stressed parents. To bring smiles on the cold faces, red cheeks from the mulled wine.

That third weekend in December was spent in the streets among those medieval buildings, no matter whether the sun was shining, it was raining or snowing. It was freezing cold - always. But everyone was there. Community.

(This is the slightly edited version of a post that I first wrote for Vision and Verb in 2010 or 2011.)

Snowed In

 

"Snowed in" is the topic this week at Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date.

At the end of last week, the sky dumped an enourmous amount of snow on Bavaria, the most southern state in Germany. There was so much snow, that all the trains were cancelled. This was bad news for Kaefer, who was in Venice at that time and had booked the night train back to Germany which had to pass Munich which was completely closed down. So she stayed another night in Venice (not the worst place to get stuck) and then was finally able to get home on trains passing through Switzerland. It took her 18 hours to finally arrive at her appartment.

This reminded me of the snowy winters we used to have when I still lived in Germany. Our home was the area between the Black Forest and the Swabian Alb and that meant very cold in the winter and often tons of snow. I wasn't particularly fond of driving in the snow, but when you live in one of the last houses at the end of a street up a steep hill which wasn't on the priority list for snow clearing and you had to leave at 6 o'clock in the morning in order to go to work, then you don't really have a choice. Snow was still better than black ice and this way I became a rather experienced driver in snow. I also didn't like snow shoveling - but I did love the beauty of snow.

Therefore, today I want to show you some photos of our winters in Germany from more than 20 years ago. I apologize for an overload of pictures, but am hoping that you will like them.

Walking in the woods provided a lot of photo opportunities.

No one was going to sit on this bench...

Snow on grasses is just fascinating.

Today I don't have a dinner to share with you. Instead, I baked a German Nusszopf (hazelnut braid) a couple days ago. It's from my trusted Dr. Oetker baking recipe book that my students gifted to me several years ago.

It's an easy recipe - the only "challenge" is to braid the dough with the filling and then transfer it to the baking sheet. This is what is looks like before it goes into the oven...

... and this is what it looks like after being done baking (no, my silicone baking mat did not change color in such a dramatic way, only the light had changed).

As soon as it had cooled down, we cut a slice and tasted it - oh delicious!