Christmas time...

It's Christmas time and unfortunately due to Adam's work I am alone at home...Alyssa, who spends her 8th(!) school year with us in Germany, went to WI for 2 weeks to visit her brother, sister and Mom. The house is kind of empty... Christmas in Germany means Christmas markets everywhere! The scent of cookies and of the typical food there, all the little booths with useful and not so useful things to buy...most of all I like the fruit-chocolate-kebobs and the Kinderpunsch or Gluehwein...yummy! The Kinderpunsch is basically a hot juice mix and the Gluehwein is a hot mix of wine and Christmas seasoning...ideal for the cold days in winter! I only went once this year, usually a lot of people meet friends there before the family time begins. In Germany we celebrate Christmas Eve on the 24th of December. Kids get to open all gift that night and the family sits together for a nice dinner. Some people are only having a very 'poor' dinner to remember, that Jesus and his parents didn't have so much too eat either. Some families go to church that night and listen to the Christmas prayer (the churches are usually packed that night, like they are never again the rest of the year...). I am going to spend this Christmas at my parents house. We will have raclette. It is a suisse specialty and you need a raclette grill on the table and have little mini pans to put in all kinds of ingredients, the main ingredient is the cheese. You warm it up in the raclette grill until the cheese is melted...see the picture from last Christmas! The next days are already planned out by my family...going for lunch and dinner as the 25th and the 26th are holidays in Germany. And this year those days are right before a weekend! So even more going out for lunch and dinner...I won't eat for a week after all that...;)