Christmas and what comes afterwards...?

(photo: My parents and me)
So, I spent Christmas Eve (24th) with my parents. We ate, talked, laughed and unwrapped gifts. It was relaxed and nice. I spent the night and stayed until after lunch the next day. When I got home, I called my stepkids in WI, my new family in WA and a friend in WI :) My stepkids were not very talkative on the phone, I guess they were tired from getting up too early ;) They liked all the gifts they got and wanted to spend a relaxed day at home. I 'spread' Christmas spirit over email and will do so on myspace probably. Today I will meet my aunt and her family for lunch and tomorrow will be the ultimate family reunion for dinner! Everybody is supposed to come that lives in Germany :) it's going to be loud!
For everybody who doesn't know, Greeks are mostly orthodox. They follow a different church calender for their fests and holidays. The Greeks usually give presents on January 6th. But the way it is, I guess a lot of them start doing it on December 24th now too. I am not too familiar with the orthodox church. My parents weren't really interested and when I visited German schools here I learned more about being catholic than orthodox. Oh yeah, in German schools you have to go to either catholic or protestant class. Once you are older you can switch to "ethics" which is basically studying also other religions like Buddhism or Islam.
Anyways, Christmas had a good timing this year. The 25th and 26th are German holidays and this year a weekend follows! Because my boss gives us the 24th off too, that meant a 5-day-weekend for me! Yeah! I have to go to work on the 29th and 30th, but then again have 2 days off :) I needed vacation time anyways ;)

Busy Christmas...

I've been to the Kids Christmas Party Adam's office held for all the kids of the office on Sunday. It was fun, although I was there alone and not with my family. The kids had an awesome time and we had more than a lot to eat! Altogether the guys from the office have 14 kids! From little babies to a 16 year old. And I didn't include our 3 Alyssa, Haley and Jason here! It is quite a difference between German families and American (or should I say American Army families?) families. Germans don't have so many kids. Although the Nielson family has quite a large amount of kids too! :) It's awesome, I love kids.

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...;)