Merry Christmas

I have to leave in a few minutes. I'm visiting my Mom for the Holidays. Yeah! Here's my schedule of Christmas celebrations:

Dezember 24th
Heiliger Abend ("Holy Evening" i.e. Christmas Eve)
During the day we'll set up our Christmas Tree, in the evening we'll have a nice meal (fondue) together, and after dinner we'll open our presents. We talk a lot, play games.

Dezember 25th
1. Weihnachtsfeiertag ("First Day of Christmas")
On the first day of X-mas we're having a nice meal at noon. My Mom's going to prepare loin of venison with dumplings, delicious gravy, red cabbage and cranberries. She prepares everything from scratch and it's soooo good. My Dad is a hunter. As a kid I wasn't happy about that. Actually I don't want him to shoot animals. But I love meat. And in the end I think this deer had a much better life than any cow I would buy at the butcher. My parents are divorced, but they still get along pretty well.
In the afternoon we usually play games, talk, drink coffee eat cake and cookies. In the evening we'll have some salmon. Yes, Dad's also a fisher. Hey, I grew up in a very small village in the forrests in the mountains ...

Dezember 26th
2. Weihnachtsfeiertag ("Second Day of Christmas")
During the last years we either had leftovers or just a little meal for lunch, because in the afternoon there's a big celebration at my grandparents', and Granny loves to serve big piles of food, starting with cake, ending with a late dinner. All my uncles and aunts (of my Mom's side), and cousins will be there, and their kids. Some relatives are living abroad, but they'll all meet up that day.

Yes, we Germans have two Christmas Days. Both of them are bank holidays, all stores are closed. Since we have about three times more payed days off in average compared to Americans, almost nobody is working between December 24th and January 6th. It's a very quiet time.

I won't be online for some days. I hope that my precious readers will have a great Christmas, and I wish you Merry Christmas Gesëende Kersfees Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok Glædelig Jul Gajan Kristnaskon Hyvää Joulua Joyeux Noël Fröhliche Weihnachten Kala Christouyenna Mele Kalikimaka Nollaig Shona Dhuit Buon Natale Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto Sung Tan Chuk Ha Natale hilare Linksmu Kaledu God Jul Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia Feliz Natal Srozhdestovm Kristovim Feliz Navidad Kuwa na Krismasi njema Maligayang Pasko Suksun Wan Christmas Chuc Mung Giang Sinh Nadolig Llawen