Christmas Eve

In Germany, Christmas Eve is the biggest day of celebration for the holidays. It is this night that most families have all of their traditions - gift-giving, nice meals, lighting candles on the tree and such. Then they actually have two more days of Christmas, the 25th and the 26th. They simply call them the first and second days of Christmas.

Germans take their holidays very seriously. It is against the law for most stores to be open on holidays. In fact, we were warned by many friends to stock up on food as the stores close by 2:00 pm on Christmas Eve and will not reopen until the 27th. Because of the way Christmas fell in the week, the stores were closed on Sunday, the 23rd (they are always closed on Sunday.) Then, they closed early Monday just after lunch; not to reopen until Thursday. What this basically means is that the week before Christmas, I had to go to the store about twice a day. This is one time that having a vehicle would have come in handy. Carrying food in my backpack and bike basket limits how much I purchase - or it should. A couple of times that week leading up to the holidays, I was questioned at the check-out as to whether or not I had a vehicle. Oh to have captured their facial expressions when I said that I had a bike!

We were thrilled to be invited to spend Christmas Eve with the Heyer family whom we met through our church. In speaking with Dorte, we decided that we would join them at their house after our church's Christmas Eve service at 4:00. Their family tradition is to have fondue each year so they would provide all of the food for that. I was to bring a typical American dessert to share.

The church service is what one would expect to see on Christmas Eve. We sang a few traditional hymns, some that we knew and some that we didn't. The Christmas story from Luke 2 was read by our friend, Fred. Eva and her little friend played a couple duets on their violins. And our pastor and youth worker presented a drama over the meaning of Christmas....errr, maybe that is what is was about! There was no simulcast that service so I missed some of the meaning. That's a safe guess though, right?

Eva and her friend play a duet while Eva's grandpa, Fred, watches.

This is the size tree I would love to have!

 ~ Pastor Dieter with Wibke and her crow puppet ~

Each Sunday of Advent, a child in the service would
volunteer to climb a ladder and light the candles.

~ a parade of young children playing musical instruments ~

The church's organ was built by a member many years ago.

~ the nativity at the front of the church ~

Upon arriving at the Heyer's, we visited a bit while sipping Gluhwein, a traditional hot drink that is served only at Christmas. It is a fruity drink that may or may not have alcohol in it and is a very popular item at Christmas markets. It was served at every Christmas event that we went to in December. It reminds me of an apple cider drink only with a grape juice base - oranges with cloves might be added, along with anise or cinnamon, quite varied really. We sat around the advent wreath with just the glow of the candles and tree lighting the room. EVERY home has an advent wreath. In fact, people everywhere will greet each other with "Happy __ Advent Week to you!" This struck us as a big difference from the States. Advent doesn't seem to be on the radar for most Americans, but here everyone has an advent wreath, or two or three, in their homes and are very conscious of counting down in this manner the coming celebration of Christ's birth.

I've seen so many creative Advent displays this season!

Before eating fondue, we watched Achim and Kerstian light the candles on the tree. What a beautiful sight to see real candles burning on the tree! Then we took turns singing Christmas carols, first in English and then in German. After that we listened to a dramatic reading of the Christmas story by a famous German author. Lastly, Dorte read to us a Christmas story from a book of short stories.

There were about 20-25 candles as well as
typical white lights.

Cleo was enjoyed by our whole family! The lab was a pleasant reminder
of Crockett. At one point, Cleo sat beside Tracy and laid her head on his
lap just like she is doing with Noah. Very cute!

The meal was absolutely delicious! As a result, we all want to make fondue our new Christmas tradition. It was such a long process though that Noah came to me at one point and said that he was so tired and could he go to sleep on the couch. I couldn't believe he was tired already! Somehow I was thinking it was maybe 7:00 or so. Well, not too much later I went into the kitchen and saw a clock....11:15! What? How did that happen?? We still hadn't eaten dessert. I quickly apologized that we had overstayed our welcome and was laughed at. "The night is young!" I was told. We didn't make it home until about 1:30 am. What a fun evening! I had a headache from thinking in German for so many hours. We were all very tired but so thankful to truly experience such a lovely evening with the Heyers. The next morning when we awoke (thankfully around 10 am!), I asked Tracy a question. His response was, "Ich guesse nicht." ( a combination of "guess" with German pronouns and verb conjugations) This happens often after working for several hours to think and speak in German. We both had a good laugh!

There was a fondue pot at each end of the table with which to cook our food.
Dorte had prepared four kinds of meat (lamb, beef, pork and chicken), along
with shrimp and mushrooms. The rest of the meal was a variety of items from
a local Turkish market. We enjoyed the sides so much that I purchased some
of the same for our New Year's Eve festivities. The stuffed jalapeños were our
favorite!

Here is most of the crew - the Heyer boys are Marvin (16) and Kerstian (14).
Dorte's sister, Angelica, also joined us for the evening. We laughed over the
fact that we talked for so many hours about religion and politics, two
conversations that are usually not good choices for a first visit.

For dessert, I put together a tray of some of our favorite Christmas cookies
and treats. Often Tracy's family will eat cookies with applesauce so I took
a large container of applesauce I had made earlier in the fall. On the tray
there were a few pieces of Grandma McKenzie's cherished fudge, some of
our traditional Christmas caramels, a collection of cookies that we had
made at Sonja's house, and a few treats from the Louws family. They sent
us a really fun package that arrived just before Christmas. The Twix bars
were to be just for me! I willingly shared...but not too many. I still have a
bit of a stash. The candy canes were from the Louws as well. I didn't see
one candy cane for sale here anywhere so one more thing that is typical
of America, I guess. 

~ Micah with his German twin, Kerstian! ~
People have come up to Micah at church speaking to him as if he is one
of the Heyer boys. It took us several Sundays to finally meet him and
realize how close the resemblance.