Archives for November 2008

First Sunday in Advent

November 30, 2008 filed under: holidays, NaBloPoMo

Advent starts on the 4th Sunday before Christmas, which means TODAY.
It also marks the day for me to get out my Christmas decoration. Despite all the holiday music and decorations at the stores (which almost started with this 4 weeks ago), I refuse to get myself into a Christmas mood before the 1st Sunday in Advent, or December 1, whichever comes first.

Today, I hung up my Christmas wreath, got out the Advent Calendar (that I bought for J) and played my first Christmas music. I’ll now allow myself to get totally wrapped up into the Christmas spirit and I am counting down the days until we’ll go and see my family! ;)

Today is also November 30th, which equals the last day of NaBloPoMo.

Once again, I made it and posted 30 days in a row. It was fun, even though I felt a couple of times that I needed to squeeze out a post to survive, but overall it was a great experience again.

Hereâ€™s to all the great people who persevered and stuck to blogging every single day for the month of November.Â I am also looking forward to reading moreÂ from some pretty neat new blogs that I found through NaBloPoMo and that I’ll eventually add to my blogroll! :)

Can’t wait for next year’s challenge again!

Holiday weekend

November 29, 2008 filed under: my so-called life, NaBloPoMo

4 day-weekends are just awesome. Even though I get 3 day-weekends most weekends, 4 days are definitely better and the weekend has never felt that long in a while.Â Do I sound snobby or what? ;)

After the great food on Thursday and some shopping yesterday, I didn’t leave the apartment today.
I stayed in my PJ’s, watched TV, surfed the Internet, read my book and was pretty much just l-a-z-y.

Yes, I actually went to a store on Black Friday! But to be honest, it wasn’t really as bad as I expectedÂ and a) I didn’t go out at 4 a.m. in the morning and b) avoided the mall. I’am not totally crazy.
Did you dare to go to the store yesterday?
I mainly went shopping for some household items – as if they couldn’t have waited another day or two! – and I also wanted to get some of the Christmas gifts on my list.Â I have to say that I started planning early this year and I am pretty much done with my Christmas shopping (or will get the rest online), because there is no way I’ll do more shopping on the December weekends. It’ll be just as busy as on Black Friday (unless the economy being down really has the predicted big impact this holiday season).

I hope you enjoyed (and still enjoy) the long weekend as much as I do. I’ll retreat back to the couch and watch a movie now.

The first fake turkey dinner prepared by moi

November 28, 2008 filed under: food, holidays, my so-called life, NaBloPoMo

Well, this was a fake turkey dinner, because it was not a turkey. It was a chicken.

There was no way I was going to cook a whole freakin’ giant bird for just J and I. No way.
I think for my first attempt to prepare a turkey dinner, a chicken did just fine. Look, you can’t even tell it’s not turkey. Looks just like it :)

And THIS was our entire meal. I think I pretty much outdid myself! I didn’t expect it to look so close to the “original” ;)

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 27, 2008 filed under: holidays, lists!, NaBloPoMo

I am thankful for

– my husband
– healthy parents
– my sister
– the rest of my family
– my two godchildren
– my dear friends
– a great job
– my blog
– music
– apple pie
– holidays
– snow!
– a safe place to live
– quality time with quality people
– good books
– …

What are you thankful for?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

“Erntedankfest” is not Thanksgiving

November 26, 2008 filed under: family, food, holidays, home, NaBloPoMo

Even though those two German and US “holidays” are loosely connected, they’re not the same.

“Erntedankfest” means Harvest Thanksgiving Festival which is usually “celebrated” on the first weekend in October. I put “celebrated” in quotation mark because in no way, shape or form is “Erntedankfest” a real holiday with a specific date, nor is it celebrated in any particular way, sometimes it’s not celebrated at all.
While Thanksgiving has become a national secular holiday in the US with religious origins, but mainly an opportunity to gather with family and to express thanks for one’s material and spiritual possessions, in Germany it remains a Church festival giving thanks to God for the harvest.

One thing they have in common:Â People eatÂ turkey.
Or at least in my family it has become tradition to make a turkey once a year during the harvest season. It’s always a very highly anticipated event, not only because of good company, but also because of the delicious food.

Traditionally, the side-dishes my Mom prepares for that meal are

– red cabbage,
– brussels sprouts,
– stuffing, and
– bread dumplings (made from scratch!) and potato dumplings with gravy.

Desserts might vary, but might be

– semolina pudding with red current syrup,
– baked apples with vanilla sauce, or
– ice cream with hot cherries.

Sigh. Of course, this year I already missed the turkey dinner with my family. They told me all about it, but I was still missing the deliciousness in my mouth.
At least, I will be havingÂ a Thanksgiving dinnerÂ tomorrow. I’ll just close my eyes and pretend that my (half of the) family is there, too.

The holidays, and with that I mean Christmas

November 25, 2008 filed under: family, holidays, my so-called life, NaBloPoMo, reminiscence

So, Christmas is only a month, 4 weeks andÂ 1 days, away and here I am, all excited about the opportunity to celebrate Christmas with my family.

There is nothing in the world that I want to do more for the holidays… and yet, I keep coming across people – online and offline – who are dreading the holidays, don’t want to spend time with their families, and are generally disgruntled for having to pretend to have a good time when in fact, they’re not….
To be honest, I feel truly sorry for them. And yes, I know how lucky I am that there is no such feeling connected to the holidays for me.
Christmas has always been a special time for me and my family.

Is it stressful? Yes. Do we get hung up on insignificant things sometimes? Absolutely. But overall, I feel that Christmas is a time where we all come together and everybody feels happy and content that we can spend time together :)
There is no dispute about presents (Christmas is not all about the presents, you know ;)), everybody contributes to the overall success of our gatherings and I’ve never felt any tension between family members when we get together.
It’s all just nice and pleasant and very, very special.

In Germany, we celebrate Christmas Eve.Â Here’s our little routine. On the 24th, IÂ start decorating our Christmas tree in the morning while my sister sets up the nativity set. Then I help my Mom set the dinner table and start cooking Christmas dinner. (While we’re doing this, we light candles, put on some Christmas music or a Christmas movie on TV and snack on the Christmas cookiesÂ everyÂ now and thenÂ ;))
At 5 p.m. we usually go to church and then afterwards meet back at my parents’ house with my great-aunt and granddad. In the last couple of years, my Mom also invited my aunt (her sister) and my cousin Basti, as well as one of her cousins for Christmas Eve dinner. It’s nice to celebrate with a larger group of people.
We exchange our presents, we eat, we talk and just simply enjoy each other’s company. The night usually lasts untilÂ well after midnight.

Christmas day is not as big in Germany as it is in the US, but we usually see other family members that we don’t see on Christmas Eve, like other aunts and uncles, cousins and in-laws. (Well, granted, in my case that is NOT possible, but you get the idea). And then, we also get a 2nd Christmas Holiday in Germany (on the 26th)Â which is really nice and usually a day to “recuperate” from the two previous days ;)

Maybe now you understand why I am looking forward to the holidays with my family!

How do you feel about Christmas? And what do you traditionally do over the holidays?

Recipe: Tell me what I cooked!

November 24, 2008 filed under: food, my so-called life, NaBloPoMo

Look what I found at the store!

I was so excited!

If you aren’t sure what it is, I will let you guess. The woman at the cash register looked definitely a little bit confused and said she hadn’t seen this vegetable before. How the hell do you eat it?

Haha. I thought that was quite hilarious! So I’ll show you how we cook it at home.

Peel!

Cut in cubes!

Boil in water for about 10 minutes.

Combine a table spoon of butter and 8 fl oz of milk. Thicken with starch flour and add nutmeg and a pinch of salt.

VoilÃ !

Now I am technically a PERMANENT resident alien

November 23, 2008 filed under: LDR, my so-called life, NaBloPoMo

… for 10 years at least, before I have to re-apply for the extension of my green card. Sigh.

The two year ‘temporary’ residency mark (since immigration) was reached yesterday and I am now a resident alien (“I am alien, I am a legal alien, I am an Englishman German girl in New York California”Â *lalala* :)) with a permanent status. Wohoo.

The bureaucratic steps to permanent residency were taken weeks ago, but I still have not received my permanent (10-year) green card yet.
I’ll be traveling in a couple of weeks, so I hope everything that I heard is true. Namely, that I can travel with my “Notice of Action”-letter stating that my conditional resident status has been extended for a year until my permanent green card arrives (if you know otherwise, please let me know. Thanks).

It’s really strange that it has been two full years since I left Germany to come and live here permanently. On one hand, it feels much longer, on the other hand times has flown by so, so fast.

A lot has happened in the last two years and not everthing went according to plan, but sometimes you just have to go with what is been placed in front of you.