Christmas

Since it is the last few days before Christmas I decided to join a post by Old School Blogging, even though I am too late to join the linkup. But it is their holiday edition and I thought the questions fun so I am sharing them and, of course, my answers with you.

Kir from The Kir Corner is co-hosting Old School Blogging this month!  She came up with these super fun questions.This is OSB the Holiday Edition!  Copy and paste the questions below and join us in some holiday cheer, I know Kir could use extra! Don’t forget to tweet with us too, using the hashtag, #OSBlog!

First things first: 1 Holy Night or 8 Crazy Ones? (Do you Celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, both?)

Christmas!  But I am not sure about 1(!) holy night, because being from Germany we are actually opening presents on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day we usually have a feast, with or without (depending on if we travel) family.

Peppermint or Chocolate?

Well, in Germany peppermint is not really associated with Christmas,so… chocolate! 

Sing us into the Holiday Season, what is your favorite Carol this time of year?

Another tough one. I was never too much into traditional Christmas songs or carols, but the one that immediately comes to mind is ‘Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht’ (Holy Night), because when I was a kid it was our church’s traditional last song, after which we could run, ahem, walk home to open pressies.

These days I love listening to Pandora and have a mixed variety of old and modern Christmas songs. To name a few: Chris Rea’s ‘Driving home for Christmas’ – because I have done that often enough, Band Aid ‘Do they know its Christmas’, Melanie Thornton’s ‘Wonderful Dream’ and The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl’s Fairytale of New York. And there are many, many more.

Tell us about a Favorite Family or Personal Holiday Tradition.

When I grew up our Christmas Eve always looked like this: Mom and us kids went to church and while we were there, Dad would spread out the presents, light the candles (real ones!) and put on a record playing Christmas music. Coming home from church we were led into the ‘good room’ aka living room and were allowed to open our presents. Then we all walked over to my grandparent’s living room: More presents! This was swiftly followed by dinner. Which was always potato salad and hot franks. These days David and my tradition is to have Sushi on Christmas Eve after opening our presents while listening to Christmas music. The tree has already been put up and lit many, many times, in fact it is lit right now.

C’mon you remember your favorite  (Christmas, Hanukkah) gift, tell us all about it:

Hmm, I guess my favorite gift as a kid was my bicycle. Which, despite it being snowy cold outside, I could try out in our big hall – yay! As an adult – my very first Christmas gift from David when we had only been together for a few months, a watch that I am still wearing. Then there has always been one or the other electronic toy from desktop innards of some kind to camera or lenses, like last year my beloved D800.

That magical moment? (Your favorite scene from a Holiday movie…it’s okay if you have 2)

Honestly?! There is none. The one film I do remember, it always gets shown on German TV around Christmas / New Year, is: Little Lord Fauntleroy, which is really charming.

Kissing under the mistletoe?  Who do you hope is standing underneath (We know it’s normally your spouse, if it did not have to be, who would you choose?)

Not my spouse, huh?! Let’s see… Steve McQueen is dead, so are River Phoenix, Heath Ledger and also Paul Walker. Do you see a pattern?! So, how about Hugh Jackman? Or Ethan Hawke? Pierce Brosnan is an ol’ time favorite – see I can come up with non-blond-blue eyed and alive men – hahaha

Swans a swimming, lords a leaping, golden rings; which gift of the 12 days of Christmas would you like most?

This, again, is no German tradition, but after having read up on it, I’d have to go with the ‘swans-a-swimming’. Why? Easy, because there has to be water where swans are and I love water!

Play Secret Santa, what inappropriate gift would you love to give this year?

I am only gifting my hubby and he would never get something inappropriate from me.

Martha Stewart or the Grinch? What is your decorating style? (Pictures would be awesome!)

Well, not 100 % sure what these two stand for, but as with all our style and interior deco, it is a mix of modern with dabs of old. This year, I actually did get new decorations for our tree, all in blue, glass and silver and I also have a couple of stars hanging in my windows and I love it. But my very traditional German wooden pyramid has to be part of it, too.

 

What is ONE WORD that defines the holiday season for you? (Examples: Believe/Wonder/Bah Humbug?)

Happiness (together with loved one(s))

If Santa could assure its delivery, what’s the first thing on your holiday wish LIST?

A new kitchen! 🙂

So there you have it, my holiday edition blog post on the 4th advent, the last Sunday before Christmas. David and I will both be working tomorrow, all the while our great help will be doing some cleaning around the house so that we are all set for Christmas and a few days off. Both of us are looking forward to that quiet time together with lots watching movies, cooking together, playing computer games, editing photos and so on.

We wish you all a very merry Christmas!

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