Christmas- recap

I am back in Berlin after spending two lovely weeks in Lübbenau with Ronny. Although I still have one more week of vacation- I know, I know, I am lucky!, I have decided to come back to Berlin to enjoy the city a little and to see some friends.
I have unpacked all my things, done two loads of laundry, vacuumed my room (and the bathroom!), dusted my desk and my shelves, watered my plant, made my bed, organized all the the presents I got, and now I am finally ready to write this post!

As you all by now know, I spent Christmas with Ronny, my oyster!, and his family, which included his dad, his mom, his brother and one of his grandmothers. Christmas is celebrated on the 24th of December here in Germany, and the celebration starts with the decoration of the Christmas tree, which is bought well in advanced, but only brought into the house to be decorated on the 24th. This year, Ronny's brother, his father and I decorated the tree, and we settled on a silver theme. If I say so myself, the tree looked quite pretty!

At around 4pm, we all sat down around the table (something we did many more times afterwards!!!) for coffee and Stollen, the German version of a fruit cake.
After our little quatre heures, we- Ronny, his brother and myself- were politely asked to leave the living room, as Santa Claus, or Nikolaus, as we are in Germany, was on his way! The ringing of a bell told us it was time for us to come back in the room. A row of presents was waiting for each of us, and we all started to open our packages! I received a beautiful calendar and a cook book from Ronny. From his parents, I got another cook book (I have a small, but yet again healthy, obsession for cookbooks, and my obsession translates into German too!!!) and a platter- and when I say platter, I really mean a platter! of sweets, which I will be eating for the rest of 2008!!! I also opened some presents that my parents had brought with them when they came to visit me, as well as a gift I received from my friend Anja.

Once all the presents were opened, we settled down around the table for dinner. The big Christmas meal as we know it does not take place on the 24th here, but rather on the 25th and the 26th, at lunch time. Dinner on the 24th consisted of an array of cold cuts, an array of cheese (for my oyster, who is by the way vegetarian), sausages (The best of the Wurst baby!), fresh veggies, fresh bread and home made potato salad (two kinds, one with cut pieces of meat and one without- guess for who!?!?!?). Potato salad is something that is eaten very often here, and it is a MUST for the dinner of the 24th. Everything was delicious and just thinking about all that food is making me hungry!

On the 25th, we were back around the table for a traditional meal, which consisted of turkey, Klöße, which are dumplings made from grated raw and/or mashed potatoes (the dumplings are then cooked in water just like pasta), Rotkohl, which is red cabbage, cranberry sauce (home made by Ronny's mother), stuffing and gravy of course. Everything was prepared by Ronny's mother and everything was DELICIOUS!

The next day, we ate duck, and people, let me tell you that that duck was absolutely UNBELIEVABLE! It was moist and juicy and so so tasty! The five of us, at the great disgust of Ronny!, polished off the poor little duck and felt very happy about it too! And as if that was not enough, that evening, our dinner consisted of an assortment of cheeses, which we ate while drinking a bottle of Mission Hill red wine, which my parents brought over from Montreal.

All I have to say is that it is a good thing that I don't weigh myself, because I am sure I would have a heart attack at seeing the number on the scale!!!

In the next post, I will recap my New Year's Eve, which was pretty explosive.....!