Posted by Alright, if you’re already doubting the literal interpretation of the first half of the title, I shall say in my defence that so far we’ve celebrated 3 separate Christmases, decorated a total area comparable to the Taj Mahal, listened to about 120 hours of Christmas music (not including our own constant singing) and eaten 5 ½ Christmas’s worth of Christmas food…Some of that’s an exaggeration – but how something feels is often an extrapolation of the literal experience anyway so it wouldn’t be inaccurate to add “it felt like” in front of that paragraph!
Let me start by setting one thing in colourful concrete: I love Christmas. You may have guessed that by the enthusiasm over Christmas markets but, in case you didn’t, there it is simple and plain. I’ve decided that Germany is the most strategic place for a Christmas-enthusiast to be this time of year simply because it’s longer. The formal event begins on the evening of the 24th Dec and continues straight through until the 26th. Amazing!
Christmas for Jemma and me technically started in Australia with an early decoration and family celebration in November. It was continued a few weeks back as we decorated Moni and Siggi’s house and then again with Ingrid and Ralf hunting down The Tree and ‘bejewelling’ it (what a cool direct translation!) and their house, followed by the Christmas dinner parties and the early Christmas Eve shenanigans. Enter current week details: After a teary exchanging of tight hugs and “Ich hab dich lieb” with Ingrid, Ralf & Wilfried the celebration continued more officially back at Moni and Siggi’s house with Kai. Another tree, a grand gift exchange, wrapping paper ice-skating, potato salad and sausages featured on the evening of the 24th. The 25th was the day of turkey and red cabbage and Klöse (fluffy potato balls) and baked fruit and Stollen (German Christmas cake), and the necessary walks to make space for the next round. The 26th functioned as Visitation Day. Kai, Jemma and I popped in to Ingrid and Frank W in the morning and the afternoon was a lovely time spent reuniting with the Röths (childhood friends; GOOOOOODNESS ME how Benni and Nikolay have grown, although I suppose we all have) and their family including the lovely Lilith, who some of you may have met when she stayed with us earlier this year. It’s remarkably surreal being visited by the same person on two different sides of the world! Awesome, and lovely meeting her sister Chiara and fam as well during the mandatory dog walk. Of course, we also had to finish the turkey that evening as part of the mirrored meal from the night before. Goodness, the number of traditional meals that Germans have for particular occasions is amazing. It feels almost cheesy (haha), but it’s such a legitimate part of life here that it’s not. Speaking of, we have consumed an uncountable amount of mandarins because they’re a classic Christmas food here, and my do they taste and smell good – such a Christmas association.
Now, if you’re still doubting the literal interpretation of the first half of the title of this blog then I suggest that you’re a lost case to Christmas. They even have Christmas teacups and crockery (and there’s a glimpse of my future)! However I’ll go on a bit of a proud tangent here: the full title is one I’m quite pleased with because it features a marvellous play on words: “God’s Graciousness” is absolutely reflected in Christmas, hence its initial appropriateness (don’t hesitate to ask what on earth we’re talking about if that sounds a bit strange!), but the phrase also nicely encompasses the non-Christmas highlight of this week: our aunt (Dad’s sister) is a missionary at the moment and she flew across to spend a few days with us. A broad example of God’s graciousness in itself, but I’m most pleased because her name actually means ‘God is Gracious’…hence the grin that appears whenever I read the title. (If you appreciate that wordplay as much as I do then I’m glad to have brought you joy; if you didn’t…then you’re likely normal.)
Our aunt was with us from the 27th to the 30th and what an awesome few days absolutely filled with encouragement. We bumbled around on an outdoor significantly-larger-than-previously-experienced ice rink (we must have seemed desperate fooling around with the wrapping paper on Christmas eve!), adventured up to Auerbacher Schloss again, played MUCH Canasta (the real version in case anyone *coughjosiahherweynen* has doubts as to the definition), revisited the hilarity and cringe-worthiness of Miranda, and thoroughly enjoyed just being around each other. We managed to find the walnut trees that we used to collect from when we were little as a bit of a bonus. There’s nothing like a few hours spent walking and talking, laughing and giraffing around with people you love – golly, we’re so remarkably blessed by our family and the relationships we have with them, the ones close to home and the ones further away. This trip has been a crazy example of that. Jemma, our aunt and I headed to church with Ingrid W this week and that’s the other very cool family thing I’ve found – being part of God’s family basically means that you can walk into church anywhere around the world (granted, there are many types of churches and not all of them are Christian so it does depend on what church you go to) and you’re surrounded by your (massively extended) fam; there is something remarkably empowering and comforting about that, especially being so far from home for so long. This week’s service was particularly lovely as we saw Julia, Leoni and Anna, Ingrid’s granddaughters who also stayed with us in Tas last year.
The Singaporean police finally caught up with us over the gum confusion… 
Walnuts! 
Leoni, Ingrid W, Julia and Anna
Phone calls from home filled out some of our mornings and evenings this week. It’s stunning getting to see/hear some of the home team, golly we miss being there – particularly this last week. Jemma’s excitement at getting to speak normal English is easily measured by her words to minutes ratio. She may as well keep speaking German for all the listeners are able to understand, such is her drastically increased speed. Hilariously, there’s a point at about 7pm most evenings that we reach (it’s quite reliably predictable) when Jemma transforms into something not too different from a giddy and nonsensical hyena because of the lack of English and energy used up during the day, leading to an overflow of her brain’s raw data spilled out onto either me or into any occasion that permits English or energy exertion. It’s a most entertaining and exhausting experience. The other less effective evening entertainment has been watching winter sports with Siggi – we can’t have our own snow so we have to just appreciate everyone else’s.
Like a well-oiled machine the wheels and cogs of our social life inevitably continued spinning, our aunt rotating out as Kai and his girlfriend Andrea slotted in for the lead-up to the new year 2020…2020!!! Golly, I feel a bit like a hot potato sometimes, jumping from one place or person to the next. And so fast! Interesting note: everything in and about Germany feels fast (trains, speech, cars, our agenda) except the people themselves. They all seem to have time for a friendly conversation in the middle of whatever they’re doing and I think that will be one of the saddest parts of the culture to say farewell to when we come home. The moments where I feel like my brain is allowed to slow down is on the train rides, which is a beautiful slice of irony considering that’s when it’s physically travelling at its fastest outside of the aeroplane trips! There’s something happily nostalgic about sitting on a train seeing people rushing around the stations with flowers, excitement and anticipation in their eyes, or big smiles on their faces as they’re met by equally thrilled loved ones. It does remind us that we’re away from some of our special people, but also brings much joy knowing we have the same thing waiting for us at the end of each of those trips.
Our adventures with Kai and Andrea were lovely. Typical conversation, Skipbo and walks are always good time fillers with good company. The four of us went on an excursion to Heppenheim followed by Auerbacher Schloss by dusk, and was that cool or was that cool! Heppenheim is another old town, classic buildings from the 1500s and a big cathedral. Inside the cathedral was a stunning. To top it off, we happened to be the only ones there as we were leaving so naturally Jemma and I sang…although do we ever really stop?…and I can confirm that the acoustics there are prime, demonstrated by our somewhat patchy A Capella rendition of You Raise Me Up. I loved every second. Walking through the town itself felt like we were in a fairy-tale with the little cobblestoned streets winding between tight rows of beautifully old stacked cottages. Have I said how much I appreciate cobblestoned streets? Well I do; they’re so sweet and old and patchworky! The view from Auerbacher Schloss was a captivating contrast with the lights of the towns sprawled out below us in a glittering panorama, twinkling brighter as the sunlight faded into the shadow of the last night before 2020…2020!!!!!
And so we came to the crux of it all; New Years Eve, what a time! Prepare yourselves for more tradition because deep breath in and here we go: First off came decorations which were put over the top of the Christmas ones. The classic preparation for the afternoon Kaffee and Kuchen saga followed, which on this occasion involved hunting down Berliners (those marvellous creations aka jam filled donuts) in a mildly Hunger-Games-inspired style due to the many others subtly battling to frantically acquire the compulsory celebration snack. Raclette was the only appropriate meal choice on such an occasion, followed promptly by a communal viewing of Dinner for One. The live countdown from Berlin featured as the subsequent supporting act to the classic Feuerzangenbowle (fire-pincer-punch; mulled wine with brandy-soaked sugar melted in using live flame) as it was prepared and cosily consumed. This all led to the pinnacle moment of sekt-filled glasses raised high in salute of the passing of another year – another decade – and the ushering in of the new one, 2020………..2020!!!!!!! You haven’t experienced a New Years Eve party until you’ve walked into the streets of a German town amongst the acrid smoke of firecrackers as rockets and Catherine wheels and poppers; all manner of assorted fireworks explode from every street corner in a cacophony of colour and light and sound, the spaces in between filled with glowing faces and exuberant calls of “Frohes Neues Jahr!”. Jemma was as thrilled as I get over bioluminescence, dancing around and repeating the same meaningless exclamatory phrase as all her excitement got caught up on itself, tripping out in crazy jumbles…so that’s what it looks like.
Spot the new decorations… 
Raclette! 
Oh-so-joyful Dinner for One reaction 
Berliner 
Feuerzangenbowle 
With all that said and done, we exclaim an enthusiastic HAPPY NEW YEAR across the oceans to you all and pray that your joy would abound in 2020……..2020!!!!!!!!!
Jesus loves you, and so do we Xx
L & J & B
(It rhymes!!)
I loooooooooooved my time with you girls!!! You are amazing!!!!!!! 😀