I love the month of December. I love my German traditions, that some of my family members keep going. We celebrated Advent throughout December with our 4 candle Advent wreath. I used to have red candles, but now I only use beeswax candles, which are better for the environment. I have changed our tradition slightly by starting the first candle a week later, so that the fourth candle is lid on Christmas eve.
At the beginning of December I made a Christmas present list and started buying and making presents. I have decided that next year I will start earlier. Especially with the neighbors, churches and friends presents. I tried to make beeswax candles for the neighbors, but run out of wax and it was not that cheap as I thought it would. I also worked very hard most of the month by making two quiet books for my two youngest grandchildren. I made some mistakes and had to re-do them. Everything is always harder than it looks. Such hard work and not as perfect as I would have liked it. But I enjoyed most of the project, I learned a lot. I noticed that Christmas trees were hard to buy this year and when I bought ours, two weeks before Christmas there were not many trees left.
My daughter celebrates Advent every Sunday, some with families and some with friends. We attended one Sunday and one Sunday, the 12th, we invited some family and friends to celebrate Advent with us. We had a lovely time, everyone got on so well. We ate German soups, homemade sourdough bread (which my nephew’s wife baked) and I had baked three cakes and German goodies. After dinner we lit the candles on our advent wreath and sung Christmas- songs. Afterwards we socialized. The children had fun playing together. A couple from our ward came and we noticed that they were coughing during the evening. David and I could not understand why they would come with a cough during this covid season. A few days later I found out that this couple tested positive for covid. Covid then went through my family. Both my sons family and my nephew had it. I had some symptoms, but tested negative. So again we had another Christmas with only one family being well enough to get together. It was sad, but they all got through it quickly.
David and I watched some Christmas movies during December, always A Christmas Carol, but we also watched It’s a Wonderful Life and some others. One Friday evening we drove with our friends to Salt Lake City (not a good time to drive) to show them the Christkindl Market (like our German Christmas markets. I always enjoy going there, because it reminds me a bit of German Markets, but it was very cold, busy and a long wait for the food, which did not taste great.
We enjoyed Christmas eve with our daughter and family, like every year we celebrated with the German tradition – opening all the presents, eating and enjoying each others company. Christmas day, we went to our daughter’s house again and celebrated Christmas the English way, by having a traditional English dinner – turkey, stuffing, roast potatoes, vegetables and for dessert Christmas pudding. English crackers after dinner. Later we played a game. I am so happy that our traditions keep going through our daughter and family. Our sons do some as well. Christmas is always a special time, a time to remember the birth of our Savior, a time to enjoy the company of family and friends, a time to reflect on past Christmases. I love to listen to Christmas music, especially German.
We had snow before and then on Christmas day again. I love the snow. We had some lovely walks. I took my neighbors dog, Oli, (like every Tuesdays and Thursdays) when it was very cold. He did not mind and loved the snow.
