Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr!

The last couple weeks have been rich with holiday events. Both clubs that I belong to had a Christmas lunch, we got together with friends at the local Weihnachts Markt for gluhwein, then went for dinner at a local restaurant. I had friends over for dinner, 2 separate evenings. Stopped by the Weihnachts Markt several evenings this week to hear the bands they had playing. (Weihnachts translates into ‘sacred night’) And then we had Christmas Dinner at another friends place last night.

I have been happy with my efforts at entertaining. Having people over to dinner here is a labor of love. The first one I did, Gayle & Dawn came over. (Logan went to see ‘King Kong’.) That dinner was not too difficult to, I was able to get everything from the local MiniMal market. Then on the 20th, we had Glenn & Ewa, and Jackie over. This one was a test. I was not able to shop the day before, so that day I went to the market at ElizabethPlatz to get a chicken to roast. This involves taking the U-Bahn, then a tram, to get to the market. It turns out that they don’t grow big chickens here (I asked for one that was 3 - 4 Kilo, she said ‘Das is eine Puten! – that is a turkey!) so I ended up with 2 chickens for the 5 of us. Got some vegetables at the stand next door, and caught the tram back home. Got everything upstairs, then headed out to get the milk, butter, etc. from the local MiniMal. Got that all upstairs, then headed out again to get wine. There’s a great chain of wine shops here, Jacques Wein Depot. They have a bottle of everything open for tasting. And there’s one only a few blocks away. But they weren’t open yet, so I ended up at another market. Got those bottles home & up the stairs. By now then I want to do was take a nap!

But cooking had to start. I wanted to roast potatoes & carrots along with the chicken, but the ovens here are small. Could not fit both the roasting pan with 2 chickens in it (no room for potatoes) and a separate pan with potatoes in the oven at the same time. So I did them first. While they were cooking, I made some hummus and an artichoke dip for appetizers and prepped the brussels sprouts. Took the potatoes out, got the chickens in. Then assembled both the wet & dry ingredients for biscuits.

When people showed up, we sat in the kitchen first while I warmed the potatoes, sautéed the sprouts and assembled & baked the biscuits. The forced me to take the chickens out while the biscuits were in. It’s true what the chefs say; resting the meat for 10 – 15 minutes out of the oven makes it much juicier.

The meal was great, we used all of our 5 wine glasses, sat around & talked until almost 11. What a day! I now understand what’s involved in having people over & will always make a thank-you call the next day.

The stores and Weihnachts Markts were open yesterday until 2 p.m., and then the streets emptied. It’s been warmer here recently, and the snow is all melted from the sidewalks, so we went out walking. We headed out to Mark and Jean’s yesterday at 7 p.m., and I commented that this would be a good time to film a zombie movie. Hardly anyone on the streets or the trains, which were running a regular weekday schedule.



I still very much love the trains, trams & busses. It’s like having private transport almost to my door. Granted, I have to share with lots of other people sometimes, but I just get in & get out, don’t have to park it or wash it or gas it up. The only downside so far is the sidewalks are sometimes slippery with ice, and they throw down small gravel for traction. And that gets everywhere! I’m vacuuming every day by the door, we are trying to keep the floors in good condition.

It’s very quiet today. Tomorrow is also a holiday, nothing but restaurants are open. This week Logan had planned to rent a car, and we were going to check out interesting places nearby. But he was not able to do this. He’s currently in process to get his German license, and has surrendered his California license. Last time he was able to rent a car using the paper saying all this (in German), including the details of his California license. But not this week. Got a different clerk who said ‘nope’.

So, we will do some shopping locally – Logan needs a warmer winter coat, I need warmer gloves, I want more wine glasses and a couple more baking & serving dishes – and we’ll explore some areas of Munich that we haven’t seen. Maybe we’ll visit the Deutsches Museum, reputed to be one of the best engineering/technology museums in the world. We may also take the train to Salzburg or other places close by.



And we are cat-sitting, Gayle & Geordie brought Breeze over on Thursday night. They are back in the UK for over a week and Gayle didn’t want to leave Breeze in their apartment for that long. Their neighbor would look in & feed her, but that’s a long time for a pet to be alone. (And feeding is not the problem – Breeze is huge! She may weigh 25 pounds and she’s solid.) It’s been fun having a cat around again.

I hope you all are having a great break from your normal routine.