It is finally here, my favorite time of year! I love the whole feeling of Christmas, the decorations, family time and the festivities. This is the kind of Christmas that I have only ever been used to and when I moved away it was hard. For three years, I didn’t do anything, my ex wasn’t big on the holidays so I would just let it go. Where I was, in France was a little underwhelming with Christmas decorations, there were a few houses with lights but most of the people didn’t do much.
Then we moved to Hamburg and the Christmas season quickly turned into my favorite again. Every town had a Christmas Market set up with stalls of little things you can buy, like sculpted candles, puppets, toys and of course the traditional Christmas foods like; Glühwein which is essentially red wine heated with spices, lemon and sugar, Lebkuchen are biscuits which are similar to gingerbread and they are very good and during these markets I can always find a Dutch stall that sells Poffertjes which are mini pancakes covered in butter and powdered sugar and I always looked forward to those. During this time of year, I would always make sure that I would take the routes to work that would allow me to walk through as many as I could. I would start in Bergedorf then go to the Hauptbahnhof and then end in Wandsbek. Over there you can feel the Christmas Spirit and it was all around you. Walking through the markets when I was missing home was always nice. Everyone was happy no matter how cold it was, just spending time with family and friends was what mattered and I enjoyed seeing that.
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Since Thanksgiving is only a few days away, I figured it would be fitting to write about it. Thanksgiving is the day where you are supposed to spend time with loved ones, eating and drinking and being thankful for the things in your life. I must say, it is a holiday that I personally always took for granted. Growing up it was just an excuse to have off from school, sleep in and over indulge on the best food of the entire year. It never really hit me that I liked this holiday until I left home. Not only was I in a place where people bash this holiday but I also had a mother in law who was British and she too would always talk poorly about this holiday every year saying she didn’t understand it. To an extent, sure I get it. It is a day where you are supposed to be thankful for what you have, but instead it turned into a money-making holiday. Everyone needs the best and biggest turkey or the best pies instead of just keeping things simple. I get this side of the argument but at the same time I am guilty because I part take in this holiday too and I do enjoy it. There were a few years where I didn’t do anything for Thanksgiving. One year while I was living in Hamburg and my in-laws moved there as well, we went to an American Club Thanksgiving Dinner. When I heard I was going I was very excited, I couldn’t wait to get a taste of home. But as I was there, it kind of made things harder. It was great meeting new people and hearing their stories of how they got there but at the same time I missed my family. And the food there just didn’t compare to what I was used to, my dad is a wonderful cook. By the time I left I was definitely more homesick. If someone now were to ask me what is the point of this holiday, I would still give them the same answer. But I think it’s important to keep an open mind because everyone has their own way of interpreting what this holiday is about. Some may loose the whole idea all together but I think a lot of us still try to keep the basic outlook. |