Friends. Winter coats, gloves & hats, a fire in the garden – that was the idea. A storm made us sit around the fire in the living room (which was as nice).
A delicious home made Hungarian Goulash soup is getting us started… And then we finally prepared the pot of Glühwein… red wine, cinnamon sticks, oranges & lemons, star anise, honey… that smell… hmmmm!
Heating up the mulled wine, soaking the sugar cone in 80% (flammable) rum and matches were doing the rest… spectacular flames. Melting sugar dripping into the pot. Wonderful to watch while having the film the “Feuerzangenbowle” projected to the wall – what an event. For most of our guests the first Feuerzangenbowle (now big fans of it).
A beautiful & delicious evening. Happy 3rd Advent!
Cinnamon. Oranges. Rosemary. Cloves. Cranberries. Nutmeg. It’s smelling wonderfully everywhere. Christmas markets. Street food (everybody is cooking deliciously at home). Our home. The Office. Wonderful Christmas smell everywhere.
A little Christmas get together in the office: amazing cookies.
We enjoyed being crafty this weekend: Our kitchen is smelling lovely from making bee wax candles followed by baking cookies: cinnamon & chocolate flavors.
Mulled wine. Mmhhhhh. Oranges.
Christmas tree needles.
Candles. Red & beautifully smelling. A wood fire. So cozy.
The day after Nikolaus… Cappuccino with Nikolaus for breakfast… he didn’t last very long, sorry. But was very tasty.
Now watching “love actually”. A bit of Christmas kitsch is a must. Happy 2nd Advent y’all!
Christmas Market. Mulled Wine. Cookies. Winter coat. Boots. Candles. Happy people. Beautifully decorated houses & homes. Raclette. Sofa. Duvet. Lebkuchen. It’s the season. Counting until the Christmas holidays…
Nikolaus invention in our canteen.
Minus 6C degrees in the morning. Frozen car window screens. Blue sky. Sunshine. It’s perfect. It’s December. It’s the season. (For me one of) The most wonderful time of the year has started (I successfully ignored all the Lebkuchen and Spekulatius you can already get in the stores since August). It’s December. It’s time to enjoy the magical season.
amazing decoration at the Christmas market.
It’s the time of rituals. Rituals which make us feel like children again. Time for family traditions. And new traditions. Own traditions. I’m excited like a little kid. We haven’t had Christmas in Europe for a long time. You might be able to imagine my “deficit”… I cannot wait for the Christmas market (or the Sternle market how it is called in Swabia) and mulled wine (the white one is amazing) and a chocolate Nikolaus and Lebkuchen… the house decorating is on-going including one of the bigger challenges: convincing my husband that Christmas time is the best time of the year! We will have our own Christmas tree (actually it’s two) – the first time since we met.
tree no.2 – klein aber oho!
We are following American traditions and the tree is already set up (thanksgiving). I love it. I cannot stare at it often enough. I wish I didn’t have to go to work but would have enough time for baking cookies, enjoying all the wonderful Christmas markets and sit with candle light and a cup of tea at home. Happily.
And the all time favorite (or most hated) song is back: “Last Christmas” in all radio stations and at home on the vinyl (and CD). Around the clock. Hubby hates it while I am loving it and cannot get enough (it’s limited time, you know. It will be over soon again).
The most wonderful gift to myself: preparing Christmas: decoration, advent, wrapping gifts while listening to Christmas songs, enjoying a cup of tea and reading my daily advent calendar. Making plans what to cook at Christmas. I enjoy slowing down, clearing the mind, thinking of the past 12 months and writing & posting our obligatory Christmas letter.
Raclette
I like to walk around and see how everybody gets ready. The nature for winter and the people for Christmas. Every day a new tree is light. A new star in the window. A new lantern with a candle. And tomorrow it’s St. Nikolaus day!
surprising my work colleagues from China and Portugal.
Preparing for the most wonderful time of the year: Christmas! (My secret: the earlier you start the less stress you have. When all others wake up and freak out, I am finished and can enjoy my cup of mulled wine).
What you need to know: my husband is not a very big fan of Christmas (I cannot understand it… but that is a different story)… and sorry but I have to ignore that this year. Because I am loving it. I am excited. I haven’t had a classic German Christmas in 8 years. You might imagine my “deficit”.
The preparation has started a couple of weeks ago and is on-going. The decision pro Christmas tree was made by me (he kind of agreed and even suggested to carry it up to our living room. Yeah!). We have never had our own tree since we met. This year it’s about time.
So many choices to make. So many wonderful things to choose from. So many decisions to be made: LED lights vs. wax candles vs. normal clip lights. Once the decision is made pro electronic clip lights, the next one is about the color: warm-white, yellow-white, or whatever other white? Or how about single electronic candles you clip on the tree and while you can chill on the sofa your remote control is able to change your lights into “full light”, “flickers” or “off”. Quite impressive.
The story continues: which color for the ornaments? Gold, modern navy blue, green, classic red or silver? When is the right time to buy? Will even more beautiful things come into the shops? We also need a tree stand and a tree skirt (that’s very American).
And finally and most importantly: it’s time to find a tree (since I couldn’t decide for one color ornaments we will be having 2 trees. One big and one little one. But psssst. Hubby doesn’t know yet). Today was a beautiful Sunday to go with friends and find the most beautiful tree (this is our first time to find and cut the tree by ourselves. So far we have onlz seen this in films). We had so much fun walking with our Wellington boats around looking at all the trees to find the perfect one for our home.
It didn’t take us long and we found it: no. 1627234.
Our first cup of Gluehwein this year and well deserved.
The song “driving home for Christmas” has been in my mind since days… it almost didn’t fit in our mini. But we got it safely home.
Soon we will set it up (following the American traditions after Thanksgiving) and put up all the wonderful ornaments. I love the season! Happy Holidays!
Our friends got a beautiful one, too. She’s right!
Girls fun. 8:30pm start. Cinema advertising. Big screen. 3.5C degrees. It’s dark. 2nd time (first time was the Joker). This time girls night & Christmas kitsch. A cup of tea and dinner inclusive. Wonderful. Last Christmas… the season has started…
A week filled with laughs, old memories, a glass of wine and delicious dinner. A week with guests, favorite guests. Friends.
A dog, a kid and 2 adults: unexpected & wonderful visitors. Friends we haven’t seen in a long time. Too long. We had a wonderful evening.
A birthday gift: rolling Vietnamese-Swabian spring rolls – of course home made with some imported ingredients! Super delicious!
A weekend filled with old and new memories, a baby & a dog (sharing food and becoming buddies), home brewed beer, relaxing breakfasts, autumn hikes around our new place Hemmingen (discovering ruins and short cuts which turned out in quite some long cuts), many rounds of the favorite game Carcassone, discovering music instruments… what a wonderful weekend.
Friends are like stars, they come and they go, but the ones that stay are the ones that glow. We are happy to be your friends.
„Ohhh ich hab‘ solche Sehnsucht, Ich verliere den Verstand! Ich will wieder an die Nordsee, ohoho Ich will zurück nach Westerland!“
Our personal re-integration program “back in Germany” continues very successfully. We arrived by auto train in Westerland. We are at the most northern part of Germany, in Nordfriesland. Introducing my husband to a new part of Germany and I’m happy to be back in the north after many years: Sylt, an island to fall in love with. Definitely.
Salt in the air. Somebody says that Sylter air is like Champagne (so sparkling clean. So fresh. So good). Wind breaker instead of bikini, mulled wine instead of chilled beer and deserted beaches instead of high season. 7C degrees, windy, rainy and sometimes a sweet surprise of sunshine, blue sky inclusive – I love being at the North Sea in fall/winter. You only know what you missed once you get it back.
the best crab bread ever.
Is there anything better than having a cup of tea (Rooibos cream orange – my new favorite) or a Pharisäer (coffee with rum) after a long windy walk along the beach? Delicious apple pie inclusive (and cream, of course).
We loved the Wattwanderung with our guide Jan: Herzmuschel, Miesmuschel, Austern, Sylter Seekühe, amerikanische Schwertmuschel… “hier’s Watt los!”
Sylter Seekuehe.
If the sun makes it out… the sunset is just as stunningly.
Friesen Häuser: the charme of the island. Can I please move here?
My love for the lighthouses. Aren’t they beautiful?
In Sylt the wind styles your hair. And the national drink: tea. Leuchtfeuertee, Dünenfeuer, Sylter Harmonie… soooo good! Beach walks, reading, a candle oil massage (wow!), dune hikes, beach walks… and all you need: Wellington boots, a warm coat, a heat & a scarf, an umbrella and sometimes sunglasses. We truly enjoyed the rough northern fresh air.
Strandkorb. Not many left, already tidied up for the winter.
Bus stops with a roof made out of reet, where the wind styles your hair and blows your mind (free again), endless miles of beach, fish & beer – that’s Sylt. We loved being here. Back in the north. It feels still a little bit “home”. We had a wonderful windy time.
We are back. Together. It’s been a long time. Too long. Visiting my sister & her family. My (wild & sweet) good child. Halloween. Celebrating the day of the death (including watching Coco). Spending wonderful morning hours in the kitchen baking & decorating (dolphins, Ariel, snowball & Christmas trees, colorful & sugar sweet…) muffins (and of course eating them). It’s all about unicorns. Birthday (belated and early) celebrity. And first earrings. And horses. And pre-Christmas strolling (& shopping) in Worpswede. So beautiful. I love fall. I love being back and spending time with my favorite people.
The best & sweetest home made muffins.
…in best company.
you can never have enough unicorn cake… girl’s birthday party time!
Ischa Freimaak. An all-time favorite. So much fun. Chocolate banana. Kettenkarussell (300m up… ahhhhh…) & Riesenrad. Cheese Kreiner. Popcorn. Matjes. Wilde Maus roller coaster (much scarier than expected!!). Helium balloons (of course a unicorn). Crepe. Sausages. And so much fun.
free & happy in the air…
Creative rainy Saturday mornings: painting muffin cups and salad bowls. So much fun. Excited to see the final result in about a week.
Pumpkin (after-) Halloween preparation. One friendly and one scary looking pumpkin. I’m sure ghosts will stay far away.
everybody’s favorite place: what a view!
best meal and time of the day: common breakfast.
the area is very charming & beautiful!
the northern couple.
We had a fantastic weekend & enjoyed every moment! Hope to welcome you in our home in the south soon.
We haven’t had enough of the North yet… on the way further north now… Moin, moin Sylt!
A little unexpected. A little surprised to be back in China so quickly. This time a business trip: Shanghai, Suzhou & Beijing. It felt kind of weird to be back. And even more weird to stay in a hotel next to our former apartment in Shanghai…
Home.
I loved being back. It feels more home than Stuttgart yet. Meeting old & new friends. Delivering my imported sauerkraut (it made it through the x-ray check). Using WeChat for paying again. Feeling home. Driving with DiDi. Enjoying Chinese food: hairy crab from Suzhou river – it’s the season, Cantonese style, Shanghai & Suzhou style, Peking duck (1.5hours waiting for a table was absolutely worth it…), hot pot… Feeling the crowds & happily enjoying to be in the middle of it. Enjoying the Shanghai view. Spending time with favorite people. In favorite restaurants & bars. And the best part: the massages (thanks John & Sophia!!! It was worth traveling that far just for the massage!!) in my favorite spa. Pedicure inclusive. And manicure.
Hairy crab from Suzhou River.
Enjoying a fantastic dinner with a view.
Breakfast.
Eating the best part of the pigeon: the head.
The hotel view to our former apartment.
My “home office” for one afternoon.
Simply Art. Breakfast in my old favorite cafe.
Beijing knows how to make Laugenbroetchen.
Suzhou office.
Traditional: Hot Pot in fall.
It’s great to be back. And China feels (still) more home than Germany (so far). Although, I’m looking forward to fresh air in Hemmingen.
A drink with a view. My Shanghai.
Bye bye for now. My heart is still in Shanghai. Hope to be back soon.
