In need of some christmas cheer

Oh great, it must be THAT time of the year again - someone in my family is dying. Last November my grandfather suddenly died. This year's it's my father's first wife who's in the hospital and, apparently, dying. She went in for an operation at the beginning of October, to have a tumor in her asophagus removed. Everything went absolutely fine and she would've recovered perfectly were she not anorexic. This woman has had an eating disorder for 25 years and is now down to about 27 kg. She's dying of frickin' undernourishment, or physical weakness or I don't know what. The doctors say it's a question of days.

Now my father's first wife - that's not exactly traditional family. But her and my mother have been friends for a very long time, and occasionally I'd have even considered her friends with my father. To me she's kind of an aunt, who used to look after me a lot whenever my parents were on business trips (which used to be quite frequently the case). As a kid I used to hate her of course, because my child's mind couldn't grasp the idea that my father used to be with someone other than my mom *gasp* :) I was a horrible brat to her, which in turn made her resentful towards me. But we learned to treat each other right over time and since then I've always considered her family. Her dying... it's not made any easier by the fact that her real relatives come directly from hell. Her sister already has an eye on her money (it's not that much and she's not that much in need of it, but that doesn't seem to stop her), constantly taking money out of her sister's account. While my mum and I were at the hospital yesterday this evil woman got my father to drive her to her dying sister's flat to get clothes to dress her in when she's dead! She's so "pragmatic" it makes me sick... She even talked to an undertaker already today. These are only some of the worst things she's doing. And we can't do anything about it, because we're not officially immediate family. It pisses me off...

However, this is the reason why I'm in dire need of some Christmas cheer in my life, so I got out all our Christmas decorations today, put on some Christmas music Finn had taken out because she's organizing a Christmas party at work. And then I went all out :) I decorated our living room cupboard with reindeers and baubles and the little silver stars Finn made for our first Christmas together 3 years ago. And of course there's the token chain of lights. On the window pane there's also a little pot I decorated last year with wonky but lovingly self-made candy canes and a reindeer sticking out of it.

 

 

I love Christmas. I always have, however dysfunctional it might be - in my and everyone else's family. Maybe that's because it's so close to my birthday (23rd) and that automatically makes it one big holiday for me. Or maybe it's because I have the fondest memories of my grandparents (Viennese and Hungarian together) taking me for a walk in the snow so the "Christkindl" could come and bring the presents (back then the Baby Jesus as a gift-giver was still more common than Santa Clause). I remember the empty and snowy streets of my district as completely peaceful. Almost everyone was at home, with the lights sneaking out of the windows into the streets. And whoever wasn't home yet, was just biding time like we were.

When we got home, noses red from the cold the door to the living room was closed and I waited anxiously for the sound of the bell which the Christkindl would ring once it was done laying out the presents. And I'd barge into the room torn between the flickering candlelight and the neatly wrapped presents beneath it. I had to sing through a whole round of Christmas songs and play some on my recorder. When I was older I'd accompany the singing on the piano and even later I'd play some music on my bassoon with my mum accompanying me on the piano. Then, and only then would I finally get to open my presents. I loved that model railway (no, wait, I had actually gotten that the day before for my birthday). There were matchbox cars and other toys, and always many many books that would barely last me for the holidays.

Today Christmas has become much more about giving for me. I love the christmas calendar I made for Finn this year simply because she loves opening the little presents. I love giving self-made foodstuffs to family, knowing they'll be eating something that I put a lot of effort into. I love how my mum "oooh"ed and "aaaah"ed about my homemade slow food pesto (no food processor came near that!) and how Finn's dad's eyes lit up when he reached into the jar with the homemade toffees or sipped the eggnogg I'd bottled only a day ago. This year I'm making mozzarella (ok, I'll try making mozzarella) and a chocolate spread (nutella style) and some rucola pesto. I love searching for my newest gift-ideas or experimenting to find out the perfect nut-rucola combination...

These days, as I'm reading so many english-written cook blogs and cook books, Christmas has probably also become more American around our own flat. A chain of lights would have been out of the question back when - still is today for my parents I think -, but I just love how it softly lights up my room, making it homely and just a tiny bit festive - with only a fireplace missing. I have to keep myself from putting the decorations up too early - that's how much I love Christmas. Since I never especially liked any of the german language songs my Christmas music has become strictly American/English too.

Now, in memory of the for now sadly dormant Soundcafe I give you my Top 7 Favourite Christmas Songs

1. Hard Candy Christmas (Dolly Parton)
2. All I want for Christmas (Olivia Olson from the Love Actually soundtrack)
3. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting on an open fire)
4. White Christmas
5. The first noel
6. I'll be home for Christmas
7. Santa Baby

On the 24th Finn and I will have a lazy morning and a lavish breakfast accompanied by the movie Love Actually. Love Actually is my favourite Christmas movie so I've turned it into a tradition that we watch it on Christmas day. And then I won't mind however the evening goes or where we'll spend it (my parents / her's / driving from one to the other like crazy).

not everyday is a holiday

I just booked a holiday for us. I'm gonna hand in my thesis (again) in the middle of September (15th or 16th I reckon) and on the 19th Finn and I are going to leave for Sweden for a week. And Finn's sister will stay with our bunnies (which I'll have a hard time leaving nonetheless).
We still have to book our flights and arrange for a rental car, but it's going to be our first holiday in - forever, so I'm pretty exited about this. A week of relaxing in Smaland sounds so very enticing... the bungalow apparently even has a fireplace. And I'm a sucker for fireplaces :)

photo story

as you all know finn and I went on holiday back in december. here are finally some pictures from the frozen lake on which we skated one day and went for a walk the next day. beautiful landscape and also a very refreshing holiday (unfortunately not much of the refreshment is left now in our bodies and minds).

frozen Neusiedlersee


sidearm of the frozen lake, wouldn't dare skating over there



There's also this game I play with cameras, it's called catch me properly if you can:

Happy belated New Year, everyone!

Based on shazza's confession of being an old married fart I shall confess to: we're young married farts. We had planned for a friendly couple of ours to come over on New Year's Eve to have fondue with us. I had already prepared three different dips when we got the call that one of the girls was sick to her stomach. They insisted we'd come to their place to eat, but we decided it would probably be better for her not to eat at all and not have to watch us indulge. We postponed the dinner to the next day, no problem with that, but we ended up spending the evening alone at home again, playing on the Wii and watching Ally McBeal. How boring can ye be?

Afterwards we found out that Mika Vember had had a gig that evening. We'd probably have gone, if we hadn't found out two days later. And hey, that wasn't even our fault, not this time ;)

Christmas time

I'm not a very traditional gal, so of course I forgot/didn't have time to post Christmas wishes actually before Christmas. But I do hope that all of you had a very lovely Christmas and enjoyed the last couple of days with whomever you spent them with :)

Here's a quick update on my Christmas which was actually very enjoyable. Finn's family - where we had dinner - was a bit on edge this year, but fortunately the situation never escalated. My family was peaceful and I really enjoyed going there after the loudness at Finn's parents'. My dad even made me my favourite cake this year and my mum decorated it - I think they haven't done that this properly in years. I absolutely loved it. I also got some really cool presents and not only money (as much as I can make use of it I hate money presents).

I had been fretting so much about my birthday, but it turned out great. We spent a comfy morning at home and then Finn took me Carrera racing. Back at home my friend C. dropped by and gave me a cookbook and stuff and a ticket to a Herman van Veen concert. Yay, cause I love Herman van Veen. And then later Finn and I made ourselves some sushi.

Right now I'm trying to catch up with all the online stuff while Finn is playing golf on the awesomest of awesome Wii that she bought for us for Christmas. I have eaten way too much candy and can still not stop ;) Tomorrow I'll go work but on Friday we're leaving for our mini-holiday. After that I will have to turn to my thesis and finally get something done. But only in the new year will I be prepared to do so.

this snow just beat the first snow

remember my glee about this year's first snow? Nothing against what greeted us today. Finn took the camera with her so you'll only be treated to camera phone pictures.






I'm totally in Christmas mood now and almost look forward to trudging through the snow to my parents' place to repair something on their computer. Damnit I love snow :)