Christmas in Brandenburg

Christmas in Germany is what I imagine most families everywhere do. Family you haven't seen in a year drive over and you gather at one place to eat until you don't ever want to hear the word 'food' again. I never experienced such a Christmas because my family outside of its immediate members reside in Japan and living in NY never made it easy to come together. Now it's almost routine to ask Oli which house we're going to on which day and what we should bring and wear.

The morning of Christmas Eve was a peaceful one.



The tree was ready and I had finally finished wrapping the gifts to put under the tree!!


I also made some pancakes! Pancakes are kinda my specialty. If I'm not feeling creative but want a nice breakfast, pancakes are my go to. Pancakes + holiday music = the best way to spend the morning.

After breakfast we went to Oli's mother's house. Her house was literally covered in cute Christmas decorations.





After many hours of tea, coffee, cake, card games, and dinner, we went back home to sleep. It's normal in Germany to open gifts on Christmas Eve but to stay true to my American tradition of opening gifts on Christmas morning, we decided to sleep and wait til the next day to open presents.


The smoking figure Oli put out for Christmas.




Sorry for the photos from blursville and my red puffy face (was a bit under the weather) but we were excited to open gifts!

The gift I was most excited about was the one I gave Oli.

Oli has a pair of Adidas sneakers that he literally wore TO DEATH in the past 3 years. I had several ideas for gifts over the past 2 months or so but then it hit me to replace his sneakers because I knew that unless they fell apart on his feet, he probably wouldn't replace them. I got him the same exact model and great gaggling goose, look at the difference!!! Mind blown.

After present opening and cat feeding, we got to work in the kitchen preparing food for ourselves.


Honestly doesn't get much more German than this, does it?

It was a really nice few days just talking, eating, and playing games. I think it's kind of crazy how this year just flew by and it's already nearing the end of 2014 and the start of 2k15! I am super excited for what's to come. Hopefully this blog will see some positive changes as well. Look forward to my next post, which will be a continuation of some Christmas fun!