Christmas preparations in Germany

A wonderfully German sight: a woman standing at a busstop (quite commonplace)-- with one of those fabric grocery trolleys (Einkaufsroller) (this too is nothing unusual) -- filled with a Christmas tree (at the busstop with a tree(!!) in a trolley(!!) Wow.) Frohe Weihnachten! Just delightful. Hooray for public transportation -- and German shopping habits -- and trees :)

We also bought our own tree -- alone it was amusingly evident that he'd grown up close to his fellows on either side (i.e. a bit flat right and left and bushy to the front and the back) but that didn't bother us, because he would live in a corner anyway ;)

Also notice those tablet-bearing hands -- he seems born to be a waiter -- all those fingers held up to the sky.

We also made some holiday tasties -- pumpkin pie and Baseler Leckerli (i.e. 'Little Tasties from Basel, Switzerland'; a recipe (see below) from one of F's great uncles)

Since then we have invented our own version of partner-yoga ;) (with the actual intent of massaging/providing pressure for back pains and then it ended up so acrobatic!)

Take 1 was photo-bombed by the swivel chair...and Take 2 well, let's just say that getting into position in 10 seconds isn't easy :)

Look at that! Toe-pointing and (allbeit somewhat strained) smiling! We'll call it good :)

written and made (it feels like hundreds of ;) ) Christmas cards,

decorated the tree,

hung up the Christmas cards from the past years,

and visited the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) in Kiel.

Yes, that 'sleigh' is a ship...and that Christmas pyramid is about 3 stories tall! 

F thought it was funny how small my mouth was compared to the side of this tasty "Pfaffenschmaus" bread)

Fröhliche Weihnachten + Merry/Happy Christmas everyone!

Recipe for Baseler Leckerli

Heat the following ingredients with 1/16 Liter water:

500g honey

50-100g sugar

Mix in:

100g candied orange peel

100g candied lemon peel

lemon zest from 1 lemon

15g cinnamon

8g cloves

200g ground almonds

1 teaspoon baking powder

350g coarsely ground whole wheat flour (if no coarsely ground flour available, use normal whole wheat flour)

Mix together and then add up to 350 g normal whole wheat flour until it barely stops being sticky. Pat it out flat (if you sprinkle a little more flour on top of the dough, then you can roll it out) onto parchmet paper so that it's about 1cm thick. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 170 degrees Celcius (325-350 degrees Fahrenheit).

Cut while hot (traditionally in parallelograms, see picture above) and glaze with lemon juice + powdered sugar glaze** and let cool. These are better after 1 or 2 days and still good after 2 or 3 weeks (if they last that long ;) ) Enjoy!

(**If you're new to the frosting/glaze department, then start with a very teensy, tiny amount of lemon juice in a bowl and stir in powdered sugar -- a little liquid goes a long way where powdered sugar is concerned. Keep stirring. If the powdered sugar is completely dissolved but you want more glaze then add more powdered sugar and then more liquid, tiny drop by tiny drop ;) )