The last week in the year.

To round off a very quiet and peaceful Christmas we had a link with my brother and his wife yesterday evening. It was a very enjoyable one and a half hours of catching up on ones news and with lots of laughs on both sides.
Christmas Eve day was spent like always setting up and decorating the Christmas tree, the custom being in Germany, that the tree is set up and decorated on Christmas Eve. Also the Christmas presents are given on Christmas Eve.
Father Christmas does not bring the presents but the Christkind (the Christ child)
The main celebration in Germany is Christmas Eve and a pure family one, very quiet and solemn entirely different then the English Christmas Eve. For the foreigner one would think one is morning the death of Christ not the birth.
The words in Germany for Christmas Eve are Still and Besinnlich.
In the afternoon I went out into the woods looking for some moss for our crib. This year my wife stayed at home because of the weather conditions they were rather bad due to the large amount of snow from a few days before.
Our meal for the evening was very traditional, potato salad with Vienna sausages, which we have every year washed down with a bottle of Italian Chardonnay. Afterwards we sat back and watched a very seasonal film on TV.
Christmas day like most families, the morning was spent mainly in the kitchen cooking the Christmas dinner. After the large meal of Turkey, roast potatoes and red cabbage and a bottle of wine we had a well-deserved afternoon nap.
The weather had once again turned around on us giving us fairly warm day and with it melting most of the snow. We can’t complain at least we had some snow for Christmas this year that for our part of Germany is very rare.
Boxing day is one of those days were one seems to loll around the house wishing that the Christmas holidays would soon be over and one can get back to normality.
Once again we have managed to celebrate Christmas without any mishaps, I wonder how many families have managed that?

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

The photo is one taken with my wife’s camera on my way to the shops last Monday and I have done a little processing with photoshop.

Christmas comes but once a year..!!

I have just got back from the shops, (bought the last small items that we need for Christmas) and the shops are full, what with only one and a half days to go till Christmas everyone seems to be in a hurry and I would say most of them are in a stress situation as well.
The last week saw the start of the winter here. On Wednesday and Thursday it snowed and on Friday the temperature were 14 degrees below freezing.
On Sunday it snowed all day from eight in the morning till around nine in the evening, that gave us a round about 25 cm new snow. You can imagine what the road conditions were like? During the night from Sunday till Monday morning there were 1000 accidents alone in our county.
I myself haven’t touched my car since we’ve had snow.
My wife and I will be celebrating Christmas by ourselves; all though we are alone we shall be having the traditional English Christmas dinner Turkey, Roast potatoes and Red cabbage. It’s the only time in the year that I cook and on the occasion I cook the turkey with the roast potatoes (Smile ha ha.)
Looking back over the year we think it has been a good year all in all for us. We have bought a new car and we get our new kitchen at the beginning of January, but the most important thing is, we have not lost any money due to the financial crises.
Health wise it could have been a better one for my wife, what with her fall in spring and then the problems with arthritis in her wrists, which still bother her.
Never the less we can’t complain there are lot’s of people out there that are a lot worse off then we are.
On the Blotter side of things I know have slowed down considerably, my main interest now being focused on Flickr and my photography. This doesn’t mean that I shan’t be making a blog any more, it means that in the future they won’t appear as often as before.

I wish every one a Merry Christmas and a peaceful and healthy New Year.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

The photo is taken from our study window after the heavy snow fall.

Better late then never.

No I haven’t gone into Winterschlaf (hibernation) it’s just that life slows down in winter for us.
I have just got back from my evening walk with the dog and for the third time this week we are both drenched. The weather is absolutely miserable it’s raining most of the time and it’s far to mild for the time of the year.
The flu is on the march I’m glad that my wife and I have had both the normal and the swine flu jab.
We wanted to go to visit the local town Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas bazaar) on Friday evening but once again the weather put a stop to our plans, it poured down.
We are going to (if the weather permits) go to Düsseldorf on Tuesday or Wednesday evening to the Christmas bazaar there, it’s much larger and of course there is much more to see.
My wife is suffering at the moment with arthritis in both her hands; it’s causing her much pain and handy capping her movements a lot. She has been to see the doctor but I have the feeling when you get to a certain age they don’t seem to be very interested in helping you, they put it down to old age.
My wife has been surfing in the net for forums on arthritis and has found one or two interesting articles. One of them being, you take a tablespoon full of cold pressed Sunflower oil in the morning when you get up and chew it or move it about in your mouth for ten minuets then spit it out. There should be some positive affect after about four week.Will keep you posted on the development of this curious method.
Between rain showers I have managed to get out and about with my camera looking for interesting things to take photos of. I have decided on the next nice day I shall go into Düsseldorf for the day and see what I can photograph there.
Yesterday my wife and I backed mince pies; my mate Colin brought back some mince when he visited England early on in the year. We backed 41 pies and we are going to make some more later on in the week. We have given some to both our neighbours to taste because they don’t know what mince pies are, must say there was a positive echo.
Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

The photo speaks for it's self.