An unforgettable Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everybody's having an amazing holiday season!

Christmas is so similar yet so different here.  But it's not only the fact that I'm in another country that makes things different, but instead it's the fact that I'm celebrating it with another family with their own set of Christmas traditions.  Although I've heard many stories of exchange students having incredibly tough times around this time of the year, that was not the case for me.  I've had one of my favorite Christmas' and felt the closest to my host family.

So I'll walk you through my German Christmas...

Christmas Eve was the highlight of the festivities.  I spent the whole day doing all sorts of Christmas activities with my host family.  We decorated our Christmas tree, went to church, sang carols, opened gifts and then ate a massive dinner.  At first, I thought it was strange decorating our Christmas tree a day before Christmas, but that's what most Germans do.  Our tree was so pretty.  Instead of a fake tree and LED lights like my family normally does, we had a real tree with candles on it.  The tree not only looked beautiful but also smelled really good.  With my host family, I did a lot of typical Christmas Eve activities that I normally do with my family, like going to church playing games and eating a big, German dinner, and that made me feel comfortable.  But what I enjoyed the most were the new traditions.

Our Christmas tree!

Although I hate singing and usually lip sync to songs, I actually accompanied my host family as we attempted to sing Christmas carols, both modern, well-known songs and traditional, folk songs, like "Oh, du froehliche."  It was a ton of fun and I'm pretty sure our singing would of blown your minds away.  I also liked how we opened our gifts on Christmas Eve.  Das Christkind ("Santa") came while we were at church and when we came back, we began opening gifts.   But unlike my family where we all open gifts spontaneously and at once, my host family did it another way, a better way that I want to bring back to my family.  We opened gifts one by one.  One person would go up to the tree and select the first gift they saw under the tree and say who it was for.  Then, while everyone's watching them, that person would open their gift.  And then the pattern repeats itself.  I thought it was such a cool tradition.  It killed a lot of time and it allowed us to talk and share the excitement of each and every gift.  As for gifts, I got a lot of jewelry and "German stuff," like a Muenster tea cup (as I've become addicted to tea here,) Gluehwein glasses, a customized 2014 calendar with pics from my time here, tons and tons of food, and a lot more!  There were a lot of sentimental things and that;'s exactly what I wanted! But I was more excited about presenting my gifts to my host family and friends...I wanted to give them something special, a tradition that they could associate with me and continue down the road.  So I gave everybody a little something very American.  I brought stockings with me filled with all sorts of American treats, such as candies (Hot Tamales, Reece's Pieces and gum) Mac & Cheese, Native American jewelry for my host mom, beer coasters and t-shirts from local, Ft. Collins breweries (specifically New Belgium) for my host dad and brother, coffee from Hawaii, local artwork, Oreos (a special request from one of my best friends here,) posters and bumper stickers with American quotes and posters of CO and Rocky Mountain Ntl. Park, gag gifts, photos, and so much more.

My favorite gift inside of of the stockings though was for my host mom.  I made a hand made photo album put together with pictures and memories from the last couple of months.  It was incredible seeing how much we've done in such little time and I just wanted to express to her creatively how grateful I am for everything she and the rest of the family have done to make my time here spectacular. It was a very sentimental, special gift to both give and for her to receive.

Raclette

Feeding the penguins at the zoo

Another big part of celebrating Christmas here was eating.  Lots and lots of eating and walking.  For Christmas Eve, we ate Raclette, which is probably one of my favorite German/ Swiss dishes.  It's similar to fondue, but better.  You just put veggies, fruits or meat into a dish with a special cheese on top and then let the cheese brown and melt.  It was perfection.  For Christmas we ate something what my host family compared to Thanksgiving dinner with a German twist as we were celebrating the holiday season, we were with each other (family) and mostly because we ate a huge turkey dinner.  But I like the German twist.  We swapped the American mashed potatoes and gravy for Semmelknoedl (a bread dumplings) and pumpkin pie for Lebkuchen and an ice cream parfait.  After eating, we always did something active and outside, like walking. Like I normally do with my family, we all went on a long, Christmas day hike at a nearby nature reserve that reminded me a lot of where I normally go with my family. We also went to the zoo and fed the penguins and elephants (no big deal.)

All of these activities really brought us together and made me feel even closer to my host family.  We were all so happy and spent countless hours with each other at the table just eating and talking.  I felt like I was a part of the family and that's an incredible feeling.  Before the holidays I felt that but nothing compared to the way it feels now.  Our relationship became stronger as more memories were created.  Plus, I spoke a lot more than I normally did, joking around and acting and speaking like I would in English (just simplified and most likely grammatically incorrect.)  I fully stepped outside of my comfort zone and in the end, it turned out perfectly!


Another difference between Christmas here and in the US in general is that in Germany, the day after Christmas is also a holiday celebrated a lot like Christmas Day, which was pretty much just more walking, eating, and family time (playing card and board games, talking, etc.)  I loved it.

This Christmas was by far one of the best Christmas's I've ever had and I will always remember the memories and stories formed during it.  I'm beyond grateful for everything my friends and family did here to help make this so special!

But there's more memories and stories to come within the next week as I'm heading off to Kitzbuehel, Austria for a week to go skiing with my host family! Skiing in the Alp, yet another dream come true!

More pics to come, but my host fam took most of the pics and I need to get them from them!

That would be my host brother...

feeding the elephants!