As this is my first time far from home during the holidays, I guess you can say I am lucky I have relatives here. I think of this as a new experience to this adventure I am in and a new road I've found on my travels through life. But enough philosophy for now, here's what happened during Christmas.
On Christmas Eve, it is a big occasion for them. For most of the day, I was in my room because I was feeling really, really exhausted as I did work during the day and so Tita, Robbie and Raffy set up dinner. Uncle Roland was M.I.A. in his office. Probably working on another project for the Canadian Embassy.
Christmas Eve was a bit of a fancy affair as I did have to dress up as did the rest of the family. Tita got out the nice dishes and fancy glasses. Robbie gave me a mimosa, which is champagne and orange juice. Dinner was a nice steak, potatoes, veggies and red wine. Dessert was the German version of a crepe. For me, minus the chocolate.
The boys lit up the candles on the tree and then Uncle Roland read the passage in the Bible about the birth of Jesus. In German of course, but at least I got the gist of what he was saying.
Photo time! Many photos were taking of us eating, opening gifts and doing random things. *Click* Photo of us in front of the tree. *Click* Photo of us opening presents *Click* Raffy looking silly. Let's say there was a never ending amount of flash the whole night.
Among the many gifts I received, I have to admit the boys' gift to me was just awesome. They got me a Burton snowboard with Flow bindings. My very first snowboard! I was really surprised when Robbie went out and then came in the house with my snowboard in hand. Now I REALLY have to go snowboarding.
After resting for a bit, we all went to Midnight mass at St. Martin. The seats were heated (which surprised me) but the rest of the church was so cold I could see my breath. So my butt was warm while the rest of me was cold. I didn't take off my jacket, gloves or scarf while I was in church. Of course, everything was in German and I was too tired to try to translate in my head.
After mass, we followed the other parishioners to the church cellar where there was punsch and dessert. Punsch is basically fruit punch with alcohol and it's warmed up. The punsch I had was REALLY strong so I made sure I ate as many cookies as possible to get rid of the taste. Uncle Roland was talking to as many people as possible and it looked like we weren't going to go home soon so Tita Ruth, the boys and I took the other car and drove home, where for the rest of the evening we relaxed and then went to bed.
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