Monday, December 24, 2012

Expectations!


Expectations.

 its christmas time!


my dear friends. it was a pleasure, that so any people still checked out my blog, even though the last posts were really old.
for me its a fascinating thought that so many people read my words and ideas. so please continue and share, if you like it.
now the long desired christmastime arrived. i love christmas. even though sometimes I'm sad, that the unbelievable  excitement and extraordinary joy is not the same as in my childhood. i remember christmas in my family as a time of miracles and wonder, the house filled with the fragrance and lights of the holy night.
so i do my best to bring this feeling to my family. my boys are in an age, where all the traditions are probably a little boring and embarrassing. but our daughter amelie, she is eleven, is so excited that she doesn't sleep well since a view nights. so she just told me, that the 23 th of december is the worst day of the year. well.
now i have to come to a short but very sad story. yesterday i had a deep personal crisis and i had to make a far-reaching decision.  do i have to buy a second christmas tree? i mean- a better one?
the beginning of the story: i sent my lovely husband jan to buy a christmas tree. he took my sweet daughter amelie and our good friend uli ( thanks uli, you didn't help in this situation).  big mistake. biiiiig mistake.
end of story: we have quite a special tree. in a negative sense.
some quotes:
benedikt, our younger son: its not too bad! (he has a very lovely personality!) 
jonathan, our older son: looks like a dying tree!
elias, jonathans lovely friend: this is a really ugly tree.
liz, a good friend: haaahahaaaahaaaa!
so. thats it. i had to write this. my dearest husband needed some punishment at least. (by the way, he still tries to convince me, that this tree is really gorgeous.) he is unbelievable. 
so here are some pictures, some images of our christmastime.
i was expecting to have the most beautiful tree to show on the blog. it didn't work out. what else do i expect? some nice gifts, of course, nothing big. i expect to have some peaceful time with my beloved family, good food, stories and laughter. i expect to bring some joy to the kids with some gifts. singing some christmas carols and hearing the christmas story would be nice. thinking of the birth of our lord jesus, the reason for all the expectation and excitement.
may you have a blessed and peaceful christmas time. expect the best time of the year, but be flexible and gracious enough to be happy with the imperfect.
merry christmas!

doing christmas mail






















Sunday, December 9, 2012

Advent


Advent!

my dear friends. its been a extremely long time since my last post. I'm sorry for that. it was a time of difficulties and little joys, a time that took my full energy and attention. I'm still completely in it, but, let me say the truth, i missed doing my blog and i just want to do fun and steadfast things. so, I'm back for good and I'm looking forward hearing from you as well.
the topic today is advent. for some of you it may not be a term that you are really familiar with.  in germany we call the time before christmas "advent". it is an old latin word and means "arrival". so advent is the time when we prepare for the arrival of our lord jesus. and thats christmas, right? birthday party!  so lets prepare. 
i do it, of course, the very german way. i love traditions, as long as it is filled with meaning and joy. 
last week was the christmasmarket in our hometown herrnhut. it was the perfect weather (usually it rains like nothing good on this day. not this year thought!). it snowed the day before and everything is white and looks like it should. the sun was shining, the sky was blue and it was just the right temperature. my dear kids amelie and benedikt and a good friend joined me, and it was a lovely day.  we ate a lot of nice christmas market food, found our way through the masses of people, had some interesting parking experiences and very good hot chocolate in a nice cafe. 

at home i just worked a little on my christmas decoration. this year its kind of colorful.  here are some pictures. they are not so great though. maybe i should get a good camera for christmas;-).
what is really important for a nice advent afternoon, are some nice christmas cookies. i made some filled hearts with peanuts. you take 300 gram of white flour, 200g butter, 100g sugar, one or two egg yolks (depends on the size) and the zest of half of an organic lemon. let it process in the kitchen machine or make a dough out of it by hand. don't knead it too long. its ok if its still a little crumbling.
put it into a plastic bag and cool it down in the fridge for an hour. 
roll the dough with a rolling pin and cut out little hearts with a cookie cutter. in half of the cookies cut a little hole. look at the pictures, than you know what i mean. "paint" the cookies with scrambled egg yolk. you can also put some peanuts on the top of them as well.
bake the cookies at about 180 degrees celsius for 6 to 8 minutes. be careful, they get too dark very easy. 
when the cookies are cooled down, fill the cookies with jelly. very good is grape jelly or lemon curd. delicious!
for me its a very refreshing and joyful thing, to sit down in the afternoon, the sun gets down already and i light a candle or two. then a nice cup of tea and cookies and preferable a good book. this sounds, really, its the truth, like heaven on earth. peaceful and comforting.
this is my wish for you for the coming time: peace and comfort. and quite some excitement for what is to come.
blessings, yours ute