In Germany, there are three official days of Christmas:
December 24th – Heiligabend
This is the big day. The 25th in
America = the 24th in Germany.
We put up the tree during the day.
Luca and I tinseling
In the afternoon, we went to
church to watch the Christmas play and sing German Christmas songs.
In the evening, the grandparents and my host aunt, uncle, and cousin came to our house to celebrate.
Lots of presents!
Waiting to open presents
with my host uncle Mike, host mom,
Chiara, host aunt Marina, and host cousin
Cilia
In the process
Happiest kid ever with his new
helicopter (nice work, Mom)
After presents, we ate
dinner: pork, red cabbage, and croquette. For dessert we had homemade
chocolate mousse. Everything was delicious.
Playing our traditional game of Rummy
Opa & Oma dancing to
Feliz Navidad
Vito's Christmas present: My sweater
that was shrunken in the wash
December 25th – First Christmas Day
We skyped with my family in
America, which turned out to be a quadrilingual conversation – English, German,
French, and Italian were all spoken at some point.
December 26th – Second Christmas Day
Later on at home:
Chiara on the acoustic, me on the bass, and Luca on the
African drums.
And that was the end of my German Christmastime.