Posted on December 27th, 2008 by Chris under German culture, Random.
Our Little Christmas Tree!
Christmas is such a great time of year. Around this time of year, the whole world is celebrating together the birth of a savior in their own special way. Here in Germany it looks much the same as in America with a few distinctions. The first is the season of Advent leading up to the 25th. In the US, I have always thought of Advent as a time when churches would light a few candles and all follow basically the same script up until Christmas came. Here though, it is much more. Every family celebrates Advent together in their home with their own Advent candles and traditions. Another important distinction I have learned is that Christmas isn’t over on the 25th. Which was a tough one to figure on the fly. Here there is the first day of Christmas (25th) and the second day of Christmas (26th). The second day, it turns out, is celebrated in much the same way as the first, but the first is with family and the second is with friends and distant relatives. All that to say, everything in the world is still closed that second day.
Stef chopping and dicing... making dinner for everyone.
So to celebrate Christmas this year, we (Stef and I, Chandler, Beth and Daniel) all had Christmas Eve dinner together, stayed up until 3 playing games and talking, all slept in our small apartment, woke up around noon, made a hearty American style Christmas morning breakfast (bisquits, omelets, french toast), and opened our white elephant gifts together. Then we played more games and talked more until about 5:30 when everyone went their separate ways. We had an amazing time and it was great to be able to just be friends for few days. We didn’t worry about our jobs or our struggles for a day. We were just 5 friends, hanging out and having fun.
I learned something about Christmas this year that I intuitively knew, but never had to face until this year. That is how important family is on this day. While the birth of Jesus is very important, it isn’t the only thing we celebrate on this day. We celebrate family and another year lived together. But this year the only family Stef and I celebrated with were each other. As great as that was, it was tough not to be with family like the 25 years prior. We called them all, and I watched my nieces and nephew open presents via webcam and at that moment realized just how important family is at this time of year.
But its also a reminder of what we came to do here in Tübingen. We are building a family, a community of people who love each other just because. Not because we are Christian, because the ministry we are starting isn’t just for Christians. Just because we are people. And that’s what Christ came to do. Love people just because they are people.
Merry Christmas!
Posted on December 14th, 2008 by Chris under German culture.
Die Feuerzangenbowle (1944)
This past week Stef and I spent some time with one of our friends, Chris (I know, what a great name!). Anyway, we took the train over to his house from Tübingen and met him and his girlfriend Francesca (I think I butchered the spelling) and his friend Andy. We talked for a while before we finally asked him, “So what is Feuerzan… whatever?” When he invited us over, he didn’t really explain. We were of course speaking in German, so I couldn’t understand everything he was trying to say, but he did a good job of helping me and speaking at my level.
He told me that in Germany during the second World War, the vast majority of movies made were for the most part nonsensical. They were made to get the mind of the German people off what was going on. One of the most famous was “Feuerzangenbowle” which means either “Punch Bowl” or more literally “Fire Tongs Bowl”. And its about a group of older well to do men talking about the good old days when they discover one of them never went to school because he was home-schooled. He decides (at age 40ish) to pose as a high schooler and go back to school. Craziness then ensues. Its hilarious, but that is not the best part…
Ours wasn't this fancy!
The film is named after a drink that is now famous because the movie is so well loved. What Feuerzangenbowle is, is a pot of wine with slices of oranges and lemons with cloves heated up. You then put a wire mesh on the pot… then a rum soaked sugar cone on the mesh… then you light the sugar/rum on fire and it becomes a ball of fire with sugar melting into the wine. Of course Chris made some for us before we watched the film and it was quite a show! There has never been a time I have wished I hadn’t forgotten my camera as much as last Thursday!
Posted on December 6th, 2008 by Chris under Apartment.
Even though we’ve been in our new apartment for about 2 weeks now, it hasn’t really felt like home until now. The apartment came furnished, but that didn’t include anything to use in our bedroom for clothing storage and only one small bar for hanging clothes. So, Stef and I spent last Saturday at IKEA… the whole day… looking for a cheap/efficient way to store our stuff in our room so it wouldn’t have to look JC Penney threw up all over our desk for the next four years. We found these three shelving units and Stef spent all afternoon on Monday putting them together. I was so proud. And they are great. We love them. We also decided that we wanted something in our living room that felt more “homey” than the old antique furniture that we had before, so we also bought a ridiculously awesome sofa. Since we bought it at IKEA and because we only buy awesome stuff, its not just your run of the mill sofa. This thing is a three in one…
1 Bed +
1 Storage Unit +
1 Sofa =
1 Awesome piece of furniture!
