Frohe Weihnachten!

Thanks to the wonderful German holidays and vacation time, Noah and I have been off since December 20^th for Christmas.  But while we live in Germany, we still use the weekend after Thanksgiving as our green light to begin decorating the house (and perhaps a dog too).  This means we are rather rebellious as it is tradition in Germany to wait until Christmas Eve to decorate the tree.  Good thing we aren’t German! 

Of course we managed to visit a few Christmas markets in the last few weeks and drink our fill of Glühwein.  My personal favorite is the Apfel Zimt (apple cinnamon) white Glühwein that you can find in the Residence Christkindlmarkt.  This year, it got even more expensive for us to visit the Residence Christkindlmarkt due to the fact that on Saturday when we went (for the second time), there were search and rescue dogs hanging out in Odeonsplatz to raise awareness/money for their cause.  And as I had to pass the dogs twice, and I wanted to pet more than just one, I ended up donating 10 EUR (basically all of the change Noah and I had). 

We made it out to Tollwood on Monday – though this year we were sure to check the opening hours.  Last year, we accidently went 2 hours before it opened, and we had the entire family in tow.  Oops!  We enjoyed some international cuisine in the food tent and found a few new ornaments to add to our collection.  And what would a trip to Tollwood be without buying some sort of winter accessory (this time a new pair of gloves for Noah)? 

Inside the food tent

For Christmas Eve, Noah made delicious green chili enchiladas with homemade white corn tortillas (and I usually do not like corn tortillas).  Sadly they went into my belly too quickly for me to take a photo of them for the blog. 

On Christmas, we started the day off the traditional Steffens way by making my Danish great-great-grandma’s ebelskiver recipe. 

I then forced the family to do a massive holiday photo shoot by the tree, and by the end of it Rita wouldn’t come near me, Sadie was demanding treats, and Noah disappeared into the kitchen. 

I started off with 'couples' photos.  Rita flung that hat across the room soon after the photo was taken.

I switched it up and gave Rita reindeer antlers instead. 

She quickly ran away and refused to come back.

At this point all I had left was Sadie, because she will do anything for treats.

For dinner we invited Aunt Ellen, Uncle Rüdiger, and our Russian friend Max (since Christmas in Russia is in January, so he didn’t go home for December 25^th).  We served up a bunch of traditional American dishes, including a delicious dry brine turkey (seriously – two years in a row it has been AMAZING, here is alink to the recipe), homemade yeast rolls, and an apple pie (my Christmas present from Noah).  There were other dishes, but I listed the most important ones.  We were also given an Ikea star of Bethlehem (or at least it seemed that big) as Ellen and Rüdiger’s neighbor decided she didn’t want it after she got it home.  See below. 

As you can imagine, Rita wasn't going to have any part of this.

After Ellen and Rüdiger left for the night, Max stayed so we could watch Rocky IV.  Because what else do you watch on Christmas night when there are Americans and Russians together?  Spoiler alert – America/Rocky beats Russia/Ivan (it is an American movie after all).  What I found interesting was that the scenes of the cold Russian winter where Rocky trains were actually filmed in the Grand Teton National Park, where my brother lives.  So basically I have a Russian brother.

The day after Christmas, which is also a holiday too), we awoke to snow!  While not technically a white Christmas, it was only a few hours too late to qualify. 

I was too lazy to get out of bed to take a photo.

For dinner Noah and I went over to Ellen and Rüdiger’s for fondue and cake.  I also spent 15 minutes in Rüdiger’s massage chair, and have decided I want one.  Since I don’t have a photo of me in the chair, I’ll put a photo of it snowing from Friday night. 

Now our lives consist of eating leftovers, doing puzzles, and taking the dogs out so they can make yellow snow, and I am more than fine with that.  Though I wouldn’t mind if there was a way to have pretty white snow AND 70 degree weather… but you can’t have it all. 

I miss the winters in Arizona.

Merry Christmas Y’all!

Pangea Party III

We recently hosted our 3^rd annual international potluck party, aka our Pangea Party, where we gathered up our eclectic international friends and made them make food/drinks for us.  As it took me 2 weeks to get to writing this, Julie is back-dating this entry so our blog stays in chronological order.

To represent America this year, we made chili, chips and guacamole, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate cupcakes.  They were all huge hits as every last crumb was eaten up by the end of the night. 

Making the chili

It was a bit surprising to realize that very few of our friends from our first two years in Munich are still here as we finish up our 3^rd year.  Many of our other international friends have moved back home while we are still hanging around – it seems like most people we know stay only a year or two on average.  It makes us realize just how long we have been living in Munich and how it is difficult to sustain long-term friends here.

Anyways, for those who are still here and made it to the party, thanks for bringing us some good food and drinks!  Our guests from Spain brought homemade sangria, empanadas, deviled eggs (huevos rellenos) and a Spanish potato-tortilla dish.  There was cheese from Switzerland, Caesar salad from Canada, panettone and aperol spritz from Italy, pierogies from Poland, and lots of good wine and cider to wash it all down (France/Sardinia).  It was also Eirini’s birthday, and she brought a huge German Torte (cake) to share. 

Yes, Julie hung up my American flag from the World Cup… normally we are not that patriotic

The evening was very pleasant and much more chill (less alcohol consumption – too many designated drivers) than the last few years.  The wildest moment of the night goes to Sadie (our dog) who at one point stole a cookie out of the hands of 2-year-old Leo.  Sadie knows better than to steal food from people, but it is hard to fault her when his small little hands rest at the exact height of her mouth.  Typically in her dog life, when someone puts food near her mouth, it is a treat for her.  To her credit, she did not bite his hand, but it did not matter to Leo.  The poor guy was gutted from losing his irreplaceable cookie (the other cookies offered to him were not his).  Sadie had to sit in time-out for 30 minutes for being a naughty girl.  I guess this is a preview of life with dogs and kids (and no, Julie is not pregnant).

After the really nice evening ended, we packed up the few leftovers that remained, including a carton of orange juice that we stored in our fridge.  We had a big surprise some days later when we offered our guest Max orange juice with breakfast.  As he poured himself a glass, it came out a deep purple!  He was thinking perhaps it was blood orange juice when suddenly it hit Julie that this was actually left over sangria transported in an orange juice carton.  Oops!