Oh X-mas Pickle, You Warm My Cold German Heart

It’s The Most – Wonderful Time – of The Yearrrrrr! I realize hordes of people exclaim that they cannot wait for the holidays to be over  but I surely am not one of them! We’re in the midst of the Holidays and I’m loving it!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite US holidays of the year: Great food, great company and remembering all the many reasons to be thankful for make for a wonderful day if you ask me. For a low stress version of the day I opted to forgo the wonderful and very elaborate feast at one of my best friend’s family’s house this year and instead do a low key dinner and relax at zee boyfriend’s home.

Arugula salad, a turkey breast, gravy, boxed cornbread stuffing, bacon brussel sprouts, frozen sweet potato souflee, cranberry chutney that I made the night before and store bought pecan pie with ice cream made for an easy but fantastic dinner! All recipes here. We all lit a candle and said what we are thankful for – which I thought was a sweet tradition to adopt from M’s family.

Freedom Tower Nov 2012Every year the day after Thanksgiving I have to travel to New York for a tradeshow. I really despise the schedule for that show but have started to look at it as “how lucky am I to travel to one of the coolest cities in the world when all the holiday decorations are up?!” It seems to work a little bit to get a positive attitude but still…. What always makes having that holiday weekend crushed to a one day weekend better is meeting up with old friends. This year the fabulous Maren showed me some of her favorite places around Washington Square and I chatted for hours with my college friends Katie and her published author hubby Dave about life, love and intercultural coupling. Wish we all lived closer! They also gave me the tip that the Met has a recommended admission fee so I snuck in there for an hour for $5 before flying home.

Macy'sRockefeller CenterEmpire State Bldg


Oh also, I ate grasshoppers. Did not enjoy their legs in my mouth but the flavor was decent. Only in New York…

Well I’m finally home and brought a nasty cold with me (fail).  Sickly, having a cold always makes me really excited about making chicken noodle soup (OMG it’s sooo good) so I giddily chopped potatoes and carrots with my love. Same wonderful guy came over and cooked a green minestrone for me last night. I feel so loved.

Christmas PickleAmidst all that my Christmas tree came out and it now even has its very own Christmas Pickle. This is supposedly a German tradition – except nobody in Germany hangs pickles in their trees. Oh America. Thank you for thinking labeling something German will make it a best seller. Alas, I do love my Christmas Pickle sooo!

Twenty more days until Christmas! I still have to make a handful of hand-made gifts and buy some but am about half way done with gift shopping. Got my hand on some German Christmas chocolates and cookies from Aldi (as well as GREAT tangerines! Most of the ones I find in the US have a yucky consistency and have seeds… *tangerine snob*). Hope y’all are embracing advent or which ever other holidays you are celebrating! If you are still looking for gifts, I’d much appreciate if you’d consider my hand-made jewelry. Thanks for reading y’all!

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5 Comments

  1. Oh, you too?? I CANNOT find any tangerines I like. They are disgusting here. and most of the time I am not even able to peel them without ripping the entire tangerine apart. Interesting. Wish we would have Aldi too…..

  2. Wait, wait, why did nobody tell me that you and Maren were going to meet up? 🙂 Where are the pictures? 🙂

    Trader Joe’s has cuties too, I think!