New Christmas traditions

Last year Joe and I spent Christmas and Paris. I don't think that is a Christmas tradition we will be able to maintain through our lives. This year we're staying a bit more local. Yesterday on Christmas eve we had a picnic lunch in the botanic garden in Tübingen, which was wonderful in nearly 70F weather and clear blue skies. I'm not sure we'll be able to keep this tradition up either.

We had swiss raclette for dinner last night - melted cheese over potatoes, traditionally by a fire or in this case a table top grill. This is a possibility for something we could build into a tradition. We talked with Mike & Kathy about each of our family's traditions for presents, right before we greedily tore into them all. We couldn't wait until Christmas morning. I could see this as a recurring event.

The carnage after presents were opened.

Today we had Dresdener stollen for breakfast. It's a sort of dense fruitcake that cost 12 euro/kilo. This was good, but it may be hard to find once we are back stateside. We then went for a long walk up to our local quarry and back through a neighboring town. We heard bells tolling from a nearby town for part of our walk. This would also be a good tradition. Today Joe and I went to work baking pies, pumpkin and apple, which are just about to come out of the oven. We could do this every year. We'll also take a portrait with Mike and Kathy, something Joe's family has done every Christmas. We will surely keep this up. You can see our portrait from last year in Paris.

We're about to put a turkey in the oven, a first for Joe and I (after last Thanksgiving's duck mix-up), but we have Kathy's expertise to keep us on track. We could also do this every year. But reflecting back on our two Chrismases as a married couple, and the thirty others I've experienced, I have to say I would take family over Paris any time, hands down. So I think that will be the most important tradition we embrace.

Merry Christmas!